Tag Archives: Star Wars

Star Wars Animated “Rebels” to Debut 2014

May 21, 2013 Stephen Sanchez Leave a comment

Although I’m still reeling from the sudden loss of the Clone Wars due to Disney’s mad chopping spree throughout the Star Wars world, I’ve been consoled slightly. Apparently the next animated series will not only be handled by none other than Clone Wars veteran Dave Filoni and a lot of his technical crew, but it will deal with a time era that doesn’t get a whole lot of exposure; The Dark Times era between episode 3 and 4. It was pretty obvious that Filoni would be working on something past the Clone Wars when he was using a TIE Fighter picture as “research”, but it was pretty hard to pinpoint whether it was directly after the Clone Wars era or in between the old trilogy or after the old trilogy. After the old trilogy would have made sense since episode’s 7, 8 and 9 are currently in development, because it’s not like the Empire just went away after Return of the Jedi. However, I’m equally pleased to hear that the series will take place between episode 3 and 4. It’s also called ‘Rebels’ which is totally bad ass. I envision rogue Jedi and freedom fighters like Bail Organa and Mon Mothma leading the charge against the Empire. (Bail and Mothma of course not so openly.) Check out the video below of Dave Filoni talking about Rebels a little bit and when it will be hitting a small screen near you:

2014 is not so far away! There are plenty of possibilities that could occur in a series like this. Depending on how much creative control they give to Filoni we could see the return of Ahsoka sometime. Fans loved her and she was Filoni’s biggest contribution to the saga. She would be significantly older if it takes place closer to episode 4 and it sets a perfect stage for an Ahsoka v.s. Vader confrontation. Clearly Sidious didn’t kill Maul because he had “other uses” for him. I don’t think that means Maul was going to be his secretary, I think that means he’s going to use him as a weapon again. So there’s some potential of Vader and Maul running into one another too? Count me in. It may add some extra tension with Anakin knowing that his old Master’s killer is still walking around and serving his new master as well. Then again, Disney may have Filoni shy away from those characters completely and concentrate on the non-Jedi heroes and soldiers that will one day make up the Rebel Alliance.

Rebels — Expect to see plenty of Ralph McQuarrie inspired designs in the show.

Either way I’m good to go and curious to see if the animation style from the show will mirror that of the Clone Wars or be completely different. I have complete faith in Filoni and his crew after watching five seasons of a show that became better and better visually and story wise each season that it went through. Bring me the rebel scum ASAP!

Movie News & Opinions

Explosive Star Wars News – Hamill and Ford in Talks for the New Movies

February 23, 2013 Adam Parker-Edmondston Leave a comment

After the recent news about the possible Star Wars spin offs in the works from Disney (see here for more details ), we now have even more news on the subject. Total Film shared some incredible news for Star Wars fans world-wide. The first was a piece of news from scooper El Mayimbe (writer for Latino Review) who announced on Fox News that Harrison Ford was returning as Han Solo and that it was a “done deal”.

This is shocking news, especially as Harrison was famously quoted as wanting to kill of his character in Empire Strikes Back. Maybe Fords return to the Sci-Fi genre with Cowboys and Aliens got him excited about the Star Wars universe once more, or maybe he was of a mind-set “If you want something doing right, you have to do it yourself”. He could also just be in it for the money. Before too much speculation could take place however, more news was released (again from Total Film), with an Entertainment Tonight interview with Mark Hamill. Hamill had a slightly different story to tell. Though George Lucas had been in talks with him about role reprises, nothing had been signed at this time.

Hamill said in his interview…

[quote]“They’re talking to us. George [Lucas] wanted to know whether we’d be interested. He did say that if we didn’t want to do it, they wouldn’t cast another actor in our parts – they would write us out. … I can tell you right away that we haven’t signed any contracts. We’re in the stage where they want us to go in and meet with Michael Arndt, who is the writer, and Kathleen Kennedy, who is going to run Lucasfilm. Both have had meetings set that were postponed – on their end, not mine. They’re more busy than I am.”[/quote]

This shows a certain level of respect for the original actors. The fact George Lucas has spoken to Mark Hamill about what could happen in the new franchise would indicate that he really wants the original cast back to play their parts. The fact that they would write the characters out of the timeline, if no one was interested in reprising their roles again also shows a certain level of respect, but this time for the fans (as well as the actors) who are going to have trouble seeing these beloved characters played by different actors, especially when all the original cast are still alive.

[quote] “And another thing I’d want to make sure of is are we going to have the whole gang back? Is Carrie [Fisher] and Harrison [Ford] and Billy Dee [Williams] and Tony Daniels, everybody that’s around from the original [returning]? I want to make sure that everybody’s on board here, rather than just one.”[/quote]

This is also great news, with Hamill wanting all the crew on board we would have continuity throughout the series of movies. This is exactly what the fans want to see, the old chemistry of our favorite Jedi’s and smugglers all in the same movie. It is great news that Hamill knows what the fans want, and the fact he to only wants to work with his fellow Star Wars cast members. Hamill pleased the fans even more by saying he favored practical effects over CGI, something that worked against Episode 1-3.

[quote] “I’m assuming, because I haven’t talked to the writers, that these movies would be about our offspring – like my character would be sort of in the Obi-Wan range [as] an influential character.”[/quote]

A lot of the stories told after Episode 6 do focus on Luke Skywalker taking a more Obi-Wan role in the universe and a lot of the other stories focus on Leia and Hans children who are also gifted with the force. This would open up a great wealth of story possibilities as well as the fun fact we would be seeing how these characters have evolved since Episode 6. Though it is not clear if Harrison has signed or not, it is looking incredibly likely that we may see a return of the old cast, possibly with a married Han and Leia fighting over who is going to take the kids to Jedi training, while a white-haired Chewbacca plays chess with C3P0.

Keep checking Grizzly Bomb for more updates.

Movie News & Opinions

Star Wars Update! Spin-off Movies on the Way Alongside the New Trilogy!

February 12, 2013 Adam Parker-Edmondston Leave a comment

Geek Exchange have confirmed that Disney has more plans for the Star Wars franchise and certainly more movies in the pipeline. We also now know who will write two of them. Lawrence Kasdan (Screen Writer on The Empire Strikes Back) and Simon Kinberg (Screen Writer on X-Men: Days of Future Past) were confirmed by Disney CEO Bob Iger. He had this to say about the two writers:

[box_light]“[Kasdan and Kinberg are] working on films derived from great Star Wars characters that are not part of the overall saga, so we still plan to make Star Wars VII, VIII and IX roughly over a six-year period of time starting in 2015. But there are going to be a few other films released in that period of time, too.”[/box_light]

So not only are Star Wars fans getting more of the continuing storyline of George Lucas’s epic saga, they are also going to be treated to more movies spinning off from Star Wars Mythology. Fantastic news to say the least and some even better news about the great talent behind these spin offs. Lawrence and Kasdan are established and clever writers and with Kasdan himself already a part of the Star Wars universe (with him working on Empire) we can expect great things. This format opens up a massive selection of characters that could be given their own stories.

While the movies lay dormant for quite some time after Return of the Jedi (until The Phantom Menace came onto our screens), the universe did not wait and expanded out into books, comics, with a huge amount of expanded stories that spanned through several era’s in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Stories concerning events set years before The Phantom Menace (The Old Republic, Tales of the Jedi), or during the original trilogy (Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, Shadows of the Empire), and the continuing story after the original trilogy which are sagas in their own right (Dark Empire, The Thrawn Trilogy). So while the expanded movies will be original stories, there really is no limit to where they can move forward from here. Especially with a few stand-alone pictures mixed in. Can you imagine a whole film with Yoda (rumored) or Mace Windu? That’s what this turn of events could offer us.

Shortly after this was released to the masses, Bob Iger came back again with even more exciting news. Collider shared that two confirmed stories would be about a young Han Solo (following the young rogue smuggler after Revenge of the Sith to his appearance in A New Hope) and the mightiest of all bounty hunters Boba Fett (probably between A New Hope and Return of the Jedi, unless you go with the expanded universe version where HE SURVIVES) mixing it up with some other bounty hunter scum.

So what do we have here exactly? Well with these stories we could see a return of characters now dead in the franchise. Darth Vader could easily make an appearance again,as he hired Boba Fett and could have had dealings with Han Solo, whohas had trouble with the Empire before. And with Boba Fett involved you would think that Jabba the Hutt will pop up at some point as well as his old bounty hunter buddies like IG88. With Han Solo we could see him winning the Millennium Falcon or meeting up with his hairy buddy Chewbacca. There are lots and lots of possibilities here.

However, there are certain problems with this. Finding an actor to play a young Han Solo could be a problem. Those are some big boots to fill as every one remembers Harrison Ford as their Han Solo. Most people seemed to embrace Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan, so maybe it will not be an issue. As I mentioned before the comics and books about Star Wars have already expanded greatly on the adventures of certain characters and Boba Fett is one of the most talked about. He has had entire comic books written about his exploits so it will be interesting to see if any of these plot lines are taken for the movie. It seems that Boba Fett will not rise from the Sarlacc’s belly as he did in the comic books; just because of the fact his story takes place in between parts 4-6. Still, it would be great to see him jet off again in his own adventure.

Is it a good thing to do these spin-off movies at all? If Disney is spreading themselves to thin here, than will the spin-off movies be of a poor caliber compared to Episodes 7 – 9? Personally I think Star Wars content lends itself better to television format rather than other feature films. Television is better suited to character development. Certain new characters could be introduced to a fresh audience this way and established characters can be expanded on, giving older Star Wars fans something to get excited about. People could disagree with me here after the cheesy nature of The Star Wars Holiday Special, but television has moved on greatly since then and it has become a respected form of story telling in its own right. But at the end of the day it is still more Star Wars so as long as it does not turn out like The Phantom Menace (which I hate to say is still painful to watch even after its release in 1999 over ten years ago), then I think we can all agree it is an interesting time to be a Star Wars fan.

One finally note to this news which may be of interest. Yahoo has an interview with both Lawrence and Kasdan about how they feel taking on this established and beloved universe and some of their plans for it. Keep reading Grizzly Bomb for more information as it develops.

Movie News & Opinions

J.J. Abrams Is Your Star Wars: Episode VII Director

January 24, 2013 Chris Tansuche Leave a comment

Get ready fans of the Force, you’re about to meet your newest accompanying special power: Lens flare!

That’s right boys and girls, according to several sources, including Deadline.com, the Los Angeles Times, MTV.com, and the Hollywood Reporter, the next installment of the Star Wars saga will be directed by none other than J.J. Abrams. Confused a bit like me? Of course you should be because let me throw out a quote from J.J. Abrams from Empire in December about rumors of his involvement with the storied franchise:

[quote][Lucasfilm president] Kathy Kennedy is a friend and there are no smarter producers,” he said at the time. “It’s in great hands. There were the very early conversations and I quickly said that because of my loyalty to ‘Star Trek,’ and also just being a fan, I wouldn’t even want to be involved in the next version of those things. I declined any involvement very early on. I’d rather be in the audience not knowing what was coming, rather than being involved in the minutiae of making them.[/quote]

Obviously something changed. Let’s just assume that Disney threw bunches of money at J.J. to test his actual loyalty to the Star Trek franchise. It is more than apparent Disney wants to launch the franchise in the biggest way possible and landing J.J., who is very well respected amongst all the filmmakers out there under consideration for this epic film series, is a huge get for Kathleen Kennedy and the Mouse House. It was interesting to note that Ben Affleck was listed in the article sources above as a frontrunner to take over the franchise. I think that would’ve been a great choice as well as it would solidify him as one of the premier directors out there but again, if you want the go-to guy in Sci-Fi, Abrams is it (unless you can get Ridley Scott a few decades ago).

I do like the selection of J.J. quite a bit as I do love Lost (even as convoluted as it got), Fringe and everything that he touches (except for the second half of Super 8). I’m also curious how this affects the Star Trek franchise. I think J.J. will be able to separate both franchises and make sure that we see new things as opposed to borrowed elements from both series (which, imagine if that happens, the internet message boards and trolls would be out in full force claiming one is a rip off another, people rioting at Comic-Con, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria, that sort of stuff). I have faith in this plan because Michael Arndt is writing the new Star Wars Episode VII and he did a great job in incorporating family in Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine that I think it’ll be great if we follow the story of the Han and Leia kids. Again, we don’t know the actual story yet but we can assume that there will be so many hands involved with Star Wars, Abrams job will be to make sure it all clicks together on the big screen. With the Star Trek franchise, he was pretty much ‘it’ as producer and main decision-maker, let alone director on those flicks so I’m sure we’ll see the differences enough to make both enjoyable experiences.

I will say this, as soon as this news came out, I went “Wow.” He’ll do a good job and with the team behind him, they’ll make sure he doesn’t screw up too. Although if they borrow the monster from Cloverfield and Super 8, I’m going to have a Jar Jar moment. In case you need the information, Star Wars Episode VII is due out on 2015. Start getting excited friends.

Movie News & Opinions

Kaleb Lechowski Short Film ‘R’ha’ Is An Impressive Look at Aliens vs Robots

January 20, 2013 Adam Parker-Edmondston Leave a comment

Uproxx has showcased a new and exciting short by a new 22-year-old German director called Kaleb Lechowski. Later this month he is arriving in Los Angeles and this little feature is a hell of a calling card for him. The plot involves a mainly one piece scene where an alien has become trapped by a robot interrogator who needs vital information from him. While watching this please take note that Kaleb made this entirely himself, with CGI over a seven month period.

After watching this the obvious parallels between The Terminator franchise have to be mentioned, but the robots themselves look a lot more like the robotic creatures from The Matrix trilogy. They have an organic fluidity to them that makes them fascinating to look at and quite terrifying. The alien looks very much like an oceanic creature with its smooth lines and gill like curvatures (even though we know their home world looks mostly land based). The plot has a hint of Star Wars to it as well; it unfolds like Darth Vader’s interrogation of Princess Leia in A New Hope.

The solo setting works incredibly well in helping to put the focus on the two leads. Also the way these two characters manage to grip us and keep our attention without actually having a lot of facial features is amazing. While watching this I was enthralled throughout. It is easy to see how this piece was going to end however, with the mechanical creature’s references to how inferior organic life can be, becoming something even crueller than its creators could ever be because of its lack of emotions or empathy. The short looks stunning and the voice acting by Dave Masterton really needs to be commended as it shapes these characters and helps to give them life. Hopefully this will not be the last time we hear from Kaleb, as this piece in six minutes has created a sense of tension and amazement a lot of movies fail to achieve at all.

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Knock Off Corner Christmas Special: Bootleg Toys

January 4, 2013 Adam Parker-Edmondston Leave a comment

That magical Christmas season has come and gone, along with that time of year that makes you rip your hair out in despair. Everyone spent time nipping online to buy their nearest and dearest presents from far and wide. Maybe you went old school and actually took a look around the shops for gifts? It is normal at this time of year to find the notorious knock-offs appearing in bargain shops all over the globe. Now, we all know knock off toys are bad. They destroy lives, fund terrorists and generally make the world such a shocking place to live in that if one more toy like this is made, the Earth will explode from the weight of its own evil… Okay maybe not.

All I am trying to say is they are considered quite a naughty thing. But deep down I actually have quite a love for these monster toys. Some are plain hilarious, while others are just wrong. So I thought I would showcase my love of these bootleg toys with you and share the cheesy cheer. I do not know any details on where these toys originated (because they are bootlegs and bootleggers do not tend to advertise their address), but a lot of these come from abroad.

Killer Mickey Mouse

I am not sure what was going through the bootleggers mind when they made this toy or more importantly why this was considered a good idea. Kids all over love Disney characters (They seem to own everything, so I do not think we have a choice in the matter!) and Mickey Mouse is a corner-stone of the Disney experience. But killer Mickey, with what looks like light up eyes, is not something I can see winning over the young ones. Disney have made a werewolf Mickey figure before for part of their Halloween line, so I am guessing it is a copy of that. However, I would rather have one of these outside my house to scare off any unwanted visitors.

Outdoor Adventure Hero Spider-Man

Spider-Man is a true hero. With some great one-liners and a heroic attitude to life, he is a great role model for all. The movies have exposed him to an even wider base of fans so he is now a world-renowned name. This toy seems to be based on the popular 90’s animated show called Spider-Man: The Animated Series,with a new range of threads. Now Peter Parker has had to don some pretty stupid costumes in his time, but it is nice to know that even he gets to mix crime fighting with relaxing. Fisherman Spider-Man and Archer Spider-Man both get to have their brand of forest fun. While Archer Spider-Man certainly looks the part of the casual arrow thrower (maybe he has been taking lessons from Hawkeye?), it is Fisherman Spider-Man who has really piqued my interest. If you thought the color-coded waders were amazing, then watch out because his rod is color-coded as well! But the icing on the cake for me is the bait box which has the Spider-Man logo on it. Classic Spider-Man!

Laser Swords

Laser swords are no lightsaber, but boy do they look like one. Normally George Lucas is pretty quick to spot these kind of things, but he must have missed this little beauty which mimics the iconic poster of Star Wars: A New Hope. The worse thing is it is actually a well crafted piece of art and looks pretty impressive. Not sure about that child’s perm though, it is not very becoming of a Jedi. Also Darth Vader looks a lot like a character from The Muppets Show: Pigs in Space, than an actual master of the dark side. Still, I would like to have one hanging on my wall. Time frame for this has got to be mid 70s and it still holds up today.

Assorted Kung Fu Fighters

Now these are incredible. I am pretty sure everyone can see these are based on the original Mortal Kombat combatants (notice no Sonya Blade though, bunch of sexists), but fact is they actually look like they put some effort into making them. They look like the old Mego toys from the 70’s, with their cloth clothes and molded plastic chests. Goro has the head of a fat sumo wrestler rather than his more demonic look, but basically everything else is the same. The character in the middle is puzzling me though. I can not tell if it is meant to be Shang Tsung or Lui Kang, either way it looks nothing like them. And why does he have to share pants with Jimmy Gage, or whatever lame knock off name he has? What a fighter this toy would make in the real Mortal Kombat game (probably going to be an issue with copyrights!).

Mr. Rock

Mr. Rock really needs no introduction, he is a star so famous he is known the whole world over. So obviously this is Mr. Spock’s never spoken of half brother, who became a failure at everything he did and decided he needed to copy his brother in every way. Or it is simply a rip off of Mr. Spock from the original Star Trek series (oh come on, he needed a back story and I have just provided one). There is some pretty fantastic ’70s art on this box and Mr. Rock (not The Rock from the WWE before you get confused) is pretty well decked out. His face does look a tad strange however, with what looks like red lipstick and his Vulcan ears are so huge they actually look like the fake ones you can buy in the shops.

Robert Cop

Robocop is the protector of old Detroit, so he is a busy cyborg. His friend Robert Cop however, is always free if you fancy a chin wag, because he is not on active duty at the moment. This toy on the whole looks pretty much like its film counter part, but the packaging is great. Robocop 2 art is mixed with the title Robert Cop 3. What does that even mean? Is there more than one Robert Cop knocking about? I would love to get all three Robert Cops in a room one day. Okay, I am not going to lie; I really like saying Robert Cop. He seems like the kind of guy who you could have a drink with, safe in the knowledge he would protect you while his busier and more successful other half is getting the scum off the streets.

Army Spider-Man

Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is a nickname for the webslinger (also a nickname), which I think sums up his personality perfectly. But times, they are a changing and Spider-Man must change with them. His country needs his skills, so he has been drafted to fight with the Army. But how best to use his powers? Webbing up potential terrorists or using his spider-sense to detect bombs seems to be a good use of his abilities. But no, the best use is to have him crawling on his belly very slowly with a gun in his hand. Better yet, get him two guns in case he gets into some real trouble. This is a modified version of the classic crawling army soldier to cater to the super hero fans. I love the fact that this toy takes away one of Spider-Man’s main powers (web slinging )and dumps him on the ground, something that would have put off its target audience.

Spader-Man

Spader-Man, Spader-Man, does whatever a Spader can. I have become strangely addicted to saying Spader-Man since seeing this toy, must be the way the word feels coming off my tongue. Underneath the box it says “classics” and it certainly is that. If that is not enough, it comes with lights and sounds. Actually what light and sound comes from this toy and where the light emanates from is a mystery to us all.

Star Knight Darth Vader

Have you ever seen the Japanese adverts that starred Darth Vader?

[youtube

Essentially it is some Japanese cops having a spot of bother with the Master of the Dark Side. They finally get their own back on him. This toy seems to be set straight after this event, where a defeated Darth decides if you can not beat them, join them. So he gets set up for work in the police force. I think his choice of vehicle is a bit suspect however. If he wants to take that into space he is going to have problems and I don’t think the bike will fare well on say, the ice planet of Hoth. This is probably why he jacked this in and decided to just be an evil bugger. I really can’t see how the fans of Star Wars, a film full of space battles, would ever settle for a basic police bike. Even if you do put Star in front of it, it doesn’t fool anyone into thinking this is an exciting product!

Super Bat

Bruce Wayne has a lot of amazing gadgets to help him in the fight against crime, but has he ever used a skateboard? That is where Super Bat comes in; with his headsets on both ears, he is ready to whiz to your rescue. I have no idea where to start with this one. Why does he need two sets of headsets? Why does the figure look completely different from the actual toy and what the heck does Batman need a skateboard for? All these answers are left to our imagination. All I do know is if that toy is as clunky as it looks, a lot of batteries were burnt out getting Super Bat to move anywhere.

Tim Burton Superman

Okay this is not actually a Tim Burton toy, but it does look very similar to the costume Nicholas Cage was meant to wear in Tim’s cancelled Superman movie.

It also lights up (in a sense) just like that costume did. This is probably an old Spider-Man body that was re-jigged into a Superman figure. The head I can only assume came from some kind of discarded reject toy box as it looks truly horrible. If they were trying to make it a Nicholas Cage doll they failed and it in no way resembles Superman. It resembles nothing human, the way it’s empty eyes stare into my soul is unnerving me to no end.

SpecialMan

Special Man appears to be anything but special with his bland packaging and very shoddy looking sculpt of Superman’s face. Buy this for a child you really don’t like.

Terminator Spider-Man

I think my fanboy mind has just imploded. Spider-Man is a Terminator! I never would have guessed it, I must have missed the comic where Peter Parker gets his eye badly damaged and he goes to a dirty bed sit to pop it out into the sink. This toy really freaks me out for some reason, almost like if I look at it a little bit too much it may actually come true somehow. He looks so angry, take it away please. Where is John Connor when you need him?

Super Robot

Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends have a pretty easy life. The conductor looks after them, they get to go out on their jollies or just chill at the station. But every so often they do get into some scraps. Maybe one of Thomas’s train friends has got himself stuck on a line and the commuters are getting very angry about not getting to work on time. Enter Super Robot who can sort out any emergency (even if it does take another 4 trains to actually make him). I am not sure if Thomas shares the same fan base as the Transformers, but you have got to admire the people who put this thing out for trying to grab as much money from the kids as they can.

Titanic-Bot

Throughout history there have been some really tragic events which have never been forgotten. The sinking of the Titanic still holds a certain sway over us, the shocking nature of it has made us return to it again and again. How best do you honor the dead and remind the future generations of the tragedy? Make the Titanic a Transformer, that’s how! Maybe we have the story all wrong, maybe the Titanic sank after an epic battle with iceberg Megatron? I honestly cannot think why people thought this was a good idea in any way, shape, or form. The even stranger thing about this is it actually floats and swims if that propeller underneath is anything to go by. I am pretty sure that Transformers fans really don’t want to play with a ship that has so much grief associated with it. What an incredible combination.

So hopefully this has given you a list of stuff to either avoid like the plague or search the shops like a man or woman on a mission. If you are interested in more of these (and believe me there are many more) why not check out Cracked.Com , Flavorwire.Com, Sad and Useless.Com, Comics Alliance.Com and Topless Robot.Com which is where I found some of these beauties. Or better yet just type in Boot Leg or Knock Off Toys in Google and see for yourself what classics pop up.

Killer Mickey Mouse

Outdoor Adventure Hero Spider-Man

Laser Swords

Assorted Kung Fu Fighters

Mr. Rock

Robert Cop

Army Spider-Man

Spader-Man

Star Knight Darth Vader

Super Bat

Tim Burton Superman

SpecialMan

Terminator Spider-Man

Super Robot

Titanic-Bot

Conveyors of Common Sense…