One and Only Star Wars Geekiness Thread

[AboveAverage484 0]

Ok, Conspiracy Victim got it right, but since he didn't name another one I'll do so, this one's hard:

 

Ephant Mon, well one use of Google Image Search and it's not so hard but you get the point.

Maybe you could try doing the opposite? Post a picture and have them guess who it is.

That makes... sense. How come I didn't think of that?

 

Here's the first one:

 

 

BTW, it's cheating if you look at the image properties

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Rieekan.

[Guest TheDon]

What is the deal with Star Wars 7,8 and 9? Everybody says that is really supposed to be a 9 part series. So my question is what in the world is supposed to happen after Return of the Jedi?

[bobobrazil1984 0]

nothing. it was at one point thought of as a 9 part series, but Lucas changed that when he wrapped it all up in ROTJ. I dont remember the specifics, but I dont think the Emperer was gonna show up at all until towards the end of the series. Also, Leia wasn't Luke's sister (that was conceived when Lucas and/or whoever thought up the new condensed ROTJ), the idea being "there is another" woulda been being raised on the other side of the galaxy and somehow would figure into the later episodes. A lot of this came from Gary Kurtz, who was a co-producer with Lucas on SW and ESB.

[SuperJerk 0]

A lot of ideas got scrapped when Lucas opted just to do 6.

 

Of course, if you read "Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays", you quickly discover how much better the final filmed versions are than early drafts.

[AboveAverage484 0]

That was too easy, how about this:

 

[LessonInMachismo 0]

That was too easy, how about this:

 

I always forget that dude's name, but he is a weapons dealer.

[Zorin Industries 0]

Tell me this, does Qui-Quon Jinn turn up in Sith at all? And does Liam Nesson actually appear or is it just his voice again?

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Hermi Odle

[Art Sandusky 0]

Tell me this, does Qui-Quon Jinn turn up in Sith at all? And does Liam Nesson actually appear or is it just his voice again?

The final release in theaters has no Qui-Gon voice or appearance, but he's talked about a little bit by Yoda and Obi-Wan.

 

Another one, because this is slightly deeper information:

 

Qui-Gon is the one who learned how to have everlasting life in the spirit world through the living Force he talked about, and Yoda studies under him to learn this ability, since the Jedi had become too stiff and dogmatic.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I think I may have to give in and change my sig to honour ROTS.

[Guest Vitamin X]

This might be a nice read for some of you guys to enjoy.

Lucas Glad to Leave Star Wars Behind

 

By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer Tue May 10, 1:28 PM ET

 

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - A wilted monolith of establishment politics. An entrenched ruling class fearful of change. And one man who stealthily rebels from within, turning the system on its head and bending it to his will.

 

George Lucas' story is the benign reverse image of the palace coup engineered by the foul emperor of his "Star Wars" epic.

 

The emperor perverted a tired republic into a fascist state bearing the imprint of his boot heel, standard "Richard III" stuff for which history buff Lucas had many role models to study from ancient to modern times.

 

Lucas' accomplishments marked a one-of-a-kind revolution. He sneaked into a Hollywood that no longer had the verve or nerve to make the weird, giddy, goofy Saturday matinees of his youth. He found a lone patron among fainthearted studio executives willing to pony up cash for what was essentially an Arthurian sword-in-the-stone fantasy in space.

 

Then he went off and made the most rip-roaring blast of cinematic fun audiences had ever seen as 1977's "Star Wars" became the biggest box-office sensation of its time.

 

Where dollar signs twinkle, studios follow, and Hollywood has been lumbering behind Lucas ever since.

 

Science fiction and special effects suddenly were back in vogue, and over the ensuing 28 years, Lucas and his visual wizards have led filmmaking into a new age of virtual reality that made possible such effects extravaganzas as "Jurassic Park," "Titanic" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

 

In the '70s, there was a "technological ceiling" over fantasy and science fiction films, even epics and period pieces, Lucas told The Associated Press in an interview at his sprawling Skywalker Ranch. "The tools weren't there," he said.

 

As television chipped away at theater business in the 1950s and '60s, studios folded up shop on the effects departments that helped create splashy historical adventures and otherworldly tales.

 

"It's like trying to paint pictures without brushes," Lucas said. "Hey, I brought the brush back and said, `You know, there's a lot of things you can do with this thing. I think there's real power here.' And by bringing that back, I think that was the biggest effect.

 

"Because it allowed people to do all kinds of movies that were sort of restricted because they were too expensive. That's not to say special-effects movies aren't expensive, but they're much less expensive than if you tried to do it in the old-fashioned way and have 10,000 people out in the middle of the desert with catering cars and all the things you'd have to have."

 

Lucas — who turns 61 Saturday, just days before the May 19 debut of "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith," the final chapter in his six-film saga — never set out to be a Hollywood pioneer, a sci-fi maven or even a populist filmmaker.

 

A star pupil at the University of Southern California film school in the 1960s, Lucas adapted a short student flick he made into his feature debut with 1971's "THX 1138," the first film from buddy Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope outfit, a failed experiment meant to give young industry lions the freedom to make movies their way.

 

Starring Robert Duvall in a dark satire on consumerism and dehumanization, "THX 1138" baffled distributor Warner Bros., which dumped the abstract sci-fi drama into theaters. The film has gained cult status over the decades, largely because of Lucas' subsequent fame, but at the time, hardly anyone saw it.

 

Coppola challenged Lucas to try something light, so he followed with a comic drama based on his car-cruising days in the '50s and '60s.

 

With its ensemble cast and episodic story structure, "American Graffiti" was another puzzler for Hollywood. Yet its killer soundtrack, nostalgia factor and the appeal of such young stars as Richard Dreyfuss and Ron Howard caught the fancy of moviegoers, who turned it into a box-office smash.

 

Always figuring he would specialize in documentaries and strange art films, Lucas found himself with a narrow window of clout among Hollywood bankers. He decided to take one stab at a grand soundstage production with big sets and visuals while he had the chance.

 

Impressed with Lucas' youthful drive and his work on "American Graffiti," 20th Century Fox studio boss Alan Ladd Jr. decided to back the filmmaker's space opera about a farmboy named Luke Skywalker, a plucky princess named Leia, and a roguish pilot named Han Solo as they battled an evil galactic empire and black-cloaked villain Darth Vader.

 

"Star Wars" shot past Lucas pal Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" to become the colossus of the modern blockbuster era the two men helped usher in. Counting rereleases that include the 1997 special-edition version with added footage and effects, "Star Wars" still stands at No. 2 behind "Titanic" on the domestic box-office charts with $461 million.

 

Lucas said he originally envisioned a bigger story arc that revealed Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia to be the children of Darth Vader, who finds redemption in his last moments of life through the good heart of his son.

 

He scaled "Star Wars" back to tell only the first chapter of that chronicle. After the film succeeded beyond anyone's expectations, Lucas followed with "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi."

 

In a stroke of blind fortune that now looks like the savviest business decision in Hollywood history, Lucas retained ownership of the films and merchandising.

 

Lucas was getting paid next to nothing upfront and had to beg 20th Century Fox for more money to get the special effects close to what he had imagined. Ownership of the franchise was a bone the studio tossed him, and Lucas figured he would use it to make T-shirts and posters to promote the movie.

 

At the time, sequel and merchandise rights were about as valuable as a bucket of sand on the desert planet Tatooine, but the combined bonanza from films, toys and other "Star Wars" products has made Lucas one of the richest men in show business.

 

"He would be the first to tell you, he had no idea," said Rick McCallum, Lucas' producing partner since TV's "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" in the early 1990s. "When you're getting nothing, you'll take anything ... He knew there were sci-fi exhibitions out there that 5,000 kids would go to, so the idea was to go to anything that had to do with science where people would lend themselves to science fiction, and he could sell them T-shirts."

 

The "Star Wars" movies allowed Lucas to build an empire that includes the visual-effects house Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound, which have driven moviemaking into the digital era. Lucas' THX system has become a gold standard for theater and home-entertainment audio.

 

Even Pixar Animation, the company behind the "Toy Story" movies, "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles," was a Lucas offshoot he sold in the mid-1980s.

 

Spielberg and Lucas teamed with "Star Wars" co-star

Harrison Ford for the swashbuckling "Indiana Jones" movies, the fourth installment of which they hope to begin shooting in 2006.

 

After Industrial Light & Magic's breakthrough with realistic digital dinosaurs on Spielberg's "Jurassic Park," Lucas realized computer animation would allow him to tweak his three "Star Wars" movies, adding scenes, effects and creatures impossible to produce in the '70s and '80s.

 

The special-edition releases helped persuade Lucas to go back and tell the backstory of how headstrong youth Anakin Skywalker transformed into malignant monster Darth Vader.

 

Episodes I and II, "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones," were hits, but they disappointed many fans who wanted to see a full-blown Vader from the outset. Instead, Lucas followed Anakin from precocious boyhood through his awkward teen years and a forbidden romance.

 

"Revenge of the Sith" finally takes Anakin to the dark side as Vader, whose fear of losing the love of his life leads him into a bloodbath against the Jedi knights who raised him.

 

Lucas is braced for fresh complaints about the final film, expecting many viewers to gripe that it's too dark, the ending too bleak.

 

"Half the people like the movies, the other half don't. There's nothing I can do about that," Lucas said. "Nobody is indifferent about them. Even the reviews, we get fantastic reviews or horrible reviews. There's no middle ground. Nobody's saying, `They're OK, I guess.'

 

"You can't really worry about it. I make the movie I feel I want to make, telling the story I want to tell, and how it gets received is how it gets received. At least it's my fault. It's totally mine. I don't have to have any excuses about it. I don't have to say, `The studio made me do this,' or `I know that was wrong, but I had to do it.' Whatever people don't like or they do like is my fault."

 

Millions of fans would love a third trilogy picking up after "Return of the Jedi," but Lucas said he has no story in mind and no intention of continuing the tale on the big screen.

 

The adventure will live on in an animated TV show and a live-action series Lucas has planned, set among minor characters from the films in the 20 years or so between the action of "Revenge of the Sith" and the original "Star Wars."

 

Lucas also hopes to release three-dimensional versions of all six movies in theaters starting a couple of years down the road. The 3-D editions would be created using new digital technology that adds depth perspective to two-dimensional film images.

 

Other than the new "Indiana Jones," the creator himself said he is done with big film productions. Lucas plans to go off and make the sort of artsy little films he would have been making all along if "Star Wars" had not taken off.

 

With money set aside to cover those film projects into his 70s, Lucas said he can do whatever he wants without worrying if his movies succeed or fail, toiling in comparative obscurity and happy to be free of "Star Wars."

 

"The analogy I can use is, it's like going away to college," Lucas said. "It's great to get out of the house. You miss your parents a little bit, but you get to see them at Thanksgiving. But it's great to be in college, great to be on your own. It's great to have a new life."

[Guest netslob]

buncha fuckin' geeks...

 

 

 

(*goes back to watching 'Teen Titans' *)

[Guest Vitamin X]

Quiet, fatso.

[Darthtiki 0]

Well I saw it tonight, DAMN!!!

My ratings are below:

-Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker V. Darth Tyranus-Handicap match **

-Anakin Skywalker V. Darth Tyranus II***

-Mace Windu and his Jedi stable V. Emperor Palpatine***1/2

-Mace Windu V. Anakin Skywalker**

-Yoda V. Emperor Palpatine****

-Obi-Wan Kenobi V. General Grevious*

-MAIN EVENT: Obi-Wan Kenobi V. Anakin Skywalker****1/2

[Art Sandusky 0]

Post somethin' about it.

[Art Sandusky 0]

With those star ratings, it's a sure thumbs up.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

OK...about the duels with Star Wars...it's an interesting story found in the bonus disk for the Star Wars Trilogy DVD set.

 

Basically, at first, Lucas had the thought that Lightsabers would be so powerful that they would need to be held by two hands to contain the powers.

 

However, as time went on, and he felt Luke would get stronger as time went on, he would be able to wield the weapon with just one hand.

 

And of course, the reason he stated that the Prequel Battles had more flips and such (not in those words, but still) is that Luke hadn't gotten the full, proper training as a Jedi, unlike Qui-Gon Jin, Obi Wan Kenobi, and Anakin pre metal parts.

 

Though I have to wonder now...though they never showed the scenes, did Yoda give Luke any Lightsaber training on Dagoba?

[Black Lushus 0]

yeah, I always assumed there was more training than we actually got to see...also, perhaps Ben helped him through that whole "Living Force" thing between ANH and ESB, possibly even between ESB and ROTJ since we know Yoda didn't help during that time frame...maybe being the son of the Chosen One automatically helped him as well?

[ChrisMWaters 0]

yeah, I always assumed there was more training than we actually got to see...also, perhaps Ben helped him through that whole "Living Force" thing between ANH and ESB, possibly even between ESB and ROTJ since we know Yoda didn't help during that time frame...maybe being the son of the Chosen One automatically helped him as well?

The Yoda training I see. The Obi-Wan stuff, I'm not that sure about. After all, Luke seemed somewhat surprised by Obi Wan appearing before him on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back, as if he never expected to actually SEE Ben again.

 

And I'm sure that being Anakin's son did help him a slight bit. (though no one really wants to be reminded of this...)Luke might even have had a higher Midichlorian count than his father!

[Black Lushus 0]

yeah that's right, you got me on the Obi-Wan thing...okay okay so maybe between ESB and ROTJ...wait, no, because he confronts Obi-Wan about lying about his father in ROTJ and would have done it sooner if he had seen him beforehand...hmmm, maybe he's just naturally gifted, like I said, being the son of the Chosen One...fucking Lucas...

[pochorenella 0]

Darthtiki, you actually seen the movie already?? You lucky dog.

Don't forget spoiler tags if you're planning to post about the movie.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

By the way...saw this on G4's "Attack Of The Show"...

 

There's actually, if you can find it, a fan made release of the original trilogy scanned from Laserdisc onto DVD...which is the form pre Special Edition

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

They've been around for a while. I've got a set of the originals & SE's (bought them like 3 years ago, before the box set was released). Cost was around $10/DVD.

[LessonInMachismo 0]

Though I have to wonder now...though they never showed the scenes, did Yoda give Luke any Lightsaber training on Dagoba?

Luke was there for six months. We didn't see a lot of scenes.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

SIX MONTHS? What exactly were Han and Leia and all the rest doing for six months? Hiding in an asteroid?

[Naked Snake 0]

I won't go as far and say I don't care for the Anakin becoming Vader story, but the story that really interests me is the rise to power of Palpatine. His scheming is brilliant, and I hope he has a lot of screen time in this flick.

[SuperJerk 0]

SIX MONTHS? What exactly were Han and Leia and all the rest doing for six months? Hiding in an asteroid?

Well...6 months (or even longer) kind of makes sense. The hyperdrive didn't work, so it'd take them a while to get from Hoth to Bespin.

[Black Lushus 0]

Yeah, if you go off of EU, it takes, days, even weeks to get from one system to the next, so it's possible...

[Art Sandusky 0]

There were lightsaber training scenes to be shot, but they weren't. My belief has always been that Luke was just left to trust in the Force to guide him as he fought. That's how it works anyway, seeing things before they happen and reacting quickly. Keep in mind Luke also ran off to fight before his training was done, so maybe it was still forthcoming.

 

I have to dispute the six months thing also. It's been said somewhere official (can't remember where) that these films cover one month, maximum. Luke got a super crash course in Jedi training, and had to rely on his raw abilities to last against Vader as long as he did. Vader wasn't trying as hard as he could, but whatever. Luke's real growth as a Jedi was in the six months between ESB and ROTJ, a time during which he built his own lightsaber and meditated and whatnot. There's a clear increase in Force proficiency between the two films, and building your own lightsaber is supposed to be a rite of passage to become a full Knight.