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Exclusive Podracer T-shirt: Less Than 3 Days Left!

January 13, 2012

This week, StarWars.com launched a special Episode I 3D hub page giving fans a one-stop destination for all the latest news and activities surrounding Star Wars: Episode I 3D’s release next month! Among the links for trailers, a new free game (Star Wars: Racer Rush), a Podrace soundboard, a drawing tutorial and more is one very cool Podracing t-shirt available exclusively from the Mighty Fine website until 11:59pm PST on Sunday — that’s less than 3 days!

The exclusive Podracer tee is the first of five — yes five — exclusive t-shirts that will be available for one week only over the next month as we lead up to the opening of Episode I 3D. In addition, the Episode I 3D page will update every Monday with an all-new Episode I theme, which the weekly exclusive t-shirt will reflect! Here’s the schedule:

Jan 9 – 15: Podracing
Jan 16 – 22: Darth Maul
Jan 23 – 29: Droids
Jan 30 – Feb 5: Jedi
Feb 6 – 12: Queen Amidala

So if you’ve got a soft spot for Darth Maul — or droids, Jedi, and Amidala — be sure to mark your calendars to check back for the exclusive t-shirt that will be available for one week only, along with themed-out videos, games, downloads and activities!

But if Podracing’s is your favorite thing about Episode I, you’d better head over to www.welovefine.com now and grab the exclusive Podracing tee that’s available for less than three more days!

10 Comments » | Collecting, Movie News | Permalink
Posted by pvilmur

Actress Daniela Ruah Gives Red Tails Update

October 4, 2010

What’s new on the Red Tails front? Collider.com recently interviewed NCIS: Los Angeles actress Daniela Ruah about her role in the upcoming feature about the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II, and what it was like working with George Lucas, who recently took over directing duties to film some re-shoots.

What was it like to have the opportunity to work on Red Tails? How was that experience?
Daniela: That was a wonderful experience, mainly because it was my first big film. Just to be able to work on something that came out of George Lucas’ mind was quite an honor. Initially, it was directed by Anthony Hemingway, and then George Lucas wanted to change some of the tone of it and decided to direct it himself, so we had a few re-shoots and I got to work specifically with George Lucas on those re-shoots. That was really special, to see how he works and to see what the process is. They only had me for a weekend because I was shooting the show, so everything had to be on the ball, at all times.
Who do you play in the film?
Daniela: I play this Italian character. The film is about the Tuskegee Airmen, so it’s the Second World War in Italy. I play David Oyelowo’s love interest. He’s one of the main pilots in the film and he falls in love with me, and I’m his drive to survive. To play an Italian character was a big challenge. I don’t speak Italian. I’ve always wanted to do something which required as much character work as possible, so it was a wonderful opportunity for me. I can’t wait until it comes out, and I have no idea when it will.
Did you do a lot of green screen work?
Daniela: Yeah. We initially shot in Croatia and the Czech Republic, so during the re-shoots, I was doing the show and they only had a weekend, and they couldn’t fly me over to Eastern Europe because it was too far. So, we did a lot of green and blue screen stuff and that was unbelievable.
Was it daunting to be a part of something knowing that it was George Lucas’ first original project since Star Wars?
Daniela: No. If anything, that helps drive you to do as well as you can. It’s an honor that that is the case. He’s been planning this for 20 years or so, so for him to have wanted me to be a part of it is huge. It’s wonderful and it feels really good, and it gave me strength and energy to play the role as well as I could because he put that trust in me.

Read the full interview here:
Daniela Ruah Exclusive Interview NCIS: LOS ANGELES; Plus an Update on George Lucas’ RED TAILS (via Collider.com)

1 Comment » | George Lucas, Movie News | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl

Inception Inspired by Star Wars

June 28, 2010

(Photo by Eric Charbonneau – WireImage.com)

Director Christopher Nolan recently revealed that Star Wars had a deep impact on him as a filmmaker, making films like his new mind-twisting tale Inception possible.

Nolan says about Star Wars:

“That was an entire world that didn’t exist anywhere else before. It only existed in that movie, and then your brain lived in it for a couple of hours, and it stuck with you.”

“Ever since I saw that film, whether I knew it or not, my ambition has been to give the audience that kind of experience. To create a world that they hadn’t expected before and hadn’t seen before and let them lose themselves in it. There’s a huge advantage of jumping into something original that can be anything.”

Read full interview here:
Nolan: Star Wars sparked Inception

1 Comment » | Celebrities, Movie News | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl

Pegg & Frost: Filming New Sci-fi Movie

September 8, 2009

Star Wars fan and actor Simon Pegg is hard at work with fellow actor and best pal Nick Frost filming their next movie (which they also wrote) called Paul. They play two comic book geeks who go on a road trip to Nevada’s infamous Area 51. While in the middle of that desert, the two friends encounter a fugitive alien by the name of Paul.

Of course, it makes sense that in many of the behind-the-scenes video blogs, Simon is wearing an Empire Strikes Back t-shirt.

Watch their behind-the-scenes videos here:
What is Paul?

No Comments » | Celebrities, Movie News | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl

George Clooney Shows Off His Jedi Mind Tricks

August 28, 2009

In the upcoming movie The Men Who Stare at Goats, Bob Wilton — a reporter (played by Ewan McGregor) thinks he has the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady (played by George Clooney), a man who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army’s First Earth Battalion — a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions.

Based on the non-fiction book by the same name, the movie is bound to be saturated with Jedi references if it’s anything like these quotes from the trailer:

Bob Wilton: “So what you’re saying is that you were a psychic spy?”
Lyn Cassady: “A Jedi warrior.”

Lyn Cassady: “We’re Jedi. We don’t fight with guns, we fight with our minds.”

The irony that actor Ewan McGregor who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars Prequels is getting schooled in the ways of the Jedi by George Clooney just makes the movie that much more entertaining. The movie also gets extra points for bringing back The Dude (Jeff Bridges) in a glorious way.

WATCH TRAILER: The Men Who Stare At Goats

2 Comments » | Movie News, humor | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl

Star Wars to Harry Potter: Secrets of ILM F/X

July 16, 2009

Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) and Co. may have audiences under their spell in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but the real wizards are the ones who created the movie’s special effects. Industrial Light & Magic, the biggest F/X studio in the business, gave the News a sneak peek behind the wizards’ curtain to see how they made some of the greatest magic in film history.

Read the full article here:
Star Wars to Harry Potter: Secrets of movie special effects

5 Comments » | ILM, Movie News, in the media | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl

R2-D2 in Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen

June 24, 2009

Our beloved astromech seems to be popping up everywhere. First R2-D2 shows up in Star Trek. And now the film’s visual-effects supervisor, who also worked on Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, and the same screenwriting team who wrote him into Star Trek, are saying Artoo is in their new movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

MTV News reports:

“There’s an R2-D2 flying around in there somewhere,” revealed ILM’s Scott Farrar, the film’s visual-effects supervisor, who also worked on the Star Wars episodes Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. “There’s a little bit of space junk thrown in there; see if you can find it. It’s a scene in the desert.” Interestingly enough, George Lucas’ charismatic droid also had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in Star Trek, which shares the same writing team as Transformers. Is it a coincidence? “Perhaps,” screenwriter Alex Kurtzman grinned mischievously. “Perhaps not.”

Read the full article here:
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen Cheat Sheet: Everything You Need To Know (via VH1/MTV)

3 Comments » | ILM, Movie News | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl

R2-D2 Easter Egg Revealed in Star Trek

June 11, 2009

Now that the Paramount contest to spot R2-D2 in the new Star Trek film is over, here’s where our beloved astromech can be found:

From the Star Trek Easter Egg Sweepstakes Facebook Page:

During the Drill Machine sequence as the Enterprise comes out of its barrel role amidst destruction of the other Federation ships above Vulcan, we cut to an interior Enterprise bridge over the shoulder of Kirk that is looking out through the front viewscreen. In space, R2-D2 is floating in the debris from about the top middle of the screen to the bottom right.

He’s very tiny, but alas there he is floating in space — poor fella.

Read more about other Easter Eggs in this interview with one of the Star Trek screenwriters:
Trek Writer Roberto Orci Talks Writing, Reboots and Star Wars
(via Starwars.com)

5 Comments » | Movie News | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl

Update on Patrick Read Johnson’s Film ‘77

June 7, 2009

(Photo by Bonnie Burton — Actor John Francis Daley and the rest of the ‘77 cast.)

Imagine if you were an amateur teenage filmmaker who stumbled upon Star Wars while visiting the ILM film studios before the film ever hit theaters in 1977. That’s the kind of magic that Patrick Read Johnson’s autobio picture 5-25-77 — recently renamed ‘77 — captures.

If you were lucky enough to see a special screening of the film at Star Wars Celebration IV in 2007, you already know how endearing this film is.

It’s been awhile since we heard anything new about the film since it’s preview. So we were delighted to get an update from Starlog magazine when they sat down to have a chat with director-screenwriter Patrick Read Johnson.

STARLOG: What’s the current status of ‘77?

PRJ: Though we had two fantastic screenings at the Hamptons Film Festival and won an award (The Heineken Red Star) and got a lot of nice press, Cassian and Phil and I all felt we needed to do some more work in the cutting room, which in turn required us to heavily revise our VFX shot list, choose some different songs from the era for certain sequences AND rework portions of the score by David Russo and Alan Parsons. Meanwhile, various members of the team were being picked off by other jobs, and the big financial meltdown was occurring, and investment dollars were suddenly very hard to come by… So we basically shut down at the end of the year to wait out the turmoil. By the time things started to calm down, my VFX team was off doing other work, my composers were on to other jobs, and I’d taken an offer to direct another film. But, thankfully, I’ll be done with that project right about the time we plan on restarting post on ‘77, in order to have it ready for the American Film Market in November.

(more…)

1 Comment » | Movie News | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl

How Darth Vader Ended Up in Night at Museum 2

May 20, 2009

Hank Azaria and Shawn Levy, the co-star and director of Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian, recently told reporters that they were surprised that their characters were given permission to face against both Star Wars’s Darth Vader and Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch.

Azaria and Levy spoke alongside screenwriters Ben Garant and Tom Lennon and cast members Robin Williams, Ricky Gervais, Ben Stiller and Amy Adams at a press conference.

SciFi Wire reports:

Ben Stiller: With Darth Vader, didn’t George Lucas have to say it was OK?

Shawn Levy: Oh, yeah. We literally had to go to the top of the food chain with both at Sesame Street and George Lucas, and they said yes. It was always this hilarious scene where Darth Vader was going to try the choking gesture [on Kahmunrah] from Star Wars, but then Hank riffed all the stuff about Vader being an asthmatic and wearing a cape. Are we going to the opera?

Ben Stiller: Did George Lucas have to approve the final version?

Ricky Gervais: There’s a lawsuit coming. [laughs] [Edit: We think this is a joke.]

Hank Azaria: Yeah, but all the Jar Jar [Binks] stuff was taken out. [This is also a joke.]

How’d Darth Vader and Oscar the Grouch end up in Museum 2?
(via SciFi Wire)

2 Comments » | Celebrities, Movie News | Permalink
Posted by bonniegrrl