Archive for ‘News’



R2-D2 in Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen

StarWars.com Team | 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)

R2-D2 Easter Egg Revealed in Star Trek

Bonnie Burton | 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)

Update on Patrick Read Johnson’s Film ‘77

StarWars.com Team | June 7, 2009


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…)

How Darth Vader Ended Up in Night at Museum 2

Bonnie Burton | 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)

Chris Pine Channels Han Solo for Star Trek

Bonnie Burton | May 20, 2009

Captain Kirk has always had a certain level of bravado, but for the new Star Trek film, so it’s no surprise that actor Chris Pine wanted to inject a little more personality from another beloved, sarcastic film character — Han Solo.

IGN reports:

When asked who he would like his incarnation of the Starship Enterprise captain to most resemble, Pine responded, “I would definitely say Harrison Ford in either Indiana Jones or Star Wars. What Harrison Ford is so great at doing is bringing that quality to his characters that if they could be anywhere else in the world they would be there, but he is not, he just is in the middle of s*** and he has to figure out a way of dealing with it so that he can go back to doing whatever the hell he was doing before the film started.”

“I’ve always loved that quality about him in Star Wars, this sense of absolute grumpy manner; the accidental hero. Not to say that I modeled my version of James T. Kirk on anything in particular but I think I definitely have wanted to bring that kind of Harrison Ford humor to Kirk.”

Read the full interview here:
Trek Star Reveals Captain Kirk Inspiration (via IGN.com)

Star Wars Actor Jay Laga’aia Joins the 501st

StarWars.com Team | May 18, 2009


(Photo by Percy Ricaud)

Star Wars actor Jay Laga’aia — who is best known for his role as Captain Typho — can now be officially addressed as TK-6352 thanks to The 501st Legion.

501st.com writes:

Although he’s been a Honorary Member of the 501st since October 2005, Star Wars actor Jay Laga’aia (Captain Typho) always had full intentions of becoming an armor-wearing member of the 501st. On May 14, Jay realized his dream and was approved as TK-6352 of the Terror Australis Garrison.

To preserve the surprise, local members were bound to secrecy even as they helped Jay acquire and assemble his stormtrooper armor, and the tongue-in-cheek alias of “Jasson Lagguinski” was used throughout the member application process.

Jay is the 2009 Star Wars Weekends celebrity host from May 22 to June 14 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida, and hopes to don the armor for his first official troop sometime during his visit. Jay will be joined each weekend by other Star Wars Weekends mainstays such as Jeremy Bulloch, Warwick Davis, Dave Filoni, Peter Mayhew, Temuera Morrison, Ray Park, David Prowse and Matthew Wood and — of course — the 501st Legion.

Congrats Jay! We all look forward to see you suited up!

R2-D2 Cameo in New Star Trek!

Bonnie Burton | May 15, 2009

If you still need a good reason to see the new Star Trek movie, this may be it. R2-D2 is in the movie as an Easter Egg, and if you can figure out which scene our beloved astromech makes an appearance, you should enter the “Star Trek Easter Egg Sweepstakes” on Facebook!

Get more info here:
Star Trek Easter Egg Sweepstakes (via Facebook)

Be sure to play with R2-D2 sounds and send your remixes to friends with our official Star Wars Soundboards here.

My Favorite Movie is Star Trek Wars

Bonnie Burton | May 14, 2009

If you’ve already seen the new Star Trek film by J.J. Abrams, you might have noticed a few homages to Star Wars.

But if you don’t have time to watch both movies and draw your own conclusions, this fan already did it for you. Check out this side-by-side comparison of the new Star Trek and the old Star Wars. And yes, it’s chock full of spoilers, so go see the movie already.

WATCH VIDEO: My Favorite Movie (Star Trek vs. Star Wars)
(via CollegeHumor.com)

Putting Star Wars into Star Trek

Bonnie Burton | May 11, 2009

MTV chats with Star Trek director and Star Wars fan J.J. Abrams about taking some elements of Star Wars and putting them into the new movie.

“That was the fun of it,” Abrams explained recently. “[I] was trying to combine both of those elements and make a movie that wasn’t like a Star Wars movie but felt that it had more pace and action than certain Star Trek movies had.”

Perhaps as a result, Captain Kirk is chased down on an ice planet by an enormous creature, Wampa-style. An early scene introduces Uhura at a bar populated by hard-drinking aliens. And in one key scene, the villain proves his ruthlessness by destroying the home planet of a key character.

“In our early conversations, [co-writer] Alex [Kurtzman] kept saying, ‘We have to put a little Star Wars into our Star Trek,’” remembered Roberto Orci, who wrote the film with Kurtzman. “It was our chocolate and our peanut butter, kind of getting into each other.”

Read the full interview here:
Star Trek Gets Some ILM Magic (via MTV)

Check out our interviews with J.J. Abrams here:

J.J. Abrams Talks Fringe, Cattle and Star Wars (via Starwars.com)

Mission: “Lost” in Star Wars — J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof
(via Starwars.com)

Star Wars Soundboards Now at StarWars.com

StarWars.com Team | May 11, 2009

soundboards.jpg

In case you missed it, starwars.com just launched the Official Star Wars Soundboards a few days ago, allowing fans to create and send customized conversations full of Wookiee howls, Jawa jabber, Ewok Yub-Nubs, Skywalker whines, Leia quips, and more!

And there will be more — much more — to come in the weeks ahead, as more dialog and sound effects clips are added from the six-film saga. For more details, read the launch story here, and if you’re ready to dive right in, head on over to the demo page and get started right away (be sure to click the “Demo” tab at top for a full listing of all the available clips)!