I know, I know...I called this blog BEYOND Luke Skywalker for a reason. And it's meant to be about the trajectory of Mark Hamill's career post-Star Wars and not about LUKE SKYWALKER. But in the wake of the news about the new Star Wars movie, there's just been too much good Star Wars stuff to ignore. I restrained myself from sharing the Star Wars/School House Rock mash-up with you the other day, but there's only so much I can ignore.
Thus, today I bring you "A Star Wars Family Tree that Shows it Was Really a Soap Opera": and what was up with the way everyone just glossed over that big messy kiss Leia had laid on Luke after they discovered that they were not only siblings but TWINS?
Showing posts with label luke skywalker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label luke skywalker. Show all posts
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Mark Hamill's Star Wars Audition
One of the theories I promised to explore when I started this blog was that the reason Mark Hamill's career didn't take off like Harrison Ford's did post-Star Wars was simply that he wasn't a very good actor. To be honest, I'm having a tough time assessing that.
Corvette Summer, as I mentioned earlier, isn't exactly an optimal showcase for anyone's acting skills. And I'm sure many of my generation will understand that I simply can't evaluate Luke Skywalker objectively. Even if I were able to shake off the associations from the 70s, I've simply seen the first block of Star Wars movies too often to see them with any kind of objectivity at this point.
Hamill does seem to have garnered respect as a voice actor, something I'll delve into further in another post. And there's an element of irony in that, given that his Star Wars "big break" was almost certainly attributable (at least in part) to his boyish good looks. That's always been my assumption, and it was reinforced for me when I watched this video of Hamill's Star Wars audition.
I'm very curious to hear others' reactions to this audition tape. My own response was a resounding, "eh." It wasn't bad, but literally nothing about it stood out to me. Though the idea of anyone other than Mark Hamill portraying Luke Skywalker seems unthinkable today, I'd really love to get a look at some of the other audition tapes for that part.
Corvette Summer, as I mentioned earlier, isn't exactly an optimal showcase for anyone's acting skills. And I'm sure many of my generation will understand that I simply can't evaluate Luke Skywalker objectively. Even if I were able to shake off the associations from the 70s, I've simply seen the first block of Star Wars movies too often to see them with any kind of objectivity at this point.
Hamill does seem to have garnered respect as a voice actor, something I'll delve into further in another post. And there's an element of irony in that, given that his Star Wars "big break" was almost certainly attributable (at least in part) to his boyish good looks. That's always been my assumption, and it was reinforced for me when I watched this video of Hamill's Star Wars audition.
I'm very curious to hear others' reactions to this audition tape. My own response was a resounding, "eh." It wasn't bad, but literally nothing about it stood out to me. Though the idea of anyone other than Mark Hamill portraying Luke Skywalker seems unthinkable today, I'd really love to get a look at some of the other audition tapes for that part.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Star Wars 7 Rumors
The Internet is abuzz with--as usual--a bunch of conflicting information about Star Wars VII and how/whether Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher will be reprising their roles as Luke and Leia.
Conjecture at ScreenRant is that the new episode will draw on Expanded Universe (EU) material. Specifically, Timothy Zahn's books from the 90s apparently include a storyline that picks up with Luke's and Leia's children approximately 40 years after we last saw them. That would fit well with the real-life timeline.
EOnline reports that a representative of LucasFilms has said unequivocally that the next chapter will not be based on the books, and will be "an original story." But wait--was that back when Lucas was planning to do the next trilogy himself, as Mark Hamill claims he discussed a year or more ago? Will it still hold true, if it was ever true?
The author of an unauthorized Lucas biography claims to have seen outlines for twelve movies, and that the episodes focused on the Skywalker and Solo children take place when Luke and Leia are in their late thirties or early forties. Hamill and Fisher aren't exactly looking their ages (61 and 56), but 30s would be a stretch for either of them.
Still, I've been dismayed by the popularity of the idea of simply casting new, age-appropriate actors to play Han, Luke and Leia at that stage of their lives. When I saw the suggestion on Comicbook.com, it struck me as so outrageous that I read it out loud to my teenage daughter for humor's sake.
She looked at me for a moment and then said, "Wait...what?" Since she's thirty years younger than I am and untainted by having seen the original Star Wars in the theater at age 11, I felt like my sentiment must be universal...until I read the comments on Comicbook.com. Apparently, there's a pretty large faction that thinks if the script calls for Luke and Leia, we should just bring in some fresh blood.
Let me be the 759,308th to say, "Hell, no."
Conjecture at ScreenRant is that the new episode will draw on Expanded Universe (EU) material. Specifically, Timothy Zahn's books from the 90s apparently include a storyline that picks up with Luke's and Leia's children approximately 40 years after we last saw them. That would fit well with the real-life timeline.
EOnline reports that a representative of LucasFilms has said unequivocally that the next chapter will not be based on the books, and will be "an original story." But wait--was that back when Lucas was planning to do the next trilogy himself, as Mark Hamill claims he discussed a year or more ago? Will it still hold true, if it was ever true?
The author of an unauthorized Lucas biography claims to have seen outlines for twelve movies, and that the episodes focused on the Skywalker and Solo children take place when Luke and Leia are in their late thirties or early forties. Hamill and Fisher aren't exactly looking their ages (61 and 56), but 30s would be a stretch for either of them.
Still, I've been dismayed by the popularity of the idea of simply casting new, age-appropriate actors to play Han, Luke and Leia at that stage of their lives. When I saw the suggestion on Comicbook.com, it struck me as so outrageous that I read it out loud to my teenage daughter for humor's sake.
She looked at me for a moment and then said, "Wait...what?" Since she's thirty years younger than I am and untainted by having seen the original Star Wars in the theater at age 11, I felt like my sentiment must be universal...until I read the comments on Comicbook.com. Apparently, there's a pretty large faction that thinks if the script calls for Luke and Leia, we should just bring in some fresh blood.
Let me be the 759,308th to say, "Hell, no."
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