One Prequel Basher Replaced With Another

Late comes the news that Gary Whitta’s replacement Chris Weitz on the first spinoff script has his own social media skeletons on prequel bashing. So far, what’s surfaced is some TPM bashing (images via Furious Fanboys):

FanX 2015 Prequels Panel

In further Bryan Young news, he moderated a panel last weekend at Salt Lake City’s FanX convention called “Why The Prequels Make The Classic Star Wars Trilogy Better.” I don’t know the other two guys, but the person sitting next to Bryan is Lucasfilm’s Matt Martin.

ROTS & “Throne Of Blood”

The latest installment of Bryan Young’s look at cinematic influences on Star Wars features Akira Kurosawa’s film “Throne Of Blood” and its influence on ROTS.

But perhaps the moment that is mirrored most heavily between Throne of Blood and Star Wars is the choice given to the main character. In Throne of Blood, Mifune’s character is told that he can act to murder his lord in order to save his own life, or he could remain loyal and hope that he wasn’t murdered. The angst caused by this dilemma is mirrored in Anakin’s choice in Revenge of the Sith, when he’s given the choice between helping Palpatine or Mace Windu. After Anakin makes his choice the look of pained agony on his face is heartbreaking, and is a mirror of the trouble Mifune goes through after murdering his own lord and committing crime after crime to justify his actions.

10 Years of ROTS: Last Day Of Filming 1/31/05

As Christian Simpson reminded on his Facebook page, the last day of filming of ROTS was yesterday, 1/31/05 at Elstree Film Studios.

Elstree is of course one of many shooting locations you can visit on your next trip to the UK. starwars.com just posted more info on visiting shooting locations for the various Star Wars films.

A Couple Of Interesting Essays About Padmé

Becca at Coffee With Kenobi posted “So Love Has Blinded You”, an interesting look at Padmé’s love for Anakin.

Aaaand, here’s an interesting theory on what caused Padmé’s death…hint, it wasn’t a broken heart. I think it was more of a symbiotic thing with Anakin but hey, it’s a creative theory and I give props to the author for watching ROTS 500 times.

Update: On Rebel Force Radio’s Facebook post about the Retrozap piece, Pablo Hidalgo responded: “You know, the heart beats between both medical centers were carefully sound designed….”

Throwback Thursday: Khan Bonfils In “Body Armour”

I haven’t done a Throwback Thursday in a while but I thought I’d do one this week in honor of Khan Bonfils, who passed away last week.

Bonfils did a few other high-profile genre films besides TPM, but I thought I’d pick a little action film from 2007 called “Body Armour,” starring Til Schweiger and Chazz Palminteri.

You can spot Bonfils about 1:36 into the trailer:

Fast Food Wars

Bob caught a PT reference while watching MSNBC’s “All In” with Chris Hayes. The story was about a price war between McDonalds and Burger King, and Hayes apparently intoned, “The shroud of the dark meat has fallen. Begun the Nugget Wars have.”

Furious Fanboys Says Disney Isn’t Brushing Aside PT

Today Furious Fanboys says Disney is not brushing the PT aside after all and it offers the evidence:

Currently there are two novels in stores as part of the “new canon” with a third on the way next month. All three have strong ties to the Prequels. Even though Tarkin is about an Original Trilogy character, there are many references back to the Prequel era. Even more shocking to those who want to erase the Prequels from existence is the upcoming Luke Skywalker novel Heir to the Jedi.

Breaking News: Prequel Basher Off Standalone Project

TFN has posted that screenwriter Gary Whitta is off the standalone film after turning in a draft and a new writer will be brought in. Filming is expected to start soon.

No reason is given as to why Whitta’s off the movie but based on his tweets it sort of sounds like he was contracted for a year and that was it. Perhaps the plan all along was to bring in a second screenwriter to polish it up; it doesn’t sound like he was unceremoniously shown the door. But on the other hand, maybe there were “creative differences,” i.e. they didn’t like what they saw a la the fate of the Michael Ardnt script for TFA. Or maybe somebody purchased a clue and thought it was a bad idea to bring on a guy who, under his own name, posted gems like “Those movies (the prequels) f***** sucked.” Who knows? All I can say is I hope that whoever is brought on board now respects George Lucas’s saga more than this jerk did. No more hate boys.

In closing, given that this first standalone is allegedly about Boba Fett, I have to laugh at one of his old signature lines from that incriminating message board, “No one cares about Boba Fett.”

Droids Of Star Wars Video

EDM group Eclectic Method posted a video celebrating the droids of Eps I-VI that’s pretty darn amusing (not to be confused with the R2D2 subtitles one they also recently posted):