I would watch the living daylights out of this Episode VII proposal.
The Martha Wells “Leia novel” Gets Official Title
Martha Wells announced on her Live Journal that her new Star Wars novel, the first in the “Rebels” series, now has an official name: Empire and Rebellion: Razor’s Edge. Sounds like we might finally get into the nitty-gritty of Leia’s character in this book, which is awesome.
I’m very excited for this book, and I’m also really excited for potential implications of the new series name, Empire and Rebellion. Does this mean we might get stories from an Imperial point of view, say with fan favorite characters like Baron Fel and Tycho Celchu? Just imagine how awesome a Tycho defecting from the Empire novel would be.
Razor’s Edge is scheduled for release on October 15. Other upcoming novels in the Empire and Rebellion series include a Han-centric novel from James S.A. Corey and a Luke-centric novel from Kevin Hearne.
Del Rey also confirmed the titles on Twitter and Facebook:
Title for the upcoming Leia novel by @marthawells1 is STAR WARS: EMPIRE AND REBELLION: RAZOR’S EDGE. On sale in October. #SWEU #StarWars
— StarWarsBooks (@DelReyStarWars) April 17, 2013
More layoffs at Lucasfilm targeting licensing and marketing
By all indications, there’s been another round of layoffs at Lucasfilm. This time it also affects the Lucasfilm Licensing division.
Hatchet day at #Lucasfilm and #LucasLicensing. Bad news: I got laid off. Good news: I got laid off!Look out, world, here I come!
— Stacy Arnold-Strider (@batsnaps) April 16, 2013
These layoffs are reportedly impacting individuals within licensing, marketing, and publishing. The first two make a certain amount of sense since Disney has huge licensing and marketing arms, but publishing would be a bit more out of left field as they do not have much in the way of in-house options on that front. Possibly the layoffs within that arm are confined to children and reference materials, which Disney can probably replicate. Adult fiction would be tougher.
UPDATE: Publishing not impacted
Sounds like the initial report was wrong on the publishing front. LFL’s Jen Heddle got in contact with Club Jade to clear things up:
@clubjade No publishing layoffs.
— Jennifer Heddle (@jenheddle) April 17, 2013
This makes quite a bit more sense. If Disney can do anything internally, it’s licensing products and marketing everything under their umbrella. Publishing is still something that they in theory have the framework to do entirely internally, but isn’t what I would call a strong suit. For now (and I suspect for a long, long while), the setup remains the same for Star Wars literature.
Latest ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ trailer drops
May is going to be a pretty great months for movies, isn’t it?
Mythbusting: Did George Lucas order Anakin Solo’s death?
The myth: George Lucas feels that there would be marketing and brand confusion to have two heroes named Anakin at the same time, one in the Prequel Trilogy and one in the Expanded Universe. Because of this, he orders Anakin Solo to be killed in the New Jedi Order books. Troy Denning is given the instructions from Lucasfilm itself to kill off Anakin.
Murdered by George Lucas!?
The investigation: To get to the answer, Nanci went to the Twittersphere and all-around-awesome Lucasfilm person Pablo Hidalgo dug into his notes to get to the bottom of the issue.
Has the Anakin Solo death coming on high from George ever been confirmed? What I’ve heard is that he said Anakin couldn’t be the hero. #SWEU
— Nanci Schwartz (@nancipants) April 16, 2013
@nancipants the note says “Change person who is responsible for ultimately saving the day to Jacen – not Anakin”
— Pablo Hidalgo (@infinata) April 16, 2013
@nancipants and that was listed under the header “Too redundant to movie storylines – books should be more original” (5/6/98) BB memo
— Pablo Hidalgo (@infinata) April 16, 2013
@nancipants circled specifically in the outline is a mention that Anakin Solo “that he is the prophesied one”
— Pablo Hidalgo (@infinata) April 16, 2013
The reality: It turns out that George Lucas and Lucasfilm itself didn’t order that Anakin Solo be killed. Rather, they stated that he couldn’t be a prophetic hero and that role should be changed up to someone else. Hello, Jacen.
It appears that the decision to kill Anakin was made somewhere lower on the chain, perhaps the editors and/or authors working with Del Rey at the time. Whoever made the call, what’s clear is that there wasn’t a directive from on high to off Anakin Solo. The decision to kill him rather than change his role or put him on a bus appears to have been made by the people actually producing the books.
Michael Giacchino Says John Williams Should Score Episode VII
These days, there are seemingly two constants in the film universe. First, if there’s a Star Wars movie, John Williams is scoring it. Second, if there’s a J.J. Abrams movie, Michael Giacchino is scoring it.
Uh oh.
Given these two virtual certainties, a number of fans are wondering exactly who is going to score the next episodic installment of the Star Wars saga. Will it by franchise legacy composer Williams, or will J.J. Abrams bring in Giacchino? There’s no telling for sure yet, but Giacchino himself seems to think it should be Williams back at the conductor’s stand.
“He has been a great inspiration to me over the years,” he continued. “He has been a great teacher to me and good friend and I would love nothing more than to hear more of his music from that universe.”
“If it were up to me I would say ‘John, you must do it.’”
For whatever it’s worth, I do agree with Giacchino. If Williams is able and willing, he should be the one that scores Episode VII. If nothing else, maintaining a constant presence on the film score side of things will go a long ways in linking these three distinct eras of Star Wars together.
Richard LeParmentier Passes Away
Early this morning, word broke that Richard LeParmentier had passed away at 67. LeParmentier was best known for playing Admiral Motti in Episode IV.
Over at Big Shiny Robot, Bryan Young and Janine Spendlove shared their heartfelt thoughts on LeParmentier.
The first time I met Richard in person was at Celebration III in Indianapolis at a 501st dinner, where I offered to buy him a beer. I’ll never forget his response, “I’m too old to have that much carbonated liquid in my bladder. I’ll take a glass of wine, though.”
Richard was a very nice guy. I kept up with him on facebook. He mentored me for a time as a writer, as we were workshopping the script for Motti Now and breaking it down for production. Aside from being instrumental in my favorite scene in A New Hope, Richard left an indelible mark on my life and I’m very sorry to hear that he’s passed away. I was hoping to get him on Full of Sith these days, and join him drinking a bottle of wine again at some point.
For more, head to the above link.
Cosplay Monday: Tiny Thor and Hawkeye
We’re back with another edition of Cosplay Monday where we try and help start your work week with some fabulous costumes! Get your ‘awwww’s ready because Cosplay Monday has taken another detour into the realm of cute. Check out this adorable tiny Thor and this adorable tiny Hawkeye that Brian and Nanci spotted at Megacon! Honestly, is there anything cuter than cosplaying children? Especially when they pose so seriously. Epic win right here.
Catching Fire Teaser Trailer
Probably my most anticipated movie of the year is The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (which shouldn’t be surprising considering how much Brian and I talked about the series on the podcast when we first read the books). Last night, MTV aired the “exclusive” teaser trailer during their annual movie awards. For those of you (like me) who didn’t bother staying up that late, you can watch it now online.
Personally, I’m really enjoying getting more of Snow in the films. He’s got that creepy Palpatine vibe that I find so repulsive yet so compelling. And since the books are told in first person POV, it’s nice to see what else is going on outside of Katniss’s world. It makes the story bigger and more compelling.
EU Retrospective: The New Jedi Order Part 2
Things might be going really downhill for the galaxy but boy are they going uphill for me as a reader! I actually find the middle chunk of New Jedi Order books to be incredibly solid reads and rather enjoy all of them despite the emotions they might provoke from me.
Balance Point:
It’s a marvel I stuck with the New Jedi Order because Balance Point is the third book in a row that just doesn’t impress me. It’s not that it’s necessarily bad, it’s just meh and I find it to be boring.
Again, the bits with Mara and Anakin working together are definitely a highlight. Actually, everything with Mara in this book is a high point. And that’s about it.
The entire point of the book seems to be an excuse for the Solo family to continue to have its issues and to resolve most of them by the end. The other point seems to be for Jacen Solo to continue to have his philosophical issues with using the Force and I still don’t buy any of that reasoning. By this point, the war’s been going on for a year and the Vong are clearly an issue. I don’t believe for a minute that Jacen Solo would sit back and not give his all to defend the galaxy. It just doesn’t fit with this character. With Tsavong Lah declaring that he wants all the Jedi dead and singling out Jacen, this feels like it was almost tacked on editorial meddling when they realized that he wouldn’t be the Solo kid dying.
I’m sure there are other people out there who liked this book but not I. I’m going to stick with my resounding ‘meh’ for my review.