Here at Geek Girl Cantina we’ll be wrapping up the week in Star Wars news. This week is a quieter week and we’re almost thankful for it. Put on your Resistance jackets and let’s get into it.
It’s Official: Rogue One Has Passed $1 Billion
During this weekend’s box office, Rogue One has finally and officially passed 1 billion dollars. DigitalSpy confirms it’s one of four films to pass a billion in 2016. Not surprisingly, they’re all Disney. Captain America Civil War made $1.153 billion, Finding Dory made $1.028 billion and Zootopia made $1.024 billion. What a wonderful accomplishment for the film and it’s production. Major congratulations to Lucasfilm and everyone involved in Rogue One. And of course, congrats to Disney for being such a crazy powerhouse in film.
Rogue One Secrets Explained
The Star Wars Show sort of came back for an interview with some story group members talking about Rogue One. The group pointed out some Easter Eggs in the film and elaborated on it. It’s definitely worth the watch as they talk about Rebels connections and much more. Can’t wait for The Star Wars Show to continue!
Rogue One Creature Shop
The Disney Channel UK had a feature containing a brief interview and behind the scenes footage about the new aliens. Neal Scanlon was there to talk to the hosts about his job. The main focus is the upclose look at the creatures and brief never before seen footage from behind the scenes. Personally when I watch it again for a better look, I mute the video cause the girl is a little too giggly. However, I’d probably be the same way surrounded by Star Wars creatures. They also talked to props, costumes, Diego Luna and Felicity Jones. Check them out on their YouTube page!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ovgxkgiDQg
Rogue One Behind The Scenes Photos
Alex Benetel was allowed on set to take pictures of Rogue One and she’s finally starting to post some. Benetel really gives a mysterious almost eerie vibe in her photos and she doesn’t disappoint in these shots either. Be sure to check out more on her Instagram! Not sure how many she’ll end up posting but check them out!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BN1efi4gM4Q/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOV54mggf11/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPQo_9IAKsq/
Rogue One Back in Effects
More terrible puns for more interviews with the VFX team. ComingSoon interviewed John Knoll with little tidbits from Hal Hickle & Neil Corbourd on Rogue One and the effects. They include insight to the process and specifics regarding things like missing scenes and the like. I recommend it to those who are interested in this side of making Star Wars. I’ll share a few bits from it!
ComingSoon: And I did want to ask, there were obviously a lot of reshoots that happened. How does that change your job?
John Knoll: Well, being one of the executive producers, I had a little bit more direct involvement in the story and where that was going and how we were dealing with the initial cut coming in kind of long, and then us needing to shorten it down into something that was a rational runtime. And then, story threads that had to go in order to do that. And then, well, and we should probably do a pickup of this scene to explain the stuff that we’ve left out here and this character isn’t in anymore, and all that kind of thing. So I had some heads up of what was safe to work on and what was still shifting sands. So we tried to not burn a lot of labor on things that weren’t going to get picked up or omitted. So I’d say that there’s not a lot of idle moments, shots that we finished and then got cut out of the movie. What we do is, well, we should probably put that scene on hold, because we know we’re going to reshoot the last part of that. So we’d sort of focus our intention more on the stuff that was a little more solid ground or on just prepping assets, building things and getting ready for shooting.
ComingSoon: Every day, it seems like there’s more Easter eggs that are coming out and all sorts of just cool things in there. Do you have a favorite hidden surprise in Rogue One?
John Knoll: I’ll point out one that nobody has picked up on yet, and that’s, you know the shot of Krennic’s ship leaving the Death Star? And you know, we designed it to kind of help illustrate the scale of the Death Star, where you can see how big the docking bays are in there, and then the camera pulls back, in not quite a powers of 10 sort of way, to really quite illustrate how big it is. But the equatorial trench on the Death Star is almost, I think it’s a half a mile high. And it’s big enough that Russell Paul, who’s my model supervisor, got talking about, you know, that’s big enough that you can make a giant docking bay the star destroyer could fit into. And in the shot, if you look about halfway down the trench, there’s a giant docking bay, with a star destroyer docked in it. And nobody’s picked up on it, but it’s there. And it makes sense. In theory, the star destroyer could dock in the equatorial trench and refuel and refit and whatever, but it’s never something that was seen until now.
RELATED: Miss last week’s Geek Girl Cantina? Be sure to check it out here!
Pablo Hidalgo Interview With EW
He’s baaaaaack! Now labelled the “Indiana Jones of Star Wars”, Pablo Hidalgo sat down with EW Radio to discuss his Rogue One Visual Guide. He gives a ton of answers regarding his process and details from the book that’s really interesting to hear about. Those who are fans of the background of Star Wars need these books! Be sure to check out the full interview.
EW: Where did you start? How did you get involved in this project, documenting the furthest reaches of the Star Wars story universe?
Hidalgo: Well, it really kicked off [last year] with The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary. I had already had a relationship with DK, which is the publisher that creates these books, because I had worked on a project a few years back called Star Wars: Year-by-Year which was a history of Star Wars as a franchise, as a brand. And in my own personal writing experience, I’ve done a lot of source material for Star Wars, dating back to the old role-playing game in the ’90s. So I had had this background of writing for and in the universe.
EW: How does the partnership between you and the creature shop work? Because when I talk with Neal Scanlan and those guys, they’ll refer to creatures as “Ackbars” when fans know the crustacean aliens are called “Mon Calamari.” They come up with nicknames, but you give them actual identities.
Hidalgo: So there’s the production reality of what the creature represents, and then there’s the story universe reality of what the creature is. So whenever possible, I try to talk to Neal and his crew and find out what was the thinking behind this creature? And using that as foundation, I’ll then come up with a backstory that fits the narrative, that fits with what’s established and known in the universe and hopefully really try to encapsulate and hopefully enhance what it is that the creature department had thought.
EW: These things you create, the names and backgrounds, often end up being fed into other creative works, correct? Novels, games, comics, the Star Wars TV series Rebels… Constable Zuvio didn’t get any screen time in The Force Awakens, but he had a starring role in Landry Q.Walker’s short story collectionStar Wars: Aliens.
Hidalgo: Correct. One of the advantageous things about where I happen to be in the company in that as part of the story group, we review and we help develop all this ancillary storytelling, so I’m up to speed on that material, and I’m able to put it into the Ultimate Visual Guide either as overt references to upcoming material or just hidden things that will pay off in the months to come.
EW: Another surprise in your book. Darth Vader is only 41 in Rogue One! How did I get to be the same age as Darth Vader?
Hidalgo: [Laughs] Well, he was only 9 in The Phantom Menace, so that’s what we have to work off of, and, yeah, you come to realize, boy, that was a tough 40. Being on the dark side really does age you rather prematurely, and as we get older, as us Star Wars fans get older, you start realizing that the characters that you identify with are now younger than you! Time passes, doesn’t it?
Be sure to check out the full interview. And as a bonus, StarWarsNewsNet captured some conversation of Hidalgo talking to fans on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/pablohidalgo/status/821926436139171840
https://twitter.com/pablohidalgo/status/821972104069251072
Laura Dern Praises Carrie Fisher
In an unknown role for Episode 8, Laura Dern was very mum in regards saying that she’s having the “time of [her] life” making it. But she did expand upon her appreciation for Carrie Fisher and what she’s done for women. Entertainment Tonight spoke with her during a red carpet event.
We put a lot of focus currently on what it is to be a female icon, what it is to use your voice, what it is to be comfortable in your own skin. She has always been one of the most extraordinary beacons, an original screen icon.
She goes on to talk about how she remembered seeing the film as a child with her mother, also talking about her youth.
I don’t know any of us who didn’t play Princess Leia for a Halloween, or in our life. What an incredible gift to to witness that whole legacy.
Carrie Fisher was an incredible gift and we are truly lucky to have witnessed her legacy. Well said, Laura!
Leia In Women’s March
Speaking of Carrie Fisher and her legacy, this past weekend millions of women marched in support of equal rights for women. While the vast majority of the marches were held in the US in partial protest of the new President, women around the globe joined in sister marches. Leia was a big icon in this march with many people holding signs depicting Carrie as Princess Leia.
Best signs are about Princess Leia #WomensMarch pic.twitter.com/n9dw2cS3Fq
— Gianluca Mezzofiore (@GianlucaMezzo) January 21, 2017
Second sign is done and I'm pretty stoked about it! #CarrieFisher #princessleia #womensmarch pic.twitter.com/X8JwBfUjib
— Rebecca Welch (@RebeccaLWelch) January 21, 2017
I know where she stood. You know where she stood. Such an honor to see her standing with you today. Bigly. #Resistance #WorldWideWomensMarch pic.twitter.com/cwsgoYVSU7
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) January 21, 2017
These are but a mere few among the protests. But it shows that Leia will always be an image or symbol for hope and resistance against tyranny, whatever kind you’re fighting against. Now, I’m gonna come across as really nitpicky here BUT it does bother me just a tiny bit that the signs continue to say Resistance yet depict younger Leia who was in the Rebellion. Older Leia is in charge of the Resistance so I felt like her image should’ve been shown BUT I KNOW, IT’S NITPICKY. I can’t help it.
Some of our own Geek Girls were out marching and we’re incredibly proud to support equal rights. We know Carrie would’ve been right out there with everyone. Still miss her very much.
Undercover Boss
This week’s Star Wars funny is a new classic. It’s a year old! Wow time flies. Here we have Adam Driver on SNL playing Kylo Ren on Undercover Boss. It’s hilarious, even just his disguise is hilarious. Adam was such a team player for this skit and I love it to pieces. Bonus includes bloopers and extra scenes! With 20 million views, SNL really did us right by this sketch.
And that’s it for this week’s news! Did we miss anything? Let us know and be sure to come by next week for more Star Wars!
BONUS:
EPISODE 8 TITLE!!
Today on January 23rd, they’ve released the title of Episode 8 along with a logo/poster
Yes, it’s that cool. We’ll talk more about it in next week’s wrapup so stay tuned!!
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