Princess Leia strikes back at 'Star Wars' and George Lucas

It was 26 years ago today that "Return of the Jedi" hit theaters. Sure, there were a few regrettable moments in it, not least among them the ludicrous notion that Ewoks carrying sticks and stones could somehow defeat a deployment of armed Imperial stormtroopers. I was a 13-year-old kid in a theater in South Florida and I remember thinking, Why have the Rebels been so worried about these guys if they can't even handle a tribe of midget teddy bears?

But there were also a lot of great things about the movie. Not least among them Leia's slave-girl outfit. Actress Carrie Fisher remembers wearing it as well; to celebrate the anniversary, here's a snippet of her hysterical roasting of George Lucas from an AFI tribute a few years ago.

      

 

--Geoff Boucher

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VIDEO: Billy Dee Williams stars in Lando Calrissian spoof

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WIZARDS OF HOLLYWOOD: JOHN DYKSTRA

This is the third installment in our series "Wizards of Hollywood," where we shine a spotlight on the masters of movie magic, the effects specialists who can dazzle us with screen images of liquid robots, giants and goblins, ferocious dinosaurs or just a special human soul who ages in reverse. Today, guest contributor Liesl Bradner interviews John Dykstra.

Two-time Oscar winner John Dykstra is considered one of the true forefathers of visual effects. His credits include "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," "Batman Forever" and "Hancock" and was a producer at the launch of the original "Battlestar Galactica" television franchise. He won his first Oscar for the original "Star Wars," for which he was special photographic-effects supervisor, and his second for "Spider-Man 2" and is now immersed in the challenges presented by period combat as the visual effects designer on the Quentin Tarantino film "Inglourious Basterds." He was on the set in Berlin when he spoke to Bradner by phone.

My most memorable scene was the opening shot in the first "Star Wars." It was one of the first shots we finished and it proved that at least a large part of the new technology we were applying to the visual effects for the film was going to work.

[Director] George Lucas, [producer] Gary Kurtz and the studio were all making a large wager when they financed the creation of the original Industrial Light & Magic facility. Wise or not, we weren't doing things in a traditional way.

EXCLUSIVE: This is the second part of an interview with J.J. Abrams about his cinematic voyages aboard the Starship Enterprise. Today he talks about his concerns that "Star Trek" is "clearly in the shadow" of George Lucas. He also addresses premature talk of a "Trek" sequel: "I'm in the middle of lunch and someone asks, 'What do you want for dinner?' "

      

You can read part one here.

"Star Trek" is back. The 11th film in the storied franchise returns to theaters in May and this time the director is J.J. Abrams, who was just 2 months old when the original television series premiered in 1966. Abrams has conceded that he was never an impassioned fan of "Trek" but his take on the mythology promises to be intriguing considering his television success with "Alias," "Lost" and "Fringe" as well as his work as director of "Mission Impossible III." He talked to Hero Complex about navigating his movie through the neutral zone that lies between hard-core "Trek" fans and average summer moviegoers.

GB: Is it your sense that you are winning over skeptical fans to this point? 

JJA: You know, I would think that especially fans of "Star Trek," which is an optimistic universe, a universe about working together and the possibility of the human endeavor, you would think that people who appreciate that wonderful portrait of the future and that universe would be open to literally going to a place no one has ever gone before. I'm very optimistic that fans of the show, even the purists, will be willing to embrace the spirit of Roddenberry and once they see these actors doing this extraordinary work, I think they will not have to intellectualize it all, they'll simply enjoy the experience. It's a cliche now to say "Where no man has gone before" because it has been the vernacular now for more than 40 years but if you actually think about it -- and actually remind yourself that we live on this planet and we are creatures inhabiting in this space with undefined limits and with technology that will invariably come -- "Star Trek" is positing a future that is incredibly inspiring. If you can get past the cliche and make it real and relevant, there's something very exciting about that. This is not "Star Wars" which happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. This is us and our future.

GB: Can you talk a bit about the story of this film?

JJA: This story is ultimately about a guy who is full of unbelievable potential but he is aimless, he is lost. He ends up finding a path that takes him beyond his wildest dreams. It helps him find his purpose. That's a great story in any situation, in any culture. There is something about that spirit of innovation, collaboration, possibility, adventure and optimism that is inherent in what "Star Trek" was.

      

GB: How much did you go back to the various "Trek" shows, films, novels, etc., to research the mythology? I imagine at some point sifting through all of it would become a counterproductive exercise.

JJA: I looked at a lot of the episodes of all the series that came after the original "Star Trek" but because we are focusing on the original series I didn't really need to know every episode of "Deep Space Nine" or "Voyager" or even "Enterprise." But, yeah, I watched episodes, I read up a lot, I watched the movies, I talked to people, whether it was our "Trek" consultant or one of the two writers [Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci] about what it would mean to do what we wanted to do. We have one producer, Bob [Orci], who is a complete Trekker and another in Bryan Burk who had never seen an episode of the show ever. And it was a great balance. We could make sure it passed the test of the ultimate fan and the ultimate neophyte and make sure that it was equally entertaining to both parties.

This Sunday (Dec. 7) the Los Angeles Times Calendar section features a special package of science fiction stories that include a piece on Keanu Reeves and his alienated role in "The Day the Earth Stood Still," an article on Sci Fi (the cable channel) facing a crossroads with the end of "Battlestar Galactica" and even a fun look at the fashion of sci-fi cinema through the decades. That's just the start -- there's plenty more in the section. I wrote a cover centerpiece for the package, which is a look at three venerable franchises -- "Star Wars," "Star Trek" and "Battlestar Galactica" -- looking for new life and new audiences. Here's an advance excerpt of that story. I will put a link here to the entire story this weekend. It's a great section on Sunday, get a copy if you can. -- Geoff Boucher

(UPDATE: Here's that now-active link to the entire article)

The future looks very familiar. Science fiction, by its nature, is a celebration of the new, but you wouldn’t know that by watching Hollywood’s space operas. "Star Trek," for instance, is on the way back to theaters next summer in hopes that moviegoers will still want to boldly go where millions and millions have gone before. And it’s been more than 30 years since "Star Wars" made film history, but the Force is still very much with us -- whether we like it or not -- with a seventh film in theaters this past summer, one of the year’s bestselling video games and a new weekly animated television show (there’s also talk of a live-action series in the next year or two).

And that’s just the tip of the meteorite. The "Terminator" and "Robocop" franchises are being revved up now for more mechanical-man mayhem, and classic films such as "Forbidden Planet" and "When Worlds Collide" are in the remake pipeline, while the new take on "The Day the Earth Stood Still," starring Keanu Reeves, opens Dec. 12.

Even "Battlestar Galactica," which began as a small-screen "Star Wars" knockoff in the 1970s, has been revived with spectacular results and will break new ground in 2009 with the TV movie "Caprica" on Sci Fi, with a series to follow.

The question, though, is why does Hollywood keep looking to the past? "Science fiction should be about ideas and what it means to be human, it should always be about the new and the challenging," William Shatner said on a recent afternoon as he sipped a Starbucks coffee and watched traffic zoom past his Ventura Boulevard office. So why does Hollywood keep putting its money in the same old Enterprise? "'Star Trek' connected with so many people for so long, and 'Star Wars' is the same way," he said. "There’s a thrill for fans to see the heroes they know."

Shatner won’t be one of those heroes in the new "Star Trek" film -- a sour point for the actor who played Capt. James T. Kirk on television and in seven films and had hoped for a cameo -- but Paramount Pictures is absolutely hoping that the new film, directed by J.J. Abrams ("Mission: Impossible III," TV’s "Alias" and "Lost") will have the warp power needed for a 21st century "Star Trek" franchise built around young stars such as Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Mr. Spock). Those ambitions go a long way to explaining the Hollywood fixation on tried-and-true properties.
It’s difficult to find a sci-fi project in recent years that wasn’t based on an earlier film or television show, although "Minority Report," "Signs" and "Children of Men" did buck the trend.

Ronald D. Moore, creator of the modern “Battlestar Galactica,” said that commercial priorities push risk-adverse studios toward properties with established names, but he said it’s wrong to presume that artistic ambition is stifled by remaking the familiar.

EXCLUSIVE Seth Green talks about the new "Robot Chicken" spoof of "Star Wars" and spending time with George Lucas.

I got a chance to talk the other day to Seth Green who, as always, was a man in major motion. "There's a lot going on these days," he said. "But there's always a lot going on, right?" This week Green was in New York for the final episode of MTV's "Total Request Live," he was in L.A. chatting up Kevin and Bean at KROQ-FM and then he was jetting north to the Bay Area to meet with Lucasfilm folks about his ongoing and quirky relationship with the "Star Wars" universe. Green is, of course, a busy actor (more on that later) but he is especially near and dear to hearts of fanboys everywhere for his work on "Robot Chicken," the deliriously funny pop-culture spoof show that is at its very best when goofing on "Star Wars" and its mythology.

Green and his "Robot Chicken" puppeteer partners-in-crime have returned to the universe of the Jedi for "Robot Chicken:  Star Wars Episode II," which Green directed and which makes its premiere at 11:30 p.m. Sunday (Nov. 16) on Adult Swim. As usual, it's got fall-down-funny satire of the greatest space opera of them and features voice contributions from Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Seth MacFarlane, Ahmed Best and Conan O’Brien, just to name a few. (I've got some images here from it as sneak peek; I got a good chuckle out of the Imperial stormtrooper who made the mistake of participating in "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day," which you can see after the jump...)

"When we do 'Star Wars,' it does seem to really work so well and I think it's because everyone is so familiar with the mythology, it's universal, everyone instantly connects and also there's also a lot there to have fun with, in our very loving and slightly weird way," Green said. He said this entire production went back at pretty amazing pace of 14 weeks from blank page to completed footage. "We've become super efficient," he said. "Alarmingly efficient, in fact. And when it's 'Star Wars' we're always swinging for the fences and we're very happy with the finished product. It's about 100 people collaborating, counting the writers and the actors and the costumes and the puppeteers and everything else. It's a huge endeavor but it's going so smooth and it's just so much fun. "

I told Green that I have a theory that the greatest service performed by Emmy-winning "Robot Chicken" is to "Star Wars" creator, George Lucas; I think the parodies -- and the fact that Lucas has given both his continued blessing and even the occasional voice contribution -- have gone a long way in humanizing the sometime remote wizard of Skywalker Ranch.

I went to the Spike TV Scream 2008 Awards and have plenty of things to report back from it. First off, here's a story I wrote that was published on the front page of the Los Angeles Times this morning.

The Oscars present Hollywood as it wishes to be -- refined, glamorous and high-minded -- but on Saturday night at the Greek Theatre, the Spike TV Scream 2008 Awards showed the movie industry as it truly is in 2008: obsessed with superheroes, overflowing with fake blood and relentless in its pursuit to sell popcorn to teenagers. And despite a name that sounds like a B-movie convention, the Scream Awards turned out to be so of-the-moment in their target audience that top studio executives, major stars and A-list directors not only attended, they talked backstage about the show as a sign of the times.

"There's a feeling that film and comic books and all these genres that didn't used to get respect are having this truly dynamic moment right now," said Zack Snyder, director of "300" and the upcoming R- rated superhero epic "Watchmen." "Just look around tonight and you get this feeling things are going into interesting places."

The Scream Awards, which will air Tuesday night on the Spike TV cable channel, are hardly a ratings powerhouse, but you wouldn't have known that from the celebrity turnout. Anthony Hopkins, Samuel L. Jackson, Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman appeared to present or receive awards, and two of the most successful filmmakers alive arrived on stage in dramatic fashion -- "Sweeney Todd" director Tim Burton floated in via hot-air balloon like the Wizard into Oz, and "Star Wars" mogul George Lucas entered accompanied by a marching regiment of stormtroopers.

EXCLUSIVE

Is "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which hits stores today on DVD and Blu-ray, the final adventure for the wise-cracking (and whip-cracking) archaeologist? It sure seemed like it when the movie arrived in theaters in May but then earlier this month a surprisingly enthused Harrison Ford told us that George Lucas is "in think mode" on a suitable story for a fifth Indy film. That's not sitting well with everyone; there's a vocal percentage of fans who think the 21st century revisitation of the great screen hero tainted the earlier glory days of the franchise. I have to wonder if director Steven Spielberg, who certainly has plenty of other projects awaiting him, is really in the mood to take on another Indy project after the backlash this time around, which got pretty personal and malicious, especially during a recent "South Park" spoof. Only time will tell ...

To mark the release today of "Crystal Skull," we bring you two fairly rare movie-set images, one old and one new. Above, a photo shot during an early scene in the classic 1981 film that started it all, "Raiders of the Lost Ark." That chap in the tan coat standing between the camera and the "stunt" Indy is Douglas Slocombe, the film's acclaimed director of photography, whose other credits included "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and one of my personal favorites, "The Lion in Winter." Slocombe, the story goes, never used a light meter on the set of "Raiders," preferring to trust his own eye instead. It was a good instinct: The Brit picked up his third Oscar nomination for his work on the action classic.

The photo below is from last year during the making of "Crystal Skull" and shows Ford, enjoying a cool drink and light moment with Spielberg. In the background there, wearing the white shirt and blue jeans, is Janusz Kaminski, the director of photography for "Crystal Skull" and a two-time Oscar winner (he won for Spielberg's two World War II masterpieces, "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List"). Leave it to two cinematographers to know where to stand when a camera catches a bit of history ... 

   

Thanks to John Singh at Lucasfilm for finding these two great images and sharing them with the Hero Complex. Both photos are property of Lucasfilm, all rights reserved, and they are used here with the company's permission. To learn about all the extras included on Paramount Home Entertainment's DVD and Blu-ray of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," check out the official Indiana Jones website.

-- Geoff Boucher

Everyone's head is still spinning from "South Park" last night.

If you missed it, basically Trey Parker and Matt Stone are of the opinion that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg raped the once-glorious "Indiana Jones" franchise with the fourth film released this past summer.

So guess how the two gleeful firebrands metaphorically presented that point of view on last night's new episode? Yep, that's right, "South Park" put those two iconic filmmakers and their archaeologist hero into a reenactment of the most disurbing scene from "Deliverance."

Todd Martens at Show Tracker has the ugly details and some screen grabs from the episode. I'm taking the high road but not posting them here (but, obviously, I'm also taking the low road by putting in a link).

-- Geoff Boucher

RELATED

Harrison Ford tells Hero Complex that George Lucas is in "think mode" on a fifth "Indy" film

Harrison Ford said Friday that momentum is building for a fifth movie in the "Indiana Jones"  franchise and that George Lucas is already cooking up a suitable plot for a heroic senior citizen with a penchant for whips and fedoras.

"It's crazy but great," the 66-year-old Ford said. "George is in think mode right now."

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" grossed $318 million in the U.S. alone and $770 million worldwide and is expected to be powerhouse seller on DVD and Blu-Ray when it arrives in stores Oct. 14. It was a film that many people in Hollywood assumed would never be made considering the difficulty in finding the right time and the right script to reunite Ford, Lucas and franchise director Steven Spielberg after the 1989 hit "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

Now, though, the latest success and the fact that the franchise's old machinery was revived has Ford thinking a fifth movie is not only a viable idea, but an attractive one.

"It's automatic, really, we did well with the last one and with that having done well and been a positive experience, it's not surprising that some people want to do it again," Ford said.

I asked Ford who specifically is stirring up the idea of another revival, whether it was Lucas, Spielberg or the star himself? "Really, it comes from the ethos, from the ether. It's natural. It's a way of nature, of course, success breed opportunities ... also we don't stay as closely in contact as have in the last year, that's part of it." 

Haden Blackman, the project leader on "The Force Unleashed" video game, has a daydream: He strolls into the movie theater, buys some popcorn and then sits down and watches his game's tale of Darth Vader and his secret apprentice flicker to life as cinema.

"Oh, that would be incredible," said Blackman. "And it's not impossible. Never say never. George [Lucas] has looked to tell new 'Star Wars' stories through the games and with the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe, and then he has also shown a willingness to let the characters come into the films. Look at Aayla Secura, a creation in the [Dark Horse] comic books who became part of the theatrical films."

More than that, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," released in August, began as a television animated series (and still will be, with tie-in episodes premiering Oct. 3 on Cartoon Network), but when Lucas saw the work in progress he decided to take the tale to the cineplex. That film has gotten mixed reviews, to say the least, but Lucas doesn't seem to care a bit about the opinion of any detractors when it comes to his historic entertainment enterprise and its directions.

Dark Horse has also released a graphic novel version of "The Force Unleashed" and, to my mind, it's more satisfying than the game -- although in full disclosure, that's not saying much, because I am far more of a reader than a gamer. Blackman not only penned the story for the graphic novel, he also has a lavish 224-page book titled "The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" that celebrates the images and behind-the-scenes labor on the game as if it already were a major motion picture. An adapatation of the film in a traditional prose novel written by Australian sci-fi author Sean Williams also hit No. 1 on the New York Times list of hardcover fiction bestsellers and now, after four weeks, is at No. 14 on that tally.

Lucas is clearly pleased with this new entry to the broader "Star Wars" story and I would not be surprised for a moment to see it on a theater marquee at a CG-animated project in the next few years, especially with the intensifying Hollywood interest in video games and toys as film properties. There's also the very real power of putting Darth Vader on a movie poster in the theater lobbies of America.

If the "The Force Unleashed" does become a movie, Blackman said it would be a testament to the priorities and sophisticated ideas of his team, who he says puts storytelling and game-play on equal footing and emphasized "the artistic nature" of the quickly changing video-game medium. "It's an incredible time," he said, "to be telling powerful stories in this fairly young medium."

Perhaps, but like the most recent film addition to the Lucas universe, there was huge pre-release anticipation for "The Force Unleashed," followed by widespread grumbling. It hit stores Sept. 16 and topped the 1-million units sales mark in its first five days, according to industry retail reports, but the reviews have been decidedly mixed.

Here's the take, for instance, by Hero Complex contributor Pete Metzger, who reviewed the game for the Los Angeles Times and echoed many other underwhelmed gamers:

Most of the things that make up the "Star Wars" universe these days -- movies, TV shows, toys and video games -- are lacking the magic that made the original trilogy of films so incredible. Gone are the spectacle and awe. Instead, we get halfhearted disappointments (such as the current "Clone Wars" animated movie).

Sadly, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is no exception. It should be an amazing story bridge between Episodes 3 and 4 and one that boasts groundbreaking new artificial intelligence and gaming technology. But Unleashed fails to register the tremor in the Force we were hoping for.

John Dykstra on his favorite scene -- the opening shot in 'Star Wars'

WIZARDS OF HOLLYWOOD: JOHN DYKSTRA

This is the third installment in our series "Wizards of Hollywood," where we shine a spotlight on the masters of movie magic, the effects specialists who can dazzle us with screen images of liquid robots, giants and goblins, ferocious dinosaurs or just a special human soul who ages in reverse. Today, guest contributor Liesl Bradner interviews John Dykstra.

Two-time Oscar winner John Dykstra is considered one of the true forefathers of visual effects. His credits include "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," "Batman Forever" and "Hancock" and was a producer at the launch of the original "Battlestar Galactica" television franchise. He won his first Oscar for the original "Star Wars," for which he was special photographic-effects supervisor, and his second for "Spider-Man 2" and is now immersed in the challenges presented by period combat as the visual effects designer on the Quentin Tarantino film "Inglourious Basterds." He was on the set in Berlin when he spoke to Bradner by phone.

My most memorable scene was the opening shot in the first "Star Wars." It was one of the first shots we finished and it proved that at least a large part of the new technology we were applying to the visual effects for the film was going to work.

[Director] George Lucas, [producer] Gary Kurtz and the studio were all making a large wager when they financed the creation of the original Industrial Light & Magic facility. Wise or not, we weren't doing things in a traditional way.

EXCLUSIVE: This is the second part of an interview with J.J. Abrams about his cinematic voyages aboard the Starship Enterprise. Today he talks about his concerns that "Star Trek" is "clearly in the shadow" of George Lucas. He also addresses premature talk of a "Trek" sequel: "I'm in the middle of lunch and someone asks, 'What do you want for dinner?' "

      

You can read part one here.

"Star Trek" is back. The 11th film in the storied franchise returns to theaters in May and this time the director is J.J. Abrams, who was just 2 months old when the original television series premiered in 1966. Abrams has conceded that he was never an impassioned fan of "Trek" but his take on the mythology promises to be intriguing considering his television success with "Alias," "Lost" and "Fringe" as well as his work as director of "Mission Impossible III." He talked to Hero Complex about navigating his movie through the neutral zone that lies between hard-core "Trek" fans and average summer moviegoers.

GB: Is it your sense that you are winning over skeptical fans to this point? 

JJA: You know, I would think that especially fans of "Star Trek," which is an optimistic universe, a universe about working together and the possibility of the human endeavor, you would think that people who appreciate that wonderful portrait of the future and that universe would be open to literally going to a place no one has ever gone before. I'm very optimistic that fans of the show, even the purists, will be willing to embrace the spirit of Roddenberry and once they see these actors doing this extraordinary work, I think they will not have to intellectualize it all, they'll simply enjoy the experience. It's a cliche now to say "Where no man has gone before" because it has been the vernacular now for more than 40 years but if you actually think about it -- and actually remind yourself that we live on this planet and we are creatures inhabiting in this space with undefined limits and with technology that will invariably come -- "Star Trek" is positing a future that is incredibly inspiring. If you can get past the cliche and make it real and relevant, there's something very exciting about that. This is not "Star Wars" which happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. This is us and our future.

GB: Can you talk a bit about the story of this film?

JJA: This story is ultimately about a guy who is full of unbelievable potential but he is aimless, he is lost. He ends up finding a path that takes him beyond his wildest dreams. It helps him find his purpose. That's a great story in any situation, in any culture. There is something about that spirit of innovation, collaboration, possibility, adventure and optimism that is inherent in what "Star Trek" was.

      

GB: How much did you go back to the various "Trek" shows, films, novels, etc., to research the mythology? I imagine at some point sifting through all of it would become a counterproductive exercise.

JJA: I looked at a lot of the episodes of all the series that came after the original "Star Trek" but because we are focusing on the original series I didn't really need to know every episode of "Deep Space Nine" or "Voyager" or even "Enterprise." But, yeah, I watched episodes, I read up a lot, I watched the movies, I talked to people, whether it was our "Trek" consultant or one of the two writers [Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci] about what it would mean to do what we wanted to do. We have one producer, Bob [Orci], who is a complete Trekker and another in Bryan Burk who had never seen an episode of the show ever. And it was a great balance. We could make sure it passed the test of the ultimate fan and the ultimate neophyte and make sure that it was equally entertaining to both parties.

This Sunday (Dec. 7) the Los Angeles Times Calendar section features a special package of science fiction stories that include a piece on Keanu Reeves and his alienated role in "The Day the Earth Stood Still," an article on Sci Fi (the cable channel) facing a crossroads with the end of "Battlestar Galactica" and even a fun look at the fashion of sci-fi cinema through the decades. That's just the start -- there's plenty more in the section. I wrote a cover centerpiece for the package, which is a look at three venerable franchises -- "Star Wars," "Star Trek" and "Battlestar Galactica" -- looking for new life and new audiences. Here's an advance excerpt of that story. I will put a link here to the entire story this weekend. It's a great section on Sunday, get a copy if you can. -- Geoff Boucher

(UPDATE: Here's that now-active link to the entire article)

The future looks very familiar. Science fiction, by its nature, is a celebration of the new, but you wouldn’t know that by watching Hollywood’s space operas. "Star Trek," for instance, is on the way back to theaters next summer in hopes that moviegoers will still want to boldly go where millions and millions have gone before. And it’s been more than 30 years since "Star Wars" made film history, but the Force is still very much with us -- whether we like it or not -- with a seventh film in theaters this past summer, one of the year’s bestselling video games and a new weekly animated television show (there’s also talk of a live-action series in the next year or two).

And that’s just the tip of the meteorite. The "Terminator" and "Robocop" franchises are being revved up now for more mechanical-man mayhem, and classic films such as "Forbidden Planet" and "When Worlds Collide" are in the remake pipeline, while the new take on "The Day the Earth Stood Still," starring Keanu Reeves, opens Dec. 12.

Even "Battlestar Galactica," which began as a small-screen "Star Wars" knockoff in the 1970s, has been revived with spectacular results and will break new ground in 2009 with the TV movie "Caprica" on Sci Fi, with a series to follow.

The question, though, is why does Hollywood keep looking to the past? "Science fiction should be about ideas and what it means to be human, it should always be about the new and the challenging," William Shatner said on a recent afternoon as he sipped a Starbucks coffee and watched traffic zoom past his Ventura Boulevard office. So why does Hollywood keep putting its money in the same old Enterprise? "'Star Trek' connected with so many people for so long, and 'Star Wars' is the same way," he said. "There’s a thrill for fans to see the heroes they know."

Shatner won’t be one of those heroes in the new "Star Trek" film -- a sour point for the actor who played Capt. James T. Kirk on television and in seven films and had hoped for a cameo -- but Paramount Pictures is absolutely hoping that the new film, directed by J.J. Abrams ("Mission: Impossible III," TV’s "Alias" and "Lost") will have the warp power needed for a 21st century "Star Trek" franchise built around young stars such as Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Mr. Spock). Those ambitions go a long way to explaining the Hollywood fixation on tried-and-true properties.
It’s difficult to find a sci-fi project in recent years that wasn’t based on an earlier film or television show, although "Minority Report," "Signs" and "Children of Men" did buck the trend.

Ronald D. Moore, creator of the modern “Battlestar Galactica,” said that commercial priorities push risk-adverse studios toward properties with established names, but he said it’s wrong to presume that artistic ambition is stifled by remaking the familiar.

EXCLUSIVE Seth Green talks about the new "Robot Chicken" spoof of "Star Wars" and spending time with George Lucas.

I got a chance to talk the other day to Seth Green who, as always, was a man in major motion. "There's a lot going on these days," he said. "But there's always a lot going on, right?" This week Green was in New York for the final episode of MTV's "Total Request Live," he was in L.A. chatting up Kevin and Bean at KROQ-FM and then he was jetting north to the Bay Area to meet with Lucasfilm folks about his ongoing and quirky relationship with the "Star Wars" universe. Green is, of course, a busy actor (more on that later) but he is especially near and dear to hearts of fanboys everywhere for his work on "Robot Chicken," the deliriously funny pop-culture spoof show that is at its very best when goofing on "Star Wars" and its mythology.

Green and his "Robot Chicken" puppeteer partners-in-crime have returned to the universe of the Jedi for "Robot Chicken:  Star Wars Episode II," which Green directed and which makes its premiere at 11:30 p.m. Sunday (Nov. 16) on Adult Swim. As usual, it's got fall-down-funny satire of the greatest space opera of them and features voice contributions from Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Seth MacFarlane, Ahmed Best and Conan O’Brien, just to name a few. (I've got some images here from it as sneak peek; I got a good chuckle out of the Imperial stormtrooper who made the mistake of participating in "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day," which you can see after the jump...)

"When we do 'Star Wars,' it does seem to really work so well and I think it's because everyone is so familiar with the mythology, it's universal, everyone instantly connects and also there's also a lot there to have fun with, in our very loving and slightly weird way," Green said. He said this entire production went back at pretty amazing pace of 14 weeks from blank page to completed footage. "We've become super efficient," he said. "Alarmingly efficient, in fact. And when it's 'Star Wars' we're always swinging for the fences and we're very happy with the finished product. It's about 100 people collaborating, counting the writers and the actors and the costumes and the puppeteers and everything else. It's a huge endeavor but it's going so smooth and it's just so much fun. "

I told Green that I have a theory that the greatest service performed by Emmy-winning "Robot Chicken" is to "Star Wars" creator, George Lucas; I think the parodies -- and the fact that Lucas has given both his continued blessing and even the occasional voice contribution -- have gone a long way in humanizing the sometime remote wizard of Skywalker Ranch.

I went to the Spike TV Scream 2008 Awards and have plenty of things to report back from it. First off, here's a story I wrote that was published on the front page of the Los Angeles Times this morning.

The Oscars present Hollywood as it wishes to be -- refined, glamorous and high-minded -- but on Saturday night at the Greek Theatre, the Spike TV Scream 2008 Awards showed the movie industry as it truly is in 2008: obsessed with superheroes, overflowing with fake blood and relentless in its pursuit to sell popcorn to teenagers. And despite a name that sounds like a B-movie convention, the Scream Awards turned out to be so of-the-moment in their target audience that top studio executives, major stars and A-list directors not only attended, they talked backstage about the show as a sign of the times.

"There's a feeling that film and comic books and all these genres that didn't used to get respect are having this truly dynamic moment right now," said Zack Snyder, director of "300" and the upcoming R- rated superhero epic "Watchmen." "Just look around tonight and you get this feeling things are going into interesting places."

The Scream Awards, which will air Tuesday night on the Spike TV cable channel, are hardly a ratings powerhouse, but you wouldn't have known that from the celebrity turnout. Anthony Hopkins, Samuel L. Jackson, Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman appeared to present or receive awards, and two of the most successful filmmakers alive arrived on stage in dramatic fashion -- "Sweeney Todd" director Tim Burton floated in via hot-air balloon like the Wizard into Oz, and "Star Wars" mogul George Lucas entered accompanied by a marching regiment of stormtroopers.

EXCLUSIVE

Is "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which hits stores today on DVD and Blu-ray, the final adventure for the wise-cracking (and whip-cracking) archaeologist? It sure seemed like it when the movie arrived in theaters in May but then earlier this month a surprisingly enthused Harrison Ford told us that George Lucas is "in think mode" on a suitable story for a fifth Indy film. That's not sitting well with everyone; there's a vocal percentage of fans who think the 21st century revisitation of the great screen hero tainted the earlier glory days of the franchise. I have to wonder if director Steven Spielberg, who certainly has plenty of other projects awaiting him, is really in the mood to take on another Indy project after the backlash this time around, which got pretty personal and malicious, especially during a recent "South Park" spoof. Only time will tell ...

To mark the release today of "Crystal Skull," we bring you two fairly rare movie-set images, one old and one new. Above, a photo shot during an early scene in the classic 1981 film that started it all, "Raiders of the Lost Ark." That chap in the tan coat standing between the camera and the "stunt" Indy is Douglas Slocombe, the film's acclaimed director of photography, whose other credits included "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and one of my personal favorites, "The Lion in Winter." Slocombe, the story goes, never used a light meter on the set of "Raiders," preferring to trust his own eye instead. It was a good instinct: The Brit picked up his third Oscar nomination for his work on the action classic.

The photo below is from last year during the making of "Crystal Skull" and shows Ford, enjoying a cool drink and light moment with Spielberg. In the background there, wearing the white shirt and blue jeans, is Janusz Kaminski, the director of photography for "Crystal Skull" and a two-time Oscar winner (he won for Spielberg's two World War II masterpieces, "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List"). Leave it to two cinematographers to know where to stand when a camera catches a bit of history ... 

   

Thanks to John Singh at Lucasfilm for finding these two great images and sharing them with the Hero Complex. Both photos are property of Lucasfilm, all rights reserved, and they are used here with the company's permission. To learn about all the extras included on Paramount Home Entertainment's DVD and Blu-ray of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," check out the official Indiana Jones website.

-- Geoff Boucher

Everyone's head is still spinning from "South Park" last night.

If you missed it, basically Trey Parker and Matt Stone are of the opinion that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg raped the once-glorious "Indiana Jones" franchise with the fourth film released this past summer.

So guess how the two gleeful firebrands metaphorically presented that point of view on last night's new episode? Yep, that's right, "South Park" put those two iconic filmmakers and their archaeologist hero into a reenactment of the most disurbing scene from "Deliverance."

Todd Martens at Show Tracker has the ugly details and some screen grabs from the episode. I'm taking the high road but not posting them here (but, obviously, I'm also taking the low road by putting in a link).

-- Geoff Boucher

RELATED

Harrison Ford tells Hero Complex that George Lucas is in "think mode" on a fifth "Indy" film

Harrison Ford said Friday that momentum is building for a fifth movie in the "Indiana Jones"  franchise and that George Lucas is already cooking up a suitable plot for a heroic senior citizen with a penchant for whips and fedoras.

"It's crazy but great," the 66-year-old Ford said. "George is in think mode right now."

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" grossed $318 million in the U.S. alone and $770 million worldwide and is expected to be powerhouse seller on DVD and Blu-Ray when it arrives in stores Oct. 14. It was a film that many people in Hollywood assumed would never be made considering the difficulty in finding the right time and the right script to reunite Ford, Lucas and franchise director Steven Spielberg after the 1989 hit "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

Now, though, the latest success and the fact that the franchise's old machinery was revived has Ford thinking a fifth movie is not only a viable idea, but an attractive one.

"It's automatic, really, we did well with the last one and with that having done well and been a positive experience, it's not surprising that some people want to do it again," Ford said.

I asked Ford who specifically is stirring up the idea of another revival, whether it was Lucas, Spielberg or the star himself? "Really, it comes from the ethos, from the ether. It's natural. It's a way of nature, of course, success breed opportunities ... also we don't stay as closely in contact as have in the last year, that's part of it." 

Haden Blackman, the project leader on "The Force Unleashed" video game, has a daydream: He strolls into the movie theater, buys some popcorn and then sits down and watches his game's tale of Darth Vader and his secret apprentice flicker to life as cinema.

"Oh, that would be incredible," said Blackman. "And it's not impossible. Never say never. George [Lucas] has looked to tell new 'Star Wars' stories through the games and with the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe, and then he has also shown a willingness to let the characters come into the films. Look at Aayla Secura, a creation in the [Dark Horse] comic books who became part of the theatrical films."

More than that, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," released in August, began as a television animated series (and still will be, with tie-in episodes premiering Oct. 3 on Cartoon Network), but when Lucas saw the work in progress he decided to take the tale to the cineplex. That film has gotten mixed reviews, to say the least, but Lucas doesn't seem to care a bit about the opinion of any detractors when it comes to his historic entertainment enterprise and its directions.

Dark Horse has also released a graphic novel version of "The Force Unleashed" and, to my mind, it's more satisfying than the game -- although in full disclosure, that's not saying much, because I am far more of a reader than a gamer. Blackman not only penned the story for the graphic novel, he also has a lavish 224-page book titled "The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" that celebrates the images and behind-the-scenes labor on the game as if it already were a major motion picture. An adapatation of the film in a traditional prose novel written by Australian sci-fi author Sean Williams also hit No. 1 on the New York Times list of hardcover fiction bestsellers and now, after four weeks, is at No. 14 on that tally.

Lucas is clearly pleased with this new entry to the broader "Star Wars" story and I would not be surprised for a moment to see it on a theater marquee at a CG-animated project in the next few years, especially with the intensifying Hollywood interest in video games and toys as film properties. There's also the very real power of putting Darth Vader on a movie poster in the theater lobbies of America.

If the "The Force Unleashed" does become a movie, Blackman said it would be a testament to the priorities and sophisticated ideas of his team, who he says puts storytelling and game-play on equal footing and emphasized "the artistic nature" of the quickly changing video-game medium. "It's an incredible time," he said, "to be telling powerful stories in this fairly young medium."

Perhaps, but like the most recent film addition to the Lucas universe, there was huge pre-release anticipation for "The Force Unleashed," followed by widespread grumbling. It hit stores Sept. 16 and topped the 1-million units sales mark in its first five days, according to industry retail reports, but the reviews have been decidedly mixed.

Here's the take, for instance, by Hero Complex contributor Pete Metzger, who reviewed the game for the Los Angeles Times and echoed many other underwhelmed gamers:

Most of the things that make up the "Star Wars" universe these days -- movies, TV shows, toys and video games -- are lacking the magic that made the original trilogy of films so incredible. Gone are the spectacle and awe. Instead, we get halfhearted disappointments (such as the current "Clone Wars" animated movie).

Sadly, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is no exception. It should be an amazing story bridge between Episodes 3 and 4 and one that boasts groundbreaking new artificial intelligence and gaming technology. But Unleashed fails to register the tremor in the Force we were hoping for.

J.J. Abrams: 'Star Trek' must escape the shadow of 'Star Wars'

EXCLUSIVE: This is the second part of an interview with J.J. Abrams about his cinematic voyages aboard the Starship Enterprise. Today he talks about his concerns that "Star Trek" is "clearly in the shadow" of George Lucas. He also addresses premature talk of a "Trek" sequel: "I'm in the middle of lunch and someone asks, 'What do you want for dinner?' "

      

You can read part one here.

"Star Trek" is back. The 11th film in the storied franchise returns to theaters in May and this time the director is J.J. Abrams, who was just 2 months old when the original television series premiered in 1966. Abrams has conceded that he was never an impassioned fan of "Trek" but his take on the mythology promises to be intriguing considering his television success with "Alias," "Lost" and "Fringe" as well as his work as director of "Mission Impossible III." He talked to Hero Complex about navigating his movie through the neutral zone that lies between hard-core "Trek" fans and average summer moviegoers.

GB: Is it your sense that you are winning over skeptical fans to this point? 

JJA: You know, I would think that especially fans of "Star Trek," which is an optimistic universe, a universe about working together and the possibility of the human endeavor, you would think that people who appreciate that wonderful portrait of the future and that universe would be open to literally going to a place no one has ever gone before. I'm very optimistic that fans of the show, even the purists, will be willing to embrace the spirit of Roddenberry and once they see these actors doing this extraordinary work, I think they will not have to intellectualize it all, they'll simply enjoy the experience. It's a cliche now to say "Where no man has gone before" because it has been the vernacular now for more than 40 years but if you actually think about it -- and actually remind yourself that we live on this planet and we are creatures inhabiting in this space with undefined limits and with technology that will invariably come -- "Star Trek" is positing a future that is incredibly inspiring. If you can get past the cliche and make it real and relevant, there's something very exciting about that. This is not "Star Wars" which happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. This is us and our future.

GB: Can you talk a bit about the story of this film?

JJA: This story is ultimately about a guy who is full of unbelievable potential but he is aimless, he is lost. He ends up finding a path that takes him beyond his wildest dreams. It helps him find his purpose. That's a great story in any situation, in any culture. There is something about that spirit of innovation, collaboration, possibility, adventure and optimism that is inherent in what "Star Trek" was.

      

GB: How much did you go back to the various "Trek" shows, films, novels, etc., to research the mythology? I imagine at some point sifting through all of it would become a counterproductive exercise.

JJA: I looked at a lot of the episodes of all the series that came after the original "Star Trek" but because we are focusing on the original series I didn't really need to know every episode of "Deep Space Nine" or "Voyager" or even "Enterprise." But, yeah, I watched episodes, I read up a lot, I watched the movies, I talked to people, whether it was our "Trek" consultant or one of the two writers [Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci] about what it would mean to do what we wanted to do. We have one producer, Bob [Orci], who is a complete Trekker and another in Bryan Burk who had never seen an episode of the show ever. And it was a great balance. We could make sure it passed the test of the ultimate fan and the ultimate neophyte and make sure that it was equally entertaining to both parties.

This Sunday (Dec. 7) the Los Angeles Times Calendar section features a special package of science fiction stories that include a piece on Keanu Reeves and his alienated role in "The Day the Earth Stood Still," an article on Sci Fi (the cable channel) facing a crossroads with the end of "Battlestar Galactica" and even a fun look at the fashion of sci-fi cinema through the decades. That's just the start -- there's plenty more in the section. I wrote a cover centerpiece for the package, which is a look at three venerable franchises -- "Star Wars," "Star Trek" and "Battlestar Galactica" -- looking for new life and new audiences. Here's an advance excerpt of that story. I will put a link here to the entire story this weekend. It's a great section on Sunday, get a copy if you can. -- Geoff Boucher

(UPDATE: Here's that now-active link to the entire article)

The future looks very familiar. Science fiction, by its nature, is a celebration of the new, but you wouldn’t know that by watching Hollywood’s space operas. "Star Trek," for instance, is on the way back to theaters next summer in hopes that moviegoers will still want to boldly go where millions and millions have gone before. And it’s been more than 30 years since "Star Wars" made film history, but the Force is still very much with us -- whether we like it or not -- with a seventh film in theaters this past summer, one of the year’s bestselling video games and a new weekly animated television show (there’s also talk of a live-action series in the next year or two).

And that’s just the tip of the meteorite. The "Terminator" and "Robocop" franchises are being revved up now for more mechanical-man mayhem, and classic films such as "Forbidden Planet" and "When Worlds Collide" are in the remake pipeline, while the new take on "The Day the Earth Stood Still," starring Keanu Reeves, opens Dec. 12.

Even "Battlestar Galactica," which began as a small-screen "Star Wars" knockoff in the 1970s, has been revived with spectacular results and will break new ground in 2009 with the TV movie "Caprica" on Sci Fi, with a series to follow.

The question, though, is why does Hollywood keep looking to the past? "Science fiction should be about ideas and what it means to be human, it should always be about the new and the challenging," William Shatner said on a recent afternoon as he sipped a Starbucks coffee and watched traffic zoom past his Ventura Boulevard office. So why does Hollywood keep putting its money in the same old Enterprise? "'Star Trek' connected with so many people for so long, and 'Star Wars' is the same way," he said. "There’s a thrill for fans to see the heroes they know."

Shatner won’t be one of those heroes in the new "Star Trek" film -- a sour point for the actor who played Capt. James T. Kirk on television and in seven films and had hoped for a cameo -- but Paramount Pictures is absolutely hoping that the new film, directed by J.J. Abrams ("Mission: Impossible III," TV’s "Alias" and "Lost") will have the warp power needed for a 21st century "Star Trek" franchise built around young stars such as Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Mr. Spock). Those ambitions go a long way to explaining the Hollywood fixation on tried-and-true properties.
It’s difficult to find a sci-fi project in recent years that wasn’t based on an earlier film or television show, although "Minority Report," "Signs" and "Children of Men" did buck the trend.

Ronald D. Moore, creator of the modern “Battlestar Galactica,” said that commercial priorities push risk-adverse studios toward properties with established names, but he said it’s wrong to presume that artistic ambition is stifled by remaking the familiar.

EXCLUSIVE Seth Green talks about the new "Robot Chicken" spoof of "Star Wars" and spending time with George Lucas.

I got a chance to talk the other day to Seth Green who, as always, was a man in major motion. "There's a lot going on these days," he said. "But there's always a lot going on, right?" This week Green was in New York for the final episode of MTV's "Total Request Live," he was in L.A. chatting up Kevin and Bean at KROQ-FM and then he was jetting north to the Bay Area to meet with Lucasfilm folks about his ongoing and quirky relationship with the "Star Wars" universe. Green is, of course, a busy actor (more on that later) but he is especially near and dear to hearts of fanboys everywhere for his work on "Robot Chicken," the deliriously funny pop-culture spoof show that is at its very best when goofing on "Star Wars" and its mythology.

Green and his "Robot Chicken" puppeteer partners-in-crime have returned to the universe of the Jedi for "Robot Chicken:  Star Wars Episode II," which Green directed and which makes its premiere at 11:30 p.m. Sunday (Nov. 16) on Adult Swim. As usual, it's got fall-down-funny satire of the greatest space opera of them and features voice contributions from Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Seth MacFarlane, Ahmed Best and Conan O’Brien, just to name a few. (I've got some images here from it as sneak peek; I got a good chuckle out of the Imperial stormtrooper who made the mistake of participating in "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day," which you can see after the jump...)

"When we do 'Star Wars,' it does seem to really work so well and I think it's because everyone is so familiar with the mythology, it's universal, everyone instantly connects and also there's also a lot there to have fun with, in our very loving and slightly weird way," Green said. He said this entire production went back at pretty amazing pace of 14 weeks from blank page to completed footage. "We've become super efficient," he said. "Alarmingly efficient, in fact. And when it's 'Star Wars' we're always swinging for the fences and we're very happy with the finished product. It's about 100 people collaborating, counting the writers and the actors and the costumes and the puppeteers and everything else. It's a huge endeavor but it's going so smooth and it's just so much fun. "

I told Green that I have a theory that the greatest service performed by Emmy-winning "Robot Chicken" is to "Star Wars" creator, George Lucas; I think the parodies -- and the fact that Lucas has given both his continued blessing and even the occasional voice contribution -- have gone a long way in humanizing the sometime remote wizard of Skywalker Ranch.

I went to the Spike TV Scream 2008 Awards and have plenty of things to report back from it. First off, here's a story I wrote that was published on the front page of the Los Angeles Times this morning.

The Oscars present Hollywood as it wishes to be -- refined, glamorous and high-minded -- but on Saturday night at the Greek Theatre, the Spike TV Scream 2008 Awards showed the movie industry as it truly is in 2008: obsessed with superheroes, overflowing with fake blood and relentless in its pursuit to sell popcorn to teenagers. And despite a name that sounds like a B-movie convention, the Scream Awards turned out to be so of-the-moment in their target audience that top studio executives, major stars and A-list directors not only attended, they talked backstage about the show as a sign of the times.

"There's a feeling that film and comic books and all these genres that didn't used to get respect are having this truly dynamic moment right now," said Zack Snyder, director of "300" and the upcoming R- rated superhero epic "Watchmen." "Just look around tonight and you get this feeling things are going into interesting places."

The Scream Awards, which will air Tuesday night on the Spike TV cable channel, are hardly a ratings powerhouse, but you wouldn't have known that from the celebrity turnout. Anthony Hopkins, Samuel L. Jackson, Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman appeared to present or receive awards, and two of the most successful filmmakers alive arrived on stage in dramatic fashion -- "Sweeney Todd" director Tim Burton floated in via hot-air balloon like the Wizard into Oz, and "Star Wars" mogul George Lucas entered accompanied by a marching regiment of stormtroopers.

EXCLUSIVE

Is "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which hits stores today on DVD and Blu-ray, the final adventure for the wise-cracking (and whip-cracking) archaeologist? It sure seemed like it when the movie arrived in theaters in May but then earlier this month a surprisingly enthused Harrison Ford told us that George Lucas is "in think mode" on a suitable story for a fifth Indy film. That's not sitting well with everyone; there's a vocal percentage of fans who think the 21st century revisitation of the great screen hero tainted the earlier glory days of the franchise. I have to wonder if director Steven Spielberg, who certainly has plenty of other projects awaiting him, is really in the mood to take on another Indy project after the backlash this time around, which got pretty personal and malicious, especially during a recent "South Park" spoof. Only time will tell ...

To mark the release today of "Crystal Skull," we bring you two fairly rare movie-set images, one old and one new. Above, a photo shot during an early scene in the classic 1981 film that started it all, "Raiders of the Lost Ark." That chap in the tan coat standing between the camera and the "stunt" Indy is Douglas Slocombe, the film's acclaimed director of photography, whose other credits included "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and one of my personal favorites, "The Lion in Winter." Slocombe, the story goes, never used a light meter on the set of "Raiders," preferring to trust his own eye instead. It was a good instinct: The Brit picked up his third Oscar nomination for his work on the action classic.

The photo below is from last year during the making of "Crystal Skull" and shows Ford, enjoying a cool drink and light moment with Spielberg. In the background there, wearing the white shirt and blue jeans, is Janusz Kaminski, the director of photography for "Crystal Skull" and a two-time Oscar winner (he won for Spielberg's two World War II masterpieces, "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List"). Leave it to two cinematographers to know where to stand when a camera catches a bit of history ... 

   

Thanks to John Singh at Lucasfilm for finding these two great images and sharing them with the Hero Complex. Both photos are property of Lucasfilm, all rights reserved, and they are used here with the company's permission. To learn about all the extras included on Paramount Home Entertainment's DVD and Blu-ray of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," check out the official Indiana Jones website.

-- Geoff Boucher

Everyone's head is still spinning from "South Park" last night.

If you missed it, basically Trey Parker and Matt Stone are of the opinion that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg raped the once-glorious "Indiana Jones" franchise with the fourth film released this past summer.

So guess how the two gleeful firebrands metaphorically presented that point of view on last night's new episode? Yep, that's right, "South Park" put those two iconic filmmakers and their archaeologist hero into a reenactment of the most disurbing scene from "Deliverance."

Todd Martens at Show Tracker has the ugly details and some screen grabs from the episode. I'm taking the high road but not posting them here (but, obviously, I'm also taking the low road by putting in a link).

-- Geoff Boucher

RELATED

Harrison Ford tells Hero Complex that George Lucas is in "think mode" on a fifth "Indy" film

Harrison Ford said Friday that momentum is building for a fifth movie in the "Indiana Jones"  franchise and that George Lucas is already cooking up a suitable plot for a heroic senior citizen with a penchant for whips and fedoras.

"It's crazy but great," the 66-year-old Ford said. "George is in think mode right now."

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" grossed $318 million in the U.S. alone and $770 million worldwide and is expected to be powerhouse seller on DVD and Blu-Ray when it arrives in stores Oct. 14. It was a film that many people in Hollywood assumed would never be made considering the difficulty in finding the right time and the right script to reunite Ford, Lucas and franchise director Steven Spielberg after the 1989 hit "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

Now, though, the latest success and the fact that the franchise's old machinery was revived has Ford thinking a fifth movie is not only a viable idea, but an attractive one.

"It's automatic, really, we did well with the last one and with that having done well and been a positive experience, it's not surprising that some people want to do it again," Ford said.

I asked Ford who specifically is stirring up the idea of another revival, whether it was Lucas, Spielberg or the star himself? "Really, it comes from the ethos, from the ether. It's natural. It's a way of nature, of course, success breed opportunities ... also we don't stay as closely in contact as have in the last year, that's part of it." 

Haden Blackman, the project leader on "The Force Unleashed" video game, has a daydream: He strolls into the movie theater, buys some popcorn and then sits down and watches his game's tale of Darth Vader and his secret apprentice flicker to life as cinema.

"Oh, that would be incredible," said Blackman. "And it's not impossible. Never say never. George [Lucas] has looked to tell new 'Star Wars' stories through the games and with the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe, and then he has also shown a willingness to let the characters come into the films. Look at Aayla Secura, a creation in the [Dark Horse] comic books who became part of the theatrical films."

More than that, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," released in August, began as a television animated series (and still will be, with tie-in episodes premiering Oct. 3 on Cartoon Network), but when Lucas saw the work in progress he decided to take the tale to the cineplex. That film has gotten mixed reviews, to say the least, but Lucas doesn't seem to care a bit about the opinion of any detractors when it comes to his historic entertainment enterprise and its directions.

Dark Horse has also released a graphic novel version of "The Force Unleashed" and, to my mind, it's more satisfying than the game -- although in full disclosure, that's not saying much, because I am far more of a reader than a gamer. Blackman not only penned the story for the graphic novel, he also has a lavish 224-page book titled "The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" that celebrates the images and behind-the-scenes labor on the game as if it already were a major motion picture. An adapatation of the film in a traditional prose novel written by Australian sci-fi author Sean Williams also hit No. 1 on the New York Times list of hardcover fiction bestsellers and now, after four weeks, is at No. 14 on that tally.

Lucas is clearly pleased with this new entry to the broader "Star Wars" story and I would not be surprised for a moment to see it on a theater marquee at a CG-animated project in the next few years, especially with the intensifying Hollywood interest in video games and toys as film properties. There's also the very real power of putting Darth Vader on a movie poster in the theater lobbies of America.

If the "The Force Unleashed" does become a movie, Blackman said it would be a testament to the priorities and sophisticated ideas of his team, who he says puts storytelling and game-play on equal footing and emphasized "the artistic nature" of the quickly changing video-game medium. "It's an incredible time," he said, "to be telling powerful stories in this fairly young medium."

Perhaps, but like the most recent film addition to the Lucas universe, there was huge pre-release anticipation for "The Force Unleashed," followed by widespread grumbling. It hit stores Sept. 16 and topped the 1-million units sales mark in its first five days, according to industry retail reports, but the reviews have been decidedly mixed.

Here's the take, for instance, by Hero Complex contributor Pete Metzger, who reviewed the game for the Los Angeles Times and echoed many other underwhelmed gamers:

Most of the things that make up the "Star Wars" universe these days -- movies, TV shows, toys and video games -- are lacking the magic that made the original trilogy of films so incredible. Gone are the spectacle and awe. Instead, we get halfhearted disappointments (such as the current "Clone Wars" animated movie).

Sadly, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is no exception. It should be an amazing story bridge between Episodes 3 and 4 and one that boasts groundbreaking new artificial intelligence and gaming technology. But Unleashed fails to register the tremor in the Force we were hoping for.

Hollywood and science fiction, back to the future

This Sunday (Dec. 7) the Los Angeles Times Calendar section features a special package of science fiction stories that include a piece on Keanu Reeves and his alienated role in "The Day the Earth Stood Still," an article on Sci Fi (the cable channel) facing a crossroads with the end of "Battlestar Galactica" and even a fun look at the fashion of sci-fi cinema through the decades. That's just the start -- there's plenty more in the section. I wrote a cover centerpiece for the package, which is a look at three venerable franchises -- "Star Wars," "Star Trek" and "Battlestar Galactica" -- looking for new life and new audiences. Here's an advance excerpt of that story. I will put a link here to the entire story this weekend. It's a great section on Sunday, get a copy if you can. -- Geoff Boucher

(UPDATE: Here's that now-active link to the entire article)

The future looks very familiar. Science fiction, by its nature, is a celebration of the new, but you wouldn’t know that by watching Hollywood’s space operas. "Star Trek," for instance, is on the way back to theaters next summer in hopes that moviegoers will still want to boldly go where millions and millions have gone before. And it’s been more than 30 years since "Star Wars" made film history, but the Force is still very much with us -- whether we like it or not -- with a seventh film in theaters this past summer, one of the year’s bestselling video games and a new weekly animated television show (there’s also talk of a live-action series in the next year or two).

And that’s just the tip of the meteorite. The "Terminator" and "Robocop" franchises are being revved up now for more mechanical-man mayhem, and classic films such as "Forbidden Planet" and "When Worlds Collide" are in the remake pipeline, while the new take on "The Day the Earth Stood Still," starring Keanu Reeves, opens Dec. 12.

Even "Battlestar Galactica," which began as a small-screen "Star Wars" knockoff in the 1970s, has been revived with spectacular results and will break new ground in 2009 with the TV movie "Caprica" on Sci Fi, with a series to follow.

The question, though, is why does Hollywood keep looking to the past? "Science fiction should be about ideas and what it means to be human, it should always be about the new and the challenging," William Shatner said on a recent afternoon as he sipped a Starbucks coffee and watched traffic zoom past his Ventura Boulevard office. So why does Hollywood keep putting its money in the same old Enterprise? "'Star Trek' connected with so many people for so long, and 'Star Wars' is the same way," he said. "There’s a thrill for fans to see the heroes they know."

Shatner won’t be one of those heroes in the new "Star Trek" film -- a sour point for the actor who played Capt. James T. Kirk on television and in seven films and had hoped for a cameo -- but Paramount Pictures is absolutely hoping that the new film, directed by J.J. Abrams ("Mission: Impossible III," TV’s "Alias" and "Lost") will have the warp power needed for a 21st century "Star Trek" franchise built around young stars such as Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Mr. Spock). Those ambitions go a long way to explaining the Hollywood fixation on tried-and-true properties.
It’s difficult to find a sci-fi project in recent years that wasn’t based on an earlier film or television show, although "Minority Report," "Signs" and "Children of Men" did buck the trend.

Ronald D. Moore, creator of the modern “Battlestar Galactica,” said that commercial priorities push risk-adverse studios toward properties with established names, but he said it’s wrong to presume that artistic ambition is stifled by remaking the familiar.

EXCLUSIVE Seth Green talks about the new "Robot Chicken" spoof of "Star Wars" and spending time with George Lucas.

I got a chance to talk the other day to Seth Green who, as always, was a man in major motion. "There's a lot going on these days," he said. "But there's always a lot going on, right?" This week Green was in New York for the final episode of MTV's "Total Request Live," he was in L.A. chatting up Kevin and Bean at KROQ-FM and then he was jetting north to the Bay Area to meet with Lucasfilm folks about his ongoing and quirky relationship with the "Star Wars" universe. Green is, of course, a busy actor (more on that later) but he is especially near and dear to hearts of fanboys everywhere for his work on "Robot Chicken," the deliriously funny pop-culture spoof show that is at its very best when goofing on "Star Wars" and its mythology.

Green and his "Robot Chicken" puppeteer partners-in-crime have returned to the universe of the Jedi for "Robot Chicken:  Star Wars Episode II," which Green directed and which makes its premiere at 11:30 p.m. Sunday (Nov. 16) on Adult Swim. As usual, it's got fall-down-funny satire of the greatest space opera of them and features voice contributions from Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Seth MacFarlane, Ahmed Best and Conan O’Brien, just to name a few. (I've got some images here from it as sneak peek; I got a good chuckle out of the Imperial stormtrooper who made the mistake of participating in "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day," which you can see after the jump...)

"When we do 'Star Wars,' it does seem to really work so well and I think it's because everyone is so familiar with the mythology, it's universal, everyone instantly connects and also there's also a lot there to have fun with, in our very loving and slightly weird way," Green said. He said this entire production went back at pretty amazing pace of 14 weeks from blank page to completed footage. "We've become super efficient," he said. "Alarmingly efficient, in fact. And when it's 'Star Wars' we're always swinging for the fences and we're very happy with the finished product. It's about 100 people collaborating, counting the writers and the actors and the costumes and the puppeteers and everything else. It's a huge endeavor but it's going so smooth and it's just so much fun. "

I told Green that I have a theory that the greatest service performed by Emmy-winning "Robot Chicken" is to "Star Wars" creator, George Lucas; I think the parodies -- and the fact that Lucas has given both his continued blessing and even the occasional voice contribution -- have gone a long way in humanizing the sometime remote wizard of Skywalker Ranch.

I went to the Spike TV Scream 2008 Awards and have plenty of things to report back from it. First off, here's a story I wrote that was published on the front page of the Los Angeles Times this morning.

The Oscars present Hollywood as it wishes to be -- refined, glamorous and high-minded -- but on Saturday night at the Greek Theatre, the Spike TV Scream 2008 Awards showed the movie industry as it truly is in 2008: obsessed with superheroes, overflowing with fake blood and relentless in its pursuit to sell popcorn to teenagers. And despite a name that sounds like a B-movie convention, the Scream Awards turned out to be so of-the-moment in their target audience that top studio executives, major stars and A-list directors not only attended, they talked backstage about the show as a sign of the times.

"There's a feeling that film and comic books and all these genres that didn't used to get respect are having this truly dynamic moment right now," said Zack Snyder, director of "300" and the upcoming R- rated superhero epic "Watchmen." "Just look around tonight and you get this feeling things are going into interesting places."

The Scream Awards, which will air Tuesday night on the Spike TV cable channel, are hardly a ratings powerhouse, but you wouldn't have known that from the celebrity turnout. Anthony Hopkins, Samuel L. Jackson, Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman appeared to present or receive awards, and two of the most successful filmmakers alive arrived on stage in dramatic fashion -- "Sweeney Todd" director Tim Burton floated in via hot-air balloon like the Wizard into Oz, and "Star Wars" mogul George Lucas entered accompanied by a marching regiment of stormtroopers.

EXCLUSIVE

Is "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which hits stores today on DVD and Blu-ray, the final adventure for the wise-cracking (and whip-cracking) archaeologist? It sure seemed like it when the movie arrived in theaters in May but then earlier this month a surprisingly enthused Harrison Ford told us that George Lucas is "in think mode" on a suitable story for a fifth Indy film. That's not sitting well with everyone; there's a vocal percentage of fans who think the 21st century revisitation of the great screen hero tainted the earlier glory days of the franchise. I have to wonder if director Steven Spielberg, who certainly has plenty of other projects awaiting him, is really in the mood to take on another Indy project after the backlash this time around, which got pretty personal and malicious, especially during a recent "South Park" spoof. Only time will tell ...

To mark the release today of "Crystal Skull," we bring you two fairly rare movie-set images, one old and one new. Above, a photo shot during an early scene in the classic 1981 film that started it all, "Raiders of the Lost Ark." That chap in the tan coat standing between the camera and the "stunt" Indy is Douglas Slocombe, the film's acclaimed director of photography, whose other credits included "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and one of my personal favorites, "The Lion in Winter." Slocombe, the story goes, never used a light meter on the set of "Raiders," preferring to trust his own eye instead. It was a good instinct: The Brit picked up his third Oscar nomination for his work on the action classic.

The photo below is from last year during the making of "Crystal Skull" and shows Ford, enjoying a cool drink and light moment with Spielberg. In the background there, wearing the white shirt and blue jeans, is Janusz Kaminski, the director of photography for "Crystal Skull" and a two-time Oscar winner (he won for Spielberg's two World War II masterpieces, "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List"). Leave it to two cinematographers to know where to stand when a camera catches a bit of history ... 

   

Thanks to John Singh at Lucasfilm for finding these two great images and sharing them with the Hero Complex. Both photos are property of Lucasfilm, all rights reserved, and they are used here with the company's permission. To learn about all the extras included on Paramount Home Entertainment's DVD and Blu-ray of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," check out the official Indiana Jones website.

-- Geoff Boucher

Everyone's head is still spinning from "South Park" last night.

If you missed it, basically Trey Parker and Matt Stone are of the opinion that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg raped the once-glorious "Indiana Jones" franchise with the fourth film released this past summer.

So guess how the two gleeful firebrands metaphorically presented that point of view on last night's new episode? Yep, that's right, "South Park" put those two iconic filmmakers and their archaeologist hero into a reenactment of the most disurbing scene from "Deliverance."

Todd Martens at Show Tracker has the ugly details and some screen grabs from the episode. I'm taking the high road but not posting them here (but, obviously, I'm also taking the low road by putting in a link).

-- Geoff Boucher

RELATED

Harrison Ford tells Hero Complex that George Lucas is in "think mode" on a fifth "Indy" film

Harrison Ford said Friday that momentum is building for a fifth movie in the "Indiana Jones"  franchise and that George Lucas is already cooking up a suitable plot for a heroic senior citizen with a penchant for whips and fedoras.

"It's crazy but great," the 66-year-old Ford said. "George is in think mode right now."

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" grossed $318 million in the U.S. alone and $770 million worldwide and is expected to be powerhouse seller on DVD and Blu-Ray when it arrives in stores Oct. 14. It was a film that many people in Hollywood assumed would never be made considering the difficulty in finding the right time and the right script to reunite Ford, Lucas and franchise director Steven Spielberg after the 1989 hit "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

Now, though, the latest success and the fact that the franchise's old machinery was revived has Ford thinking a fifth movie is not only a viable idea, but an attractive one.

"It's automatic, really, we did well with the last one and with that having done well and been a positive experience, it's not surprising that some people want to do it again," Ford said.

I asked Ford who specifically is stirring up the idea of another revival, whether it was Lucas, Spielberg or the star himself? "Really, it comes from the ethos, from the ether. It's natural. It's a way of nature, of course, success breed opportunities ... also we don't stay as closely in contact as have in the last year, that's part of it." 

Haden Blackman, the project leader on "The Force Unleashed" video game, has a daydream: He strolls into the movie theater, buys some popcorn and then sits down and watches his game's tale of Darth Vader and his secret apprentice flicker to life as cinema.

"Oh, that would be incredible," said Blackman. "And it's not impossible. Never say never. George [Lucas] has looked to tell new 'Star Wars' stories through the games and with the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe, and then he has also shown a willingness to let the characters come into the films. Look at Aayla Secura, a creation in the [Dark Horse] comic books who became part of the theatrical films."

More than that, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," released in August, began as a television animated series (and still will be, with tie-in episodes premiering Oct. 3 on Cartoon Network), but when Lucas saw the work in progress he decided to take the tale to the cineplex. That film has gotten mixed reviews, to say the least, but Lucas doesn't seem to care a bit about the opinion of any detractors when it comes to his historic entertainment enterprise and its directions.

Dark Horse has also released a graphic novel version of "The Force Unleashed" and, to my mind, it's more satisfying than the game -- although in full disclosure, that's not saying much, because I am far more of a reader than a gamer. Blackman not only penned the story for the graphic novel, he also has a lavish 224-page book titled "The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" that celebrates the images and behind-the-scenes labor on the game as if it already were a major motion picture. An adapatation of the film in a traditional prose novel written by Australian sci-fi author Sean Williams also hit No. 1 on the New York Times list of hardcover fiction bestsellers and now, after four weeks, is at No. 14 on that tally.

Lucas is clearly pleased with this new entry to the broader "Star Wars" story and I would not be surprised for a moment to see it on a theater marquee at a CG-animated project in the next few years, especially with the intensifying Hollywood interest in video games and toys as film properties. There's also the very real power of putting Darth Vader on a movie poster in the theater lobbies of America.

If the "The Force Unleashed" does become a movie, Blackman said it would be a testament to the priorities and sophisticated ideas of his team, who he says puts storytelling and game-play on equal footing and emphasized "the artistic nature" of the quickly changing video-game medium. "It's an incredible time," he said, "to be telling powerful stories in this fairly young medium."

Perhaps, but like the most recent film addition to the Lucas universe, there was huge pre-release anticipation for "The Force Unleashed," followed by widespread grumbling. It hit stores Sept. 16 and topped the 1-million units sales mark in its first five days, according to industry retail reports, but the reviews have been decidedly mixed.

Here's the take, for instance, by Hero Complex contributor Pete Metzger, who reviewed the game for the Los Angeles Times and echoed many other underwhelmed gamers:

Most of the things that make up the "Star Wars" universe these days -- movies, TV shows, toys and video games -- are lacking the magic that made the original trilogy of films so incredible. Gone are the spectacle and awe. Instead, we get halfhearted disappointments (such as the current "Clone Wars" animated movie).

Sadly, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is no exception. It should be an amazing story bridge between Episodes 3 and 4 and one that boasts groundbreaking new artificial intelligence and gaming technology. But Unleashed fails to register the tremor in the Force we were hoping for.

Return of the Jedi 'Chicken': Seth Green strikes back

EXCLUSIVE Seth Green talks about the new "Robot Chicken" spoof of "Star Wars" and spending time with George Lucas.

I got a chance to talk the other day to Seth Green who, as always, was a man in major motion. "There's a lot going on these days," he said. "But there's always a lot going on, right?" This week Green was in New York for the final episode of MTV's "Total Request Live," he was in L.A. chatting up Kevin and Bean at KROQ-FM and then he was jetting north to the Bay Area to meet with Lucasfilm folks about his ongoing and quirky relationship with the "Star Wars" universe. Green is, of course, a busy actor (more on that later) but he is especially near and dear to hearts of fanboys everywhere for his work on "Robot Chicken," the deliriously funny pop-culture spoof show that is at its very best when goofing on "Star Wars" and its mythology.

Green and his "Robot Chicken" puppeteer partners-in-crime have returned to the universe of the Jedi for "Robot Chicken:  Star Wars Episode II," which Green directed and which makes its premiere at 11:30 p.m. Sunday (Nov. 16) on Adult Swim. As usual, it's got fall-down-funny satire of the greatest space opera of them and features voice contributions from Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Seth MacFarlane, Ahmed Best and Conan O’Brien, just to name a few. (I've got some images here from it as sneak peek; I got a good chuckle out of the Imperial stormtrooper who made the mistake of participating in "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day," which you can see after the jump...)

"When we do 'Star Wars,' it does seem to really work so well and I think it's because everyone is so familiar with the mythology, it's universal, everyone instantly connects and also there's also a lot there to have fun with, in our very loving and slightly weird way," Green said. He said this entire production went back at pretty amazing pace of 14 weeks from blank page to completed footage. "We've become super efficient," he said. "Alarmingly efficient, in fact. And when it's 'Star Wars' we're always swinging for the fences and we're very happy with the finished product. It's about 100 people collaborating, counting the writers and the actors and the costumes and the puppeteers and everything else. It's a huge endeavor but it's going so smooth and it's just so much fun. "

I told Green that I have a theory that the greatest service performed by Emmy-winning "Robot Chicken" is to "Star Wars" creator, George Lucas; I think the parodies -- and the fact that Lucas has given both his continued blessing and even the occasional voice contribution -- have gone a long way in humanizing the sometime remote wizard of Skywalker Ranch.

I went to the Spike TV Scream 2008 Awards and have plenty of things to report back from it. First off, here's a story I wrote that was published on the front page of the Los Angeles Times this morning.

The Oscars present Hollywood as it wishes to be -- refined, glamorous and high-minded -- but on Saturday night at the Greek Theatre, the Spike TV Scream 2008 Awards showed the movie industry as it truly is in 2008: obsessed with superheroes, overflowing with fake blood and relentless in its pursuit to sell popcorn to teenagers. And despite a name that sounds like a B-movie convention, the Scream Awards turned out to be so of-the-moment in their target audience that top studio executives, major stars and A-list directors not only attended, they talked backstage about the show as a sign of the times.

"There's a feeling that film and comic books and all these genres that didn't used to get respect are having this truly dynamic moment right now," said Zack Snyder, director of "300" and the upcoming R- rated superhero epic "Watchmen." "Just look around tonight and you get this feeling things are going into interesting places."

The Scream Awards, which will air Tuesday night on the Spike TV cable channel, are hardly a ratings powerhouse, but you wouldn't have known that from the celebrity turnout. Anthony Hopkins, Samuel L. Jackson, Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman appeared to present or receive awards, and two of the most successful filmmakers alive arrived on stage in dramatic fashion -- "Sweeney Todd" director Tim Burton floated in via hot-air balloon like the Wizard into Oz, and "Star Wars" mogul George Lucas entered accompanied by a marching regiment of stormtroopers.

EXCLUSIVE

Is "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which hits stores today on DVD and Blu-ray, the final adventure for the wise-cracking (and whip-cracking) archaeologist? It sure seemed like it when the movie arrived in theaters in May but then earlier this month a surprisingly enthused Harrison Ford told us that George Lucas is "in think mode" on a suitable story for a fifth Indy film. That's not sitting well with everyone; there's a vocal percentage of fans who think the 21st century revisitation of the great screen hero tainted the earlier glory days of the franchise. I have to wonder if director Steven Spielberg, who certainly has plenty of other projects awaiting him, is really in the mood to take on another Indy project after the backlash this time around, which got pretty personal and malicious, especially during a recent "South Park" spoof. Only time will tell ...

To mark the release today of "Crystal Skull," we bring you two fairly rare movie-set images, one old and one new. Above, a photo shot during an early scene in the classic 1981 film that started it all, "Raiders of the Lost Ark." That chap in the tan coat standing between the camera and the "stunt" Indy is Douglas Slocombe, the film's acclaimed director of photography, whose other credits included "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and one of my personal favorites, "The Lion in Winter." Slocombe, the story goes, never used a light meter on the set of "Raiders," preferring to trust his own eye instead. It was a good instinct: The Brit picked up his third Oscar nomination for his work on the action classic.

The photo below is from last year during the making of "Crystal Skull" and shows Ford, enjoying a cool drink and light moment with Spielberg. In the background there, wearing the white shirt and blue jeans, is Janusz Kaminski, the director of photography for "Crystal Skull" and a two-time Oscar winner (he won for Spielberg's two World War II masterpieces, "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List"). Leave it to two cinematographers to know where to stand when a camera catches a bit of history ... 

   

Thanks to John Singh at Lucasfilm for finding these two great images and sharing them with the Hero Complex. Both photos are property of Lucasfilm, all rights reserved, and they are used here with the company's permission. To learn about all the extras included on Paramount Home Entertainment's DVD and Blu-ray of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," check out the official Indiana Jones website.

-- Geoff Boucher

Everyone's head is still spinning from "South Park" last night.

If you missed it, basically Trey Parker and Matt Stone are of the opinion that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg raped the once-glorious "Indiana Jones" franchise with the fourth film released this past summer.

So guess how the two gleeful firebrands metaphorically presented that point of view on last night's new episode? Yep, that's right, "South Park" put those two iconic filmmakers and their archaeologist hero into a reenactment of the most disurbing scene from "Deliverance."

Todd Martens at Show Tracker has the ugly details and some screen grabs from the episode. I'm taking the high road but not posting them here (but, obviously, I'm also taking the low road by putting in a link).

-- Geoff Boucher

RELATED

Harrison Ford tells Hero Complex that George Lucas is in "think mode" on a fifth "Indy" film

Harrison Ford said Friday that momentum is building for a fifth movie in the "Indiana Jones"  franchise and that George Lucas is already cooking up a suitable plot for a heroic senior citizen with a penchant for whips and fedoras.

"It's crazy but great," the 66-year-old Ford said. "George is in think mode right now."

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" grossed $318 million in the U.S. alone and $770 million worldwide and is expected to be powerhouse seller on DVD and Blu-Ray when it arrives in stores Oct. 14. It was a film that many people in Hollywood assumed would never be made considering the difficulty in finding the right time and the right script to reunite Ford, Lucas and franchise director Steven Spielberg after the 1989 hit "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

Now, though, the latest success and the fact that the franchise's old machinery was revived has Ford thinking a fifth movie is not only a viable idea, but an attractive one.

"It's automatic, really, we did well with the last one and with that having done well and been a positive experience, it's not surprising that some people want to do it again," Ford said.

I asked Ford who specifically is stirring up the idea of another revival, whether it was Lucas, Spielberg or the star himself? "Really, it comes from the ethos, from the ether. It's natural. It's a way of nature, of course, success breed opportunities ... also we don't stay as closely in contact as have in the last year, that's part of it." 

Haden Blackman, the project leader on "The Force Unleashed" video game, has a daydream: He strolls into the movie theater, buys some popcorn and then sits down and watches his game's tale of Darth Vader and his secret apprentice flicker to life as cinema.

"Oh, that would be incredible," said Blackman. "And it's not impossible. Never say never. George [Lucas] has looked to tell new 'Star Wars' stories through the games and with the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe, and then he has also shown a willingness to let the characters come into the films. Look at Aayla Secura, a creation in the [Dark Horse] comic books who became part of the theatrical films."

More than that, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," released in August, began as a television animated series (and still will be, with tie-in episodes premiering Oct. 3 on Cartoon Network), but when Lucas saw the work in progress he decided to take the tale to the cineplex. That film has gotten mixed reviews, to say the least, but Lucas doesn't seem to care a bit about the opinion of any detractors when it comes to his historic entertainment enterprise and its directions.

Dark Horse has also released a graphic novel version of "The Force Unleashed" and, to my mind, it's more satisfying than the game -- although in full disclosure, that's not saying much, because I am far more of a reader than a gamer. Blackman not only penned the story for the graphic novel, he also has a lavish 224-page book titled "The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" that celebrates the images and behind-the-scenes labor on the game as if it already were a major motion picture. An adapatation of the film in a traditional prose novel written by Australian sci-fi author Sean Williams also hit No. 1 on the New York Times list of hardcover fiction bestsellers and now, after four weeks, is at No. 14 on that tally.

Lucas is clearly pleased with this new entry to the broader "Star Wars" story and I would not be surprised for a moment to see it on a theater marquee at a CG-animated project in the next few years, especially with the intensifying Hollywood interest in video games and toys as film properties. There's also the very real power of putting Darth Vader on a movie poster in the theater lobbies of America.

If the "The Force Unleashed" does become a movie, Blackman said it would be a testament to the priorities and sophisticated ideas of his team, who he says puts storytelling and game-play on equal footing and emphasized "the artistic nature" of the quickly changing video-game medium. "It's an incredible time," he said, "to be telling powerful stories in this fairly young medium."

Perhaps, but like the most recent film addition to the Lucas universe, there was huge pre-release anticipation for "The Force Unleashed," followed by widespread grumbling. It hit stores Sept. 16 and topped the 1-million units sales mark in its first five days, according to industry retail reports, but the reviews have been decidedly mixed.

Here's the take, for instance, by Hero Complex contributor Pete Metzger, who reviewed the game for the Los Angeles Times and echoed many other underwhelmed gamers:

Most of the things that make up the "Star Wars" universe these days -- movies, TV shows, toys and video games -- are lacking the magic that made the original trilogy of films so incredible. Gone are the spectacle and awe. Instead, we get halfhearted disappointments (such as the current "Clone Wars" animated movie).

Sadly, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is no exception. It should be an amazing story bridge between Episodes 3 and 4 and one that boasts groundbreaking new artificial intelligence and gaming technology. But Unleashed fails to register the tremor in the Force we were hoping for.

Scream 2008 Awards are a sign of the times

I went to the Spike TV Scream 2008 Awards and have plenty of things to report back from it. First off, here's a story I wrote that was published on the front page of the Los Angeles Times this morning.

The Oscars present Hollywood as it wishes to be -- refined, glamorous and high-minded -- but on Saturday night at the Greek Theatre, the Spike TV Scream 2008 Awards showed the movie industry as it truly is in 2008: obsessed with superheroes, overflowing with fake blood and relentless in its pursuit to sell popcorn to teenagers. And despite a name that sounds like a B-movie convention, the Scream Awards turned out to be so of-the-moment in their target audience that top studio executives, major stars and A-list directors not only attended, they talked backstage about the show as a sign of the times.

"There's a feeling that film and comic books and all these genres that didn't used to get respect are having this truly dynamic moment right now," said Zack Snyder, director of "300" and the upcoming R- rated superhero epic "Watchmen." "Just look around tonight and you get this feeling things are going into interesting places."

The Scream Awards, which will air Tuesday night on the Spike TV cable channel, are hardly a ratings powerhouse, but you wouldn't have known that from the celebrity turnout. Anthony Hopkins, Samuel L. Jackson, Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman appeared to present or receive awards, and two of the most successful filmmakers alive arrived on stage in dramatic fashion -- "Sweeney Todd" director Tim Burton floated in via hot-air balloon like the Wizard into Oz, and "Star Wars" mogul George Lucas entered accompanied by a marching regiment of stormtroopers.

EXCLUSIVE

Is "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which hits stores today on DVD and Blu-ray, the final adventure for the wise-cracking (and whip-cracking) archaeologist? It sure seemed like it when the movie arrived in theaters in May but then earlier this month a surprisingly enthused Harrison Ford told us that George Lucas is "in think mode" on a suitable story for a fifth Indy film. That's not sitting well with everyone; there's a vocal percentage of fans who think the 21st century revisitation of the great screen hero tainted the earlier glory days of the franchise. I have to wonder if director Steven Spielberg, who certainly has plenty of other projects awaiting him, is really in the mood to take on another Indy project after the backlash this time around, which got pretty personal and malicious, especially during a recent "South Park" spoof. Only time will tell ...

To mark the release today of "Crystal Skull," we bring you two fairly rare movie-set images, one old and one new. Above, a photo shot during an early scene in the classic 1981 film that started it all, "Raiders of the Lost Ark." That chap in the tan coat standing between the camera and the "stunt" Indy is Douglas Slocombe, the film's acclaimed director of photography, whose other credits included "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and one of my personal favorites, "The Lion in Winter." Slocombe, the story goes, never used a light meter on the set of "Raiders," preferring to trust his own eye instead. It was a good instinct: The Brit picked up his third Oscar nomination for his work on the action classic.

The photo below is from last year during the making of "Crystal Skull" and shows Ford, enjoying a cool drink and light moment with Spielberg. In the background there, wearing the white shirt and blue jeans, is Janusz Kaminski, the director of photography for "Crystal Skull" and a two-time Oscar winner (he won for Spielberg's two World War II masterpieces, "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List"). Leave it to two cinematographers to know where to stand when a camera catches a bit of history ... 

   

Thanks to John Singh at Lucasfilm for finding these two great images and sharing them with the Hero Complex. Both photos are property of Lucasfilm, all rights reserved, and they are used here with the company's permission. To learn about all the extras included on Paramount Home Entertainment's DVD and Blu-ray of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," check out the official Indiana Jones website.

-- Geoff Boucher

Everyone's head is still spinning from "South Park" last night.

If you missed it, basically Trey Parker and Matt Stone are of the opinion that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg raped the once-glorious "Indiana Jones" franchise with the fourth film released this past summer.

So guess how the two gleeful firebrands metaphorically presented that point of view on last night's new episode? Yep, that's right, "South Park" put those two iconic filmmakers and their archaeologist hero into a reenactment of the most disurbing scene from "Deliverance."

Todd Martens at Show Tracker has the ugly details and some screen grabs from the episode. I'm taking the high road but not posting them here (but, obviously, I'm also taking the low road by putting in a link).

-- Geoff Boucher

RELATED

Harrison Ford tells Hero Complex that George Lucas is in "think mode" on a fifth "Indy" film

Harrison Ford said Friday that momentum is building for a fifth movie in the "Indiana Jones"  franchise and that George Lucas is already cooking up a suitable plot for a heroic senior citizen with a penchant for whips and fedoras.

"It's crazy but great," the 66-year-old Ford said. "George is in think mode right now."

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" grossed $318 million in the U.S. alone and $770 million worldwide and is expected to be powerhouse seller on DVD and Blu-Ray when it arrives in stores Oct. 14. It was a film that many people in Hollywood assumed would never be made considering the difficulty in finding the right time and the right script to reunite Ford, Lucas and franchise director Steven Spielberg after the 1989 hit "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

Now, though, the latest success and the fact that the franchise's old machinery was revived has Ford thinking a fifth movie is not only a viable idea, but an attractive one.

"It's automatic, really, we did well with the last one and with that having done well and been a positive experience, it's not surprising that some people want to do it again," Ford said.

I asked Ford who specifically is stirring up the idea of another revival, whether it was Lucas, Spielberg or the star himself? "Really, it comes from the ethos, from the ether. It's natural. It's a way of nature, of course, success breed opportunities ... also we don't stay as closely in contact as have in the last year, that's part of it." 

Haden Blackman, the project leader on "The Force Unleashed" video game, has a daydream: He strolls into the movie theater, buys some popcorn and then sits down and watches his game's tale of Darth Vader and his secret apprentice flicker to life as cinema.

"Oh, that would be incredible," said Blackman. "And it's not impossible. Never say never. George [Lucas] has looked to tell new 'Star Wars' stories through the games and with the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe, and then he has also shown a willingness to let the characters come into the films. Look at Aayla Secura, a creation in the [Dark Horse] comic books who became part of the theatrical films."

More than that, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," released in August, began as a television animated series (and still will be, with tie-in episodes premiering Oct. 3 on Cartoon Network), but when Lucas saw the work in progress he decided to take the tale to the cineplex. That film has gotten mixed reviews, to say the least, but Lucas doesn't seem to care a bit about the opinion of any detractors when it comes to his historic entertainment enterprise and its directions.

Dark Horse has also released a graphic novel version of "The Force Unleashed" and, to my mind, it's more satisfying than the game -- although in full disclosure, that's not saying much, because I am far more of a reader than a gamer. Blackman not only penned the story for the graphic novel, he also has a lavish 224-page book titled "The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" that celebrates the images and behind-the-scenes labor on the game as if it already were a major motion picture. An adapatation of the film in a traditional prose novel written by Australian sci-fi author Sean Williams also hit No. 1 on the New York Times list of hardcover fiction bestsellers and now, after four weeks, is at No. 14 on that tally.

Lucas is clearly pleased with this new entry to the broader "Star Wars" story and I would not be surprised for a moment to see it on a theater marquee at a CG-animated project in the next few years, especially with the intensifying Hollywood interest in video games and toys as film properties. There's also the very real power of putting Darth Vader on a movie poster in the theater lobbies of America.

If the "The Force Unleashed" does become a movie, Blackman said it would be a testament to the priorities and sophisticated ideas of his team, who he says puts storytelling and game-play on equal footing and emphasized "the artistic nature" of the quickly changing video-game medium. "It's an incredible time," he said, "to be telling powerful stories in this fairly young medium."

Perhaps, but like the most recent film addition to the Lucas universe, there was huge pre-release anticipation for "The Force Unleashed," followed by widespread grumbling. It hit stores Sept. 16 and topped the 1-million units sales mark in its first five days, according to industry retail reports, but the reviews have been decidedly mixed.

Here's the take, for instance, by Hero Complex contributor Pete Metzger, who reviewed the game for the Los Angeles Times and echoed many other underwhelmed gamers:

Most of the things that make up the "Star Wars" universe these days -- movies, TV shows, toys and video games -- are lacking the magic that made the original trilogy of films so incredible. Gone are the spectacle and awe. Instead, we get halfhearted disappointments (such as the current "Clone Wars" animated movie).

Sadly, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is no exception. It should be an amazing story bridge between Episodes 3 and 4 and one that boasts groundbreaking new artificial intelligence and gaming technology. But Unleashed fails to register the tremor in the Force we were hoping for.

'Indiana Jones,' past and present

EXCLUSIVE

Is "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which hits stores today on DVD and Blu-ray, the final adventure for the wise-cracking (and whip-cracking) archaeologist? It sure seemed like it when the movie arrived in theaters in May but then earlier this month a surprisingly enthused Harrison Ford told us that George Lucas is "in think mode" on a suitable story for a fifth Indy film. That's not sitting well with everyone; there's a vocal percentage of fans who think the 21st century revisitation of the great screen hero tainted the earlier glory days of the franchise. I have to wonder if director Steven Spielberg, who certainly has plenty of other projects awaiting him, is really in the mood to take on another Indy project after the backlash this time around, which got pretty personal and malicious, especially during a recent "South Park" spoof. Only time will tell ...

To mark the release today of "Crystal Skull," we bring you two fairly rare movie-set images, one old and one new. Above, a photo shot during an early scene in the classic 1981 film that started it all, "Raiders of the Lost Ark." That chap in the tan coat standing between the camera and the "stunt" Indy is Douglas Slocombe, the film's acclaimed director of photography, whose other credits included "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and one of my personal favorites, "The Lion in Winter." Slocombe, the story goes, never used a light meter on the set of "Raiders," preferring to trust his own eye instead. It was a good instinct: The Brit picked up his third Oscar nomination for his work on the action classic.

The photo below is from last year during the making of "Crystal Skull" and shows Ford, enjoying a cool drink and light moment with Spielberg. In the background there, wearing the white shirt and blue jeans, is Janusz Kaminski, the director of photography for "Crystal Skull" and a two-time Oscar winner (he won for Spielberg's two World War II masterpieces, "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List"). Leave it to two cinematographers to know where to stand when a camera catches a bit of history ... 

   

Thanks to John Singh at Lucasfilm for finding these two great images and sharing them with the Hero Complex. Both photos are property of Lucasfilm, all rights reserved, and they are used here with the company's permission. To learn about all the extras included on Paramount Home Entertainment's DVD and Blu-ray of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," check out the official Indiana Jones website.

-- Geoff Boucher

Everyone's head is still spinning from "South Park" last night.

If you missed it, basically Trey Parker and Matt Stone are of the opinion that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg raped the once-glorious "Indiana Jones" franchise with the fourth film released this past summer.

So guess how the two gleeful firebrands metaphorically presented that point of view on last night's new episode? Yep, that's right, "South Park" put those two iconic filmmakers and their archaeologist hero into a reenactment of the most disurbing scene from "Deliverance."

Todd Martens at Show Tracker has the ugly details and some screen grabs from the episode. I'm taking the high road but not posting them here (but, obviously, I'm also taking the low road by putting in a link).

-- Geoff Boucher

RELATED

Harrison Ford tells Hero Complex that George Lucas is in "think mode" on a fifth "Indy" film

Harrison Ford said Friday that momentum is building for a fifth movie in the "Indiana Jones"  franchise and that George Lucas is already cooking up a suitable plot for a heroic senior citizen with a penchant for whips and fedoras.

"It's crazy but great," the 66-year-old Ford said. "George is in think mode right now."

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" grossed $318 million in the U.S. alone and $770 million worldwide and is expected to be powerhouse seller on DVD and Blu-Ray when it arrives in stores Oct. 14. It was a film that many people in Hollywood assumed would never be made considering the difficulty in finding the right time and the right script to reunite Ford, Lucas and franchise director Steven Spielberg after the 1989 hit "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

Now, though, the latest success and the fact that the franchise's old machinery was revived has Ford thinking a fifth movie is not only a viable idea, but an attractive one.

"It's automatic, really, we did well with the last one and with that having done well and been a positive experience, it's not surprising that some people want to do it again," Ford said.

I asked Ford who specifically is stirring up the idea of another revival, whether it was Lucas, Spielberg or the star himself? "Really, it comes from the ethos, from the ether. It's natural. It's a way of nature, of course, success breed opportunities ... also we don't stay as closely in contact as have in the last year, that's part of it." 

Haden Blackman, the project leader on "The Force Unleashed" video game, has a daydream: He strolls into the movie theater, buys some popcorn and then sits down and watches his game's tale of Darth Vader and his secret apprentice flicker to life as cinema.

"Oh, that would be incredible," said Blackman. "And it's not impossible. Never say never. George [Lucas] has looked to tell new 'Star Wars' stories through the games and with the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe, and then he has also shown a willingness to let the characters come into the films. Look at Aayla Secura, a creation in the [Dark Horse] comic books who became part of the theatrical films."

More than that, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," released in August, began as a television animated series (and still will be, with tie-in episodes premiering Oct. 3 on Cartoon Network), but when Lucas saw the work in progress he decided to take the tale to the cineplex. That film has gotten mixed reviews, to say the least, but Lucas doesn't seem to care a bit about the opinion of any detractors when it comes to his historic entertainment enterprise and its directions.

Dark Horse has also released a graphic novel version of "The Force Unleashed" and, to my mind, it's more satisfying than the game -- although in full disclosure, that's not saying much, because I am far more of a reader than a gamer. Blackman not only penned the story for the graphic novel, he also has a lavish 224-page book titled "The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" that celebrates the images and behind-the-scenes labor on the game as if it already were a major motion picture. An adapatation of the film in a traditional prose novel written by Australian sci-fi author Sean Williams also hit No. 1 on the New York Times list of hardcover fiction bestsellers and now, after four weeks, is at No. 14 on that tally.

Lucas is clearly pleased with this new entry to the broader "Star Wars" story and I would not be surprised for a moment to see it on a theater marquee at a CG-animated project in the next few years, especially with the intensifying Hollywood interest in video games and toys as film properties. There's also the very real power of putting Darth Vader on a movie poster in the theater lobbies of America.

If the "The Force Unleashed" does become a movie, Blackman said it would be a testament to the priorities and sophisticated ideas of his team, who he says puts storytelling and game-play on equal footing and emphasized "the artistic nature" of the quickly changing video-game medium. "It's an incredible time," he said, "to be telling powerful stories in this fairly young medium."

Perhaps, but like the most recent film addition to the Lucas universe, there was huge pre-release anticipation for "The Force Unleashed," followed by widespread grumbling. It hit stores Sept. 16 and topped the 1-million units sales mark in its first five days, according to industry retail reports, but the reviews have been decidedly mixed.

Here's the take, for instance, by Hero Complex contributor Pete Metzger, who reviewed the game for the Los Angeles Times and echoed many other underwhelmed gamers:

Most of the things that make up the "Star Wars" universe these days -- movies, TV shows, toys and video games -- are lacking the magic that made the original trilogy of films so incredible. Gone are the spectacle and awe. Instead, we get halfhearted disappointments (such as the current "Clone Wars" animated movie).

Sadly, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is no exception. It should be an amazing story bridge between Episodes 3 and 4 and one that boasts groundbreaking new artificial intelligence and gaming technology. But Unleashed fails to register the tremor in the Force we were hoping for.

'South Park' whips up on 'Indiana Jones,' George Lucas and Steven Spielberg

Everyone's head is still spinning from "South Park" last night.

If you missed it, basically Trey Parker and Matt Stone are of the opinion that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg raped the once-glorious "Indiana Jones" franchise with the fourth film released this past summer.

So guess how the two gleeful firebrands metaphorically presented that point of view on last night's new episode? Yep, that's right, "South Park" put those two iconic filmmakers and their archaeologist hero into a reenactment of the most disurbing scene from "Deliverance."

Todd Martens at Show Tracker has the ugly details and some screen grabs from the episode. I'm taking the high road but not posting them here (but, obviously, I'm also taking the low road by putting in a link).

-- Geoff Boucher

RELATED

Harrison Ford tells Hero Complex that George Lucas is in "think mode" on a fifth "Indy" film

Harrison Ford said Friday that momentum is building for a fifth movie in the "Indiana Jones"  franchise and that George Lucas is already cooking up a suitable plot for a heroic senior citizen with a penchant for whips and fedoras.

"It's crazy but great," the 66-year-old Ford said. "George is in think mode right now."

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" grossed $318 million in the U.S. alone and $770 million worldwide and is expected to be powerhouse seller on DVD and Blu-Ray when it arrives in stores Oct. 14. It was a film that many people in Hollywood assumed would never be made considering the difficulty in finding the right time and the right script to reunite Ford, Lucas and franchise director Steven Spielberg after the 1989 hit "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

Now, though, the latest success and the fact that the franchise's old machinery was revived has Ford thinking a fifth movie is not only a viable idea, but an attractive one.

"It's automatic, really, we did well with the last one and with that having done well and been a positive experience, it's not surprising that some people want to do it again," Ford said.

I asked Ford who specifically is stirring up the idea of another revival, whether it was Lucas, Spielberg or the star himself? "Really, it comes from the ethos, from the ether. It's natural. It's a way of nature, of course, success breed opportunities ... also we don't stay as closely in contact as have in the last year, that's part of it." 

Haden Blackman, the project leader on "The Force Unleashed" video game, has a daydream: He strolls into the movie theater, buys some popcorn and then sits down and watches his game's tale of Darth Vader and his secret apprentice flicker to life as cinema.

"Oh, that would be incredible," said Blackman. "And it's not impossible. Never say never. George [Lucas] has looked to tell new 'Star Wars' stories through the games and with the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe, and then he has also shown a willingness to let the characters come into the films. Look at Aayla Secura, a creation in the [Dark Horse] comic books who became part of the theatrical films."

More than that, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," released in August, began as a television animated series (and still will be, with tie-in episodes premiering Oct. 3 on Cartoon Network), but when Lucas saw the work in progress he decided to take the tale to the cineplex. That film has gotten mixed reviews, to say the least, but Lucas doesn't seem to care a bit about the opinion of any detractors when it comes to his historic entertainment enterprise and its directions.

Dark Horse has also released a graphic novel version of "The Force Unleashed" and, to my mind, it's more satisfying than the game -- although in full disclosure, that's not saying much, because I am far more of a reader than a gamer. Blackman not only penned the story for the graphic novel, he also has a lavish 224-page book titled "The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" that celebrates the images and behind-the-scenes labor on the game as if it already were a major motion picture. An adapatation of the film in a traditional prose novel written by Australian sci-fi author Sean Williams also hit No. 1 on the New York Times list of hardcover fiction bestsellers and now, after four weeks, is at No. 14 on that tally.

Lucas is clearly pleased with this new entry to the broader "Star Wars" story and I would not be surprised for a moment to see it on a theater marquee at a CG-animated project in the next few years, especially with the intensifying Hollywood interest in video games and toys as film properties. There's also the very real power of putting Darth Vader on a movie poster in the theater lobbies of America.

If the "The Force Unleashed" does become a movie, Blackman said it would be a testament to the priorities and sophisticated ideas of his team, who he says puts storytelling and game-play on equal footing and emphasized "the artistic nature" of the quickly changing video-game medium. "It's an incredible time," he said, "to be telling powerful stories in this fairly young medium."

Perhaps, but like the most recent film addition to the Lucas universe, there was huge pre-release anticipation for "The Force Unleashed," followed by widespread grumbling. It hit stores Sept. 16 and topped the 1-million units sales mark in its first five days, according to industry retail reports, but the reviews have been decidedly mixed.

Here's the take, for instance, by Hero Complex contributor Pete Metzger, who reviewed the game for the Los Angeles Times and echoed many other underwhelmed gamers:

Most of the things that make up the "Star Wars" universe these days -- movies, TV shows, toys and video games -- are lacking the magic that made the original trilogy of films so incredible. Gone are the spectacle and awe. Instead, we get halfhearted disappointments (such as the current "Clone Wars" animated movie).

Sadly, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is no exception. It should be an amazing story bridge between Episodes 3 and 4 and one that boasts groundbreaking new artificial intelligence and gaming technology. But Unleashed fails to register the tremor in the Force we were hoping for.

Harrison Ford says George Lucas in 'think mode' on another 'Indiana Jones' film

Harrison Ford said Friday that momentum is building for a fifth movie in the "Indiana Jones"  franchise and that George Lucas is already cooking up a suitable plot for a heroic senior citizen with a penchant for whips and fedoras.

"It's crazy but great," the 66-year-old Ford said. "George is in think mode right now."

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" grossed $318 million in the U.S. alone and $770 million worldwide and is expected to be powerhouse seller on DVD and Blu-Ray when it arrives in stores Oct. 14. It was a film that many people in Hollywood assumed would never be made considering the difficulty in finding the right time and the right script to reunite Ford, Lucas and franchise director Steven Spielberg after the 1989 hit "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

Now, though, the latest success and the fact that the franchise's old machinery was revived has Ford thinking a fifth movie is not only a viable idea, but an attractive one.

"It's automatic, really, we did well with the last one and with that having done well and been a positive experience, it's not surprising that some people want to do it again," Ford said.

I asked Ford who specifically is stirring up the idea of another revival, whether it was Lucas, Spielberg or the star himself? "Really, it comes from the ethos, from the ether. It's natural. It's a way of nature, of course, success breed opportunities ... also we don't stay as closely in contact as have in the last year, that's part of it." 

Haden Blackman, the project leader on "The Force Unleashed" video game, has a daydream: He strolls into the movie theater, buys some popcorn and then sits down and watches his game's tale of Darth Vader and his secret apprentice flicker to life as cinema.

"Oh, that would be incredible," said Blackman. "And it's not impossible. Never say never. George [Lucas] has looked to tell new 'Star Wars' stories through the games and with the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe, and then he has also shown a willingness to let the characters come into the films. Look at Aayla Secura, a creation in the [Dark Horse] comic books who became part of the theatrical films."

More than that, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," released in August, began as a television animated series (and still will be, with tie-in episodes premiering Oct. 3 on Cartoon Network), but when Lucas saw the work in progress he decided to take the tale to the cineplex. That film has gotten mixed reviews, to say the least, but Lucas doesn't seem to care a bit about the opinion of any detractors when it comes to his historic entertainment enterprise and its directions.

Dark Horse has also released a graphic novel version of "The Force Unleashed" and, to my mind, it's more satisfying than the game -- although in full disclosure, that's not saying much, because I am far more of a reader than a gamer. Blackman not only penned the story for the graphic novel, he also has a lavish 224-page book titled "The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" that celebrates the images and behind-the-scenes labor on the game as if it already were a major motion picture. An adapatation of the film in a traditional prose novel written by Australian sci-fi author Sean Williams also hit No. 1 on the New York Times list of hardcover fiction bestsellers and now, after four weeks, is at No. 14 on that tally.

Lucas is clearly pleased with this new entry to the broader "Star Wars" story and I would not be surprised for a moment to see it on a theater marquee at a CG-animated project in the next few years, especially with the intensifying Hollywood interest in video games and toys as film properties. There's also the very real power of putting Darth Vader on a movie poster in the theater lobbies of America.

If the "The Force Unleashed" does become a movie, Blackman said it would be a testament to the priorities and sophisticated ideas of his team, who he says puts storytelling and game-play on equal footing and emphasized "the artistic nature" of the quickly changing video-game medium. "It's an incredible time," he said, "to be telling powerful stories in this fairly young medium."

Perhaps, but like the most recent film addition to the Lucas universe, there was huge pre-release anticipation for "The Force Unleashed," followed by widespread grumbling. It hit stores Sept. 16 and topped the 1-million units sales mark in its first five days, according to industry retail reports, but the reviews have been decidedly mixed.

Here's the take, for instance, by Hero Complex contributor Pete Metzger, who reviewed the game for the Los Angeles Times and echoed many other underwhelmed gamers:

Most of the things that make up the "Star Wars" universe these days -- movies, TV shows, toys and video games -- are lacking the magic that made the original trilogy of films so incredible. Gone are the spectacle and awe. Instead, we get halfhearted disappointments (such as the current "Clone Wars" animated movie).

Sadly, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is no exception. It should be an amazing story bridge between Episodes 3 and 4 and one that boasts groundbreaking new artificial intelligence and gaming technology. But Unleashed fails to register the tremor in the Force we were hoping for.

Will 'Force Unleashed' be the next 'Star Wars' film?

Haden Blackman, the project leader on "The Force Unleashed" video game, has a daydream: He strolls into the movie theater, buys some popcorn and then sits down and watches his game's tale of Darth Vader and his secret apprentice flicker to life as cinema.

"Oh, that would be incredible," said Blackman. "And it's not impossible. Never say never. George [Lucas] has looked to tell new 'Star Wars' stories through the games and with the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe, and then he has also shown a willingness to let the characters come into the films. Look at Aayla Secura, a creation in the [Dark Horse] comic books who became part of the theatrical films."

More than that, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," released in August, began as a television animated series (and still will be, with tie-in episodes premiering Oct. 3 on Cartoon Network), but when Lucas saw the work in progress he decided to take the tale to the cineplex. That film has gotten mixed reviews, to say the least, but Lucas doesn't seem to care a bit about the opinion of any detractors when it comes to his historic entertainment enterprise and its directions.

Dark Horse has also released a graphic novel version of "The Force Unleashed" and, to my mind, it's more satisfying than the game -- although in full disclosure, that's not saying much, because I am far more of a reader than a gamer. Blackman not only penned the story for the graphic novel, he also has a lavish 224-page book titled "The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" that celebrates the images and behind-the-scenes labor on the game as if it already were a major motion picture. An adapatation of the film in a traditional prose novel written by Australian sci-fi author Sean Williams also hit No. 1 on the New York Times list of hardcover fiction bestsellers and now, after four weeks, is at No. 14 on that tally.

Lucas is clearly pleased with this new entry to the broader "Star Wars" story and I would not be surprised for a moment to see it on a theater marquee at a CG-animated project in the next few years, especially with the intensifying Hollywood interest in video games and toys as film properties. There's also the very real power of putting Darth Vader on a movie poster in the theater lobbies of America.

If the "The Force Unleashed" does become a movie, Blackman said it would be a testament to the priorities and sophisticated ideas of his team, who he says puts storytelling and game-play on equal footing and emphasized "the artistic nature" of the quickly changing video-game medium. "It's an incredible time," he said, "to be telling powerful stories in this fairly young medium."

Perhaps, but like the most recent film addition to the Lucas universe, there was huge pre-release anticipation for "The Force Unleashed," followed by widespread grumbling. It hit stores Sept. 16 and topped the 1-million units sales mark in its first five days, according to industry retail reports, but the reviews have been decidedly mixed.

Here's the take, for instance, by Hero Complex contributor Pete Metzger, who reviewed the game for the Los Angeles Times and echoed many other underwhelmed gamers:

Most of the things that make up the "Star Wars" universe these days -- movies, TV shows, toys and video games -- are lacking the magic that made the original trilogy of films so incredible. Gone are the spectacle and awe. Instead, we get halfhearted disappointments (such as the current "Clone Wars" animated movie).

Sadly, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is no exception. It should be an amazing story bridge between Episodes 3 and 4 and one that boasts groundbreaking new artificial intelligence and gaming technology. But Unleashed fails to register the tremor in the Force we were hoping for.