Star Wars Weekly Social Buzz! The Force Awakens Won 8 Saturn Awards, Ewan McGregor Talks Star Wars and More
This week we have Ewan McGregor talking Star Wars again, Ben Affleck turned down directing The Force Awakens, the movie that has just won 8 Saturn awards. We also have the latest tweets from Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Pablo Hidalgo and more…
Star Wars: The Force Awakens won 8 Saturn awards!
The Saturn Awards are presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films to honor the top works mainly in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. (via Wiki)
The Force Awakens was honored with 8 Saturn Awards including Best SFX/VFX. Congrats to the entire FX team! pic.twitter.com/VBgYMTntth
— ILM Visual Effects (@ILMVFX) June 24, 2016
The movie won in the following categories:
- Best Science Fiction Film
- Best Actor: Harrison Ford
- Best Supporting Actor: Adam Driver
- Best Writing: Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt
- Best Editing: Maryann Brandon, Mary Jo Markey
- Best Music: John Williams
- Best Make-Up: Neal Scanlan
- Best Special Effects: Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan, Chris Corbould
Ewan McGregor’s latest comment on Star Wars:
Ewan McGregor Doesn’t Care If There’s Another Star Wars Movie https://t.co/UgOfzsbwd1 pic.twitter.com/4aLqM5B4qk
— Parade Magazine (@ParadeMagazine) June 24, 2016
That title is a bit confusing. Here’s exactly what he said:
I like the films that I made with George Lucas and I’m happy to be part of the legend of it all, but that’s it with me. I don’t really understand the fanaticism about it. I’m asked by everybody all the time, “Would you do another one?” and I’ve said, “Yeah, I’d be happy to,” because I think there’s a film between Episode 3 and Episode 4, which is when Alec Guinness is in the desert. But I’ve been asked about it so much now that I’m being criticized for trying to persuade Disney to make this movie. I only responded to people asking me about it, and now it looks like I’m sort of looking for work, which is humiliating. I couldn’t care less if it happens, but when Star Wars people ask me if I would do it, the answer is yes, so that’s how I feel about it.
Mark Hamill was at the premiere of The BFG movie with Daisy Ridley and Kathleen Kennedy. He didn’t miss the opportunity to troll the fans with the funny hash-tag #FamilyFilm. 🙂
At #BFGmovie my Big Friendly Galpal Daisy Ridley introduced me to her equally lovely Mom! It’s a #FamilyFilm folks! pic.twitter.com/TQREhWmBY3
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) June 23, 2016
Mark spoiling Episode VIII again, this time with an image of two alien creatures in his trailer:
Space twins hanging out in their trailer. They’re ready for their close up Mr.RJ #DoggieDivas #Hamillie #LegendGary pic.twitter.com/er6kiYHpdU
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) June 24, 2016
@HamillHimself @carrieffisher @chelseahamill SPOILERS
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) June 24, 2016
That was a quick damage control by Rian.
John Boyega cast in yet another film. This time it’s Kathryn Bigelow’s new film about 1960s Detroit riots. John also joined the sequel to Pacific Rim.
Dasiy Ridley is giving us a hint with here sweaty forehead:
I particularly liked the hash-tag #amijabbasdaughter!
Daisy on her way to work:
Traffic got me like… I HOPE YOU’VE ALL VOTED! I’M HEADING FROM WORK NOW! NO EXCUSES!!!
A video posted by @daisyridley on
Voice actor and comedian Bill Hader who helped bring BB-8 to life with vocal sounds was pretty surprised he got credit for his job.
Bill Hader didn’t know he would get credit for BB-8 in #StarWars: https://t.co/8oq2Y8YVuH pic.twitter.com/8Cp2d8cFYD
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) June 23, 2016
New Droids Character Pack from the LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens game:
Play #LEGOStarWars: #TheForceAwakens on June 28th with @Playstation’s Droid Character Pack.https://t.co/GElAhCQ7sT
— Star Wars Games (@StarWarsGames) June 23, 2016
Chewbacca and Daryl from the Walking Dead TV series are “Crossbow Brothers”:
Crossbow Brothers. #Crossbros @wwwbigbaldhead @TheWookieeRoars pic.twitter.com/Im0YbI1kqv
— Peter Mayhew (@TheWookieeRoars) June 21, 2016
In a recent interview Ben Affleck hinted that he turned down the offer to direct The Force Awakens. It’s no secret that before J.J. Abrams was hired there have been many talks with multiple directors about the job. No surprise that Ben was one of them.
J.J. Abrams pays tribute to actor Anton Yelchin, who was tragically killed in an accident:
— Bad Robot (@bad_robot) June 19, 2016
New Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular fireworks show is now playing at Disney’s Hollywood Studios:
Pablo Hidalgo found Rey’s connection with Forest Whitaker’s character in Rogue One! 🙂
Hmmmm…. foRE[Y]’St whit[F]A[T]k[H]ER
— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) June 22, 2016
This is Pablo’s tweet that he has pinned to his Twitter profile for some time now. But still major outlets continue to write Lucasfilm wrong:
Stay tuned for more next week.
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
Slow week….
With today’s news about #BRexit, is this going to affect filming for EP8 and other future SW films since Pinewood is the main studio?
It will be cheaper seeing how the £ has plummeted vs the $.
Yeah definitely cheaper for Lucasfilm.
Is that Rosie O’Donnell above the picture of BB-8, and, if so, what is she smiling about?
Yes, and she thought they said “BB-Q”.
Lmao “Goods Mornings Americas”
And they left out the Rian Johnson tweet when he was asked if EP8 would be retool of EP5.
He didn’t say no
LOOOOOL , Force Awakens won “Best Writing: Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams” at Saturn Awards, what is that? Is it a joke or something?
Notice that nobody will take you seriously…
No, the joke is that Star Wars — a film that features sound in the vacuum of space — STILL qualifies as “Science Fiction”. It’s not. It’s not even Science-Fantasy, there is no science remotely near Star Wars. It’s Space-Fiction.
It can so qualify as science fiction. Who are you to say what is and isn’t scientifically possible in a fictional universe?
^^ that’s a cheap shot you’re taking there. You know what I mean.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist 😛
The fact that Star Wars is grouped with other Comic Book movies in regards to big-budget blockbuster tentpole categorization and the fact that Star Wars and its actors don’t get considered for Oscar awards other than technical awards (effects, sounds , etc) says a lot about what mainstream society thinks of it, and the possibilities of what it can be categorized as. Sure, there’s more on display than just your typical sci-fi and fantasy movies but bottom line, SW is considered sci-fi and fantasy whether some fans want to recognize that or not.
Science Fiction is the exploration of scientific possibilities and their impact on greater humanity — and any philosophical conundrums thereof. Sci Fi is not and never was limited to “takes place in Space”. The Twilight Zone, the benchmark for modern sci-fi, spends 90% of its episodes on Planet Earth, half of them taking place within a contemporary time-frame to the show’s air-date. In terms of modern sci-fi, the movie “Primer” may or may not be good, but at least people put it in the right genre and judge it accordingly. To say that Star Wars is Sci-Fi because “well, it’s in space isn’t it?” has about as much merit as calling Lord of the Rings a historical drama because “it’s got swords and guys in dresses”.
As far as Star Wars, it basically invented its own genre, but if it were to be in any category it would be fantasy. Star Wars has way more in common with Lord of the Rings than it does with Space Odyssey, and I don’t care how many space-backgrounds they slap behind the characters, the story structure is what decides the film and its challenges, and that’s how it should be judged awards-wise: By what challenges the directors face. The challenges with making a Star Wars film are not the same challenges a director would face when making an actual Sci Fi film. This is not to say any one is better than the other; the point is there is a difference, many differences, in fact.
The critical judges of film have long overlooked the Superhero, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy genres. While the “their beneath us” argument is thrown around a lot, I don’t think that’s the issue. I think its just that categorizing films with such amazingly sharp contrasts is really hard, so it is easier to lump Avengers and Star Wars together than it is to articulate their numerous differences. This is mostly due to the lack of constraints that the Fantasy genres of film face. Most other genres are bound to real-world context, whereas the fantasy genres are escapism for both the audience and the creators, which, I suppose in the minds of critics, means supposedly less effort required on the part of the creators. With the massive lack of constraint that Star Wars has in comparison to other films, it’s really hard to compare it to anything. It is fantasy, but fantasy ought be a very general category. Superhero, horror, fairytale, and space opera should all be “fantasy”; thriller, historical drama, and science fiction should be considered “grounded”.
I’m not sure it’s what the masses think. It’s what the Oscar voters think, sure. I think mainstream pop culture has broken down genre boundaries over the last decade or so. Star Wars and comic book movies are near universal in a way that would have been unimaginable 15 or 20 years ago.
It’s also called a Space Opera. Why is it important to have a label on the movie?
Because movies that actually put effort into scientific believability get snubbed of their “Sci Fi” awards in favor of a film that isn’t even sci fi, that’s why. There’s nothing wrong with Sci Fi nor Space Opera, but there IS a difference, and that difference should be recognized because they are truly two different things with different aspects and therefore [most importantly] different audiences. Thus, we need to actually know what Sci fi means, otherwise the film we go see could be anything from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Jupiter-friggin’-Ascending. It is a good distinction to make on the “audience knowing what they’re signing up for” basis, but it’s even more important when it comes to awards qualification. Star Wars is fantasy, Primer is sci fi. It’s not that hard. People don’t have the same issues separating Historical Drama from Fantasy, and neither should they Space Opera and Science Fiction.
Genres are bullshit. Star Wars sure as hell isn’t “hard sci-fi” but if you had awards that only admitted hard sci-fi movies according to some strict rules about their approach to realism they’d get to choose from what… 3 movies a decade?
No, I’m saying that Fantasy should get just as much opportunity for accolade as “Drama”, the other genre that is massively over-simplified.
Thats why its called science “fiction”. Because its fiction. If it was trying to be real it would be called science “non-fiction”
Do you recall the film “Master and Commander”? It’s a highly realistic, period-accurate film about a British Man-of-War ship hunting down a french ship during the Napoleanic War. The movie is not a historical drama, as it is based off of a book series. It is historical fiction, in that it is a fictitious story told within the confines a real historical period — and is beholden to technical accuracy therein. They put a lot of money and effort into making it a realistic representation of life in the British navy at that time period.
Now, compare this to Pirates of the Caribbean, which does the opposite. PotC spends almost none of its effort on historical accuracy, and really you couldn’t place it legitimately in any time period. PotC is a story told within a fantastical world that happens to look like the Caribbean — it’s not OUR Caribbean, it’s someone’s imagination of what the Caribbean might look like. It’s not realism, it’s fantasy.
So here you have two films that feature men living on ships, firing muskets, and hunting down some great ship of legend. By “Star Wars is Sci Fi because Space” logic, “Master and Commander” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” are the same film — but by literally any other standard, the two are opposites.
Star Wars is fantasy in that it is NOTHING like actual outer space, nor, does it make any attempt to realistically depict what life in space would look like. It’s not a real version of outer space, it’s a 10-year-old in the 1950s’ fantastical imagination of what space could look like — the definition of fantasy. It should be judged accordingly.
And if Star Wars is Fantasy, that means that literally any “that’s not realistic” arguments are legally moot, and Star Wars will never get any shit over its lack of technical accuracy ever again.
Having an accepted “Fantasy” genre in Awards circuits would mean that Star Wars and every other Fantasy film would get the proper recognition, or at least a chance at recognition. Meanwhile, Sci Fi films that spends tons of money consulting actual NASA experts won’t have to compete with the Star Wars stigma that turns off most critics.
Perhaps best writing isn’t the same thing as best story/script. Idk, I don’t really follow saturn awards.
oh my gosh, Daisy is gorgeous!
Would of been very interesting to of had Ben Affleck on board for TFA.
Would have been a very different kind of movie for sure. Better, worse? Who knows
Good for Boyega. That project sounds a lot more interesting than Pacific Rim 2
Poor Ewan McGregor. He should just ignore Star Wars related questions now. It’s the only way to make them go away.
I would kill to see Ewan McGregor reprise his role as Obi-wan Kenobi but it sucks that he’s getting the negative end of all this SW hype.
Over-analyzing the films aside, there is something truly remarkable about Star Wars. Yeah, they’re movies but it’s hard to explain to others what they actually mean to us fans. When I had a rough childhood, Star Wars brought me a whole new world to live in and heroes to admire. They’re movies, but not just movies (to me anyway). I would be really happy to see any star wars film, even is ep VIII is a remake of ESB, it doesn’t matter. If it’s good, it’s good 🙂
That Galactic Spectacular thing really made me tear up, the music, the images.
I’m a tough guy, but when I see the stories and music I heard when I was a kid, rejected by my friends for watching that “shit”….it gets me every time… 😀
Only 2 things i accept from the prequals (that’s not a lot): R2 can fly and Ewan McGregor is Obi-Wan. I like to see Ewan McGregor in a new Star Wars film!