Force Awakens Bits: The Return Of The Jedi Steps, The Secret Behind BB-8, The 'Star Wars'/'Frozen' Crossover You Didn't Know You Wanted
How many times have you seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Three times? Four? Enough times to be ready for the latest edition of The Force Awakens Bits, where we run down all of the cool pieces of news you need to know? In today's edition:
Considering the final scene of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, there was no way Star Wars: Episode VIII wasn't going to return to Luke Skywalker's isolated island home. Which means that the cast and crew would once again have to trek out to the island of Skellig Michael. And they did: some early shooting has already taken place there. However, it now looks like those Jedi Steps are being recreated elsewhere. According to Making Star Wars:
The Skellig Michael sets have been built and in some cases recreated at Pinewood. The location of the set at Pinewood is the same place they filmed the Jakku village scenes for The Force Awakens. Filming at Skellig Michael was just too complicated for environmental reasons. Migrating birds have more power than any corporation over that isle.
Considering the restrictions and red tape that the production had to battle to film there, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise.
Yes, that is footage of a man in a Kylo Ren costume straddling a BB-8 while playing flaming bagpipes. Look, don't say the internet never gave you anything because it has officially given you everything.
Tumblr artist PannaN, realizing that there's an audience for just about anything cute on the internet, has been churning out Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Frozen crossover art and it's nothing short of adorable. This is the kind of thing that should be worthy of cringes and eyerolls, but c'mon: look at little baby General Hux! He just wants to build a Death Star!
Speaking of Disney and Star Wars, Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger recently sat down with Bloomberg for a big interview about the state of the company. It turns out that the Star Wars brand, which was purchased for $4 billion in 2012, may be worth $10 billion after the release of The Force Awakens. In other words, Mr. Iger isn't leaving this job anytime soon.
The Force Awakens has been shattering box office records left and right, so it's not surprising that it just passed another milestone. The film has grossed $106 million on IMAX screens alone in twelve days, which is (of course) another new record. And all of this before the movie even opens in China, which is going to bring another big burst of business.
Just in case you encounter someone who thinks all Stormtroopers look alike, here's a handy gif (via io9) that showcases just how much these white-suited menaces have evolved over the course of 60 in-universe years.
Of course Teefury has introduced another new The Force Awakens shirt and of course it's a riff on a piece of Ralph McQuarrie art that replaces Luke Skywalker with Rey. Here's what the artist, JPCOOVERT, has to say about his work:
Ralph McQuarrie's original concept artwork is pretty rad. I wanted to combine my love for his original, stylish logo treatment with my excitement for the characters of the new movies.
You can order the shirt now for $20.
AMC has debuted the third poster in its ongoing Star Wars: The Force Awakens IMAX series and it's a beauty. Who cares if Captain Phasma is barely in the movie when her poster is this cool?
Stop the presses! BB-8 isn't an actual, working robot after all! Much like how Kenny Baker famously puppeteered R2-D2 back in the day, this little droid had a little inside help...
IndieWire recently sat down with Star Wars: The Force Awakens VFX supervisor Roger Guyett, who explained the motivation behind his team's work:
But at the same time, it's a big visual effects movie and you're trying to create places that don't exist, and the scale and a lot of the elements involved required [CGI]. So what I was aiming at was to make all of those experiences as realistic as possible. We didn't want to necessarily make a retro movie where we were recreating [the first trilogy]. We wanted something fresh and exciting, that immersive experience you might have if you were really flying the Millennium Falcon or if you were really in the hangar of a Star Destroyer.
The YouTube channel Star Wars Minute has posted its latest episode, which delves into the canonical origins of the Resistance and the First Order. Since this is one of the areas where The Force Awakens drops the ball, this video should help you catch up with the finer details in no time in just under two minutes.
And while you're here, you might as well check out the episode dedicated to the origins of Poe Dameron, a.k.a. the coolest X-Wing pilot in the galaxy, a.k.a. Space Fonzie, a.k.a. the sexiest dude in Star Wars this side of Harrison Ford.