Casting JJ Abrams's “Star Wars 7”

Ever since JJ Abrams was announced as the director of Star Wars 7, the internet has been on fire. It's burning higher and hotter than the wave of excitement that existed when Episode 1 was announced. I understand the excitement. JJ Abrams is an amazing writer and director and has a great sense of what makes a great story. He is surrounded by talented writers and producers who he frequently collaborates. I hear Michael Arndt is writing the story which is great because it will be a different flavor from the stories written by his team on Star Trek.

Back in October, before the official cast for SHIELD was introduced, I submitted my choices for the actors who should portray the available parts. The roles went to Chloe Bennet, Brett Dalton, Ming-Na, Elizabeth Henstridge, and Iain De Caestecker.

With the actors I chose still being awesome and all, I thought I would give them a second chance and cast the new Star Wars film with them. Of course I have no idea what the characters names are, the time period it's happening in, or...anything else. I'm just going to create the characters and say who should play that character. I'll leave it up to smarter (much, much smarter) people like JJ Abrams to come up with the particulars.

If JJ Abrams is reading this: Thank you for coming to Comic Con and signing my Alias photo - you rock! Oh...and you're welcome for the inspiration.

Hantii (pronounced HAN-tee): Genevieve Padalecki plays Hantii, a young girl running from a network of organized crime. Her nascent ability to use the Force - to know if someone is lying - is perceived as invaluable to an organization that deals with the scum of the universe every day. Hantii just wants to lead a moral life away from the influence of cruel men and strikes a deal with Nitrun, a bounty hunter, to smuggle her off-world. The bad guys figure out what has happened and put a contract out on both of them. Fortunately Nitrun knows a Jedi elder who loves a good challenge.

Clen (pronounced kl-EHN): Michael Kenneth Williams plays Clen, a Jedi elder sent out into the universe to recruit others strong in the force. A happy, gentle man, Clen has a way of seeing everything in a positive light. He doesn't believe in failure - he believes every hardships is an opportunity. When he meets Hantii, Clen realizes that he has an opportunity to protect her, teach her, and end the constant threat of reprisal from those she escaped from. And Hantii is strong with the Force. Clen will teach Hantii survival, combat skills, and, most importantly, how to build and use a lightsaber.

Nitrun (pronounced NITE-run): Paula Garces plays Nitrun, a fearsome bounty hunter. Because she uses her beauty to get in closer to her subjects (behind her Maldalorian armor, no one knows what she looks like) to capture or kill them. Despite what she does, she doesn't take contracts on people she feels have integrity. When she runs across our heroes, she's rough around the edges but willing to help...for a price. A wealthy woman, Nitrun doesn't do the job for money but to mete out her own form of justice after the death of her parents at the hands of a corrupt politician's security forces.

Amun (pronounced A-moon): Gina Carano plays Amun, a bar owner who also trains the small city's elite guards in combat. A survivor of many battles including the one that wrested her city away from the same corrupt politicians who engineered the deaths of Nitrun's parents, she's ready to fight at any moment. And, while she employs bouncers, Amun doesn't mind throwing the odd customer out personally. One of Clen's dearest friends, she allows him access to the city's training facilities when he needs them for training and allows him, Hantii, and Nitrun to hide in the bar's basement.

Lance Skywalker: Craig Horner plays Lance Skywalker, a descendent of (yup, you guessed it) Anakin Skywalker (you thought I was going to say Luke, didn't you?). As a Skywalker, he's inherited three things, R2-D2 & C-3PO and the Force. While hunting down the source of illegal slave trading in another system, he's contacted by Clen to let him know he has a source, Hantii, who can give Lance the ins and outs of the entire operation because she was a slave. While, Clen, Nitrun, and Amun keep Hantii safe, Lance works to dismantle the operation - lightsaber battles ensue!

Disney purchases Lucasfilm

One of the best things about being a geek is that people come to you when they hear something on the news. For example, when people heard that Disney bought Marvel, people came to me for what I thought about it. That’s happened more and more frequently with DC rebooting its universe, a gay Green Lantern, a black Spider-Man, and Disney buying Star Wars.

I love Star Wars.

While I fully acknowledge that the prequels mostly sucked, I didn’t want Star Wars to go away. To Lucas’ credit, the prequels made a ton of money and because the movies weren’t well-received, he didn’t make more. He could have pumped out more movies and made a lot more money but he preferred quality to quantity. Lucas didn’t set out to make the prequels suck but once the first one was done, he had to finish that trilogy whether the story was sub-standard or not.

I’m excited about Disney’s purchase of Star Wars for a few reasons.

First, Disney has access to a lot of great writers who can craft well-told stories. Say what you want about John Carter, the movie was fantastic. I don’t think the previews did the job of selling the movie to audiences and the only reason I saw it was because a friend really wanted to see it. Oh, and Disney hired Joss Whedon to write and direct The Avengers – ‘nuff said (as Stan Lee would say).

Second, Disney has proven longevity which is great for a number of reasons. Not only do they have the ability to put the next three movies out, one day I have no doubt they’ll redo the original trilogy. I know this won’t be a popular opinion but I’d love to see Luke, Han, and Leia in a reboot of the original trilogy with the story updated. I’d love for the prequels, the original trilogy, and the next three movies to be completely done by Disney. I know Harrison Ford, Mark Hammil, and the rest are willing to come back for a new movie, but I don’t want to see them. I want a fresh start for the trilogy and if we’re talking about a new movie every two years, it would take almost twenty years to tell that story so they should start now!

Third, the new movies will doubtlessly introduce new characters and those new characters will be immortalized as action figures – figures I might have to own if they’re cool enough. Of course those new characters may also find their way into comic books, video games, and the novels. I’m anxious to meet new characters.

Fourth – and this is someone else’s observation (I can’t remember where I read it) but we can look forward to Star Wars cartoons that look like Disney animated films. Imagine retelling the original Star Wars movie in a more lighthearted way with animated Luke and Leia singing about swinging across the chasm. And…Princess Leia joins Disney’s other female characters (as pictured below).

But the best part of Disney buying Lucasfilm is the continuation of the Star Wars Universe. I agree that the prequels sucked and Lucas had essentially retired and wasn’t going to do anything but the Clone Wars cartoon and occasionally letting Family Guy or Robot Chicken do Star Wars themed episodes. I wasn’t ready to live in a world where there was no more Star Wars films to look forward to and now I don’t have to.

Now for what I’ll miss about George Lucas: he rewards his fans. A movie like Fanboys doesn’t exist without George Lucas sanctioning the film. Lucas was one of the first to use fan films as an opportunity to encourage people to play with the characters in his universe and was known to recruit people from those films. The most famous might be Kevin Rubio who filmed “Troops” which was a parody of Cops and he went on to write lots of stuff for Lucasfilm. And who can forget Steve Sansweet, a fan who had amassed an impressive amount of Star Wars memorabilia who would go from fan to the Director of Content Management and Head of Fan Relations of Lucasfilms.

And who can forget Katie Johnson? When the founder of the 501^st Legion’s little girl was dying of brain cancer, the fans build a pink droid and called it R2-KT. Lucas sold a limited run of the action figure for charity and the droid appeared in the film Star Wars: Clone Wars. As much as we’ve been impacted by Lucas, he’s been impacted by the fans and he hasn’t been completely deaf to fandom.

Now that Disney owns Lucasfilm, I’m guessing we won’t have a lot of great stories about fan interaction. Despite the fact that Dark Horse Comics has been putting out some of the most innovative and entertaining stories over the 20+ years they’ve had the property, I’m guessing that Marvel Comics will be taking the reigns of that Universe now.

Green Hornet the movie vs the comic book *mild spoilers*

As someone who read Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet which was based on the script he wrote for Disney and saw the movie starring Seth Rogen, I have to say that neither one made me completely happy. I wish that Kevin Smith and Seth Rogen had combined scripts – that would have been better for the movie.

Don’t get me wrong, the film was a lot of fun once it got going but how Britt Reid becomes The Green Hornet is nonsensical garbage that’s boring, sad, and unfunny at the same time. On the other hand, Kevin Smith’s origin of how Britt Reid becomes Green Hornet is kick ass – from the father being the original Green Hornet who retires, to Kato’s daughter, Mulan. But once Kevin Smith’s story gets going, it’s boring.

This is how the movie could have been done: The Green Hornet and Kato trick all the crime families into meeting, capture them, and retire. Years later, Britt is all grown up and wasting his life. His father is murdered at a party which brings Kato out of retirement. Britt meets Kato’s daughter Mulan who trains with him to be The Green Hornet and Kato’s replacements. Then the rest of the movie version is great (with a few changes to accommodate the new origin).

Although neither was perfect, I preferred Seth Rogen’s version to Kevin Smith’s. If you’re on the fence about seeing the film, see it – just do yourself a favor and go in with no expectations. Once Seth Green becomes The Green Hornet, the movie is hilarious and action packed.

The Green Hornet and Kato

The Green Hornet and Mulan