The Denver Post published a nice piece by John Wenzel about Colin Cantwell last week, going over his contributions to Star Wars: A New Hope and other accomplishments. You can check it out on their official website: “He kept his Star Wars legacy a secret in Boulder for decades. At 85, the sci-fi pioneer is ready to step out.“ [Read more…]
Bonhams has put up a piece for public auction in their current “TCM Presents … Out of This World!” event scheduled to conclude on November 21st – a prop which they describe as “A Luke Skywalker Lightsaber used in Return of the Jedi”. The description in the online catalog has been edited to remove the (vague) details about the provenance, and the piece in question seems to match a “Return of the Jedi” lightsaber prop that I wrote about in 2013 that was offered for sale on eBay and seemed to have a connection with Elstree Props (and went unsold with a high bid of $5,101 not reaching the reserve). The 2013 article about that “Return of the Jedi” lightsaber was one of a series of features published on the Original Prop Blog specifically about Elstree Props and lightsaber props attributed to Return of the Jedi (I even had an opportunity to ask Mark Hamill himself about one of these props at San Diego Comic Con in 2009). [Read more…]
This is part of my ongoing coverage of San Diego Comic-Con 2017. Having just concluded their own D23 convention a week earlier in Anaheim, it is obvious that Disney favors their own event as it grows more and more each year. The main attractions at the Star Wars exhibitor area was similar to the prior year. [Read more…]
This is part of my ongoing coverage of San Diego Comic-Con 2017. Marvel continue to have one of the most disappointing exhibitor spaces (in the context of who they are and what Comic-Con should be). I ripped Marvel Entertainment pretty hard in sharing my thoughts on their exhibitor space in 2016, and 2017 is just more of the same. Marvel (“Disney-owned Marvel”?) has become a giant IP that puts all of its emphasis on its awesome movies and little else. [Read more…]
Today Prop Store announced their latest online sale, Star Wars & Star Trek Blueprint Auction. The catalog will be available on April 14th, with the auction concluding on April 28th. [Read more…]
GeekTyrant has a special sneak preview of an upcoming episode of Pop Culture Quest featuring Mark Hamill, who of course played Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films. Prop Store’s Brandon Alinger appears with Mr. Hamill and shows him the original hero lightsaber that he used in Return of the Jedi, which was also used by Alec Guinness in A New Hope. You can check out a preview of the scene on YouTube. [Read more…]
A year ago I received a lot of nasty hate mail over my “sort of” movie review for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In short, I completely hated it (really even more than I let on in my review). In addition to hating what they did with the classic characters, it kind of ruined the Original Trilogy, in that by Han and Leia having a child and doing such an awful job of raising him (along with Uncle Luke), they created a monster and basically undid all of what they accomplished in saving the universe in the original films. So it kind of just made the entire Star Wars odyssey all pointless. But there were plenty of other things wrong with it as well (in my subjective opinion), and you can read all about it in my full review of The Force Awakens. But this review is different. Finally, since 1983, there is a legitimate fourth Star Wars film. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. And I absolutely loved it. [Read more…]
This is part of my ongoing coverage of San Diego Comic-Con 2016. Disney had scheduled their Star Wars Celebration convention event to be held in London the week leading up to SDCC, but they still put together an impressive collection of original costumes together for exhibit at San Diego Comic Con at their official booth. This year, it was all costumes from the upcoming Rogue One, which is due in theaters in December. [Read more…]