Saturday 9 February 2013

ROTJ AT 30: A SMUGGLER'S LUCK


As the skiff battle around Jabba's Sail Barge intensifies, the still only partially sighted Han Solo tries to help his wounded friend Chewbacca, unaware that deadly bounty hunter Boba Fett, behind him, has his blaster arm firmly set on dispatching Luke Skywalker. What happens next is one of the STAR WARS saga's classic character moments, even if it means the (temporary) loss of one of its finest villains.

Both Solo and Fett's iconic place in popular STAR WARS history could be solidified ever further as official news comes in of two further, all-new DISNEY backed STAR WARS spin-off movies, rumoured to be specially written for those characters, set in and out of the Classic Trilogy. A Boba Fett movie has long been one of fandom's most desired projects (more so if the originally planned live-action TV series from LUCASFILM has now fallen through), and I'd like to see his visualist co-creator, Joe Johnston, handle that one as director. But how they'll do a Han Solo film will surely be quite a challenge. Just who could play Han Solo apart from Harrison Ford? Back in 1989, the late River Phoenix would have been the obvious choice after his brilliant turn as the young Indy in THE LAST CRUSADE, but with today's rising screen stars, I think the only real candidate is Joseph Gordon- Levitt, who did such a fine supporting job in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES and becoming/imitating an exemplary young version of Bruce Willis in the sci-fi adventure LOOPER.

The Guardian newspaper has an intriguing feature on what we might expect from the films: Han Solo and Boba Fett could be next Star Wars characters to go it alone | Film | guardian.co.uk

Disney CEO Announces Plans for Star Wars Spin-Off Films - Today's News: Our Take | TVGuide.com

Star Wars: Han Solo and Boba Fett movies coming? | Den of Geek

IGN Interviews Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg on Star Wars: Episode VII and Standalone Films - IGN

Let's see what the future holds in store. And here's hoping we also finally get a Darth Vader movie set between EPISODEs III and IV, showing the true birth of the Empire, the return of Ewan McGregor as an outcast Kenobi, and the overall Jedi slaying...

With thanks to Chris Baker for the image.

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