Thirtysomething someone living in Orlando, FL with my awesome wife and two great kids.
I have two books, Unconventional (fiction about three geeks and an eventful weekend at a sci-fi con) and Poodoo (commentary on the Star Wars films and geek culture). I also tweet incessantly.
By day, I do marketing, public relations, social media, and copywriting. By night, I sleep.
I’ve had what can best be described as a (needlessly?) complicated relationship with Star Wars and George Lucas. I even wrote a book about it*. This is the first time I’ve seen him speak and answer questions in this way, and while I still hate many of the decisions he’s made, and believe he’s not exactly the most honest or forthright man with his fans, he seems decent enough. I’d probably have a beer with him.
The second part of the panel was to introduce "Thor," and they wisely included Natalie Portman in the panel. The audible response to her entrance in the section of Hall H where I was seated made me cackle quietly. Seriously... fanboys loooooooooove her. She is the ideal girl for them. There's a generation that's grown up hopelessly head over heels for her. She was fascinating in talking about her motivation for making this movie, using careful language to make her feelings about "Star Wars" very clear once again. She kept repeating, emphatically, that she decided to do this film because she wanted the experience of working on a big FX driven summer blockbuster pop culture machine, but one directed this time by someone who was interested in both character and in really taking apart the text. She kept referring to Kenneth Branagh's particular background in stage and Shakespeare and how that informs the sort of work he does as a director and the priorities he has in the film. It was very revealing.
Very revealing, indeed. It's fascinating to me how George Lucas is just sort of commonly accepted as an awful director by everyone who's worked with him.
One of those tattoos where you just try to imagine someone actually staring at their arm for hours while such an image is etched permanently onto their skin.
0 Comments