Archive for the ‘scifi and fantasy’ Category

Disney Acquires Lucasfilm for $4.05 Billion

Oct 30, 2012 movies and tv, scifi and fantasy

Disney’s Bob Iger and Lucasfilm’s George Lucas

Today it was announced that The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm Ltd in a stock and cash transaction worth an estimated $4.05 billion.

Disney and Lucasfilm have worked together in the past, most notably on the Star Tours attractions at its Disney theme parks. But with this agreement, Disney will wholly own Lucasfilm and everything to do with the Star Wars universe.

“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” said George Lucas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.”

Kathleen Kennedy, current Co-Chairman of Lucasfilm, will become President of Lucasfilm, reporting to Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn. She will also serve as the brand manager for everything Star Wars, and executive producer on new Star Wars feature films, with Lucas serving as creative consultant.

Lucas at Walt Disney World

The first major project lined up with Lucasfilm now under Disney will be Star Wars Episode 7, set for a 2015 release. This is the first film in the last of Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy.

Worth noting is that Marvel, which was also acquired by Disney, has scheduled the film Avengers 2 for release in 2015, as well.

“Lucasfilm reflects the extraordinary passion, vision, and storytelling of its founder, George Lucas,” said Robert A. Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. “This transaction combines a world-class portfolio of content including Star Wars, one of the greatest family entertainment franchises of all time, with Disney’s unique and unparalleled creativity across multiple platforms, businesses, and markets to generate sustained growth and drive significant long-term value.”

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Cheaters: The Star Trek Confrontation

Feb 8, 2012 life, movies and tv, scifi and fantasy

Right now I don’t have cable TV, so I’m stuck with local programming. I really need to pay off some med bills and get a new car, and I’ve gone down to just the must-have expeditures – shelter, food, etc.

But for some reason, I can get all the cheesy auxillary stations but not the big three: NBC, CBS and ABC. As I’m flipping channels trying to find something to watch that isn’t going to completely rot my brain out, like one of those judge shows, I landed on an episode of Cheaters.

Normally I would kill myself trying to change the channel, but as my finger moved over the remote button, I heard the host tell the guy that was cheated on: “If you want to confront her, she and the guy are at a Star Trek convention.”

Wait…it was gonna go down at a Star Trek con? Ok, I was sucked in.

So the guy cheated on confronts his girlfriend, who’s all dressed up as Marta the slave girl, from the original series, complete with red wig and green body paint. Her partner-in-crime is dressed up as Kirk (of course), complete with yellow shirt and phaser.

And the three of them start yelling at each other in the middle of the convention center.

The floozy grabs Kirk and takes off with him and the cheated on guy starts yelling how much he loves her and the chase is on.

Yes, this is some great quality TV, isn’t it? I couldn’t take anymore and had to change the channel.

I’m now watching some show on how to make homemade apricot ice cream.

I’m not sure how long I’m going to last without cable.

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Star Wars Sticker Text Generator

Jan 28, 2010 scifi and fantasy

When I was a kid, I collected the trader cards that came out for the Star Wars movies. So I was thrilled when I ran across this online generator by Restraining Bolt that reproduces the letter stickers that came with the card sets. Other than a fun trip through the memory archives, it serves no other purpose, but I think it’s still very cool.

As for the cards themselves, I think they were lost years ago in a basement flood, but I keep hoping I’ll find them when I finish going through all the stuff in gramma’s storage unit.

[found via the StarWars.com blog]

PS: I’m posting this using Firefox’s ScribeFire add-on extension, so we’ll see how it turns out. :)

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you shoulda put a ring on it

Sep 22, 2009 life, scifi and fantasy

I’ve always been fascinated with the planet Saturn. Ever since I first learned about it in school, I always thought it was cool that it had the rings around it and it just seemed to giant and majestic.

This week, NASA released some recent photos taken from the Cassini robotic explorer earlier this year, during the planet’s equinox when the sun shone directly on equator. Here is the composite photo showing the entire planet:

saturn2009a

How beautiful is that, eh?  I think it’s absolutely gorgeous. I wish we were more progressed that I could actually see Saturn first hand, but I know that will never happen in my lifetime. One never to cross of my bucket list, as it were. But at least through this space photography,  I can still experience the real-life beauty of this planet.

Thank you NASA!

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star wars travel posters

Apr 28, 2009 movies and tv, scifi and fantasy

I so want these!  Given my love of Star Wars and travel, these are so perfect.

According to the article at Geeks of Doom, StarWars.com should have these for sale in their shop, but I couldn’t find them. At any rate, I’d love to see what they come up with for the rest of the series. They still could do Endor, Naboo, the Death Star, Dagobah…   It’d be cool if they did post card versions, too. Those I’d definitely buy. Easier to frame and they don’t take up so much wall space.

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dr horrible’s sing-along blog now live!

Jul 15, 2008 browncoat stuff, online humor, scifi and fantasy

In case you missed all the links in my sidebar and my post on it, the new Joss Whedon project “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” just went live. This internet project is a superhero-type musical comedy lovestory told from the wannabe-super-villian point-of-view.

And as if that isn’t enough, it stars Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible (aka wannabe-super-villian), Nathan Fillion as Capt. Hammer (aka the super-hero) and Felicia Day (aka the lovestory part of this triangle).

Just watched part one online at DrHorrible.com and it was definitely worth the wait.  As a classically trained vocalist, I was suprised at how good the singing was – even Nathan, who definitely sings better than he dances.

Oh, don’t look at me like that…you know it’s true. Proof:

nathan fillion dancing

Now I just have to wait some more. Part two goes live Thursday (July 17) and part three goes live Saturday (July 19). The whole thing will only be online until Sunday, then you have to wait for the DVD (with bonus stuff up the wahoo, according to Whedon).  Or you can buy it online at iTunes, too. I think I’ll wait for the DVD, though.

Did you see it? What did you think?

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