Kevin Smith, Edgar Wright, and Simon Pegg Interview @ EmpireOnline

[Disco1999]

Here's an interesting interview with Kevin Smith and two dudes behind Spaced/Shaun of the Dead. Funny how far off some of their EpIII predictions are!

http://www.empireonline.co.uk/starwars/transcript.asp

[jpeters430]

That was actually a great read--just a bunch of Star Wars fans sitting around and talking about their favorite moments. There's a lot of prequal bashing, but it's good natured, and Smith and Co. do a nice job of explaining the whole "raped my childhood" attitude.

My favorite part:

Empire: And Kevin, your experience?

Kevin: I don't know. There was a moment when I saw attack of the Clones at a pre-screening, where Yoda comes and pimps around the corner before he goes 'Count Dooku'. And I had no idea, like, I did not know that he was going to have a lightsaber fight. And when he draws and lights up, I remember feeling – it was kind of a mixture of a press screening and a Lucasfilm staff screening. So there were press people there and there were people who worked on the film who were there with their kids. . . . And when that lightsaber came out, I just remember it being one of those moments where I was like 'ohmigod, I'm so not this guy, but I'm gonna fucking scream!' But it's going to be drowned by the cacophony of other screams, so I was like 'Wooooooooooo!'

And there's a point when I realised I was alone. Nobody's backing up the 'woooo!' I was committed, I was in, so I just kept going. So there was this bizarre transfer of power in my head where I thought 'I'm more reserved than this, I shouldn’t be doing it, but I'm gonna do it, because I'll be backed up by everybody else, but shit I'm alone, so I can either peter out – 'woooo' or I can just commit to the sheer fucking joy of seeing Yoda unsheath and finish my 'woooo'. So I finished my 'woooo' and I looked at my wife and she was like, 'do you feel better?' I said, 'actually I do.' (laughter)

But that took me back to being a fucking kid. Very few moments that you get like that any more in movies . . . It's primal. It took me right back to being a kid. And I don't know about anybody else, but very rarely do I feel like that now.

Kevin Smith is fucking hilarious.

[Disco1999]

Simon: One of the first posters that they did, when Anakin's standing in the corridor on the blockade runner. That is such an amazing poster, better than that silly one with the cape and better than the Drew Struzan one, as well. There's so much weight to that poster. It's like this is where we first met him and there he is, standing there as a real person.

Kevin: Was that fanmade?

HA HAAA!!! NICE. Simon, Edgar, seriously, I've got about 4 scripts you should read.

NOOOOO! Have they just referred to something you made?!

Kudos.

[Nightmare721]

I'm beginning to find it terribly annoying that whenever two or more people get together to discuss Star Wars, it is to bitch about it. Seven pages of incessant complaining, in an article that is supposed to commemorate the bloody subject, is tasteless to the extreme.

[Nightmare721]

lol Yes, they should have done a plug for MF, I admit.

[jpeters430]

I'm beginning to find it terribly annoying that whenever two ore more people get together to discuss Star Wars, it is to bitch about it. Seven pages of incessant complaining, in an article that is supposed to commemorate the bloody subject, is tasteless to the extreme.

I thought it was more good-natured bitching. They all seem to genuinely love Star Wars. And it wasn't even close to the shit you find on most message boards.

They were dissappointed about some things like all of us, but guys like Smith especially seemed to be quite articulate about why they didn't like it (in a swearing, sheep kind of way )

[Disco1999]

Glad most of you enjoyed it,

Posted the same at TFN and some fuckwit mod closed it because there already was a Kevin Smith (re. his upcoming review) thread. Talk about treating people like retards...

... oh hang on

[BrotherTheFirst]

seems to be older news to most but had no idea FR was partly responsible for the poster. let alone being fanmade.

could swear i saw a banner of this. maybe TFN or eBay?

excellent.

[Sketch]

Man, Kevin should of been at the Midnight showing I was at for 2, granted he saw it earlier, but when that scene came up he would of looked almost asleep compared to our crowd, it was utter pandemonium.

[Evil_Elvis]

Thought I'd drop this here, Smith's review of ROTS:

http://viewaskew.com/theboard/viewtopic.php?t=32494

[Probe Droid]

Thanks for the link. I loved the piece, and found it positive. All SW fans bitch about the parts they don't like, but when was the last time you heard someone intelligently defend The Phantom Menace? Very refreshing.

[TiniTinyTony]

Can someone post the review here? He's charging two bucks to register. Yes, I'm a cheap bastard.

[Ewok_Pudu]

Wait a minute. Is he really charging people to sign up for his message board? Did he not just make fun of Hyperspace for charging people for stuff on the internet?

[Jeordie]

The whole Kevin Smith review....


Yes, it's just that dark - and rightfully so. This is the birth of Darth Vader we're talking about. The only comic moments in the flick are given to R2D2, and while good, they're all pretty few and far between; the order of the day is dark, dark, dark.

Ian McDiarmid and Ewan McGregor steal the show, but Hayden Christensen silences any naysayers who wrote him off as too whiney in "Clones". This is the flick that feels closest to Episodes 4, 5, and 6, because - for the first time since "Return of the Jedi" - there is a clear villain. And for all the shadow-play Palpatine has been upto in the last two flicks, his treachery is about as subtle as John Williams' score in "Sith." Whether he's slowly drawing Anakin toward the Dark Side during an opera/performance art piece with his promise of the Sith's power of life over death, or he's engaged in a balls-to-the-wall lightsaber duel in the Senate with Yoda, his "Little, green friend" (his words, not mine - which I kinda dug, because, interestingly, I think it's the first time anyone's acknowledged that Yoda is green in any of the "Star Wars" flicks), this is the Emperor's movie.

The last fifteen minutes dovetail nicely into Episode 4 (or just plain "Star Wars" for you non-geeks), and the movie is full of link-up moments as well.

- At flick's end, Threepio and Artoo are given to Captain Antilles (with the caveat that the Protocol's memory be wiped).

- The twins, natch, are split up. Leia heads to Alderann with Bail Organa, and Obi Wan hands Luke over to Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru (indeed, the closing shot is Owen holding Luke while looking out over the setting suns of Tatooine - mimicking the shot of the adult Luke doing the same in "Star Wars", complete with callback cue from Williams).

- After he succumbs to the Dark Side, Anakin tries to convine Padme that he can overthrow Palpatine, and together, he and Padme can rule the galaxy as husband and wife.

- Vader and the Emperor stand beside a younger Grand Moff Tarkin on the bridge of a Star Destroyer, overlooking the earliest construction stage of the Death Star.

- Yoda telling Obi Wan that, as he heads to Tatooine to hand over Luke and go into exile, that he should spend his time learning to commune with those who've crossed over to the next stage of life, as Yoda maintains he's been doing with Qui Gon (and Ben will later do with both Luke and Yoda, in "Empire" and "Jedi").

- And, hands-down, the best link-up to "Star Wars" moment that I enjoyed the most: Bail Organa and Yoda stepping into the hallway of the Rebel Blockade Runner that opened "Star Wars". Unlike all the high-tech CGI wizardry of the rest of the prequel Trilogy, this is a low-tech looking set, right out of circa '77, and for some reason, it really captured my imagination. I mean, this is the same exact hallway in which we got our first look at Vader, oh so many years ago, and I appreciated the hell out of Mr. Lucas including it - because it really felt like a nod to the hardcores.

Look, this is a movie I was genetically predisposed to love. I remember being eight years old, and reading in "Starlog" that Darth Vader became the half-man/half-machine he was following a duel with Ben Kenobi that climaxed with Vader falling into molten lava. Now, twenty six years later, I finally got to see that long-promised battled - and it lived up to any expectation I still held. I was sad to see the flick end, but happy to know it's not the end of the "Star Wars" universe entirely (I've read stuff about a TV show...).

"Sith" doesn't happen; "Sith" rules.

-----

Keep checking his diary, he talks to Rick alot...

http://viewaskew.com/theboard/viewtopic.php?t=32493

and here http://newsaskew.com/boring
__________________

[Jeordie]

Wait a minute. Is he really charging people to sign up for his message board? Did he not just make fun of Hyperspace for charging people for stuff on the internet?

He does this because of the haters, he doesn't wanna deal with them. When he open the board he gave us 3 weeks to register, all the "regular" members. Besides those 2 bucks go to charity, I forgot which one he doesn't keep that money.

As I said earlier today I'm going to a Q&A of his and I'm sure he'll b talking about it ALOT.

Ok here, http://viewaskew.com/theboard/register.html

[PTGrievous]

That's really great!
I love all three of their work, reading what they have to say is really interesting.