A huge amount of work goes into Guy’s production design work – from initial concepts through to the actual filming process and beyond
Welcome to Part 2 of this month’s Five Minutes With… Q&A, featuring production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas (you can check out Part 1 here).
In this second instalment, Guy discusses his work with Steven Spielberg on Indiana Jonesand the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, provides insight into the mind-bending world he helped create for Christopher Nolan’s Inception, discusses his recent work on Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs, and much, much more!
That was the question on everyone’s lips when Disney announced that, as the first order of business following its $4bn acquisition of Lucasfilm, it would produce Star Wars – Episode VII: The Force Awakens.
You wouldn’t know it from all the positive buzz and critical acclaim surrounding the film, but at the time, this was a very valid query. The Star Wars franchise circa October 2012 was in a comatose state, the result of the brutal bashing dished out on creator George Lucas’ prequel trilogy by critics and fans alike.
Whilst the tie-in media – books, cartoons, video games and action figures – was still doing decent business, many doubted whether Star Wars would ever be able to recapture its popularity with moviegoers jaded by three mediocre films in a row.
Fast forward to the present, and not only do these concerns seem laughable, but the answer to that opening question stands answered in the affirmative.
With this latest entry in the series, director J.J. Abrams and his cast and crew have not only re-awakened the Force, but the entire Star Wars franchise as well.
Over the course of the last five months, I’ve focussed primarily on posts dedicated to the original Star Wars trilogy, mostly because, well…they’re kinda much better than the prequel films that followed.
Even so, it seems a bit of a missed opportunity to totally gloss over what currently amounts to 50% of the Star Wars saga, which is why this month we’re going to take a look back at the latest – and at the time of its release, final – instalment in the series, Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
All that fuss over a statue! Of a bird!Whether you’re an aspiring movie buff or simply someone who spends their time around a lot of film geeks, chances are you’ve heard the word “MacGuffin” used in conversation more than once.
It’s the type of cinematic term that more ardent fans tend to assume everyone else is familiar with, and thus its meaning often goes unexplained.
So just what exactly is a MacGuffin? And why does it keep cropping up when people talk movies?
What’s the better type of band? “Plucky” or “ragtag”?When George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney back 2012, fans went ballistic at the news that the long-anticipated (and seemingly cancelled) Star Wars sequel trilogy was now officially happening.
Once this excitement died down, speculation soon turned towards whether or not The House of Mouse would announce any standalone films unrelated to the core movies, in an effort to exploit the cash-making machine that is the Star Wars license for all its worth.
True to form, the Star Wars Anthology series was announced a few months later, with director Gareth Evans’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story bringing us the adventures of a ragtag team of Rebel fighters in December 2016.
Disney-Lucasfilm have also made it clear that we can expect at least two more entries in the Anthology series, and we’re told that the next of these will focus on everyone’s favourite scoundrel, Han Solo (and which should totally be titled Han: Solo; Disney execs – you’re welcome).
But what other adventures set in a galaxy far, far away can we expect? Join me now as I make like a Jedi and peer into the future of Star Wars spin-offs!
Which of these characters I’d cut will probably surprise you
As September rapidly draws to a close, you have might have been worrying that this month’s installment in The Pop Culture Studio’s Star Wars-themed series of articles wasn’t going to materialise.
Well, fret no more, as a new post focussed exclusively on everyone’s favourite galaxy far, far away has now arrived, in the form of an Elevator Pitch.
Those of who have misgivings after the last self-indulgent, meandering, just plain no good Elevator Pitch (you know – the one about the Daredevil TV show), I promise I’ve learned my lesson, and my pitch for a reworked version of Star Wars – Episode I: The Phantom Menace should make for a much better read!
Creationists would of course argue that Darth Vader “didn’t descend from no stinkin’ evil monkey”
Ever since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced the modern supervillain in the form of Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis Professor Moriarty, pop culture has been home to countless larger than life figures exhibiting wicked inclinations.
Nowhere is this more apparent than the movies, which have provided us with numerous classic evildoers. From Bela Lugosi’s Dracula to Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lector and on to Heath Ledger’s Joker, films have been a showcase for some of the most memorable bad guys in all of fiction.
Of all these cinematic supervillains, I’d argue that the title of greatest of them all should go to a true icon of the screen: Darth Vader. In this latest article in the Pop Culture Studio’s Star Wars-themed series, I’ll look at Vader’s constant evolution as a character throughout the Star Wars saga, and explain why this sets him above his distinguished competition.
