Blue Milk Special

One of the sweetest and most endearing things Chewie ever does in the movies is support Leia when Han is raised from the carbon freezing chamber in a block of carbonite. If you specifically watch Chewie in the shot right before the carbonite slab is pushed to the floor, you’ll see him concentrating more on Leia than what has happened to Han. Now, we could say that Irvin Kershner gave Peter Mayhew some direction and he took it a little too literally, but I like to think that Chewie knew how close the two were and placed his concern for her reaction over his own feelings. Seriously, it’s worth rewatching, just for Chewie. Who knew wookiees could be such sensitive and caring friends?

I would LOVE to ask Carrie Fisher if she could remember exactly what she was thinking during those takes where she had to switch off the behind-the-scenes anxiety between her and Harrison and give such an emotional, but strong performance. So badly want to know.

There’s a nice blog that fellow Leia fans might want to check out, talking about what a strong character she is. In my opinion, she’s the most interesting character in the Star Wars universe. If anyone has any good Chewbacca blog articles, let me know. I’d love to read a good analysis of that walking carpet. 😉

There has been much discussion since last week’s big news about LucasFilm’s sale to Disney. Below are some important notes and errata that I thought were interesting. Some of this we discussed on the Blue Milk Special Facebook page.

But first, if you ordered a Leanne Hannah Sketchbook, Artbook and/or Sketchcard before today, they have now been mailed out. If your order was between 10.22.12 and 10.27.12, and have not yet received it, please email me to let me know. We noticed some orders from our first shipment have not yet been delivered. Let me know if you are one of these and I will look into it and get back to you.

Second: We need your help to defend Blue Milk Special. If you see Blue Milk Special strips appearing online without the disclaimer or Blue Milk Special web address, please report it to us immediately. One such case was reported to us and someone had deliberately removed our disclaimer and web address, robbing us of credit for the idea and the hours of work we both put into each strip. Not only does this prevent potential new readers from finding us, but it is potentially damaging too. We put in the time and effort to create new, full color, material several times a week, and nobody wants their work to be stolen. Email me if you spot this happening.

If you want to help Blue Milk Special, one of the best things you can do is share our updates on Facebook so your friends see it and we reach new people. That goes for Twitter updates, Pinterest, etc. If you believe you can help Blue Milk Special it would lighten our own load considerably and let us focus more on the strips.

Third: I’ve been doing some redecorating, including the creation of the long overdue Blue Milk Special Archives page. You can access it from the horizontal menu above the webcomic strip. It provides quick links to the storyarcs throughout Blue Milk Special 400+ strip run. So, now you can more easily navigate to the storyarc you are interested in reading / re-reading. I’ve also included a Facebook widget in the blog and will continue to do so. This way readers can see what else is going on / being discusses during the week at our Facebook page, as we only update this site on Monday’s and Friday’s.

Now for the LucasFilm / Disney errata

Disney can’t take full credit for Avengers. Disney bought Marvel when the Avengers film was already in development and had little to do with that movie. If anything, their lack of creative involvement means that they should not receive full credit for the success of that film…

“When Disney bought Marvel, they agreed to run the film studio as an independent subsidiary. The accolades and credit for making the Avengers should not lie with Disney in the slightest. The only thing that they did was not interfere with the studio, and in 2011 fire most of the marketing department from Marvel saying that Disney will now market all of their films. The Avengers was made by the same people that were behind the bulk of Marvel movies made up until now.” Thanks to Vic Sage for this important point.

Photos of Lucas and Mickey Mouse are from Star Wars Weekends 2010/2011. The photos of George Lucas floating around online with Mickey Mouse and other costumed Disney characters are from a photo shoot a couple of years ago when George was at Disney World for his annual prep for Star Wars Weekends. It is not part of a press release for the purchase of LucasFilm. Thanks to Steve Blythe for this info.

Lucas is now one of the top three shareholders in Disney. George Lucas signed a deal to sell LucasFilm to Disney for $4 billion dollars. However, half of that is cash, the other half is stock in Disney, making him the largest Disney shareholder. This means that he’s given up ownership of LucasFilm for influence in Disney. Thanks to MrGoodbytes and Con_TheFett for this.

Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher knew about new Star Wars trilogy plans. Either last summer this year or last year, definitely August, George Lucas had lunch with Mark and Carrie and discussed his intention to press forward with a new trilogy. One of our Facebook fans pointed out the much publicized weight loss success Carrie has had with the Jenny Craig program. I don’t think there’s a connection, but it would make it easier for her slip back into the role of Leia.

Star Wars VII will probably be released around Christmas, 2015.

I highly doubt the traditional Star Wars release date of May 25th would be achievable. Christmas, 2015 is much more likely given the amount of post production that a special effects heavy film like Star Wars would require, not forgetting all the make up and costumes to be made in pre-production.

What would Star Wars VII be like? George will be involved as a consultant, we know that much. We also know that he has given Kathleen Kennedy (Co-Chairman LucasFilm – soon to be Predisent) some of his ideas. Clearly Mark will be playing an older Luke, perhaps in the Obi-Wan vein and the main stars of the film will be new characters with new actors. Both Mark and Carrie may be limited to mere cameo roles, or perhaps supporting cast at best.

Disney will not be ignoring the Expanded Universe. So far, we know from George Lucas’ discussion with Kathleen Kennedy, that he has given her story treatments and ideas for this new trilogy, including a wealth of books and comics. There can be no doubt he is referencing and endorsing the Expanded Universe books and comics. So it will at least be an option for Kathleen when working out the story with the script writers they are already in talks with.

Let’s hope the involvement of Disney’s stable of storytelling geniuses (Pixar) put the characters before the action. The theme park action sequences are part of the Star Wars experience, but they should come second. And please… PLEASE don’t give everyone lightsabers. A plot that does not revolve around blowing up another Death Star or a lame derivative (EU style) would also be highly appreciated. Give us a threat of a different nature.

Also, please don’t repeat the cycle of having the older Luke turn evil. We’ve already seen the redemption story. Give me more smugglers and more bounty hunters, simply because its a side of Star Wars that the Prequels forgot. Get Billy Dee back for a cameo. And if Harrison Ford could come back for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, then he can make a cameo as Han Solo.

Here’s Kenny Baker’s (R2D2) reaction to last week’s announcement.

And yes, if the characters in the new trilogy are compelling then Blue Milk Special may very well continue for a lot longer than we planned!