In this morning’s roundup of Hollywood news ‘n’ notes from around the web, Han Solo escapes death, and evil ex-boyfriends line up.
Gary Kurtz, the producer of “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back,” tells Geoff Boucher about how and why he walked away from George Lucas’ saga 30 years ago, when it looked to him as if the toy business was beginning to drive the franchise. On the eve of his eagerly (and, to Lucas, nervously) awaited appearance at this weekend’s “Star Wars” convention in Florida, Kurtz says that he parted ways with Lucas over the storyline to the third film, “Return of the Jedi.” Kurtz wanted a story in which Han Solo dies, the rebel forces end in disarray and Luke Skywalker walks off alone; Lucas insisted on a glorious happy ending, with no dead principals to hurt the “really big toy sales.” Lucas lived happily ever after, though fans who thought “The Empire Strikes Back” (below) was the best “Star Wars” movie might wish that Kurtz had gotten his way and steered the franchise toward the dark side. (Hero Complex)
On Wednesday night, Sony Pictures Classics co-chief Tom Bernard spoke at a “Filmmaker Toolkit Series” event sponsored by indieWIRE, which has a transcript of the advice to filmmakers given by one of the steadiest, longest-running distributors of low-budget, foreign and arthouse films. His basic message: know the business side so that people don’t take advantage of you. “You can’t make a film and think now it is done and hand it over to a stranger that you think will make it work,” he said. “It would be like having a baby and giving it away to a couple you think looks good to raise the child … ” (indieWIRE)
Thanks to “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” one of the catchphrases of the day is “evil ex-boyfriends." This inspires Vulture to come up with a list, and slideshow, of “the 11 most evil boyfriends in movie history.” It includes Craig Scheffer’s spoiled rich boy form “Some Kind of Wonderful,” Bradley Cooper’s spoiled rich boy in “Wedding Crashers,” Anthony Michael Hall’s spoiled rich boy in “Edward Scissorhands” … But lest you think all evil boyfriends are cut from the same expensive cloth, none of them rank as high (or low) as Dennis Hopper’s sinister creep in “Blue Velvet.” (Vulture)
Michael Cieply thinks he sees a trend in movies with big casts. Although he hedges his bets a bit, and says “maybe it is a trend.” But he thinks it’s easier these days for filmmakers to “round up an ensemble” – or maybe it’s just easier for them to take those ensembles to Comic-Con, so that big panels featuring the casts of “The Expendables” and “Scott Pilgrim” get noticed by the New York Times. Meanwhile, David Poland thinks this is the “truly idiotic trend story of the week.” (The Hot Blog)
