This week worlds collide when we sit down with John Cho
And Pablo finds out the secrets behind Han’s speeder.
Ooooh!
This is The Star Wars Show.
From the Lucasfilm headquarters in San Francisco, here’s your hosts, Andi and Anthony!
Hello and welcome to The Star Wars Show, the only Star Wars Show brave enough to welcome
cast members of other space movies onto their couch.
Because at the end of the day we’re looking to make Star Peace, not Star War.
And now the news.
Star Wars Episode 9 has added another cast member.
Dominic Monaghan, known best for his roles in Lost and The Lord of the Rings trilogy
is headed to a galaxy far, far away.
Monaghan joins previously announced Star Wars newcomers Naomi Ackie, Keri Russell,
and Richard E. Grant, personal hero.
Star Wars Episode 9 directed by JJ Abrams will hit theaters in December 2019.
Star Wars Battlefront II released a roadmap for the rest of 2018 today.
In it we learned an improved Squad system is coming in September, General Grievous is
coming in October, Prequel-era Obi-Wan and a Geonosis Galactic Assault map are coming
in November, with Count Dooku, Anakin Skywalker, and a new large scale mode coming this winter.
But that’s not all.
Battlefront II also has some new updates coming to the game today in their elite corps update.
They include new Clone Trooper appearances like the 41st elite Corps and the 327th Star
Corps, the Theed Hangar on Naboo map available in custom arcade and blast modes and more.
For more information about the roadmap and further updates check out BattlefrontII.com
or StarWars.com/SWS
If you’re a fan of the seedier side of Star Wars, then do we have the book for you.
Star Wars: Scum & Villainy is a brand new book from the Lucasfilm Story Group’s own
Pablo Hidalgo that details every dank and dingy corner of the Star Wars underworld and
the nefarious ne’er-do-wells that call it home.
Every page is filled with colorful illustrations, and sheds light on the galaxy’s most notorious.
And for more information check out StarWars.com/SWS.
I’m here with Gary Tompkins, Senior Art Director.
He’s invited us into his office to look at some of the vehicles he’s responsible
for on this movie.
One of the most important ones in the movie is Han’s speeder itself.
Which required a lot of development work with concept artists.
Our designer ended up with this design.
I think everyone on the production wanted it to be, sort of, partially 1960’s muscle car.
And then obviously a nod to speeders we’ve seen before, like Luke’s speeder.
A lot of the references that we had in the early days of this film were Bullitt and The Driver.
A lot of those sort of ‘60’s and ‘70’s car chase movies.
So we’ve done so many Star Wars movies but we’ve never had a proper speeder chase.
One that was actually realized the way it was shot for this movie.
It was a very exciting proposition when we all started on this movie and knew there would
be a speeder chase.
We built Han’s speeder and the Moloch speeder on a spoke chassi with a V8 engine.
And we shot the whole thing on location as a real car chase with stunt drivers.
And it will show all those references that we made to the early films.
All of those, sort of, camera angles and things have really, sort of, fed into the final sequence.
So it’s one thing to see this as a model, it’s another thing entirely different to
be sitting inside it.
This whole thing is detailed.
There are monitors and displays.
There is no detail missing on this.
It’s quite amazing.
That was idea.
That it could be something that we could shoot very close on and you could believe that it
really would be a workable machine if you were to take it out on the open road.
Because the special effects department wanted to use this wonderful V8 engine to power the
car and because we in the art department wanted the car to be fairly compact in it’s dimensions,
the engine didn’t fit under the hood.
One of the obvious things to do would be put a bonnet bulge in it but we thought that maybe
that is too obvious.
So we came up with this kind of, what has been dubbed the coffee grinder.
Which when it goes along we’ve got a feed to it and this thing goes round.
These items you see here are all part of the actual engine and the rest of it is under here.
It’s one of those occasions where a problem has actually, I think, enhanced the design.
[Porg sounds]
Everybody please welcome John Cho to the show.
Thank you so much for coming by.
Thank you.
Even though you were in that other space franchise that shall not be named.
It’s nice to see that we can come together and hang out.
Wow.
I didn’t know we were like that.
There’s this idea that maybe Star Trek and Star Wars, you can’t like one or the other.
But there’s a lot of crossover.
Yeah.
And I am definitely proof of that.
I’m a big Trekkie, so.
Me too.
Yeah, but we’re here to talk about Star Wars then so.
Star Wars.
Yeah.
Wars.
Okay.
There’s wars in the stars.
Star Wars.
Okay.
So what was your Star Wars fandom like?
Did you grow up watching it?
You know, I think I missed A New Hope in the theater because I wasn’t in the country
when it came out.
But my friends really got me in.
We just started playing with the toys and I was like, what is this?
And so I was really excited for Empire Strikes Back.
Which was my first Star Wars movie in the theater.
And that was such a thrilling experience and even looking back it’s like that sequence
where Luke beheads Darth Vader.
I realized it was my first experience with avante-garde cinema.
It was this abstract, psychological sequence that wasn't happening.
It was cool.
Yeah.
It was deep.
Also, Yoda, the most famous Asian in film.
[Laughing]
Yoda’s Asian?
Yeah, he is!
Okay.
He’s an old Chinese man.
Okay.
What do you mean?!
Look at his face.
Also his syntax.
He’s a green alien but okay.
He’s this close to giving you the match, uh thing for your back or giving you the massage at the airport.
[Laughing]
Also, I’d like to announce my next project right here on The Star Wars Show.
It’s called Sulu: A Star Trek Story.
But, wait, wait!
It will not be another actor, it will be me.
I don’t want to see ground yet.
[Laughing]
There is a lot of crossover between the nerd fandoms and stuff like that.
Mhmm.
So I was kind of wondering what your experience has been like being apart of such a huge pop
culture phenomenon.
The craziest thing I think about Star Trek is probably the multi, and I’m sure it’s
the same for Star Wars as well, is counting the number of generations that have been into it.
You get to see that sort of generational thing.
That’s one of my favorite thing about Star Wars, actually.
Is when you talk to people who are like, yeah my dad brought me to see Star Wars when I
was 7 and now with new movies coming out I have a 7 year old and I get to take them to that.
Yeah, yeah.
What’s it like sharing that phenomenon or that culture with your kids?
Cause you know you’ve got two kids that are growing up right now and sort of in that
prime age for getting involved in…
Yeah, it’s funny.
I never thought I as a father would be into anything that my kids were into because my
dad wasn't into anything that I was into.
Mhmm.
And so Star Wars and Star Trek are both things that go across multiple generations that we
can share and so that’s actually really special.
You’re actually here talking about your new movie Searching.
Really interesting, kind of, premise about this movie with the way that it was shot being
completely on screens.
Can you tell me a little bit about that process?
Cause it's totally different than what people are really used to seeing.
It feels like a traditional thriller.
It feels that way but it doesn't look that way because it’s shot on the devices that
we use all the time, you know, phones and tablets and laptops.
It was a challenge for me as an actor cause it wasn't like acting that I’d done before.
There was no person in front of me, you know, just looking at a webcam.
In some ways it's the extreme version of being on the bridge of the Enterprise.
That’s a “spaceship” from a movie series…
Out!
...that's called “Star Trek”.
Out!
When we were filming on the fake “spaceship” there was a big screen and it was green cause
at the time there was nothing on it.
Am I looking at the right camera?
[Laughing]
Hi, my name is Joel Aron, I’m the CG Lighting and Effects Supervisor for Lucasfilm Animation.
And I’m here to give you some of my favorite tips for photography for the Star Wars Fan Awards.
One of the most helpful tips, doesn’t work so well with your cats or your dogs, it works
really well people, is to always keep talking.
Absolutely keep talking to that person.
Don’t stop and get into your camera.
I’m trying to get an emotion out of them or a reaction.
Hey, Kyle.
Can you do me a favor and lower your jaw for me.
And by the time that he thought of what I was going to say and he lowered his jaw.
I took the picture.
That’s what gets you those emotional, real reactions of people, is when they’ve stopped
thinking about “I’m having my picture taken”.
And if you are taking a picture of your cat use a laser pointer.
You get that less cute image of a cat moving around and that’s when you take the picture of your cat.
Move along.
Those are some rock solid tips.
They are.
And remember, the Fan Awards submission window is rapidly drawing to a close, so why not
take advantage of the upcoming holiday weekend to work on your entry.
Shall we?
Take it away.
Remember to like the video, subscribe to the channel, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram, download the Star Wars app, and if you want to read more about anything we
talked about this week check out StarWars.com/SWS.
Thanks for watching and may the Force be with you.
Just like that.
That’s the “may the Force be with you” sign.
Star wheels… star wheels?
Star Wars Battle… blerp.
And honestly I'm more of a Trekker than a Trekkie.
It’s different.
Anything… blah, blah, blap.
[Laughing]
It's a big week. I'm tired.
[Laughing] Yeah!
It's fine to be tired. I'm allowed.
It's fine. Abraham Lincoln took naps.