Moviefone Editorial

Tag: george-lucas

Her Sights Set on Late-Night TV, Carrie Keagan Swears With Hollywood’s A-List

As if TV personality Carrie Keagan wasn’t already enough of a bombshell on her own, she’s been known to deploy many an f-bomb — and c-bomb, and every-other-profane-word-starting-letter-bomb — in many a celebrity interview.

Hot off of her ended-too-soon stint on the latest edition of “Celebrity Apprentice,” Keagan’s brand-new book “Everybody Curses, I Swear” just hit the shelves, a deliriously expletive-laced and scatologically important tome chronicling her many encounters with equally enthusiastic foul-mouthed famous people during her tenure at her breakout gig hosting celeb chats for the YouTube sensation NoGoodTV.

While the job led to even higher-profile opportunities — including hosting VH1’s “Big Morning Buzz Live,” G4’s “Attack of the Show!,” movie roles like “Sharknado: The 4th Awakens,” and even a momentary stint behind Craig Ferguson‘s late-night talk show desk — it’s clear that her fondness for swopping swear words with the stars has never dimmed, as she tells Moviefone.

Moviefone: You’d been talking to me about this book for a while. When did the idea kind of pop into your head, like “Oh yeah, I’ve got years of great material I can turn into a book”?

Carrie Keagan: I was doing the VH1 show, and I was with my business partner, Kourosh [Taj], and we just started reminiscing one day about, “Oh God, you remember that? Do you remember that time with Colin Farrell? Do you remember … whatever?” We started saying like, ‘Oh, that would make a funny chapter in a book,” and we titled the chapter. Then we just kept going.

All of a sudden we were like, “You know what? We should go and pitch this book. We should go and try and sell this,” and then we did. It was brilliant, honestly. For me, it was a really great way of being able to put all of the things that I can’t remember all the time at the drop of a hat in one place.

When you first started to do this, it must have been a little daunting to go out there and try to be as free-wheeling, and edgy, and anything goes, in the system where it’s all very polite and buttoned up. So tell me about those early days, trying to do interviews with this style that was so different back then.

I didn’t come from a background of doing interviews or anything like that. So just me, myself, trying to get into the headspace of “OK, now I’m going to go in front of the biggest celebrities in the world and I’m going to ask them to do something they probably wouldn’t even do in front of their mother — Oh my God, the pressure!“

Once I got into the rooms, and I just started throwing out F bombs or whatever, I realized that the difference between what I was doing and what everybody else was doing is that I was allowing them to be themselves, and not be this media-treated version of themselves. All it took was me being myself. So the more comfortable I got doing the job, the more comfortable they were just letting their hair down and enjoying the ride. It became what you see now: this Hollywood swear-fest.

Do you remember the first celebrity to really embrace the opportunity that you were giving them and really run with it?

SNL,” so he obviously understood that what I was trying to do was not invasive to him, it was actually super-promoting him. And as soon as I told him we were uncensored, he was like, “All right, let’s f*cking do it.”

And we have had a great relationship ever since. Every time I see him, he’s always been really, really, obviously really blue. And whenever he’s in the room with another co-star of his, he’ll always explain, “This is Keagan. Just wait, just let her do her thing, and you’ll understand in a second.” So he’s always been really supportive. He’s always fantastic.

Who’s made you blush?

Oh, that’s a really good question! Oh God, I don’t know — George Lucas! I got George Lucas to swear. He told me what his favorite curse word was, and it was from “Star Wars.” And being a huge “Star Wars” fan, just being able to hear George Lucas spout out profanity was like, “Oh my God, this is amazing!” I freaked out. He was the greatest thing.

When did the success of your style really become a turning point for you? I remember we started out doing this about the same time. I know it was risky for you, but when did you start getting the returns on it?

People embraced it pretty much right away. There were ups and downs, and there were always moments where I would have to explain, like “I promise, if you don’t like what I’m doing, I just won’t air it,” or whatever.

But really, I think the success of what we were doing ended up happening when I got on the cover of “The Hollywood Reporter,” and I was sitting on Borat’s lap, and they sort of announced that NGTV is this new way of watching your favorite celebrities. I feel like that was probably that moment where all of a sudden people thought that I was legit. That what I was doing wasn’t just some weird online obscure thing, it was actually celebrities enjoying themselves, embracing the format, and going all out.

Tell me about what it was like to build your brand off of that. Obviously, you’ve gone a long way starting there. You’ve got your octopus tendrils in a lot of stuff!

[Laughs] I’ve always liked to stay busy. NGTV was very much a launching point for me. After I was doing NGTV, they offered me the morning show on VH1. What an amazing opportunity. So I was able to take all the things that I had learned over the years and finally do them on live TV every day. It was a fantastic opportunity for me. I was doing “Attack of the Show!” which was bringing out all my nerdy side.

Now we’re talking about late night. So it’s been a stepping stone, but my God, what a great way to cut your teeth with all the biggest celebrities in the world.

Was it hard to reverse course and start to censor yourself for broadcast television?

Yeah, and it’s even harder now that I’m trying to promote a book about swearing on network TV that doesn’t let me swear. It’s very complicated. It’s probably more complicated now than it was before. But you know, I know my place, I have to keep my tongue tied sometimes, it’s okay. Yeah, I feel myself squirming in my chair more often now than ever before.

You don’t have to censor yourself with me, so tell me, what is your all-purpose swear word? Your go-to, the one that you enjoy saying the most?

There’s a few, but the one that I enjoy saying the most is “c*ck-juggling thunderc*nt.” And it can be used in many different forms. It was actually a phrase that I learned from “Blade: Trinity.” David S. Goyer actually wrote that. It wasn’t me who created it. So I’m going to give him credit where credit is due. It was pretty much one of the most creative swear words I’ve ever heard in my life, and I decided to make it my own.

But as far as everyday use, I say “f*ck” all the time. I think it’s a great word. The thing for me, swearing has always been a thing of love. I don’t swear out of hate. I swear out of love and out of fun. I think that’s a really important distinction to make. People mostly put swearing into a context of bad things. But really, swear words are just words. It’s all about the intent, and I intend to make people happy.

Do you have a few favorite celebrity swearers? Like, Ian McShane — it’s just a delight to listen to him cursing. Did you have some interviews that were just like, “I just love hearing you say swear words”?

Yeah. I love cussing it up with Emma Stone. She’s just a wonderful human being. I feel like we’re cut from the same cloth. So, whenever I walk into the room, she’s always like, Keagan! What the f*ck?! I love that.

I got a real kick out of hearing some of the legends, like Robin Williams, when he goes off on a tangent. You know him, he can talk for days, and when he would go off on a swearing fest. I had an entire interview with him once where it was literally about the word f*ck, and he said it in every single language, in every context, in every form you could possibly think of. Guilty pleasure all over the place.

Was it hard to do you style with somebody like Betty White?

No. Betty White is wonderful. Actually, in that sort of genre, Shirley MacLaine is one of the best swearers I’ve ever met. That woman can throw down like nobody’s business. She’s a delight to talk to. She does not mess around. If she does not like the way an interview is going, she will tell you. She had a lot of fun with me.

What’s it been like to have that transition from the interviewer to being a celebrity interviewee in your own right?

It’s funny, I don’t really think about it like that. Even being on “Celebrity Apprentice,” I was just really excited to be there with everybody. I still think of myself as being on the other side. I’m still just a fan first. That’s why I maybe have had any success is that I still really like what I do. I love hosting, I love talking to people, I love meeting people, I loved writing the book. This whole thing has just been a really fun ride for me.

Tell me about your fans, because there’s definitely this huge community that’s been following you from project to project, and the times that you get to interact with them and kind of see why they love what you do and the way you do it.

I nicknamed my fans Keagles. Lady Gaga can have her Little Monsters, I have my Keagles. And they’ve been amazing, honestly. I’ve had such support from my fans on social media, and even just randomly. I don’t think of myself, like I said, as a celebrity. So when people stop me on the street and say, “Oh my God, I saw you on ‘Attack of the Show!’ I loved that show.” Or, “Oh my God, I used to watch ‘Big Morning Buzz’ all the time.” It warms my heart, and it gives me a reason to do this.

Sometimes when you have a hard day, you forget why you’re going to work every day. But then I’ll get a really nice Tweet saying, “Oh my God, that interview you did with Heath Ledger, it just changed my entire vision of who I thought he was.” OK, that’s why I do this, because it’s not just about me. It’s about everybody being able to enjoy this moment that I’m having with a celebrity.

How was that “Celebrity Apprentice” experience, as short-lived as it was? Did you have a good time?

It’s reality TV, so it was a fun ride. I don’t know that I took it super seriously, because I knew it was reality TV. But I took raising money for my charity, the Humane Society of the United States, very seriously. So I was bummed that I wasn’t able to raise money for them. But other than that, it was cool hanging out with the celebrities. It was cool getting to be friends with them now.

It was cool being able to get to know Arnold Schwarzenegger. He invited the whole cast up to his house while we were shooting, and he was like, listen, “I have to fire one of you every week. I want to get to know you as people before I have to do this thing as a boss on a show.” That was amazing. Who gets to do that?

Had you interviewed Arnold a number of times before doing the show?

I had interviewed him once or twice, not many times. He was always a cool dude, but he was the governor. So he was a bit media-treated with me, but he was always really fun.

What’s on the next rung of the ladder for you? What are the things that are in immediate striking distance that you’re hoping to do?

There’s a couple of things on the burner, so you’ll be hearing some announcements, I’m sure, soon, but right now I’m focused on the book. There’s a couple of movies that are still not released, so those are coming out. Hopefully some big announcements, actually.

I would love to do late night. That’s been my goal since the beginning. I think it’s time that a woman is on late night TV. So perhaps you’ll hear about that soon.

You’ve been vocal about that — and you’re not the only one who’s been vocal about that. How close do you think we are to seeing this shift and not the same-old, same-old anymore?

That’s a really good question. I’m not sure. I’ve been in the rooms with networks, and they haven’t moved on it yet. In fact, the one time that they had the opportunity to move on was when Craig Ferguson left. I was on Craig’s show when he announced that he was going to be moving on. He said to me, “You’ve done this before, you want to be in late night. Do you want to audition right here, right now?” I said, “Absolutely!” And he put me behind the desk and it was the first time that’s ever happened.

What did CBS do? They turned around and hired another white dude. So it’s disappointing. I feel like the world is ready. I feel like the networks maybe are still just living in the ’70s and they haven’t quite figured out that the rest of the world is ready for a female voice in that position. Maybe everybody just needs to keep telling them and we can change something.

We’ll close out on a very serious subject: What’s the swear word that you need to use more in your life?

Oh! There’s one that I learned. It’s a weird one, but it’s “d*ck of the cat.” And I plan on putting that into my regular rotation as quickly as I can. D*ck of the cat. It doesn’t sound like a very big swear word, but it’s pretty fabulous.

January 11, 2017
A Rebel and a Princess: Remembering Carrie Fisher

I was nine years old and there she was: like many women who appeared in the films and TV shows I’d seen, she was young – only 19 at the time – and beautiful, but she was so many other things as well, things I hadn’t seen on the screen before all wrapped up in one person: regal, haughty, feisty, sharp-tongued and more than capable of taking care of herself.

She was a rebel and she was a princess.

That description aptly applies to both George Lucas‘ creation Leia Organa and to the actress that gave life to her, Carrie Fisher. Yes, Carrie was born “Hollywood royalty” as they say, but she used every one of the considerable talents at her disposable to claim her own seat at the table.

I was fortunate enough to have grown up in a time when empowered, heroic female characters like Wonder Woman, Bionic Woman and ahead-of-their-time comic book superheroines were becoming more prominent in pop culture (if still sometimes over-sexualized, with apologizes to the iconic metal bikini). Thanks largely to the lead set and cemented by Leia, I came of age with storytelling examples of how women were as likely to save the day as their male counterparts – not just in the “Star Wars” films but in the tie-in novels and comics, a concept that quickly found its way into my toy play, too, and the way I saw the world.

A lot of that was Lucas, but a lot of that was also Carrie. She’d pooh-pooh her contribution for the rest of her life, but that steel we saw inside Leia clearly – as we’d learn over the years – came from inside the woman who played her. She wasn’t just a big screen crush; she was a hero.

“‘Star Wars’ brought out something in people,” she once told me. “And I’m the only girl in it.”

“Star Wars” provided my gateway into a lifelong interest in filmmaking and the personalities of Hollywood, and it wasn’t long before Carrie Fisher became an even more fascinating figure than Princess Leia.

Her family’s backstory was already the stuff of Hollywood legend, and she was cutting her own celebrity swath as well, both in the real locale and in my mind’s version of it. She was a partner-in-partying to my early comedy heroes, Saturday Night Live’s” Not Ready for Prime Time Players, in the thick of it yet dodging the metaphoric bullets that would ultimately claim some of them; she had a storybook romance with one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of all time, Paul Simon, though it didn’t last; she threw epic birthday parties with her pal Penny Marshall that still remain a Hollywood standard for over-the-top indulgence. And she still regularly did good work in good, non-“Star Wars” movies: “The Blues Brothers,” “Hannah and Her Sisters,” “The ‘Burbs,” “When Harry Met Sally…,” “Soapdish,” to name a few.

About the time I was becoming serious about a career as a writer, a whole new facet of Carrie’s life came along to fire a different side of my imagination: she became an accomplished novelist, screenwriter, script doctor and crafter of Oscar night one-liners. Brilliantly witty, stingingly observant and painfully revealing, her second act transformed her not only in Hollywood’s eyes but in my own: she went from embodying a childhood hero to serving as a role model in her own right. I studied her moves as keenly as I’d memorized the names of the planets where the Rebel Alliance had bases.

Later, within her work and through revealing interviews, she would share the stories of her battles with her own personal demons, addiction, alcohol abuse, insecurity, depression, romantic miscalculation and bipolar disorder among them. Although, like everything, these subjects would soon become fodder for a wealth of comedic material, there was most certainly a great deal of pain at the core. This is where I’d first encounter Carrie Fisher the Actual Person, and although she’d frequently cloak herself in a wry comic persona fit for public consumption, as I became part of the Hollywood landscape that surrounded her I began to see her peek out from that bit of cover.

The first of several memorable encounters was in 2004 at the Beverly Hilton at an event in which she was honored for the awareness she’d spread about living with mental health issues, in which she brought the house down with laughter with tales of her short-term memory-loss inducing electroshock therapy sessions – these kinds of speeches would lay the foundation for her acclaimed one-woman shows – but also seemed genuinely puzzled by exactly what SHE had done to better the mental health conversation – she then escaped for a brief respite from the spotlight, crouching outside for a cigarette all alone on the Hilton’s front walkway.

Other encounters would follow, along with various red carpets moments, awards gala tributes and glimpses of her signing autographs at Comic-Con. They included a madcap confetti-slinging, feathered-boaed appearance at the Television Critics Association, chatting with her and her mom Debbie Reynolds at the premiere of HBO’s presentation of her wickedly brilliant one-woman show “Wishful Drinking,” from which I swiped one of the best party favors ever: candy “pills” packaged in a prescription bottle; sitting in the audience of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences’ 30^th anniversary screening of “Star Wars” with Carrie, Mark Hamill, George Lucas and the film’s FX visionaries, seeing her reunite on stage with Harrison Ford and Mark in front of thousands of swooning fans at the 2015 Star Wars Celebration event. And every time there was that little pinch-myself moment, where nine-year-old me is shouting inside my head “There’s Carrie Fisher over there!” “YOU JUST TALKED TO PRINCESS LEIA!”

There’s the memory I already cherished, now and forever, when I drove several miles out of Los Angeles to the Improv in Brea, where Carrie unveiled a new one-woman show – the near-entirety of which was built off of her impromptu responses to spontaneous audience questions. It was a gloriously funny evening that ended with Carrie, her dog Gary, her attentive assistant and I all squeezed into the Improv’s broom closet-sized dressing room, where – just weeks before the announcement of the franchise’s surprise sale and revival – we talked “Star Wars,” her take on the continuing devotion of its fandom, her colorful history and somehow making an art out of winging it on stage. It was one of the most sublime – and slightly, deliriously weird – interview experiences of my career, and of course a dream come true.

“It is strange,” she told me of seemingly unprecedented durability of “Star Wars”. “It’s like a scent that lives in the rug. It’s our own fairytales. The Grimms were for a hundred years ago. So what is it for our generation? What is it that we can relate to? So with Grimm’s fairytales, it’s all folksy and hobbits, and we like all that. But this was just a whole other landscape to imagine on, and people had a real hunger for it.”

I am heartbroken to have to accept that another such chance to chat with Carrie is yet another casualty of 2016: The Year That Everything Just Sucked – I wanted to believe that her long history as a survivor would prevail yet again after news of her cardiac arrest spread. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. But think – just think! – at all of the victories this 5’1″ spitfire scored in her scant 60 years when it seemed like she was down for the count, once and for all. Throughout my life, this powerful, spirited woman went from fictional hero to real-life role model to complicated human being and all the way back to hero again.

For me, as for so many of us, Carrie Fisher will always be a rebel and a princess.

December 27, 2016
George Lucas Will Not Be Involved With ‘Indiana Jones 5’ Script

For as long as the “Indiana Jones” franchise has existed, George Lucas has worked hand in hand with director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford on crafting the scripts for each film. As a producer through his Lucasfilm banner, Lucas had helped come up with story ideas for all four previous Indy flicks, including the much-maligned most recent outing, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” But now, according to the “Indy 5” screenwriter, Lucas appears to have taken a step back from those duties.

In an interview with Collider, writer David Koepp spoke about progress on the upcoming film’s screenplay, and had a surprising response when asked about Lucas’s involvement in shepherding the flick’s concept.

“He’s not [involved], to my knowledge,” Koepp told Collider of the scripting process. “I’ve had no contact with him.”

As Collider points out, it’s a curious development, since Lucas was so hands-on for the previous four films in the franchise. According to the site, he was the one who pushed for the aliens angle in “Crystal Skull.” Perhaps that film’s negative reception soured Lucas on working on another Indy outing? Or maybe Lucas is still feeling bitter about the high-profile sale of Lucasfilm to Disney, and feeling left out of the making of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

Whatever his reason for not participating in the scripting process, Lucas is still set to serve as an executive producer on the project, according to Spielberg. We’ll see if the filmmaker has anything to say about the flick in the coming years.

“Indiana Jones 5” is set to hit theaters on July 19, 2019.

[via: Collider]

Photo credit: Getty Images

October 25, 2016
Ashley Eckstein on ‘Star Wars Rebels’ & ‘Trailblazer’ Ahsoka Tano

If you’ve only watched the seven live-action feature films set in a galaxy far, far away, you might not realize that Ahsoka Tano is one of the most important characters in the “Star Wars” Universe. But her vocal alter ego, Ashley Eckstein, understands the former Jedi Padawan’s place in the hearts of the franchise’s animation fans.

Eckstein has been the voice of the young Jedi initiate serving under the tutelage of Anakin Skywalker since she first appeared in the 2008 animated film “animated TV series of the same name. Ahsano quickly emerged as a fan favorite, especially following an emotional storyline in which her split from the Jedi Order helped pave the way for Anakin’s ultimate transformation into the Sith Lord Darth Vader.

The character’s fans were thrilled when, after a full season of hints and clues on the subsequent Lucasfilm TV series “Star Wars Rebels” — set five years before the events of “Star Wars: A New Hope” — Ahsano was revealed to be one of the central players in the organization of the Rebellion against the Empire. She appeared frequently throughout the second season — which debuts on Blu-ray Aug. 30 — culminating in an epic showdown with her former master with an ambiguous ending in which Ahsano may or may not have survived.

Eckstein, whose personal interest in the female portion of genre fandom prompted her to launch the fashion and merchandise company Her Universe, focusing on cleverly designed licensed products in the sci-fi, fantasy, and superhero realms — joined Moviefone for a look at the character’s unique role in the franchise: after eight years, she’s become a pivotal and wildly popular figure in the increasingly interconnected canon.

Moviefone: The big reveal that you were going to show up for Season 2 was a closely guarded secret. What was the fun of closing out Season 1, and coming into Season 2, knowing that the “Clone Wars” fans were going to be so happy to see Ahsoka?

Ashley Eckstein: You know, it was a tough secret to keep, I have to say! It’s definitely when Fulcrom came on to the scene, because when “Rebels” started and Ahsoka wasn’t a part of the cast, I think fans just accepted, “Okay, she’s not on this show.” So it was easy to keep a secret, because I would just say, “This is about a new cast of characters — maybe we’ll get more about Ahsoka one day.” But that was it.

Then once Fulcrum came on to the scene, and almost immediately fans guessed it was me, I basically went into hiding. I didn’t want to lie to anyone, and I didn’t want to say no when it was true, but I obviously didn’t want to spoil the surprise.

There was maybe a couple months, where I just went silent — until that moment when Ahsoka walked down the ladder, and then I immediately, after the West Coast airing ended, I immediately went to Twitter and wrote, “Ahsoka rules!” I was so excited that it was out in the open.

What did it mean to you to be able to come back to the character and play her in this very dramatic storyline, connecting the two series, and bridging the gap from Anakin Skywalker to the Darth Vader that we’ve come to know?

You know, I’ve said from the beginning, I feel so fortunate to be working with Dave Filoni and his crew, and the amazing writers that he works with. They always come up with, honestly, the most brilliant stories. So fans ask me all the time: they’re like, “If you could write the perfect ending for Ahsoka …” and I always say, I’m like, “Trust me, you don’t want me to write that story.”

So whatever Dave and his team write is really going to be best for the overall “Star Wars” story and character. But I just am always such a fan of the stories that they present and that I get to read. And Ahsoka, I think it’s really an honor to be the voice of this character, to kind of bridge the gap between, obviously the prequels, specifically “Episode II” and “Episode III,” but now the prequels to the original trilogy.

Darth Vader is obviously such a beloved character. I mean, everyone loves Darth Vader. Who doesn’t love Darth Vader? To understand how he fell, and it was more than just Padmé, and that Ahsoka was a part of that, is really quite tragic, but it’s really a beautiful story to watch play out.

And after their confrontation at the end of Season 2, things are left a little ambiguous. I know that Dave has said that, yes, something will be revealed, but probably not super-soon. Are you sort of left hanging, too? Do you sort of know his big picture plan or are you waiting for the right phone call?

Oh, I’m definitely left hanging as well. When he announced that on the panel at Celebration, he said that she would be back in some way on “Rebels,” I still don’t know whether she’s alive or dead or what he means by that. But obviously, we’ll see her again.

So all I know is what he said on the panel at Celebration. I don’t know anything else. He is definitely keeping everything with Ahsoka close to the vest. So I obviously assume because we record so far in advance that I will know sooner than later, but I don’t know yet. So I’m definitely on the edge of my seat wanting to know what’s going on with her.

She was also the first part of this great wave that we’re currently enjoying of empowered female characters that were equal to the male characters in this genre, which has become a really big thing right now. People are recognizing the demand for these types of characters and trying to create more of them. What does that part of her legacy mean to you, to be at the forefront of this change in the way we look at our action heroes?

Thank you for asking that question, because this is where I feel like I am a bit biased. I’m so proud to be associated with Ahsoka because I feel like she really started a movement. That started with George Lucas and Dave Filoni and Henry Gilroy when they decided to make Anakin’s Padawan a girl.

There’s been so much change since then, but at that time, when they announced that Anakin Skywalker had a Padawan which, first of all, was mind-blowing enough, as well as the fact that his Padawan was a 14-year-old girl, literally blew people’s minds at that point. It was groundbreaking. It really wasn’t being done, to have major lead roles like that be young girls, and especially Ahsoka was the first Jedi that was a lead in the “Star Wars” universe.

So she really was a trailblazer, and I think with the success of Ahsoka, and seeing that she was loved by, not only little girls, but both genders. She’s loved by grown men, grown women, young girls, young boys, and they look passed her gender, and I think she opened the door for other people and other studios and other stories to say, “Okay yeah, we can do this lead as a teenage girl.” I don’t think it was just Ahsoka, but I think she helped blaze that trail.

I think Dave Filoni and his writing staff could teach a master class on how to write a strong female character because what he did so brilliantly is, in the beginning it was pointed out that she was a girl. Never again was it pointed out that she was a girl. She was Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan. And he never pointed out her gender, but by doing so, the audience even looked past that. They just saw a strong character.

And I think that’s the goal to writing these strong female characters is, just write a strong character. Take the gender out of it. Write as though it’s a guy, write as though it’s a girl. It’s just a strong character, and their gender is more of an afterthought.

August 31, 2016
16 Things You Never Knew About ‘Howard the Duck’

Sure, Marvel rules the cinematic universe now, but the first attempt to bring a Marvel Comics character to the big screen was anything but a smash. In fact, “Howard the Duck” (released 30 years ago this week, on August 1, 1986) was a legendary flop.

Even though it came from the creative team behind then-recent hit “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” and brought to life the existential, wisecracking, feathery anti-hero of Steve Gerber’s cult-fave comic, “Howard” proved too creepy and weird for family audiences. And not edgy enough for fans of the book. It also proved for the first time that producer George Lucas was fallible.

In recent years, though, interest in “Howard” has revived, thanks to a cult of fans who insist that the movie is underappreciated and to the Marvel hit “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which featured a surprise post-credits cameo by Howard. Here is the low-down behind the downy, cigar-chomping alien’s big-screen debut.
1. Lucas had dreamed of making a movie about Marvel’s intergalactic duck ever since his days working on “American Graffiti” in the early 1970s. Of course, his next movie was a different interstellar tale, but after the successes of the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” movies, he was in a position to do whatever he wanted in Hollywood. That meant finally getting to produce “Howard the Duck,” with his “Graffiti” and “Temple of Doom” screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz adapting the comic and Huyck directing.

2. Lucas wanted Howard to be the first all-CGI lead character, but computer-animation technology wasn’t advanced enough yet. Nonetheless, Howard was a technical milestone: the first totally wireless puppet lead character, operated by both radio controls and by an actor inside the duck suit.
3. The puppet’s brain — the unit that made his eyes and facial muscles move and his bill open and close — was actually underneath Howard’s tail feathers. It took many months to design Howard, in no small part because the filmmakers had to have several meetings with Disney lawyers to make sure Howard didn’t resemble Donald Duck too closely.

4. There were several dwarf actors hired to wear the duck suit, including 12-year-old Jordan Prentice, who blanched at some of the more adult behavior Howard had to indulge in, and Ed Gale, then 22, who would go on to play killer doll Chucky in “Child’s Play” and two of its sequels. But Howard’s dialogue wasn’t dubbed in until after the shoot, making the character difficult for the rest of the cast to interact with.
5. Several top comedian’s were considered to provide Howard’s voice, including Duckman”).

6. But the filmmakers ultimately decided to go with an unknown, someone not famous enough to shatter the illusion that Howard was a real and unique creature. So they went with Broadway actor Chip Zien.
7. To play rock singer Beverly, the filmmakers auditioned many actresses, including actual rock singer Cyndi Lauper, before going with the newly-popular Lea Thompson, hot off the success of “Back to the Future“. Though untrained in music, she learned how to play the guitar and did her own singing on the four songs composed for her band, written by such actual hitmakers as Thomas Dolby and George Clinton.

8. Also, that was her real hair — the spiky coif that took two hours of teasing every day to achieve. For all of the production’s lavish spending, the filmmakers declined Thompson’s request to spring for a wig.9. The love scene (above) involving Howard and Beverly is probably what creeped out viewers the most — Prentice, too (and his guardian), which is why Gale performed the scene. But Thompson thought it was no big deal.

“I had just done a love scene with my son in ‘Back to the Future,’ and nobody seemed to be too upset about that,” she said. Of the “Howard” tryst, she said, “I thought it was hilarious. That’s my sense of humor.”

10. “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” co-star Jeffrey Jones, who played the villain (below), started buying up back issues of “Howard” comic books during the shoot, hoping that they’d become valuable once the movie became a hit.
11. Though Universal wanted a family audience, its marketing campaign for “Howard” suggested otherwise. A promotional deal with Budweiser featured the duck in magazine ads that claimed Bud was the beer-chugging bird’s favorite brew. There was also a 1-900 number you could call and be insulted by Zien (as Howard) for $1.99 a minute.

12. The movie’s budget has been estimated to be between $36 and $38 million, a princely sum for a film in 1986. It made back just $16.3 million in America and another $21.7 million overseas. “Howard’s” belly flop was widely blamed for forcing the resignation of Universal production chief Frank Price a month after the film’s release.

13. It was Marvel’s first theatrical release since a 1940s Captain America serial. Marvel wouldn’t have another big movie hit theaters for another 12 years, when “Blade” was released. 14. The movie’s cult fanbase and the surprise cameo by Howard (above) at the end of 2014’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” — along with the CGI that made “Guardians”‘ Howard-like Rocket Raccoon a believable character — made a lot of fans think a new “Howard” movie was imminent. Alas, according to Seth Green, who voiced the new “Howard,” the in-joke was just a one-shot.

15. Howard’s ties to Star-Lord and gang don’t stop there. “Howard the Duck” was released exactly 28 years (to the day) before “Guardians” was released on August 1, 2014.
16. One last fact — which might make you go all brainsplode. One good thing that came out of this flop? The creation of Pixar. See? Mind. Blown.

Because Lucas was disappointed with the then-limitations of CG proving unable to execute his ideal vision for the character, on top of facing pressures to bring cash into Lucasfilm, he turned to sell the Graphix Group — a computer graphics division within his company. Steve Jobs, having just lost his position at Apple, purchased the Group and helped turn it into the future home of “Toy Story.”
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August 1, 2016
Top Rated Movies From American Directors
The U.S. has produced some ridiculously talented movie directors, filmmakers with a legacy of repeatedly creating profound emotional experiences for audiences. But every one of these cinematic titans has a single movie that established that claim to fame — the one that proved they could grip audiences with their visual storytelling. Here are six classics that represent the best of the best in American movies.

‘Do The Right Thing’ (1989)

In 1986, Spike Lee achieved mainstream success with “She’s Gotta Have It,” a movie that established the writer-director as an artist who could challenge social norms while telling a compelling story. Three years later, he followed it up with “Do The Right Thing,” a movie that depicted a day in the life of residents of a Brooklyn neighborhood — and reflected racial tensions with brave realism. The cinematography and use of music showcase impressive film-making, but it’s the movie’s ongoing social relevance that makes “Do The Right Thing” one of Lee’s best.

‘The Godfather’ (1972)

While it’s easy to describe “The Godfather” as one of the best mafia movies of all time, the film’s strength lies as much in its character dynamics as it does in its depiction of organized crime. The three threads of the movie — the relationships between the three Corleone brothers, the crime family’s rise to power, and Michael Corleone’s (Al Pacino) complicated love story — are woven together beautifully, and showcase director Francis Ford Coppola‘s abilities as a storyteller and visual artist. “The Godfather” has been imitated repeatedly, but the original will always remain a classic.

‘Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope’ (1977)

The first act in George Lucas‘s space opera, “Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope” (or as it was known back then, “Star Wars”), introduced characters and story lines that would quickly become integral parts of modern culture. By now, much of the adoration heaped on the movie is largely influenced by nostalgia, but beneath all the hype is a genuinely good movie — Luke Skywalker’s (Mark Hamill) journey to become a Jedi is both the quintessential origin story and a heart-racing adventure for all ages.

‘Iron Man’ (2008)

It’s hard to imagine a time when comic-book blockbusters didn’t dominate movie theaters. But back in 2008, the term “Marvel Cinematic Universe” was just a glimmer in the eye of a few nerdy filmmakers — including director Jon Favreau. In a gamble to fight off impending financial ruin, Marvel invested in making the now-legendary movie “Iron Man.” The stakes were high. Prior to release, Marvel had agreed to give up the movie rights to every character they hadn’t already sold (that’s right, every last Avenger) if the movie wasn’t a success. Lucky for Marvel, “Iron Man” blew audiences away with its take on Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and his super-suit, and the movie’s mix of intrigue, action, and humor set the tone for the billion-dollar franchise — proving the risk was well worth it.

‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ (2001)

Wes Anderson‘s “The Royal Tenenbaums” defined what’s come to be known as the hipster aesthetic — the seminal movie is slightly intellectual, meticulously put together, and highly stylized with offbeat colors, fonts, and fashions. Packed to the gills with an all-star cast (including Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Gene Hackman, Bill Murray, Anjelica Huston, Danny Glover, and Alec Baldwin), “The Royal Tenenbaums” uses what would become an eventual trope for the director — deadpan, nearly emotionless acting — and creates character growth from it. The result is as heartwarming as it is stylish. As the members of the Tenenbaum family learn to support each other as people instead of commodities, the audience gets more and more invested in each of them.

‘Citizen Kane’ (1941)

It’s hard to talk about great American movies without discussing “Citizen Kane.” Considered by many to be the greatest movie of all time, “Citizen Kane” is from director Orson Welles, and depicts the life of fictional publishing magnate Charles Foster Kane. “Citizen Kane” established film-making and storytelling techniques that are now considered standards — the story told through flashbacks, the deliberately slow pacing of its protagonist’s life story — so much so, that it’s easy to forget that they originated with Welles. More than that, however, the story of “Citizen Kane” is the story of the American dream, and the movie works as a monument to an ideal as much as it does a classic tale of a man’s tragic life.

Sources
July 14, 2016
‘Labyrinth’: 10 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About This ’80s Classic

Losing David Bowie in 2016 offered a wistful reminder that, for a lot of younger moviegoers, he was remembered less as a trailblazing musician than as Jareth the Goblin King in “Labyrinth.”

Released 30 years ago this week (on June 27, 1986), the fantasy film wasn’t a hit at the time, but the Jim Henson–George Lucas collaboration became a cult favorite on home video. It also marked the first high-profile lead role for Jennifer Connelly, the last movie directed by Henson, and one of the few works from Henson’s Creature Shop whose puppets were not cuddly, family-friendly Muppets. Celebrate the film’s 30th with these facts straight from the goblin maze.
1. Monty Python’s Terry Jones is credited with writing the screenplay, but it went through dozens of revisions at the hands of various script doctors, including Henson, Lucas, and comedy legend Elaine May, then on the eve of directing “Ishtar.”
2. Among the teen actresses who auditioned for the lead role of Sarah were Helena Bonham Carter (before the filmmakers decided to make the character American), Laura Dern, Jane Krakowski, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mia Sara, Ally Sheedy, Marisa Tomei, and Maddie Corman. Eventually, the role went to Corman’s “Seven Minutes in Heaven” co-star Connelly, who Henson said won him over the moment she walked in the door, as he felt she embodied Sarah’s transition between girlhood and womanhood.
3. Jareth was supposed to be just another puppet until Henson decided the role would work better with a charismatic rock star in the part. Among the names tossed around were Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Prince, and Sting, before the filmmakers set their sights on Bowie. Henson hooked the “Let’s Dance” singer by giving him a tape of “The Dark Crystal,” showing him “Dark Crystal” artist Brian Froud‘s “Labyrinth” character designs, and offering him a free hand to compose the music as he saw fit.
4. “Labyrinth” wears its influences, which come from all over, on its sleeve. Maurice Sendak‘s children’s books are acknowledged, both in the end credits and in the book collection in Sarah’s bedroom. Jareth’s outfit is modeled in part on the leather jacket worn by Marlon Brando‘s biker gang leader in “The Wild One.”

And the dialogue between Jareth and his minions in the “Magic Dance” sequence owes a clear debt to a similar stretch of dialogue in the classic Cary Grant-Shirley Temple movie “The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.”
5. Hoggle, Sarah’s gnome-like guide (above), was the most difficult character to animate. It took the carefully coordinated efforts of five of Henson’s crew to make him work — one performer inside the costume and four more controlling his facial movements (jaw, lips, eyelids, and eyebrows) via radio remote controls. Jim Henson’s son, Brian, worked Hoggle’s jaw and also voiced the character.
6. The film’s choreography — in this case, acting and movement coaching for the puppeteers — is credited to Cheryl McFadden. A year later, she became famous as Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
7. The entire forest set was built indoors, on a British soundstage. It involved 40,000 sprays of fake leaves, 850 pounds of real dried leaves, 120 truckloads of tree branches, 1,200 patches of sod, 133 bags of lichen, and 35 mossy bundles of “old man’s beard.”
8. Shortly after Bowie’s death in January 2016, news came out that the Jim Henson company was preparing a reboot of “Labyrinth,” to be scripted by “Guardians of the Galaxy” co-screenwriter Nicole Perlman.

She insisted that the project had been in the works since 2014, that the filmmakers were not seeking to capitalize on Bowie’s recent passing, that the film was more a “continuation” than a reboot, and that “Labyrinth” had been her favorite film as a child, one whose legacy she promised to treat with “love and respect.”9. Sarah’s kidnapped baby brother, Toby, was played by Toby Froud, infant son of the movie’s character designer, Brian Froud. Fittingly, Toby Froud grew up to be a creature designer and puppeteer for such imaginative fantasy films as “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe,” “ParaNorman,” and “The Boxtrolls.”
10. “Labyrinth” cost a reported $25 million to make but returned only $12.9 million at the North American box office. Brian Henson has said the movie’s box office failure depressed his father, but he did live long enough to see the film become a cult success on home video before his death in 1990.

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June 27, 2016
‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’: 15 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About Indiana Jones’ First Adventure

What’s left to say about “Raiders of the Lost Ark?”

For 35 years, since the movie’s release on June 12, 1981, we’ve loved Harrison Ford‘s whip-cracking Indiana Jones, we’ve argued about the relative quality of the sequels, and we’ve thrilled to the relentless machine of pure action that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas devised. We’ve watched the movie a zillion times without getting bored, and we’ve even familiarized ourselves with much of the behind-the-scenes trivia. And yet, there still remain secrets to be unearthed, buried under decades of mythmaking like so many ancient artifacts.

Here are some of them — just watch out for booby traps. And snakes.
1. Indiana Jones’s name really did come from the dog — the dog owned by George Lucas’s then-wife, Marcia. That Indiana had also been the inspiration for Ford’s “Star Wars” pal, Chewbacca.

2. Spielberg took the directing job at a low point in his career. His World War II spoof “1941” had been a costly flop, and he felt he had to prove he could bring in a movie ahead of schedule and under budget. Indeed, he would succeed in doing so with “Raiders,” which he managed to shoot for $18 million in just 73 days, despite locations in four different countries.
3. The giant boulder was made of plaster, wood, and fiberglass and weighed 300 pounds. It could have seriously injured anyone in its path. Spielberg agreed to let Ford film the stunt himself, from five different angles, each shot twice. Of Ford’s ability to outrun the boulder, Spielberg later said, “He won 10 times and beat the odds. He was lucky, and I was an idiot for letting him try.”
4. Karen Allen‘s character, Marion Ravenwood, got her first name from screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan‘s wife’s grandmother, and her last name from a Los Angeles street he drove down every day on the way to the studio.
5. Yes, Paul Freeman (Belloq) really swallowed a fly as he uttered the line, “You’re going to give mercenaries a bad name.” Said Spielberg, “Paul was so absorbed that he didn’t realize he’d swallowed the bugger.” For his part, Freeman recalls his ability to stay in character despite the mishap earning him praise from feared New Yorker critic Pauline Kael, who otherwise didn’t much care for “Raiders.” (“What a trouper!” she wrote.)6. Spielberg had sketches drawn of Toht (Ronald Lacey), the bespectacled, Peter Lorre-like Gestapo interrogator, as a “Mad Max“-worthy villain, complete with a prosthetic hand that served as a flamethrower and a machine gun. “He was like the Terminator before ‘The Terminator,’” Spielberg recalled. Lucas insisted that the conception of the character was wrong for the genre, and Toht became a normal (but especially sinister) man. “All that hard work just became refuse in the art department,” Spielberg said.
7. The gag where Toht wields what looks like a torture device, but turns out to be a coat hanger, is a joke Spielberg recycled from “1941.” He filmed a similar scene with Christopher Lee in that movie, but ended up cutting it when it didn’t get laughs.
8. The food poisoning that afflicted nearly everyone on the Tunisian set (but not Spielberg, who brought his own canned Spaghetti-Os and bottled water from London) resulted in the improvisation of one of the most famous “Raiders” scenes, the one where Indy faces down an Egyptian swordsman.

The script had Indy fighting the assassin with his bullwhip, but Ford’s diarrhea kept him from filming the long, elaborate sequence. Also, as Ford would tell the audience at a 2011 LA Times Hero Complex screening, the production has already shot a fight scene with Indy disarming a group of baddies with his whip. Lest the film get repetitive with all this whip fighting, Ford suggested: “Why don’t we just shoot the son of a bitch?” To shorten the scene, Ford and Spielberg agreed Indy should just pull out a pistol and shoot the man.
9. For the Well of Souls sequence (above), shot on a British soundstage, the producers rustled up 2,000 snakes, but they weren’t enough to cover the floor. Scouring pet shops across Europe, the filmmakers found thousands more; different accounts say there were ultimately between 6,500 and 10,000 snakes in the scenes, plus lizards and lengths of rubber hose.

Medics wearing hazmat suits and carrying syringes of anti-venom stood just outside camera range. Unlike his character, Ford was unfazed by the snakes, but Allen was freaked out. Animal handler Steve Edge had to complete some of her scenes, shaving his legs and putting on Marion’s dress.10. Much of the truck-chase sequence involves Ford himself being dragged behind the vehicle. “I’m sure it’s not dangerous,” he said of the stunt. “If it was dangerous, they would have waited ’til we got more of the movie done.”
11. One way Spielberg saved money was by incorporating stock footage. Shots of the passenger plane in mid-flight came from 1937’s “Lost Horizon,” and a 1930s street scene came from 1975’s “The Hindenburg.”
12. Also borrowed was the German submarine (above), which had been rented from the makers of the then-recent “Das Boot,” Wolfgang Petersen‘s soon-to-be-classic World War II drama. The “Raiders” climax was shot in what had been an actual Nazi submarine base in France.
13. Michael Sheard auditioned for the role of Toht, which went to his pal Lacey. Instead, he got to play the U-boat commander. He’d play a more prominent Nazi role — Adolf Hitler himself (pictured) — in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”
14. Toht’s melting face was made of a combination of gelatin, colored yarn (to simulate muscles and veins), and alginate (what dentists use to make impressions) — all molded over a skull made of stone. It took 10 minutes to melt under the onslaught of propane space heaters and a hair dryer; the footage was then sped up.
15. A fan theory — mentioned prominently in “The Big Bang Theory” and elsewhere — suggests that, despite being the protagonist of “Raiders,” Indiana Jones has no real impact on the story’s outcome. Had he not been involved, the Nazis would have found the Ark on their own (they wouldn’t have dug in the wrong place because they’d have had the actual medallion), opened it, and been destroyed. Do you think this is a fair criticism? Discuss.

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June 10, 2016
George Lucas Apologizes for That ‘White Slavers’ Disney Comment

George Lucas has had plenty of wistful things to say during the press tour for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” the first film in the storied franchise that he had no hand in making. And while most of his melancholy is understandable — after all, he’s compared the flicks to kids he lost in a divorce — his recent remarks to Charlie Rose about selling off the rights to “the white slavers” (a.k.a. new “Star Wars” owners Disney) were a bit head-scratching and unfortunate.

After the internet took him to task, Lucas seems to have realized his poor choice of words, and issued an apology on Thursday. The filmmaker noted that he “misspoke” in his interview with Rose, and added that he harbored no ill will toward Disney; rather, he explained, he is “thrilled” with the new direction the series has taken. He also offered specific praise for longtime Lucasfilm president and producer Kathleen Kennedy, and “The Force Awakens” director J.J. Abrams.

Here’s Lucas’s full statement:

I want to clarify my interview on the Charlie Rose Show. It was for the Kennedy Center Honors and conducted prior to the premiere of the film. I misspoke and used a very inappropriate analogy and for that I apologize.

I have been working with Disney for 40 years and chose them as the custodians of Star Wars because of my great respect for the company and Bob Iger’s leadership. Disney is doing an incredible job of taking care of and expanding the franchise. I rarely go out with statements to clarify my feelings but I feel it is important to make it clear that I am thrilled that Disney has the franchise and is moving it in such exciting directions in film, television and the parks. Most of all I’m blown away with the record breaking blockbuster success of the new movie and am very proud of JJ and Kathy.

It does seem like Lucas was simply trying to make a joke in that interview — albeit one that came out extremely awkwardly, assisted by a deeply unfortunate choice of words. That being said, there’s obviously some painful truth there: The underlying sadness that’s permeated his remarks throughout the “Force Awakens” press push has been unmissable, and he almost certainly feels left out of all the new flick’s legacy. But he should probably keep a lid on that publicly until he gets a better handle on his emotions. Here’s hoping this brouhaha has helped him learn that lesson.

[via: TheWrap]

Photo credit: Getty Images

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December 31, 2015
George Lucas Sold His Star Wars ‘Kids’ to ‘White Slavers’ Who Made a ‘Retro Movie’

UPDATE: To the shock of no one, George Lucas apologized and clarified his comments not long after the Charlie Rose interview started making the rounds. Here’s what he REALLY thinks about Disney.

Original story:

George Lucas is probably going to stop talking about the “Star Wars” films pretty soon. That’s sad — since they are his “kids,” as he calls them, and you can tell how much he cares, even when he tries to shrug off his distance after the “divorce.” But it’s also probably good for him to take some steps back because, when he does talk about selling the franchise to Disney, he uses unfortunate comparisons — like joking that he sold his children to the white slavers.

He went there in a long interview with Charlie Rose, which covered his filmmaking history and his plans for the future, with more experimental films.

Watch the full interview here, with the more colorful “Star Wars” quotes coming close to the 50-minute mark:

When it comes to “Star Wars,” it’s no secret that Lucas and Disney weren’t on the same page with stories for Episode VII, which would become “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” the start of a new trilogy. “They wanted to do a retro movie. I don’t like that,” Lucas explained to Charlie Rose. “Every movie, I work very hard to make them completely different, with different planets, with different spaceships, make it new.” Fair enough. “The Force Awakens” has made more than a billion dollars, but if there’s any criticism out there, it’s about the lack of freshness, with a nostalgic story tied to the original trilogy. (Then again, that’s also part of why it’s so popular with fans. And you could spend a year detailing all the reasons why fans did not like Lucas’s prequels.)

As GL noted in the interview, still talking about his view for the future of “Star Wars” vs. Disney’s view, “They looked at the stories, and they said, ‘We want to make something for the fans.’ … They decided they didn’t want to use those stories, they decided they were going to do their own thing. …They weren’t that keen to have me involved anyway — but if I get in there, I’m just going to cause trouble, because they’re not going to do what I want them to do. And I don’t have the control to do that anymore, and all I would do is muck everything up. And so I said, ‘Okay, I will go my way, and I’ll let them go their way.’”
Charlie Rose pushed that it had to hurt him, to lose his babies, the “Star Wars” films.

Lucas tried to keep it light, but called the films his “kids” and said, “I sold them to the white slavers that takes these things, and [laughs]…” He didn’t finish the thought. Sounds like it was just a bad joke, and he probably didn’t mean anything malicious, but no good has ever come of comparing anyone to slavers, white or otherwise.

But he also emphasized that he’s fine with how things turned out, and he wasn’t pushed out, he agreed that it was time for him to go on his way. (And most of the $4 billion he got for Lucasfilm is going to charity.) He said it’s awkward when he’s asked about it, like now, in a way that it’s awkward to talk about a relationship after a divorce, but there are no hard feelings or anything — other than that “white slavers” joke. Now he’s focusing on his real-life kids, and his own kind of movies, which will probably be less popular than “The Force Awakens.” And he’s fine with that.

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December 31, 2015