Mars May Be Turned Into Tatooine

What's the biggest problem that will face astronauts and cosmonauts traveling to Mars?  It's lack of water.  But this problem may have just found a solution, and you can thank Star Wars for it's answer.

A moisture farm is being planned to be built on the Red Planet beginning in 2018, part of the 2018 ExoMars mission, a project being developed by both the European Space Agency and Russia's Roscosmos.  The joint project will be sending up the Habitability, Brine Irradiation and Temperature package (HABIT) that will "use salts to absorb five milliliters of water from the atmosphere a day."  This idea came about after NASA's Curiosity rover made findings that suggests that "liquid water accumulates just beneath the surface of Mars at night, before evaporating during the day."

Now, I know that five milliliters of water a day doesn't sound like much, but if this process works, then it may be able to expand on it's capabilities in the future to provide water for travelers to Mars.  NASA plans on sending it's first manned mission to the Red Planet some time in the 2030s.

Now if only they could develop blue milk...

BB-8's Origins Are...Classified?!?

Wait...what?


So the new Chinese trailer for the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released, and there were a few surprises in it!

I guess that the biggest "surprise" from the trailer was...well, there were two surprises in it..the first was when Rey asked BB-8 were she came from, and then responds, " Classified, really?  Me too."  Curious....

The second thing that it showed was when Finn said that they needed a pilot, and Rey says, "We've got one!"  It was originally thought that she was talking about herself, but this trailer makes it look like Rey and Han are already familiar with one another, and that Han is the pilot that she's talking about..  So what does that mean?  Do they actually know each other, or did they cut the trailer to make it look like that they know each other?  And did they just show the Falcon crashing into a snow bank?

I'm going to be able to watch the early opening of the film that will be shown December 17, 2015, and will let you know everything that I find out...and there will be spoilers, so just a heads up!  Less than a week to go before we find out!

Star Wars 1313 And Live-Action Television Show May Still Happen

Back in March I talked about how there was a live-action Star Wars television show called Star Wars: Underground that was being discussed.  This had been a plan for Lucasfilm for a while, but after Disney bought the company from George Lucas, the show fell in to limbo, along with a highly-anticipated video game called Star Wars 1313.  Recently, SlashFilm sat down with Kathleen Kennedy to ask her whatever became of these once hot rumors, and here's what she had to say:

"No, interestingly enough, that's an area we've spent a lot of time, reading through the material that he developed is something we very much would like to explore.  And there was 1313 the game, where there was..."

...during the response she was giving during the interview at this point, Slashfilm tells her how incredible the concept art for the video game was that was released online.  She continued:

"Unbelievable.  So our attitude is, we don't want to throw any of that stuff away.  It's gold.  And it's something we're spending a lot of time looking at, pouring through, discussing, and we may very well develop those things further.  We definitely want to."

Star Wars: Underground was first announced at Star Wars Celebration III back in 2005.  George Lucas himself wrote close to 100 episodes for the idea, planning on it having a 400 episode run (my guess is that at least 200 of these episodes would be "Special Editions" that would be repeats that he had gone back to tweak, inserting Jar Jar Binks or Ewoks or something).  He was going to film it in state-of-the-art studios that he was going to build on his own property, and it was supposed to premier in 2009.  Rumor has it that his neighbors were extremely pissed at this idea, fearing all of the noise and congestion that would have invaded their neighborhood.  The idea was scrapped, and never saw the light of day.  Of course, the show was never really supposed to see "the light of day" because it actually dealt with the seedy underground workings that took place of the capital planet of Coruscant, taking on a more "noir tone" compared to the movies.

Star Wars 1313 was also to take place on Coruscant, more specifically on Level 1313 of the planet.  It was to follow an unnamed bounty hunter that explored the underbelly of the planet.  It was rumored that the bounty hunter would later be revealed to be Boba Fett during his early years as a bounty hunter, but after Disney bought the rights to Lucasfilm, the video game got scrapped.  So will the video game get new life?  The trademark for Star Wars 1313 has expired, but Level 1313 still exists in the new canon, so if it does get made, it might keep the same concept with just a simple name change.

What do you think?  Look, the reason why I'm so excited for the new movie to come out is because I haven't seen a Star Wars film in the theaters in years.  I'm also going to get to see the original characters again in a new story for the first time in 30 years.  The thing that worries me is "over-saturation."  There have already been two animated television shows made for Star Wars, a slew of video games, and Disney is planning on releasing a new Star Wars film every year going forward,  Between that and all of the promotional tie-in's that are sure to go along with everything (while watching a one-hour program the other night, I think all but two commercials had some sort of mention of Star Wars!), are people going to get tired of the franchise?  I hope not, but adding a live-action television series to the story might just do it for people.  Maybe they can rename it Marvel: Agents of Star Wars.

Steven Spielberg Doubles Down On Indy Film

After Disney purchased Lucasfilm from George Lucas, taking control of both the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, they moved quickly to announce the next chapter in the Star Wars saga, but nothing had been mentioned about Indy.  After Guardians of the Galaxy was released, Chris Pratt (who shot to super-stardom with it's release, and the release of Jurassic World)  was rumored to be the new Indiana Jones in a supposed reboot, or at least the next chapter.  Even though Kathleen Kennedy said that there were no immediate plans for an Indiana Jones film, the rumors persisted.  Now, in an interview with Screen Daily, Steven Spielberg has given his answer on the matter: 

“I don’t think anyone could replace Harrison as Indy, I don’t think that’s ever going to happen,” Spielberg said about the prospect of a recast. “It’s certainly not my intention to ever have another actor step into his shoes in the way there have been many actors that have played Spider-Man or Batman. There is only going to be one actor playing Indiana Jones and that’s Harrison Ford.”

 That pretty much puts an end to it right?  But is there going to be another Indiana Jones movie in the near future?

“Because there are more adventures out there than films,” Spielberg said. “So as long as there’s more adventures out there, I’ve got a bullwhip, a fedora, a leather jacket, and a man on a horse who knows how to get the job done.”

Spielberg has been the director for the franchise since it's debut, and I suppose he still has a lot of say in the matter, but with Disney the actual owners of the franchise, who's to say that they may go forward with a reboot without him?  It's still much too early to know what the next chapter in the Indiana Jones story is going to bring us, but with the 73 year old Harrison Ford not getting any younger, Spielberg may want to move a little faster if he truly has more stories to tell.  Let's just hope that they don't include aliens...or "Mutt," for that matter!

New Spider-Man Costume Will Need Special Effects To Complete It

The last two incarnations of Spider-Man have relied heavily on CGI.  Both Maguire and Garfield's characters needed the special effects to convince movie watchers that they were the ones swinging through the city on webs and that they were actually as quick and agile as they appeared on screen.  So when a news report came out the other day saying that Spider-Man was going to be needing a lot of CGI for his costume in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War, this didn't really surprise me.  What did surprise me, though, was the reason that was given for the need for the special effects.

Anthony Russo, one of the brothers that are directing the film, sat down with a Brazilian entertainment website at Comic-Con Experience 2015 (CCXP) and the topic of Spider-Man came up, and the fact that there are rumors swirling around that we'll be seeing him in multiple costumes throughout the film.  Here's what Russo had to say in reply:

"Well, we researched a lot and do a lot of experiments for all the characters.  We did the same with Spider-Man.  We knew it had to be someone young, it was very important because we wanted to give this essence to the character, it is something unique in the Marvel Universe.  Tom Holland is an amazing Spider-Man, people will love it.  It was a very experimental process, placing it with other actors, especially with Downey Jr., we were learning as we did and are very happy with the result.  But we are still working on some things, like the uniform.  He's not ready because so much will be produced with special effects."

Now, that could all just mean that they are working on some of the fight scenes and that they need to insert a CGI version of him in the sequence to complete the shot, but another theory about his answer has been making some ground.  Captain America: Civil War is being loosely based on the comic book mini-series Civil War that was written by Mark Millar.  In it, Tony Stark provides Peter Parker with a new red and gold Spider-Man suit.  Is this the suit that we will be seeing in the movie?  Some people are thinking that it is.  This may also be the reason why we haven't seen Spider-Man in any of the trailers that have been released.  They may be wanting to keep his look a secret until the movie's release.  Captain America: Civil War hits theaters May 6, 2016, and the stand-alone Spider-Man movie will be released July 28, 2017.

It Was Rumored, Now It's Confirmed!

The Flash will be making an appearance in the upcoming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice!

There are really only three movies that are being talked about right now...Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Captain America: Civil War, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  The one with the most anticipation is Batman v Superman because it has the most to lose.  It's the tent pole for Warner Bros.'s DC universe and it has to do well!  If it doesn't, everything falls apart for them.

The Flash will be making an appearance near the end of the film, giving us a glimpse at five out of the seven founding members of the Justice League.  For those of you keeping score, that's Batman, Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash.  Green Lantern and Cyborg won't be showing up until the Justice League movies, and possibly Martian Manhunter.

The most recent trailer for the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice movie shows Superman unmasking Batman to find out that he's really Bruce Wayne.  That particular scene seems to be from a dream sequence that has the world in a post-apocalyptic state, kind of like Mad Max, and the Man of Steel is worshiped by millions, and he has his own army of loyalists.  That would explain why the soldiers from the trailer are kneeling before him in the trailer.  It's been dubbed the "Knightmare."  Ha!  I like it!

A lot of people think that the movie has given away too much in the trailers, and I kind of have to agree.  Up until recently, everyone was just guessing that Doomsday was going to be in it, but now we know that he will be showing up.  Maybe they should have taken a play from the Star Wars playbook and kept some things under wraps...but that's just me.

Do you think that they've given away too much with the trailers?  Do you want to see more?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, I would love to hear what you think!  

Star Wars News: Well This Is Interesting!

 

Here are a few things that I've read over the last couple of days that I found interesting...

The first thing that I read this weekend was that George Lucas has watched the final cut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  What did he think?  According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie has received Lucas' seal of approval.  JJ Abrams recently had to show an uncut version of the film to the executive producers and to the Disney honchos, and he said that he was more nervous then than he ever has been...but how nerve racking could it have been to show the creator of the series a new chapter that he had nothing to do with (meaning Lucas)?  That had to have had Abrams heart beating right out of his chest!  But like I said, it sounds like he really enjoyed it!

The second thing that I read about this weekend had to do with an interview that Harrison Ford gave recently.  He was asked what his favorite scene from the upcoming film was, and he replied that it was the fight scene between Kylo Ren and Rey.  Wait...what?  The only scene that we've been privy to is a shot that shows Finn squaring off against Kylo Ren.  So does that mean we are going to be given a fight scene between Rey and Kylo Ren, or did Harrison Ford just misspeak?  I guess we won't know until the movie comes out!

The last bit of news that I found online was the picture that's posted up above.  I guess we now know that it's Kylo Ren that grabs Darth Vader's helmet off the planet of Endor, and is basically worshiping the thing in the trailers.

Less than two weeks to go before the release of the film, and as soon as I see it, I'll let you in on all of the things I find out!  And don't worry, I'll make sure I post a **SPOILER** warning before I begin, so if you don't want to know anything, then you won't have to worry about me giving anything away!