'Endor' Filming Location Plans Festival for 40th Anniversary of 'Star Wars: Return of the Jedi' (sfgate.com) 55
SFGate reports:
A herculean effort is required to produce an event centered around the intellectual property of "Star Wars" (protected within the Disney galactic empire), but a film commissioner in Northern California was determined and got creative to solicit a response from the film franchise owners. "I offered to send my adult daughter, who's a chef, to Lucasfilm to make them meals if they let us do this," said Cassandra Hesseltine, commissioner for the Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commission. The plea caught the attention of the San Francisco-based company, and a "Star Wars" festival in the redwoods was born.
After a decade of planning, following an extensive back-and-forth to comply with IP rights, the film commission has announced the Forest Moon Festival. The two-day event commemorates the 40th anniversary of "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" June 2 and 3 in Northern California. It includes four film screenings [outdoors and indoors] between the two counties and holiday-like fanfare, with costumes and parties in downtown Eureka and on Cal Poly Humboldt's campus in Arcata.
The festival's vision is to gather community members and outsider fans of the series for a summer jubilee akin to the Fourth of July, where folks are encouraged to dress up to the theme and congregate under the redwood trees.
The article also notes that in June the monthly street fair in the town of Eureka "is expected to feature a 20-person squadron of Stormtroopers marching down main street."
After a decade of planning, following an extensive back-and-forth to comply with IP rights, the film commission has announced the Forest Moon Festival. The two-day event commemorates the 40th anniversary of "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" June 2 and 3 in Northern California. It includes four film screenings [outdoors and indoors] between the two counties and holiday-like fanfare, with costumes and parties in downtown Eureka and on Cal Poly Humboldt's campus in Arcata.
The festival's vision is to gather community members and outsider fans of the series for a summer jubilee akin to the Fourth of July, where folks are encouraged to dress up to the theme and congregate under the redwood trees.
The article also notes that in June the monthly street fair in the town of Eureka "is expected to feature a 20-person squadron of Stormtroopers marching down main street."
40 years! (Score:2, Interesting)
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No, we spent Billions on the franchise in order to create a never-ending stream of garbage with every social justice nonsense subplot imaginable. Why would we ever stop shoving this crap in theaters and in subscription services if we didn't think it was good for you?
- The Giant Rat [youtube.com]
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People asked for more Star Wars and Disney is providing it. Are they doing capitalism wrong?
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*looks at direction of merchandise sales and Star Wars Galaxy engagement*
Yes, yes they are.
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What? https://variety.com/2017/film/... [variety.com]
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I'm sorry, did you just try and quote me a story from 2017 regarding fiscal year 2016's sales as evidence of currently strong Star Wars merch sales? Really? You need your frigging head examined.
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> Are they doing capitalism wrong?
Right now we're in the "Batman and Robin" (1997) phase of Star Wars. Someone needs to pull the franchise out of the dumpster and release a Star Wars Begins.
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Andor was pretty good after the first 5 episodes. It dragged at the start, but finished a lot stronger.
It just shows that they can produce good SW stuff, especially when they move away from the stories told in the movies.
Re:40 years! (Score:5, Insightful)
Can we please move on from this franchise already?
Why do you care?
If you don't like the later movies, just don't watch them.
It is foolish to try to get everyone else to conform to your taste in entertainment. Just move on with your life.
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It's wasting valuable bits on /.
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Ahhh yes contrasting views... I forgot we can't have that in 2023. Please don't frame it like I have some kind of mental disorder because I posted something you don't agree with. Look, my post helped generate conversation in this thread, that was the point. That is what conversation is, the exchange of views that can differ from your own. If you only want people to post who think exactly the same as you, go retreat to some echo chamber on reddit or something.
I wish Star Wars was good, I love sci-fi, I
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Can we please move on from this franchise already?
Why do you care?
Because when they spend $100 million+ making more Star Wars movies, they're not making anything new and original. I haven't been a theater since before the pandemic because there's just nothing of interest coming out of Hollywood. It's all derivative crap, and recycled scripts that have been filmed a dozen times already with little more than global search and replace on the names. Finding the face of Jesus in the shoeprints in the scum on the theater floor is more likely than a movie that's worth watching.
T
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One look at Disney's stock price YTD, 1yr and 5yr says it all. Go woke, go very broke.
Re:40 years! (Score:5, Informative)
Could you just say it already?
Get woke go broke.
Now that’s out of the way and we feel better, it turns out all the companies going “woke” are doing better than ever. In fact nobody has even lost money.
You know why no one said it? Because in this case, it doesn't really matter. "Going woke" in a lot of corporate media is more of a symptom of slowing profits than any culture war thing. It's a sign that the writers have given up on writing compelling stories and are instead hoping that by falling back on virtue signalling, they can convince people to watch the shows by essentially shaming them into watching. After all, you're not some evil monster who irrationally hates people, are you? Clearly that means you must watch more corporate media to prove it!
Go woke get broke is a simple truism because it tends to indicate that something is already going broke and is using "wokeness" to try and shock the market into consuming it. It might work short-term, but as "wokeness" becomes increasingly insane, it's going to turn more and more people away.
But you don't need to turn to "wokeness" to see why people don't like the new Star Wars. There's no soul to it any more, no art. It's all about selling content and merchandise. The Mandalorian isn't about exploring an unexplored aspect of the Star Wars universe, it's about getting people to subscribe to Disney+ and convincing people to go to their Star Wars theme parks.
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Star Wars was always about merchandising. Lucas merchandised the shit out Star Wars since from the beginning. https://www.hollywoodreporter.... [hollywoodreporter.com]
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It's a sign that the writers have given up on writing compelling stories and are instead hoping that by falling back on virtue signalling
Not true at all. It's a sign that the money people in the studios won't let them write compelling (and original) stories, because they believe the derivative, formula crap will make them more money.
Sadly, they are, by and large, correct.
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These big companies do extensive market research and testing before deciding to go woke. It's like the recent outrage over Nike having a trans influencer promoting their products. You can be sure that was tested with multiple focus groups and some A/B testing before they went global with it. All the people complaining are just giving them free publicity, and ensuring that people who don't like transphobia are motivated to support Nike now.
Star Wars is definitely not very woke though. Look at the droids, the
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She freedom of speech’d herself right out of a job. Disney even told her to chill out before firing her. Turns out people really don’t like when you compare being a conservative to being a jew in 1930s Germany. She made a shitty movie recently with a director that wasn’t conservative enough for MAGA and they called her woke.
Re: 40 years! (Score:3)
I looked at the Wikipedia article about her, and at least according to that, the whole thing started because some tankies were demanding that she go out of her way to express support for BLM, who at the time seemed more interested in some kind of Marxist revolution rather than anything to do with civil rights, and whose own leader was arguing that looting and burning downtown businesses is a legitimate form of reparations. So worthy of endorsement right?
And because that wasn't enough I guess, a bunch of oth
Re: 40 years! (Score:2)
The prequels were actually quite good fantasy wushu movies.
Too bad the later works never reached that level of choreographed fights.
Re:40 years! (Score:4, Funny)
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you though Jar Jar was the first? (Score:2)
This just reminds me it has been 40 years since Star Wars released something half decent.
SPACE teddy bears, dude.
Homicidal, cannibal [screenrant.com] space teddy bears.
Eww. (Score:3)
Imagine bragging that you're so afraid of copyright trolling that you'll postpone a local festival for a decade, then publicly pimp out your daughter as a caterer.
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It could have been worse. The guy could have gone all biblical [biblehub.com].
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Wishes will come true (Score:4, Interesting)
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This is one of the reasons I think Last Jedi was a great movie. It did something new. Finally laid the Jedi Order to rest, and made The Force something that wasn't their exclusive property. Same with the Dark Side, no more Sith dynasties or whatever, just Kylo Ren and his ambition.
Then they squandered it with Rise of Skywalker. They are talking about a new movie with Rey rebuilding the Jedi Order... A failed religion that is largely responsible for what happened in the other movies. It might be a Disney cor
So, so much thirst (Score:3)
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Sounds like a good thing for the area and local businesses. Why are you so negative about it?
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ANAKIN: The Sith rely on their passion for their strength. They think inward, only about themselves.
PALPATINE: And the Jedi don't?
ANAKIN: The Jedi are selfless . . . they only care about others.
PALPATINE smiles.
bribes (Score:2)
What does it take to have a Star Wars event? Bribes, lawyers, you spend all of the money, Disney benefits.
After a last-second court injunction... (Score:2)
same and re-same (Score:2)
I saw the first Star Wars movie. It was entertaining, but very childish sci fi. I never saw any need to see the same movie again and again over and over, with a different title each time.
Lots of fun (Score:2)
I had lots of fun at Death Valley going to some of the places where they filmed Tatooine scenes and seeing how they had created an other-worldly landscape using real locations. Other areas that were used to film Star Wars should use it in their tourism marketing.
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Yes, Tatooine is mostly Tunisia, but several shots were actually taken in Death Valley. You can read about in various places, including on the NPS' Death Valley website.
Definitely go if you can. (Score:2)
At the risk of being a redwood nerd, not a tech nerd...
If you have a chance to visit the redwoods in Humboldt and Del Norte, definitely take it. It's gorgeous country, every bit as spectacular as it appears in the films.
Last summer I visited Humbuldt Redwoods State Park [humboldtredwoods.org] for the first time, specifically the Rockefeller forest. The Rockefellers (yes, those Rockefellers) donated a ton of land to the park and it's one of the best redwood trails I've hiked. The entire north coast, from about Leggett north, is my
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dress in layers, Eureka is cool and overcast about 400 days a year.
You forgot windy. Eureka is a great place to host some Endor shit because they have a model Ewok village [redwoodskywalk.com]. P.S. Been to Nisene Marks? If you park at the pub you can walk up the creek.
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We go to Nisene Marks every month or so. Wonderful place. Haven't been during the deluge but my kid says the river is spectacular now.
Been to the Trees of Mystery [treesofmystery.net]? My wife used to stop there as a kid. We shelled out for the tour for giggles one year. So not worth it. Except that we later ran into a couple at the Samoa Cookhouse [samoacookhouse.net] who couldn't stop talking about how educational it was. It's tough eating apple pie while desperately trying not to laugh.
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No, but I used to live in scruz so I have been to the Mystery Spot. Which was neato, but not very educational :D