2015 confirmed that the years of movie stars carrying huge box office weight are behind us more than ever. Stars and starlets who heralded huge hits in the past were in some of the biggest flops of 2015; Bill Murray with Rock the Kasbah, Sandra Bullock with Our Brand is Crisis, Hugh Jackman with Pan and Chappie, and Bradley Cooper with Aloha and Burnt. Yet Hollywood works in circles, so someone is bound to rise from the ashes to become a true “movie star”.

In 2014, Chris Pratt became the talk of the town after a giant year with Guardians of the Galaxy and The Lego Movie. He even had a pretty good 2015 starring in Jurassic World. Yet, Pratt doesn’t have all of the characteristics of the Golden Age of Hollywood’s leading men and women. His expressive charisma and good looks don’t completely compensate for his limited range. It’s hard for him to carry a film without strong assistance from a supporting cast, which was noticeable in Guardians of the Galaxy but was more obvious after playing second fiddle to Bryce Dallas Howard in Jurassic World.

Jurassic World movie stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard

Furthermore, Pratt’s mark has never actually been tested; nothing has been sold on his image alone. The Marvel, Jurassic Park, and even Lego brands all have a built-in fan base that assures their films from being box office failures. In fact, many of Marvel’s biggest actors have proven to disappoint outside of the franchise: Chris Evans hasn’t led a non-Marvel film to a gross over $60 million; Robert Downey Jr.’s biggest hits have all been franchise films; Chris Hemsworth has had many leading endeavors tank. Marvel hasn’t historically made any bonafide box office stars; why would Chris Pratt be different?

But another talent has been awoken and he has been thrown into the center of the public’s eye: Oscar Isaac. In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Isaac’s Poe Dameron isn’t as utilized as heavily as Finn and Rey, but the part does draw resemblance to the introduction of Harrison Ford’s Han Solo in A New Hope. The two are both cocky, sharp-witted pilots who play the magnetic, charming sidekick. What Isaac has in The Force Awakens that Ford didn’t in A New Hope is experience and a tangible acting prowess.

Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

While A New Hope was essentially Ford’s acting debut, Isaac already has many acting roles under his belt showing his versatility and range. His first leading performance as Llewyn Davis in the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis earned him critical praise and more than a dozen Best Actor mentions. In 2014, he received accolades for his leading performance in A Most Violent Year. And his most impressive box office turn was from this year, Ex Machina, which boasts many critical mentions and award traction.

These indies are obviously in the little leagues when it comes to box office and public visibility, but with The Force Awakens, Oscar Isaac will now become a household name. On top of red carpet events and press conferences, Isaac has been making the rounds on talk shows displaying his confidence and personality. His real life persona is a dashing combination of Pratt’s goofiness and Tom Cruise’s charm, but his talent and scope arguably exceeds them both. Add in his musical talent, and Isaac becomes a double threat that is easy for the public to latch on to.

A pondering Oscar Isaac in Ex Machina

Even though Poe Dameron seems underutilized in The Force Awakens, it’s worth noting that Han Solo’s presence is much more noteworthy in the next two installments of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. With all signs pointing to a derivative series and some characters out of the way, Isaac’s Poe could have much more to do in the next episode. Furthermore, The Force Awakens is only the beginning of Isaac’s blockbuster reign; he is playing the titular villain in the upcoming X-Men film.

With a strong platter of future releases, Oscar Isaac has the potential to latch on to Hollywood and leave a lasting impact. The Star Wars series has started and killed many acting careers, especially Hayden Christensen and Mark Hamill who struggled to brand themselves outside of the series. But Isaac isn’t like these two; he has already proven himself to be strong enough in his past endeavors to outlast the curse. After his franchise contracts run up, he will be one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood. His possibilities will be endless.

In the final installment of our series of Way Too Indiecast Star Wars Specials, Bernard and Dustin are joined by two new companions, WTI’s own Ananda Dillon and Star Wars aficionado Justin Boo, to break down piece-by-piece Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Stakes were high going into this JJ Abrams-helmed mega reboot—did the movie meet the crew’s expectations? Is this the moment Dustin finally embraces the light side and becomes a Star Wars fanboy, or has he lost hope in the force altogether? Will super fans Bernard, Ananda and Justin have their childhood dreams reawakened or extinguished forever? It’s all on the line on this very special, extended, final edition of the series!

Our Heroes:

Bernard “Boo-Boo Fett” Boo – Jedi Academy class clown. Lifelong Star Wars fan, loves all three movies in the original trilogy and hopes to find BB-8 in his stocking this Christmas.

Dustin “D-3PO” Jansick – Padawan. Never watched the original trilogy (may have seen A New Hope, but memory’s foggy) and has virtually zero familiarity with the universe. A rare breed in this day and age.

Ananda “General Ackbar” Dillon – Rebel Leader. Huge Star Wars buff and general pop culture fanatic. Has been awaiting The Force Awakens with bated breath.

Justin “BooBoo-8” Boo – Jedi Master. Mentor to “Boo-Boo Fett.” Lifelong Star Wars obsessive. Seen all of the movies countless times. Has boxes and boxes of Star Wars action figures.

Subscribe to the Way Too Indiecast

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Subscribe on Stitcher

Editor’s Note: This review was written with a spoiler-free mindset; my intention was to preserve the film’s major secrets and revelations so that you may discover them on your own.

With a deep sigh of relief, Star Wars fans can finally rest easy: Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a bombastic, high-energy, eye-popping space opera with loads of heart and soul (two key ingredients the prequels tragically lacked). It doesn’t quite capture the storybook magic of the original trilogy, but the classic Star Wars spirit lives on via returning cast members and some scrumptious fan-service callbacks. What’s most intriguing is the new stuff: a hungry young cast putting on worthy performances; a savvy director whose eye for action makes the series’ signature space battles pop and sing like never before; an exhilaratingly dominant female presence. The film gives several of the series’ longstanding traditions a loving kiss goodbye while also forging forward, setting the tone for what Star Wars will be now and in the future.

The story, by director JJ Abrams and co-writers Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt, picks up thirty years after the events of The Return of the Jedi, with the Empire long-fallen. Taking the Empire’s place is the First Order which, in all honesty, looks and operates exactly like the Empire (they’ve even got armies of stormtroopers, and fleets of TIE Fighters and star destroyers). The Rebels have been replaced by the Resistance, led by general Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher). The good-guy and bad-guy factions’ shared mission is to locate a digital map which contains the location of the long-missing Jedi Master, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). Harboring and guarding the map is an adorable, globular droid called BB-8, who’s stranded on the desert planet Jakku when his master, Resistance ace pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), is captured by the First Order.

On Jakku, BB-8 meets tough-skinned scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley) and stormtrooper-gone-rogue Finn (John Boyega). Both are charismatic and have rich histories and a few secrets to hide. Poe is star quarterback-cool and makes a big impression though he’s less of a presence than Rey and Finn and looks to have more of a central role in future installments. Looking at the movie as a sort of baton pass from old characters to new, it feels like a clean, seamless handoff. The new heroes feel as organic and fleshed-out as their predecessors did in their respective debuts in A New Hope. The nature of heroism has been a primary theme throughout the series, and it’s further explored here; one of the protagonists could in a certain light be considered a bit of a coward. But there is no courage without fear, of course.

Personifying the dark side of the force this time around is the sinister Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), a volatile, loquacious villain with dreams of picking up where Darth Vader left off (he keeps Vader’s charred helmet as an object of inspiration). The movie’s open sees him slaughtering a small village on Jakku in search of the map-guffin, and in later scenes, we learn the source and extent of his inner rage. He works for a bigger bad (I’ll let you discover who that is on your own) and also has a peer/rival in General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), a tyrannical, barking military leader who’d be a Third Reich shoe-in in our galaxy. His pet project is a massive, world-ending new weapon he can’t wait to unleash on the Resistance.

In what instantly becomes one of the series’ best aerial action sequences, Rey, Finn and BB-8 stumble upon a “garbage” spacecraft in a junkyard and use it to take out pursuing TIE fighters. Little do they know, they’ve just hopped into the legendary Millennium Falcon—Rey mans the cockpit, Finn takes control of the same swiveling turret Han and Luke once did, and a spectacular, careening, nostalgia-dipped dogfight ensues (this sequence really is a wonder). After successfully evading their enemies and exiting the planet’s atmosphere, our young heroes eventually find the ship’s original owners, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), who reluctantly agree to help them deliver BB-8 to the Resistance (and Leia, who Han hasn’t seen in quite some time).

Seeing the returning actors reprise their roles is a delight though unsurprisingly there are occasional lapses in conviction on Ford’s part (when the movie calls upon him to run and gun he puts on the face of a morning jogger). The prop throwbacks and easter eggs get tiresome after a while (the film will often all but pause for applause when showcasing these classic movie relics) but they’re sure to make fans go wild and maybe even draw a tear or two. The larger narrative pays homage to the first films as well (search for lost Jedi Knight, blow up big enemy weapon) and, uninspired as this is, Abrams and co. introduce enough twists into the formula to make old tricks feel new again. What makes the returning characters’ involvement worthwhile are plot developments that are best kept a secret, though what I will say is that the ongoing Skywalker/Solo family drama is kept alive in exciting, unexpected ways.

Something that feels sorely missed in this seventh installment of the long-running space opera is, well, operatic speech. There was a theatrical, melodramatic thrust to some of the original trilogy’s classic lines that, while cheesy to some, made those iconic movie moments feel timeless and momentous. Shakespearean, even. With the exception of one exchange during the film’s most emotional scene, there aren’t many lines I can point to as being quotable or particularly weighty. Perhaps time and rewatches will prove me wrong.

The two standout actors of the film are, without question, Ridley and Driver, both of them sharing strong chemistry with the rest of the cast and, most of all, with each other. Rey and Kylo Ren are grade-A characters who are easy to invest in and bring a new energy to the Star Wars universe. Boyega, Isaac and Gleeson do fine jobs as well though I suspect those characters’ greatest moments are still yet to come. A major frustration for me was Iko Uwais and the rest of The Raid crew’s wasted casting—these guys are the best movie martial artists in the business, and they’re given nada in the way of fight sequences. Big shame.

One of the main points of anxiety for Star Wars fans anticipating this film is the implementation of CG effects. While for the most part the digital elements look fantastic (Lupita Nyong’o‘s character, Maz Kanata, is an incredible CG creation), some of them look downright out of place, like Kylo Ren and Hux’s master. This is the first successful marriage between Star Wars and digital effects, but the marriage ain’t a perfect one by a long shot.

There are moments when Star Wars: The Force Awakens feels like a modern action-adventure classic; the climactic, snowy-forest lightsaber fight, for example, ranks up there with the best in the series (in fact, the entire third act is unbelievably good). But where the movie falls short is in continuing the original trilogy’s spirituality angle. Star Wars has always been about faith and family—Abrams nails the latter, but has somewhat forsaken the former. We acquire little to no new understanding of the force and its mysteries, and the characters who do struggle with faith don’t do so in a way that we haven’t seen before. The movie gets more right than wrong, however, and all things considered, it delivers where it counts. This thing is an entertainment orgy of galactic proportions, a fun-filled, planet-hopping, visually breathtaking adventure that gets the next generation of Star Wars stories off to a good start.

In part three of our series of Way Too Indiecast Star Wars Specials, Bernard, Dustin and CJ discuss the third entry in the original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi. The boys again dissect the movie section by section, starting with Luke, Leia and friends’ rescue of Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt to the final showdown between Luke, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. CJ and Dustin have still yet to be swept up in the magic and mythology of Lucas’ space epic, but maybe the thrilling conclusion to Luke’s odyssey will finally sway them over to the light side. Plus, our heroes share their Star Wars: The Force Awakens theories and expectations in anticipation of today’s grand opening.

Our Heroes:

Bernard “Boo-Boo Fett” Boo – Jedi Academy class clown. Lifelong Star Wars fan, loves all three movies in the original trilogy and hopes to find BB-8 in his stocking this Christmas.

CJ “Darth Dissenter” Prince – Sith Lord. Hasn’t seen the original trilogy since childhood, terrorizes the galaxy with shoulder shrugs and apathetic heavy breathing. Never connected with Star Wars on any level, but may open to change…

Dustin “D-3PO” Jansick – Padawan. Never watched the original trilogy (may have seen A New Hope, but memory’s foggy) and has virtually zero familiarity with the universe. A rare breed in this day and age.

Subscribe to the Way Too Indiecast

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Subscribe on Stitcher

Standing in defiance of the techie takeover that’s been wiping clean San Francisco’s weird, colorful corners and pockets, the 100-year-old New Mission Theater—following a $10 million renovation by Alamo Drafthouse—opens its doors tomorrow, inviting us to dine on high-end finger food as we watch movies of all shapes and sizes within its historic walls.

For its grand opening, the theater will be playing Star Wars: The Force Awakens on all five of its screens. Moviegoers are offered assigned seating and can order food and drink throughout the movie via a silent ordering system involving pencils, paper, ninja-like servers and a whole lot of nervous hand gesturing. Not a perfect system by any means, but all the scrambling adds to the Alamo ambiance.

The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain was founded by Tim League in 1997 and has since expanded to 20 locations across the U.S., the New Mission being the latest addition. League’s hired former Roxie Director of Programming Mike Keegan to run the theater and, considering the man’s prior accomplishments (he’s helped program many of SF Indiefests wild and weird events and once organized a cat video film festival), San Franciscans are in for a treat. Helping Mike ensure the theater is an active contributor to the Mission District community is Private and Community Events Director Elizabeth Duran.

The theater’s adjoining bar, Bear Vs. Bull, will act as a separate entity; you can grab drinks before or after a movie or simply stop by and hang without purchasing a ticket at all. Beverage Director Isaac Shumway and Chef Ronnie New will be sure to keep your belly happy as you enjoy a night out with your buddies and/or significant other.

Sitting in front of one of the theater’s beautiful screens, I spoke with League and Keegan about the future of the New Mission and the journey that got them to this point. For more info, visit drafthouse.com/sf

As far as magnitude goes, there’s no bigger way to open this theater than on this weekend, with this movie.
Mike: We like to live by the seat of our pants, and there’s nothing more terrifying than opening a giant project, years in the making, with unrealistically high expectations!

I think the both of you have done countless cool things for the film community, kind of keeping the game off-balance with your ideas. Talk about coming together to work on this particular project.
Tim: We’ve known each other for a little while. I think we met through a mutual friend—it’s a really small world of people who do this type of programming. Our friend said, “You guys should meet—Mike’s nice!” And this guy will tell you if a guy’s not nice. [laughs] We chatted and Mike had left the Roxie and was out doing cat fancier tours or whatever it was. [laughs] It wasn’t really a formal process. It’s cool in this world because you’re kind of judged by your past work. We liked what he had been doing and thought it would be a good cultural fit for Drafthouse.

I’ve enjoyed your work at the Roxie very much over the years, Mike. This is a great, big new platform for you. What can we expect from you in the future?
Mike: The cool thing is, it’s five screens. You have flexibility because you have everything from a 320-seat room to a 34-seat room. You can basically show the best version of whatever should play in each room. You could play a masterpiece gem in a 34-seat room and do great, and you can have a four-quadrant Marvel movie in the big room. Everyone’s psyched and everyone’s happy. You hope that the audience will get to a point where they’d want to see all five things and that they feel like this is their place.

Tim: That sense is what’s pretty unique about our company, in a way. We’re doing some pretty interesting, almost subversive advertising for people who are watching some pretty down-the-middle movies. It’s like, “You like movies? How about these movies you may not have heard of?” It’s a way of converting a lot of people who may not know a lot about film history to come check out some other stuff after they’ve watched something like Star Wars, for example.

Mike: I feel like, over the past fifteen years or so, there’s been much less of a divide between high and low art. “Content” is a big word going around—people are just open to things that interest them. Whether it’s a stuffy art movie, a crass action movie or anywhere in between. It’s the right time to open a place like this.

With The Hateful Eight, particlarly the road show version, Quentin Tarantino is trying to give people a movie experience they can’t replicate at home. Your company does that kind of work as well. Talk about the importance of watching movies in wild, weird ways.
Tim: We look at ourselves as not necessarily competing against home video. We look at ourselves as an option for people deciding on what to do when they’re outside the house. This experience, from beginning to end, has to be compelling enough for people to choose it over going to a comedy club or going out for drinks. It’s an out-of-the-house entertainment option. Sometimes it’s more over-the-top for us. But I just like watching a movie. The technical aspects, the food and beverage—that’s all a part of just watching a movie.

A lot of the new companies that have popped up in San Francisco have sort of taken over and farmed new money without giving back to the community. It seems like this theater will play a big part in preserving the integrity and authenticity of our city.
Mike: We have a Community Director, Liz Duran, who’s from KQED, Sketchfest and the San Francisco Film Society. She’s on the ground, letting neighborhood organizations know that we’re here and we want to work with them. Kids can come watch movies on the weekend for a dollar. We’re here for everything.

The queso’s still on the menu!
Tim: That’s the only holdout. It’s a brand new menu except for the queso. If you’ve lived in Austin, that’s the number one question me and Mike have been fielding. “You’re bringing the queso, right?” People who aren’t from Austin have no idea what you’re talking about. [laughs]

So this is the first theater in the Alamo chain to have a unique menu?
Tim: Yeah. What we normally do is, we have a core menu, and we hire a local chef in the market and they change about 25% of it or so. Then they work on rotating specials once a quarter. If Hateful Eight is coming out, they’ll make a special menu for it. That kind of stuff. For this one…so many things are unique about this facility. I wanted the San Francisco theater to be very special, so we spent a long time trying to find a chef that we liked and was also a big movie fan. I wanted this to be a dream job for that person.

Would you say you created a dream job for yourself?
Tim: That’s exactly what I did. I was an engineer and I didn’t like it at all. I got there right on time, left right at five and took an abnormally long lunch break. I would leave my door open, you know? [laughs] When I was 21-years-old I immediately leapt into the middle class, but it wasn’t how I wanted to retire. My satisfaction came after 5 o’clock. Now, I love what I do.

I think what’s cool about you guys is that you’re a chain but you don’t feel like a chain. You’ve grown and done it the right way. How big can the company get? How big do you want it to get?
Tim: I set a goal to be at 50 locations by 2018, and then we were going to assess it and see how we did. If it still felt right, we could go bigger. I don’t know. I’m focused on that 2018 number. It’s already gotten really interesting. We were talking to the VP of Disney because they like what we’re doing. We can find smaller movies and open a movie across our circuit. That’s how we started our distribution company. Anomalisa is Paramount, but it’s also a challenging film. It’s going to be hard for that film to find an audience if it doesn’t get an Academy Award. That’s a movie where everyone on the team loves it and we’re going to collectively dive in and do everything we can. We worked directly with the studio. We said, “We’re going to post some numbers because this movie is extremely special.” We want to share it with as many people as possible. You can’t do that as a single-screen theater. Now that we’re bigger, we can make some noise for a movie like that.

Sometimes I go to the theater and I look around, and no one looks like they’re actually present. Their mind is somewhere else, their hands are itching to grab at their phones.
Tim: I think that speaks to why our no talking/no texting policy is so important. Not to sound pretentious or old-fashioned, but it’s so crazy to me what’s happened to people throughout their day. You could be having a conversation with somebody and it feels like they’ve gotten bored with what you’re saying and they pick up their phone and multi-task. Going to see a movie and making this mandatory situation happen where you have to put your phone away and focus on something that’s longer than a minute is actually kind of important, to shut down for 90 minutes and dissolve into a movie.

Somebody asked me, “What do you think about the future of movies? What will movies be like in 25 years?” I want it to be exactly what it is today, which is exactly what it was in the ’40s. I want the lights to go down and you just lose yourself in a story. No bells, no whistles. I don’t want anything more.

In part two of our series of Way Too Indiecast Star Wars Specials, Bernard, Dustin and CJ discuss the second episode in the original Star Wars trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back. Luke Skywalker learns the ways of the force from Master Yoda and Han and Leia finally open up their hearts to one another in this pivotal entry in Lucas’ saga, but will their emotional journeys force-pull CJ and Dustin’s thus far indifferent feelings about the franchise over to the light side? What will they think of that classic movie moment between Luke and Vader? A hint: Empire is one of Bernard’s favorite movies of all time; CJ and Dustin land on the other end of the spectrum. Click play to hear their spirited debate!

Our Heroes:

Bernard “Boo-Boo Fett” Boo – Jedi Academy class clown. Lifelong Star Wars fan, loves all three movies in the original trilogy and hopes to find BB-8 in his stocking this Christmas.

CJ “Darth Dissenter” Prince – Sith Lord. Hasn’t seen the original trilogy since childhood, terrorizes the galaxy with shoulder shrugs and apathetic heavy breathing. Never connected with Star Wars on any level, but may open to change…

Dustin “D-3PO” Jansick – Padawan. Never watched the original trilogy (may have seen A New Hope, but memory’s foggy) and has virtually zero familiarity with the universe. A rare breed in this day and age.

Subscribe to the Way Too Indiecast

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Subscribe on Stitcher

Welcome to the Way Too Indiecast Star Wars Specials, a series in which we revisit the original Star Wars trilogy film by film, talking in-depth about George Lucas’ expansive space opera universe that changed movies forever. To cap things off, we’ll be reviewing Star Wars: The Force Awakens shortly after it drops on December 18th. It’s a four-part Star Wars spectacular that can be enjoyed by fans, non-fans and newbies alike!

Our Heroes:

Bernard “Boo-Boo Fett” Boo – Jedi Academy class clown. Lifelong Star Wars fan, loves all three movies in the original trilogy and hopes to find BB-8 in his stocking this Christmas.

CJ “Darth Dissenter” Prince – Sith Lord. Hasn’t seen the original trilogy since childhood, terrorizes the galaxy with shoulder shrugs and apathetic heavy breathing. Never connected with Star Wars on any level, but may open to change…

Dustin “D-3PO” Jansick – Padawan. Never watched the original trilogy (may have seen A New Hope, but memory’s foggy) and has virtually zero familiarity with the universe. A rare breed in this day and age.

In part one of our four-part series, we’re talking about Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, a movie widely credited for inspiring millions and launching the tidal wave of action-adventure blockbusters that’s still washing over us today. How will Bernard and CJ react to meeting Luke, Leia, Han and the gang once more? What will Dustin’s fresh-eyed take on the movie be? Will the boys think the grandaddy of them all is a galactic classic? A dark-side disappointment? Or does it hover like Luke’s landspeeder somewhere in between? Listen in to find out!

Subscribe to the Way Too Indiecast

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Subscribe on Stitcher

After a week off, we’re back with a brand new episode of the Way Too Indiecast! This week, Bernard and CJ welcome director Josh Mond and star Christopher Abbott to talk about their new film, James White. The boys also discuss what is one of the most unpredictable awards seasons in memory and which movies they think will take home golden statues in a couple months time. Disney’s controversial decision to not screen Star Wars: The Force Awakens for critics is also a topic of conversation as your hosts cry foul and risk sounding like film critic elitists. All that, plus our Indie Picks of the Week, on this super-sized edition of the Indiecast!

Topics

• Indie Picks (3:40)
• Disney Snubs Critics (11:05)
• Awards Season Scramble (28:46)
• Josh Mond and Christopher Abbott on James White (1:15:36)

Articles Referenced

Arabian Nights: Volume 1 Review
Arlo and Julie Interview
James White Review

Subscribe to the Way Too Indiecast

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Subscribe on Stitcher

The new Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer dropped tonight during Monday Night Football on ESPN, and while millions of fans rejoiced, many were too busy pulling their hair out trying to get tickets to the damn movie.

Pre-sale tickets to the hotly anticipated blockbuster went on sale tonight as well, and the sky-high demand crashed virtually every website that made the tickets available. The web’s largest vendor, Fandango, crashed almost immediately. Here’s the error message you’d see on the site if you tried to do, well, anything:

Somehow, I don’t think the thousands of frustrated Star Wars fans frantically clicking the refresh button on their browsers found the error “funny.”

Despite the online debacle, the new trailer did, in fact, play on ESPN on time, without a hitch, and it was AMAZING. Giving us longer looks at Adam Driver’s Vader fanboy Kylo Ren, Daisy Ridley’s Rey (and her cute lil buddy BB-8), and John Boyega’s lightsaber-wielding Finn, the explosive trailer is everything fans like yours truly could have hoped for. Check it out below (as if you haven’t already watched it 500 times):

Now that the trailer’s finally arrived, we’ll have to practice patience a little longer as we await the film’s December 18th release. For those of you who managed to secure your tickets, congratulations, you old pirate! For those of you who haven’t…

May the force be with you!

The tag team of Bernard and CJ run wild on this episode as they talk about Denis Villeneuve’s new film, Sicario, as well as make sense of a blood-boiling argument Bernard had with a friend about the plausibility of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer. Also, highlights from the roundtable interview Bernard had with Andrew Garfield, the star of Ramin Bahrani’s housing crisis drama 99 Homes. All that, plus our Indie Picks of the Week on this week’s exciting installment of the Indiecast!

Topics

• Indie Picks (3:34)
• Plausibility For Dummies (10:02)
• Sicario (29:22)
• Andrew Garfield (48:03)

WTI Articles Referenced in the Podcast

99 Homes TIFF Review
Sicario Review
Victoria TIFF Review
Jafar Panahi’s Taxi Review

Subscribe to the Way Too Indiecast

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Subscribe on Stitcher

With Star Wars: The Force Awakens just on the horizon, Bernard, CJ, Dustin, and special guest (and giant Star Wars fanboy) Justin Boo go in-depth about the mass anticipation of the new film as well as the feverish passion of the millions of fans of the legendary franchise. Why is there such excitement for the new trilogy when the last one was such an abomination? Also, film critic Rob Trench joins CJ and Bernard to recap the Toronto International Film Festival, from the best to the worst to the fantastic films flying just under the radar. Plus, the return of our Indie Picks of the Week!

Topics

• Indie Picks (2:13)
• Star Wars Hype (15:00)
• TIFF Wrap-Up (45:12)

WTI Articles Referenced in the Podcast

The Fool Review
Me and Earl Review
TIFF Coverage

Subscribe to the Way Too Indiecast

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Subscribe on Stitcher

It’s quite possibly the most iconic film series of all time, and as we all anxiously await the continuation of that epic galactic saga this December we can’t help but look at the shelves of Star Wars laserdiscs, VHS tapes, original version DVDs and Lucas-ized version of DVDs, the special editions, the Funko toys and the action heroes and think: It’s just not enough.

I mean look at this stuff. Isn’t it neat? But wouldn’t you say your collection’s incomplete?

Now The Walt Disney Studios, Lucasfilm Ltd., and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment have announced they are releasing commemorative Blu-ray steelbooks of the “original”—a debatable term—six films on November 10th. They are of course limited time only. Each steelbook (is this a term we’re using now?) is ordained with character covers including rather CG looking versions of Yoda, Darth Maul, General Grievous (which no one was likely asking for, but OK), and more.

In addition to the collectible steelbook packaging, each single-disc Blu-ray includes existing audio commentary with George Lucas and the film crew as well as audio commentary from archival interviews with the cast and crew.

On October 13, you can geek out even harder with Star Wars: The Complete Saga, which includes all six feature films on Blu-ray, along with three additional discs containing more than 40 hours of previously released extensive special features.

Now we just need one of you to watch every single format and version of the series, do a screen shot-by-shot analysis and put it into a tidy excel sheet on the Internet ranking them definitively. Yeah, we definitely NEED that. Get on it people. And check out the Steelbook Blu-ray packaging below.

Star Wars Steelbook Blu-rays

The girls are taking over! Ananda and Scarlet talk about all the juicy news that came out of Comic-Con and talk about what it was like to be sitting in the middle of the biggest geek orgy in the world. Bernard makes a guest appearance to review Marvel’s Ant-Man, which is crawling into theaters as we speak. All that, plus our Indie Pick of the Week, on this week’s Way Too Indiecast!

MUBI is a strong sponsor of the Way Too Indiecast. MUBI is a curated online cinema that brings its members a hand-picked selection of the best indie, foreign, and classic films. Visit www.mubi.com/waytooindie to try MUBI 30 days for free.

Topics

• Indie Pick of the Week (00:58)
• Comic-Con Coverage (7:26)
• Ant-Man Review (45:41)

WTI Articles Referenced in the Podcast

Star Wars: The Force Awakens panel
Warner Brothers panel
Ant-Man review

Subscribe to the Way Too Indiecast

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Subscribe on Stitcher
• and please leave us a rating and quick review!

Success is the best revenge they say. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are proving the point. Nothing quite like slapping the Academy in the face for that snubbed Oscar by going on to do bigger and better projects. And these days no project is bigger than one with the Star Wars franchise sticker slapped on it.

The dynamic duo behind The LEGO Movie, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street and 22 Jump Street aren’t just being handed a Star Wars anthology film, they are being handed one starring everyone’s favorite character, Han Solo.

The film will be written by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan (Lawrence wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark and co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and The Force Awakens) and will focus on a young Han Solo, the scoundrel and smuggler we all fell in love with at the cantina on Mos Eisley. You know, the kind of Han Solo who would shoot first in a blaster fight.

In the news announcement on the Star Wars website, Lord and Miller had this to say:

“This is the first film we’ve worked on that seems like a good idea to begin with. We promise to take risks, to give the audience a fresh experience, and we pledge ourselves to be faithful stewards of these characters who mean so much to us. This is a dream come true for us. And not the kind of dream where you’re late for work and all your clothes are made of pudding, but the kind of dream where you get to make a film with some of the greatest characters ever, in a film franchise you’ve loved since before you can remember having dreams at all.”

Exactly the sort of statement we’d expect from the offbeat duo, and with Star Wars fans harboring more expectations than almost any fandom in existence they’ll have their work cut out for them. The film has a May 25, 2018 release date attached to it and as we wait in anticipation we’ll have to bide our time building LEGO Millenium Falcons.

The sad news has now surely reached all that the irreplaceable Sir Christopher Lee has died at the age of 93 on Sunday, June 7th.

Most millennials would easily recall Lee as Count Dooku from the apocryphal prequel episodes of Star Wars or the crooked white wizard, Saruman, in Peter Jackson’s first Lord of the Rings trilogy. Those slightly older probably know him best as Dracula from the Hammer Horror series, or Bond villain Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun (coincidentally, he was step-cousin to Ian Fleming through his mother’s second marriage). With over 280 acting credits to his name, Lee was one of the most prolific actors of all time. He was close friends with Hammer Horror co-star Peter Cushing, with whom he shared a May 27th birthday

But everyone, young and old, knows him as an ultimate evil persona. Because that’s what he did best over the course of his 70-year acting career.

With his piercing eyes, eyebrows we’d swear were alive, and snarling, spider-esque fingers, the towering 6’5″ Lee was in step with the likes of Vincent Price, Lon Chaney, and Bela Lugosi in his ability to crawl into creepy characters of cunning and dastardly intentions. We relished in his rich and bellowing operatic vocal tones, for which he was classically trained and even graced the track of many a heavy metal album including Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross in 2010 as well as Charlemagne: The Omens of Death in 2013. Knighted in 2009 for his service to drama and charity, he received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011 and the BFI Fellowship in 2013 as well. Most stunning to some might be that, in his passing, he leaves behind his wife of 53 years, Gitte Lee.

There will never be another Sir Christopher Lee, but his legacy of villainy reaching over three generations while he was living will reach countless more. If only we do our due diligence. He cannot be forgotten.

Sir Christopher Lee as “Francisco Scaramanga” in The Man with the Golden Gun.

Celebrities have taken to Twitter today to share their thoughts and remembrances of this great actor:

An extraordinary man and life lead, Sir Christopher Lee. You were an icon, and a towering human being with stories for days. We'll miss you.

— Elijah Wood (@woodelijah) June 11, 2015

I wish I'd met Sir Christopher Lee. I was so lucky & proud to have had him play the Earl in @BBCRadio4 Neverwhere. Great actor, great loss.

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) June 11, 2015

So so sorry to hear that #christopherlee has passed away. He was a fascinating person. Threw a bic pen into a tree in front of me. #legend

— Dominic Monaghan (@DomsWildThings) June 11, 2015

As we ramp up to the summer movie season, the newswire this week was dominated by upcoming Star Wars and superhero films. First, last weekend’s Star Wars Celebration brought us a new trailer for The Force Awakens and the next cutest robot ever. Later in the week, we heard that Nightcrawler‘s Riz Ahmed was in talks to play a leading role in the first Star Wars anthology film Rogue One. For the other big Disney property coming out this year, apparently some German theaters are boycotting The Avengers: Age of Ultron due to the studio’s asking for too much money per ticket sale. But that might not be as bad as the predicament Warner Bros. founds itself in when its trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice leaked just days prior to a scheduled IMAX trailer release event, forcing the studio to officially release the trailer sooner than they planned. Oh, and then there’s the mostly negative response that trailer received online. We also got that Jared Leto Joker image shocking into our brains, never to be forgotten. With all this circling, how you honestly keep up with anything else? Check out other news you may have missed last week below!

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller Set to Make a Spider-Man Animated Movie

OK, so we’re not completely done with superhero film news, but this bit is a little more enticing. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have made a fine career out of adapting uninspired properties into intelligent and fun films – maybe they are the perfect filmmakers to get Sony out of their Spider-Man rut. Announced at Sony’s presentation at CinemaCon, the duo are set to direct an animated version of everyone’s favorite web-slinger to be released in 2018. This, of course, isn’t the first time Spider-Man has been animated, with multiple popular television series. If Sony has to release a film of their own while also handing off the character on loan to Marvel Studios, an animated film is probably the only way to differentiate it. And hiring Lord & Miller attached to write and direct the film is probably the only way to make it not feel like a total cash grab.

Ang Lee’s Next Film to be Shot at 120 Frames Per Second

Also announced at Sony’s CinemaCon presentation, Ang Lee is currently working with Sony to shoot his next film with a revolutionary new camera that can capture 120 images per second. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk will also be shot in the suddenly blasé 3D with 4k projection. A few years back, Peter Jackson’s first film in The Hobbit series was projected at 48 fps, paving the way for the next trend to keep us going to the movies, but this is a bold step up from that. Many of the technical details are still unclear, but it will definitely be interesting to learn more and see the results.

Virgin Mountain and Bridgend Biggest Winners at Tribeca

The 2015 Tribeca Film Festival is in the books, with Dagur Kári’s Virgin Mountain and Jeppe Rønde’s Bridgend sweeping the World Narrative Competition awards. Virgin Mountain took home Best Narrative Feature, Best Actor and Best Screenplay, graciously leaving Best Actress, Cinematography and Editing for Bridgend. Camilla Nielsson’s look at the the adoption of a new constitution in Zimbabwe, Democrats, won Best Documentary Feature. We saw Bridgend, but were pretty mixed on the film. You can find the complete list of competition award winners at Indiewire. While you’re at it, check out all of our Tribeca 2015 coverage here!

Gaspar Noé upcoming NSFW film Love

A few days after the competition and Directors’ Fortnight schedules for the 2015 Cannes Film Festival were released, a stimulating addition has been made. According to the Dissolve, film provocateur Gaspar Noé will be showing off his newest film, Love, at the festival. Though we know Love is a three-hour 3D porno, it is supposedly more joyous and lighthearted than Noé’s previous films Irreversible and Enter the Void. With Lars von Trier still banned from Cannes, his spot for controversy has been up-for-grabs, so perhaps it will be filled by the Argentinian auteur.

Trailer of the Week: Nightingale

After David Oyelowo’s disappointing snub at this year’s Oscars, I was very interested in seeing where his career would go. Oyelowo has long been putting in great performances in small roles in films like The Paperboy and A Most Violent Year, but could he sustain being a leading man? Well, by the looks of Nightingale, where he seems to be the only on-screen character, he’s doubling down. The film debuted at the 2014 Los Angeles Film Festival, but will now get a broad release thanks to HBO Films, when it will show on the cable channel on Friday, May 29. Check out a tease of Oyelowo’s powerful solo performance in the trailer below!

Children might already be counting down the days until Christmas, but Star Wars fans everywhere are counting the days until the release of Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

There are 246 by the way.

That’s how many days until the December 17th midnight premiere of what will bring back the cast from the original, and some say only, Star Wars trilogy that whet the appetites of science fiction aficionados.

And the trailer that was just released is only doing more to get everyone excited. Especially since this one has a glimpse of Han and Chewie and the voice of Mark Hamill narrating.

Be sure to watch the trailer below. And get ready to start getting visions of sugar plums and storm troopers.

It’s going to be a happy Christmas indeed.

Star Wars Episode VII Trailer #2

Disney dropped two major announcements on Thursday at their annual meeting of shareholders.

First, that the release date for Star Wars: Episode VIII has been set for May 26, 2017. They also shared that there will be a stand alone movie, Rogue One, set in the Star Wars universe that will be out on December 16, 2016 and (as we already know) directed by Gareth Edwards.

Also confirmed will be the official making of a sequel to Frozen, although they have yet to announce a release date or any other production details. All that’s known is that the first film’s directors, Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck are working on the project with producer Peter Del Vecho. The announcement of a sequel is no real surprise knowing the success of the original Oscar Award-winning film, but it’s good news for Frozen fans nonetheless.

On another note, shareholders had the opportunity to propose new policies and ideas to Disney’s CEO Bob Iger who responded to one such question that he will ban smoking from films marketed to kids…sad, maybe, that that needed to be stated. However, he won’t necessarily lobby for other production companies to follow suit.

All in all, it seemed to be a pretty productive meeting.

We’ll just leave you with this tweet from Kristen Bell:

Dreams really do come 2!!! #FROZEN2 #itsofficial pic.twitter.com/qF6qTQlnqi

— Kristen Bell (@IMKristenBell) March 12, 2015

Today we celebrate Warwick Davis’ 45th birthday! Anyone who considers themselves a proper fan of Fantasy and Sci-Fi knows that we owe many of our most beloved characters to the endearing talent of this charming man.

Davis has played titular roles in some of the most famous movie and television series of our time. He has left an indelible mark in pop culture and cinematic history. With a career spanning 32 years, let’s give this man his due today as he celebrates being 45! In case we’re ever in doubt about just how little we’ve accomplished in our lives, we have only to look to him to confirm it.

And with that, here are some fun facts about Warwick Davis to shed some light on just how incredible a life can be in the short span of 45 years:

#1. He started playing the Ewok, Wicket, (beginning with Star Wars: Return of the Jedi) when he was just 11 years old. Originally cast as an extra, he moved up in the world when the actor previously planned to play Wicket fell ill.

#2. He must have made quite an impression on George Lucas who wrote this next movie with Davis in mind for the leading role. Perhaps a bit overshadowed by Val Kilmer’s flamboyantly delightful Madmartigan, Warwick Davis played the title character of that unforgettable and courageous Nelwyn in Willow.

#3. Harry Potter spotlighted the talents of almost every well known contemporary British actor and Davis was no exception. He played both Professor Filius Flitwick as well as Griphook.

#4. One of Jennifer Aniston’s first leading men, Warwick (pronounced Warrick) haunted us as that horrifying fantastical menace, Leprechaun. Six times.

#5. He played Nikabrik in Disney’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. (He had played Reepicheep in the BBC version in 1989).

#6. Perhaps the character everyone most looked forward to in Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy, Marvin the Paranoid Android, was brought to life in 2005 by Davis, at least physically (the voice was provided by Alan Rickman).

#7. He was a part of the Goblin Corps in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth.

#8. In 2013, he starred in an episode of Doctor Who opposite the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith.

#9. Remember that fantasy TV mini-series, The Tenth Kingdom, that tugged at our adolescent heartstrings in the year 2000? He played Acorn, the Dwarf!

#10. Has both a daughter and a son with his wife, Samantha. His son’s name? Harrison.

#11. In 2011, he published his Autobiography, “Size Matters Not: The Extraordinary Life and Career of Warwick Davis”. It’s available to order on Amazon. In pretty much every format you could want.

We are in awe of your life, Mr. Davis! Have a wonderful Birthday!

“There has been an awakening – have you felt it?” Thus begins the all-new teaser for J.J. Abrams‘ Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

It’s a short teaser, that debuted in a select few theaters today and iTunes, but true fans will take whatever morsels Abrams gives us. Not much plot was revealed, and the teaser focuses on the tension around the force apparently waking up. The teaser focuses on the tech goodies, a new droid on a rolling ball, stormtroopers preparing for battle, a lightsaber that looks like a sword with a hilt.

We do get a slight glimpse at newcomers John Boyega and Daisy Riddle. They join Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow, and original cast members Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, and Peter Mayhew.

What fans will undoubtedly be amped most about is some awesome action by the Millenium Falcon. This is the seventh film in the franchise and will take place 30 years after Return of the Jedi.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens will hit theaters December of 2015. One more year guys, one more year.

Leave a comment, tell us your thoughts.

We have all seen the buzz in our news feeds. The new J.J. Abrams Star Wars baby has been dubbed Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Every bit of news learned about this upcoming foray into a much beloved world of science fiction is received with either dismay, or frothing, barely-tethered anticipation. But can we glean anything from the title for what we could expect to happen in Episode VII?

If the story lines from similarly titled movies can give us any clues, we might be able to deduct some potential plot themes here.

Since it is supposed to be set 30 years later it could be something like 1990’s Awakenings. In an abandoned Rebel Hospital, Old Luke stumbles upon a ward full of Jedi Knights, catatonic since Anakin “succumbed to his emotions,” and must use the force to slowly help them regain consciousness.  R2D2 and C-3PO serve as nurses in rehabilitating the Jedi. This might be where Andy Serkis comes in as the main comatose Jedi, naturally.

Of course, it might be something more akin to a Disney film — since they most definitely have their gloved hands deep in this mix — so we might see a Snow White or Sleeping Beauty reference with Leia finally tapping into the force and getting zapped into a deep sleep only to be awoken by her true love. Obviously after a failed first attempt by Luke, Han would do the honors, surrounded by a dozen Ewoks (Warwick Davis as Wicket, for one). Unless she’d just as soon kiss a Wookie. Since we know Peter Mayhew has signed on again as Chewy, that’s a distinct possibility.

It might also be feeling a little competitive with Amityville: The Awakening, set for 2015, in which case we could very well see our daring heroes trapped in the decrepit shell of a Death Star, haunted by past dead stormtroopers, with the Solo family experiencing spooky phenomena. Honestly, as long as they’re not planning on delving into any awkward sexual themes between the Solo children, as played by any of the numerous already cast young and beautiful Unknowns, and set on a deserted planet a la The Blue Lagoon: The Awakening (2012), I think we will all be somewhat contented campers.  Not that George Lucas hasn’t been known to cover that topic pretty thoroughly (we’re looking at you, Luke).

In any case, as always, both Abrams and Disney are forces to be reckoned with when it comes to turning old stories on their heads.  We might, as yet, know nothing.

On day 4 of the Mill Valley Film Festival, Sean Penn made a rare appearance to support The Human Experiment, a new documentary by co-directors Don Hardy Jr. and Dana Nachman that Penn narrates and executive produced. The beautifully shot doc explores the adverse–and sometimes fatal–effects of toxic chemicals found abundantly in our households, the food we eat, the drinks we drink, and what we can do to help stop the distribution of them.

Hundreds of Star Wars fanatics gathered at the Century Theaters in Corte Madera to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi with a costume parade full of wookies, storm troopers, rebels, a certain chirpy, thimble-shaped droid, and a screening of the classic final (for now) chapter in the sci-fi fantasy saga.

Check out all the action below!

Starting tonight, October 3rd and going through October 13th, the 36th Mill Valley Film Festival will be rolling out the red carpet for local Bay Area filmmakers, movie stars, and acclaimed directors from around the world in the gorgeous surroundings of Marin County. From a costume-friendly screening of Return of the Jedi, to live music performances, to screenings of some of the most buzz-worthy films in the cinemasphere, the festival has got a little something for everybody.

Way Too Indie will be there to give you updates on the myriad events and screenings going down at the festival, with photos galore, reviews, interviews, and more.

Here are some of the guests, screenings and events you can expect to see at the festival:

Alexander Payne’s highly-anticipated new film, Nebraska, will be opening up the festival, with stars Will Forte and Bruce Dern in attendance. A father-son Midwestern odyssey from Montana to Nebraska, the movie earned Dern a best actor award at Cannes.

Splitting opening night honors with Payne is Brian Percival, with his beautiful Nazi Germany-set drama, The Book Thief, starring Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, and newcomer Sophie Nelisse, playing a young girl who discovers the power of storytelling.

At Middleton, a middle-aged romance between parents of college hopefuls set entirely during a campus tour, is director Adam Rodger’s feature debut and stars two seasoned, excellent actors in Andy Garcia and Vera Farmiga. The film is making its premiere at the festival, and Rodgers and Garcia will be in attendance.Also making its premiere is Beside Still Waters, but writer-director Chris Lowell, who will be on hand to introduce the film.

One of the most highly-anticipated films of the year (especially for us) is Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor. The film, following a free black man in 1841 who is stripped of everything when he’s sold as a slave, is undoubtedly one of the major highlights of the festival.

And that’s just scratching the surface. There will be screenings of Palme d’Or winner Blue is the Warmest Color, John Wells’ August: Osage County, the Matthew McConaughey breakthrough piece Dallas Buyers Club, Jan Troell’s The Last Sentence, the heartfelt Matt Shepard documentary Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine, Asghar Farhadi’s The Past, a children’s film program, and much, much more.

There will also be a closing night tribute Ben Stiller, who’s bringing with him his new film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Also receiving festival spotlights are actors Jared Leto (Dallas Buyer’s Club) and Dakota Fanning (Effie Gray), and legendary auteur Costa Garvas (Capital, Z, State of Siege).

Stay tuned to Way Too Indie for updates on all the action going down in Mill Valley! For more info, visit mvff.com