By: Benjamin Hart
Last year during the approach to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in theaters, the hottest Star Wars item on the market was easily the Sphero BB-8. The tiny toy captured the hearts of millions of fans by realistically bringing to life a Droid we all adored even before we saw him on the big screen. Now, with the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story right around the corner, Sphero is giving their BB-8 an upgrade that will change the way you interact and control the droid.
We are now just days away from from the release of Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the latest installment in he much beloved video game series. More and more teases from the game are continuing to leak out, and the latest one comes to us from IGN.
On their YouTube channel, IGN shared eleven minutes of never before seen gameplay from the game, which retells the events of the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens in iconic and hilarious Lego fashion. The footage is narrated by TT Games associate producer Tim Wileman and features gameplay set inside Han Solo's freighter Eravana. In the level, players must utilize an assortment of characters, such as Han, Chewie, BB-8, Rey and Finn, to work their way through the various puzzles and entrapments, all the while fighting off Kanjiklub members, Guavian Enforcers and Rathars. Wileman confirms in the video that several of the actors from the film returned to provide dialogue for their characters in the game, which you can hear in the gameplay. Check out the footage below:
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens is set for release on June 28th and will be available on a variety of platforms, including PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita and Microsoft Windows. Source: IGN(YouTube)
With the Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens video game set to hits
shelves next month, the marketing ramping up to big release on June
28th. In anticipation, a new video spotlighting everybody's new favorite droid BB-8 has
been released. The video features a combination of gameplay and
cinematics. It shows off some of BB-8's in game abilities and also shows us a quick look at some of his funnier moments. BB-8 will be a playable character in the game, along with many other key (and not so key) players from The Force Awakens, including Rey, Poe, Han, and The Crimson Corsair. Check out the Finn video below,
Lucasfilm has released a new video in advance May the 4th, Star Wars Day featuring Rey actress Daisy Ridley on the set of Star Wars Episode VIII, in conjunction with Lucasfilm's charitable initiative Force For Change. The video features Ridley on what appears to be a Resistance Base set with lots of alien extras (and BB-8) in the background, as she receives a Star Wars Day gift from her co-star John Boyega, who plays Finn. His gift is, as Ridley puts it, so him. Check out the video below,
There's still time to support the four charities that Force for Change is raising money for. So far $2,069,286 have been raised to support the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Unicef, the American Red Cross, and Boys and Girls Club of America. If you make a donation you'll be entered into contests to win a trip to Celebration London this July where you'll get to meet Mark Hamill, or a trip to Skellig Michael in Ireland where the final scene in The Force Awakens was shot.
Over the past few weeks Lucasfilm has been going all out or the charitable "Force For Change" initiative by revealing weekly prizes fans can have a chance at winning when they donate. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and Mark Hamill(Luke Skywalker) revealed the first week's prize, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story star Felicity Jones(Jyn Erso) announced last week's, and today Poe Dameron himself, Oscar Isaac, along with the loveable BB-8 unveiled the latest one. This week, the first four people that donate or raise at least $500 for any of the associated charities, including the American Red Cross, Boys & Girls Clubs Of America, Make A Wish and Unicef, will have a chance to win a prize pack that includes a Sphero BB-8 signed by Kathleen Kennedy and The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams. In addition, the top fundraiser will have a chance to win a tour of Lucasfilm headquarters in San Francisco and a screening of their favorite Star Wars film. Check out the video of Oscar and BB-8 announcing the prizes below,
Disney Movies Anywhere have released a cool new video featuring a visit BB-8 made to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The kid friendly video features BB-8 meeting Maggie, the double of the Mars Rover Curiosity used to test operations they will do Mars on a simulated Martian surface on Earth. A legendary meeting of two droids indeed! Check out the video below,
A new feature has been added to the already incredibly cool Sphero BB-8 toy, that will enable the droid react to the film while you watch it. The Sphero BB-8 is an app controlled BB-8 toy that hit shelves last year on Force Friday. The film is now available on blu-ray, DVD, and digital, and if you update your Sphero app and select the "Watch With Me" feature the droid will now respond to the film as you watch it (often mirroring BB-8's actions in the film).
This sounds like a fun way to experience the film in a new way! Given the film's length, it is suggested that you keep the droid in its charging station while you watch. Source: Endgadget
While we're anticipating the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Blu-ray and DVD in just a few short weeks, home video won't be the only way to re-experience the amazing film. Beginning in June, Marvel will be releasing a four part comic adaptation of The Force Awakens, and today StarWars.com revealed the cover of issue #1. Created by Esad Ribic, the artwork features Rey, Finn and BB-8 in the shadow of the Millennium Falcon as it is chased by TIE Fighters. Ribic will be painting the covers for all four issues alongside Chuck Wendig who is writing that series and Luke Ross who is providing the interior art. You can see the full cover above, and below you see some character designs for the adaptation:
I am very much looking forward to being able to read through The Force Awakens, and this looks awesome!
The Force Awakens won big at last night's Kids Choice Awards, picking up the "Favorite Movie" award. The film beat out other nominees Jurrasic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2. Chewbacca and BB-8 were on hand to accept the award on behalf of the cast and crew. You can check out that video here. Unfortunately, the film didn't win for any of the other categories it was nominated for, including Favorite Movie Actress (Daisy Ridley) and Favorite Movie Actor (John Boyega). Regardless, it was still an exciting night for Star Wars!
Last year, Madame Tussauds London opened a Star Wars exhibit featuring scenes and wax figures of the stars of the first six Star Wars films. Today, they announced that they will be adding to characters from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Wax figures of Rey and BB-8 are being worked on right now (check out the BB-8 above) and will be featured in a Jakku scene. The new features are expected to be revealed before Easter.
Check out the official press release below,
The Star Wars at Madame Tussauds London experience, which opened in May 2015 to wide acclaim, announced today that it is set to add character figures from Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2016. Fans of the #1 UK movie of all time will be able to interact with figures of BB-8 and Rey in extraordinary sets recreating iconic scenes from the film at the attraction.
A figure of BB-8, the skittish but loyal astromech droid, will be unveiled before Easter at the Star Wars at Madame Tussauds London experience, in a set depicting the lawless frontier desert world of Jakku. Fans will be able to get up close to an exact replica of the show stealing spherical, white and orange droid created especially for the attraction with light and sound effects.
In addition to BB-8, this Summer a figure of Rey will join 11 existing scenes featuring 16 characters in Madame Tussauds’ unique, immersive Star Wars experience, which recreates some of the most powerful moments from the Star Wars universe.
General Manager of the world famous attraction, Edward Fuller, commented: “Like the rest of the world we have been blown away by the new Star Wars movie and are very excited to be welcoming figures of BB-8 and Rey to the Star Wars experience at Madame Tussauds London this year. The experience is an evolving one and we will add new scenes and characters as the story continues to unfold. Guests have confirmed that BB-8 and Rey are top choices they want to meet.”
To celebrate BB-8’s arrival at Madame Tussauds London on Friday March 25, 2016, the attraction is inviting Star Wars fans to dress-up as their favourite Star Wars character over the Easter weekend. Fans visiting the attraction dressed as their favourite Star Wars character from Friday March 25 to Monday March 28 (inclusive) will receive a FREE BB-8 gift and get entered into a FREE prize draw to WIN a BB-8 app-enabled droid (£130 RRP) each day.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the biggest film of all time in the UK, will be available to own by digital download from April 11, 2016 and on Blu-ray™ and DVD from April 18, 2016.
Next month Marvel will be beginning a brand new ongoing series focused on fan favorite X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron. Star Wars: Poe Dameron will feature the adventures of Poe, and of course, BB-8, in the time prior to the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Comic Book Resources has unveiled a preview of the comic which includes a few pages along with several variant covers from the first issue. You can also get a look at a page from a backup story that's included in the issue which stars BB-8. You can check it all out below:
Star Wars: Poe Dameron is written by Charles Soule with art by Phil Noto. Issue #1 will hit shelves on April 6th!
Last night all eyes were on Hollywood as the 88th annual Academy Awards took place! Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens was honored with five Oscar nominations, and while it ended up not taking home the gold, there was plenty of Star Wars mixed into the event. Below we have recapped all of the Star Wars filled moments from the Oscars!
First off, the "year in film" video that opened the event Featured several scenes from The Force Awakens, including BB-8 pulling the tarp of R2-D2(who was replaced with an Oscar), the now infamous "That's not how the Force works" scene, and Finn & Rey's simultaneous "I can do this" lines inside the Millennium Falcon, among others. You can watch it below:
Additionally, The Force Awakens' own Rey, Daisy Ridley, made a huge impression with her appearance on the red carpet. Later she presented the award for Best Documentary Feature alongside Dev Patel:
The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams was on hand to present the award for Best Director:
And Supreme Leader Snoke himself, Andy Serkis, also took the stage to present the award for Best Visual Effects:
It's also worth noting that famed Italian composer Ennio Morricone won the Oscar best original score for his work on The Hateful Eight. In his acceptance speech he payed tribute to fellow composer and nominee John Williams:
Also appearing on stage were the most famous trio of Droids in the Galaxy. C-3PO, R2-D2 and BB-8 walked and rolled their way out on stage while they apparently searched for their seats. Before exiting the stage they managed to give a shout out to John Williams who had just earned his 50th Oscar nomination. You can watch the full skit below:
In the video you may have noticed the a young boy who jumped out of his seat when the Droids came on stage. That was nine year old Jacob Tremblay, who starred in the Oscar nominated film Room alongside Brie Larson, who took home the award for Best Actress later that night. Tremblay is a massive Star Wars fan and showed up on the red carpet wearing Millennium Falcon cuff links and Darth Vader socks:
Later he got to meet Daisy Ridley and the Droids, much to his delight:
Beyond numerous nominations and several Oscars Star Wars has picked up over the years, the saga has rich history with the event dating back to when A New Hope won 6 Oscars in 1978. Check out our recent spotlight article on Oscar acceptance speeches for a trip down memory lane.
The blu-ray for Star Wars: The Force Awakens is rumored to be hitting shelves on April 5th, and it looks like we now know what the cover will look like. The pre-order page for The Force Awakens blu-ray on the Wal Mart website currently features a look at what the packaging for the film will look like. To no one's real surprise BB-8 is front and center, check it out below,
What do you think of the blu-ray packaging for Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Let us know in the comments!
It seems there's no shorter of Lego Star Wars content these days. Following the announce of the Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens video game, as well as the The Freemaker Adventures TV series, Lucasfilm has announced a series of Lego animated shorts. Lego Star Wars: The Resistance Rises is set prior to Episode VII: The Force Awakens and will feature many characters from the film including Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, Han Solo, Kylo Ren and more.
The first episode, titled "Poe To The Rescue", will air this Monday, February 15th, at 8:00pm ET on Disney XD. A clip from the episode was released and features Poe Dameron, along with BB-8 and C-3PO, rescuing Admiral Ackbar from the clutches of Captain Phasma and the First Order. You can watch it below:
Last year one of the hottest toys on the market was Sphero's remote controlled BB-8 that was released on Force Friday. Now that The Force Awakens has blasted its way through the box office, another company has stepped up to give us an even more realistic version of BB-8 to take home. Spin Master has reportedly developed an all new, much larger version of BB-8 that they are set to reveal at New York Toy Fair which is happening this weekend in the Big Apple.
This BB-8 will be much closer to life size than previous versions, standing at 19-inches tall. It includes a remote control(comparble to a Nintendo Wiimote) with a joystick to control it, but the remote is not absolutely necessary thanks to the fact this BB-8 is voice activated. BB-8 will respond when he hears his name, comes when he's called and will even follow you when commanded to do so. It will also include electronic lights and sounds to match its on-screen counterpart.
Although Spin Master is ready to unveil their BB-8, they are not ready to sell it just yet. The toy won't hit shelves until the Fall and will reportedly cost $180.
If this BB-8 works anywhere near as good as the Sphero version it will no doubt be a huge hit. Hopefully we will see some demonstrations of how it works in the coming days at New York Toy Fair.
Later this month Disney will be giving fans their first glimpse into what they have in store for the upcoming Star Wars Land theme parks, coming to Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida, during their "The Wonderful World of Disney" TV special airing February 21st on ABC. Entertainment Weekly released a special preview for the event which offered a brief look at one of the rides expected to be announced during the event. Check it out below,
It looks Star Wars Land will give fans the chance to pilot the Millennium Falcon in a battle against TIE fighters!
The Star Wars Land portion of the special will be hosted by the late Han Solo himself, Harrison Ford. And, based on that preview, it looks like BB-8 will be on hand to! Looks like something fans won't want to miss! "The Wonderful World of Disney" airs February 21st at 8pm ET.
The sound designers behind Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens have been getting a lot of much deserved attention recently through interviews and even awards. Supervising sound editors Matthew Wood and David Acord are widely know for their work in the Star Wars saga and deserve much credit for not only mixing in classic sounds but also creating new ones, even providing their own voices in many instances. Just recently Wood and Acord spoke with Nerdist about the sound design of The Force Awakens. They cover a variety of sounds and how they created them, including Kylo Ren's Lightsaber, Teedo, the Rathtars, and further discussed the various voices in the film, which included David Acord's now infamous portrayal of FN-2199(Traitor!!). You can check out a few excerpts from the extensive interview below:
Nerdist:Star Wars is, more than any other film, I think, known for its unique sound. Can you talk about some of the new sounds you designed for The Force Awakens?
David Acord:I think the most obvious new sound effect in the movie is Kylo’s lightsaber. We were attempting, along with his Force power effect, to create sound effects that would mimic his persona, which is this raw power he has that’s not quite formed. He’s not well trained, but he’s extremely powerful. It’s a little wild and dangerous. The sword itself, the look of the sword has the extra darts coming out the side, and it’s really sparky and wavery and it looks a little homemade. The idea of the sound was to match that–something that sounds like raw energy, just pure power, very brutal and kind of wild and dangerous sounding. The Force sound to go along with Kylo had that deep, raw, animalistic sound. It’s a chunky, raw growl that’s supposed to imitate the Force power he wields, which is a little more raw versus Rey’s Force power , which tends to be—in the few moments when she’s using the Force, hers is a little more smooth and rhythmic and like a heartbeat. That’s the contrast between the two. Nerdist: Since you do contribute to rounding out and developing characters’ personalities with your work, at what point in the story process does your work start? David Acord: Once you read the script and come on board, early on there’s some obvious pieces [you know] you’re going to need to tackle. I mentioned the sword, there’s some new spaceships, some ambiances. Maz’s bar–you know that’s going to be a whole thing even before you see a frame of it. Then obviously, once you see the image, it all starts to take shape. I think the first thing that I designed, I was asked to do—there were two things. One was the Teedo character that captures BB-8 in the beginning, the voice for him and then the two junkers that hassle Rey when she’s cleaning pieces of stuff, the voices for those two guys. Those are the earliest design pieces I made, and they’re vocal designs. That’s my favorite thing to do is alien and creature vocals; that was super fun for me. Nerdist: Along that line, what are some of the weirdest sources you pulled from to design a sound in The Force Awakens? David Acord: [Laughs] Off the top of my head, the Kylo Ren Force rumble—the really chunky and animalistic rumble—is my cat’s purring. It’s heavily pitched and slowed version of my cat’s purr that becomes Kylo Force rumble. When the rathtar has his mouth on the cockpit of the Falcon, when it’s trying to eat the cockpit, that is me literally choking myself. [Laughs] Finger down my throat in front of the mic to accomplish that and then it’s pitched down. Nerdist: Dave, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you about voicing FN-2199, a.k.a. TR-8R. I know it was part of the “additional voices” recording—how were those recorded and how did “Traitor!” come about? David Acord: Normally you have a loop group, which is a collection of highly trained, skilled voice actors, gather in a room. There are a couple of microphones, and the movie is projected on a screen and the scenes are tagged or spotted ahead of time [to say], “We need two stormtroopers talking in the background of a hangar here.” That scene will come up, two actors will walk up to the mic, and will ad-lib a performance. Matthew’s expertise is in dialogue and he was very careful to pick loop group actors that were all Star Wars savvy. There are a ton of Clone Wars alums and names from previous Star Wars movies who were cast as loop groupers because they would know what to say and how to properly deal with things like the mundane dialogue two stormtroopers would have. And then occasionally, you’ll just be working and, “We need this guy to say this right now” and we’ll go record it. That’s another way; it’s on the spot. You find somebody that can do it, and you do it. That’s how FN-2199 happened. Originally, it was J.J. His voice was a temp placeholder, and he wanted to replace it. It went through four other actors, I think, before it landed on my performance and he was okay with it. It’s a really funny thing to me. It’s a cool scene; the stunt actor, Liang Yang, really did all the hard work in that scene, but it’s fun to be part of. I didn’t even know it was a thing on the Internet until Pablo Hidalgo emailed me and asked if he could post on StarWars.com that I was the voice of FN-2199.
You can read the rest of this insightful interview by clicking here, in which they discuss BB-8's voice, the sounds of Maz Kanata's Castle and an interesting Indiana Jones Easter Egg.
An orchestra of many different elements helped make Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens so great, and one of the most important things was the sound. Supervising sound editors Matthew Wood and David Acord, along with production sound mixer Stuart Wilson and re-recording mixers Andy Nelson and Christopher Scarabosio all earned Oscar nominations for their work on The Force Awakens. While the film brought back a host of previously heard sounds, it introduced an assortment of brand new ones, all of which had be created from scratch by Episode VII's sound team.
The group recently spoke with the Los Angeles Times about their handiwork in The Force Awakens, specifically detailing the development of the now iconic voices of BB-8 and Kylo Ren, among others things. A portion of the interview can be seen below.
On BB8:
"For the actors to interact with BB-8, the sound team built a receiver and speaker system into five different set versions. "This allowed J.J. to trigger audio from a tablet or a live microphone depending on the situation," Wilson says. In postproduction, Wood and Acord were tasked with developing BB-8's original sound. "J.J. had a lot of interest in the voice of BB-8," Wood says."
""He wanted it to sound distinct enough so if it was outside the doorway, and you couldn't see it, you'd still know it was him. We set J.J. up with a tactical interface so he could be more hands-on in the creative process and have points to touch on a synthesizer, controlling timbre and pitch. We then brought actors in to guide an emotional beat and refined BB-8 until we found its final audio palette," Wood says."
On Kylo Ren:
"On set, Wilson placed a microphone inside [Adam Driver's] mask and attached another one to his chest. "Adam has a great voice, and by placing two mics and combining them in phase, it gave it this larger-than-life quality with a lot of bass and presence." Wood then recorded additional dialogue with Driver using the mask's final post processing. "We don't normally do that kind of thing live with an actor, but it allowed Adam to get more into the character and play with it as an acting tool." It was then up to Nelson to make the dialogue audible. "There's a tendency when you hear a line of dialogue a few times that it becomes clearer in your head even if the audience can't. So I became the gatekeeper and stepped in when we needed to lighten up so the audience wouldn't be left saying, 'What did he say?'""
In addition they discussed the sound mix for Finn's introduction into the film and when Rey discovers her powers. It's all very fascinating and I recommend reading the full article here!
The 21st annual Critics Choice Awards were this weekend, and though Star Wars: The Force Awakens did not win anything, there were several fun Star Wars moments from the show, including an appearance by everyone's new favorite droid BB-8. We've got Star Wars highlights from the award show below,
BB-8's appearance with ILM's John Knoll,
Trainwreck producer Judd Apatow calling out The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams,
And finally, check out the montage that was shown for The Force Awakens Best Picture nomination,
One sequence that never fails to get a reaction out of the audience in Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the moment when BB-8 decides to help Finn out and tell Rey the location of the Resistance base. After Finn shoots BB-8 a thumbs up as thanks, BB-8 returns the gesture using a lighter to simulate a thumb. Turns out, this sequence was never in the script and had to be figured out after the scene was shot.
“It was probably something that J.J. either came up with on the day, or certainly came up with later,” Neal Scanlan, the head of The Force Awakens creature shop, told MTV News.
Visual Effects supervisor Roger Guyett described how they mixed practical and digital effects to create the the "thumbs up" moment, saying, “I think it’s a real BB-8 and then we inserted a CG panel and its arm
that came out. So all of his tools, if you like, when he fires his wires
and he does that stuff, that’s sort of digital CG.”
There was another concern that the team had to overcome when creating the effect, ILM's Patrick Tubach explains. “One of the difficult things with animating something like that is you
have to be very careful that it doesn’t look like he’s giving you some other sort of gesture! We moved all the pieces around to make sure it was very clearly a thumbs up over any other kind of ’salute.'”
I think it's safe to say they succeeded in creating a memorable, if not iconic, moment for the new film.
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This BB-8 will be much closer to life size than previous versions, standing at 19-inches tall. It includes a remote control(comparble to a Nintendo Wiimote) with a joystick to control it, but the remote is not absolutely necessary thanks to the fact this BB-8 is voice activated. BB-8 will respond when he hears his name, comes when he's called and will even follow you when commanded to do so. It will also include electronic lights and sounds to match its on-screen counterpart.
