New ‘Star Wars’ audiobook enlists Hollywood stars like Jon Hamm

Banking on the star power or just the really sultry voice of Hollywood’s elite, an upcoming audiobook about Star Wars: Episode IV has enlisted help from some big stars. Entitled From a Certain Point of View, this Del Rey Books audiobooks will feature the voices of Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, Neil Patrick Harris, and Star Wars Battlefront 2’s Janina Gavankar, to name a few. There will be 40 stories with each tale told by a different author about a character from the movie. Not much is known about who will voice whom but Hamm is confirmed to be voicing Boba Fett and Harris will tell the tale of an Imperial officer who’s aboard the Death Star. Gavankar will voice a different Imperial soldier from the one she voices in Battlefront 2.

The other voice actors include Now on the writing side, the authors contributing to this book include. All the authors have forgone payment for their stories and will have their proceeds go to First Book, a nonprofit that gives new books, learning materials, and other necessary tools needed by educators and organizations that serve children in need. According to Penguin Random House, the publisher has donated US$100,000 to First Book, while Lucasfilm gave 100,000 books to the charity that’s estimated to be worth US$1 million. From a Certain Point of View will be available for purchase starting October 3^rd.

Source: Star Wars

J. J. Abrams replaces Colin Trevorrow as ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’ director

After Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow gets fired as director for the upcoming Star Wars: Episode IX, it looks like Lucasfilm and Disney are going back to a tried-and-tested director. The production company names J.J. Abrams as Trevorrow’s replacement. Abrams directed Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which can be considered the reboot or continuation of the nine-part Star Wars saga. As a consequence of the directorial change, Lucasfilm also announced that this last movie of this installment is getting pushed back to December 20, 2019 instead of its May 2019 release.

Before Trevorrow lost the gig, we know Lucasfilm brought on Jack Thorne to re-write the script. Rumour has it the film needed to be re-written partly because of Carrie Fisher’s death. As General Leia in the new set of films, she was set to play a significant role in Episode IX and while we may see some pre-shot footage, her role in the film will obviously have to be lessened.

Source: Ars Technica

Disney’s new ‘Star Wars’ and Marvel films to its own streaming service instead of Netflix

We heard last month that Disney planned to put up its own streaming service set to come out late 2019. And that meant it’ll be pulling out of their deal with Netflix that just took effect about a year ago. While we knew that the upcoming Disney films that will be coming out that year will be available on that service instead of on Netflix, the Star Wars and Marvel films were a mystery. Until now that is. Disney CEO Bob Iger announced at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2017 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference that upcoming movies like the fourth Avengers film, Frozen 2, the live action The Lion King, and Star Wars: Episode IX will be shown on its own service instead of on Netflix. Disney’s streaming service will also be home to four exclusive movies and between four and five TV shows.

But for the upcoming immediate Marvel and Star Wars titles. Those still have a home at Netflix. These include Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and the untitled Han Solo movie. We don’t know what the fate of the Netflix-exclusive Marvel shows will be, though.

Source: Android Authority

‘Star Wars: Episode IX’ loses its director

Red Carpet Report on Mingle Media TV/Flickr

Trouble is brewing yet again at Disney and Lucasfilm. The upcoming last film to the current Star Wars trilogy just lost its director Colin Trevorrow. Disney issued a statement about the news saying, “Lucasfilm and Colin Trevorrow have mutually chosen to part ways on Star Wars: Episode IX. Colin has been a wonderful collaborator throughout the development process, but we have all come to the conclusion that our visions for the project differ. We wish Colin the best and will be sharing more information about the film soon.” The company has yet to name a replacement. According to Variety’s sources, the split was caused by differences regarding script treatment. The news comes out a month after Wonder screenwriter Jack Thorne was brought on by Disney to polish the film’s script. Trevorrow and his writing partner Derek Connolly were the ones who penned the most recent draft of the script.

Disney announced that Trevorrow was working on Episode IX back at the August 2015 D23 Expo. He was fresh off directing the hugely successful Jurassic World film. Episode IX is expected to hit theatres two years from now on May 24^th with filming expected to start early next year. Whether this news will affect the schedule, we can’t say yet. Trevorrow joins the likes of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who were booted from the Han Solo spinoff, and Fantastic Four director Josh Trank, who was supposed to direct a standalone Star Wars spinoff.