The Star Wars trailer

Yeah. I’ll cop to it. I’m geeked. By the way, here is a ranking of Star Wars movies I prepared for Variety around the time The Last Jedi was released. Guess I’ll be updating it to include this one and Solo… eventually.

The Force is only sporadically with The Director and the Jedi

From my 3.12.18 Variety review: “One can easily discern an informative and affecting documentary short — maybe 20 or 30 minutes long — embedded amid the ungainly sprawl that is The Director and the Jedi, a SXSW Film Festival world premiere offering set for wide release March 27 as a bonus behind-the-scenes feature on the home-video release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. As its title might indicate, the film works best whenever director Anthony Wonke narrows his focus to concentrate on the complex working relationship between Rian Johnson, the rising young filmmaker who dove into the deep end of the pool by accepting the challenge of writing and directing Episode VIII of the Star Wars franchise, and Mark Hamill, AKA Luke Skywalker, who remained a good soldier, despite serious misgivings, even after being told his iconic character would be a battlefield casualty in Johnson’s scenario.” You can read the rest of my Variety review here.

Here's my latest ploy to exploit Star Wars: The Force Awakens for blog traffic

A shameless confession: Carrie Fisher still looks pretty smoking hot to me. Of course, my wife still gets all swoony when she sees Harrison Ford, so I guess it all averages out.

A short while ago, in a theme park not so far away...

And there's more where that came from. (Thanks to John Guidry for the tip.)

Can a Lightsaber cut through Superman?

Come one, admit it: You really want to know the answer to this one.

Star Wars: The TV Series?

George Lucas tells the Los Angeles Times that a live-action TV series rooted in the Star Wars mythos is in the early planning stages. But there's a catch: "'The Skywalkers aren't in it, and it's about minor characters,' Lucas said in an interview. 'It has nothing to do with Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader or any of those people. It's completely different. But it's a good idea, and it's going to be a lot of fun to do.'"

What is the most-translated film of all time?

I'll give you a clue: The most-translated film is not Gone With the Wind, Star Wars or even Transformers. On the other hand, like most popular movies, it has a traditional three-act structure, a charismatic hero with a strong sense of purpose, dramatic reversals of fortune -- and a happy ending.

Star Wars Episode VII -- Return to Tatooine

Yes, Star Wars fans, it's true: You can go back to where it all began.