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The Force Awakens opened this Friday to packed theaters across America. I haven’t seen it for a number of reasons, among which is an unwillingness to tent out for days just to buy tickets. The film will nonetheless make oodles of money, I’m sure, as Star Wars has replaced the Bible as Western civilization’s primary cultural commonality, both relevant and accessible to people across the societal spectrum. This seventh chapter of the epic space opera may be the first to steer clear of political themes. According to film critic Matt Singer, “The Force Awakens is — arguably to its detriment...

The legendary leading man of Akira Kurosawa turned down offers from George Lucas, said his daughter at an event with Steve Wozniak to announce Tokyo Comic Con. Toshiro Mifune, the legendary actor and star of numerous Akira Kurosawa films including Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Rashomon, turned down the roles of Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader, worried that Star Wars was going to look cheap, according to his daughter Mika.

It's been a question discussed by liberal bloggers for years, and the creator of "Star Wars" has finally settled it once and for all: Former Vice President Dick Cheney is Emperor Palpatine, and former President George W. Bush is Darth Vader. Phew...glad that's settled.

One day in the 1970s, George Lucas screened a rough cut of his new movie, Star Wars, for his influential Hollywood friends. And almost none of them liked it. The plot seemed incomprehensible, the made-up fantasy names absurd. Director Brian De Palma, who had just had a big hit with Carrie, made fun of everything about the film, including Princess Leia’s hairstyle: “Hey, George, what were those Danish rolls doing in the princess’s ears?” Almost 40 years later, De Palma is mostly making low-budget movies, and the most-anticipated film of the year is Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the first...

NOVATO (CBS SF) — After George Lucas ran into a buzzsaw of opposition from his wealthy Marin County neighbors when he tried to expand his Skywalker Ranch studio, the filmmaker might be getting some payback with plans for one of the largest affordable housing projects in the Bay Area.

The Tunisian desert region used as a location for the original "Star Wars" and as a tourist destination for fans of the film franchise is now reportedly crawling with a threat more insidious than marauding Sand People — ISIS terrorists. Particularly hard hit has been Tataouine, the Tunisian town that inspired George Lucas to name Luke Skywalker's home planet, Tatooine, and now a pit stop for wannabe jihadists headed to join ISIS in nearby Libya, CNN reported. Three men were arrested nearby the town that's just 60 miles from the Libyan border and arms caches were confiscated nearby, one of...

Lucas, who created the "Star Wars" universe with the launch of the first film in 1977, has been relatively hands-off with the upcoming Episode VII, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by fans upon viewing the flick's first teaser, which features more practical effects than CGI. And it turns out, that non-involvement stretches to even watching the trailer itself.

No, you're not looking at an idyllic scene from pre-Death Star Alderaan. This futuristic building is the plan for George Lucas' $300-million art museum on Chicago's lakefront. Beijing-based MAD Architects and Chicago firm Studio Gang have released artist renderings of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art that wouldn't look out of place in its namesake's "Star Wars" franchise. The avant garde structure, set to open in 2018, will have three levels of exhibition space topped by an observation deck with panoramic views of the city and Lake Michigan. Inspired by the works of Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van...

An American worth less than $1.55 billion could not land on this year's "The Forbes 400," the annual ranking for the richest people in America. The cut-off increase from last year's $1.3 billion disqualified 113 poor billionaires for this year's list. Bill Gates once again lorded over his fellow wealthy Americans for the 21st consecutive year with a healthy $81 billion, up $9 billion from 2013. He outpaced Warren Buffet ($67 billion), Larry Ellison ($50 billion) and the Koch brothers' Charles and David (each worth $42 billion) to round out the top five. Michael Bloomberg ($35 billion) managed to slide...

It must be said: In October 2012, Star Wars fans felt a great disturbance in the Force. Disney — no need to explain why this is gobsmackingly horrible — announced that it was going to insult the collective intelligence, sensibility, and good taste of everyone in America and the English-speaking world by welcoming George Lucas to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and making another Star Wars trilogy. So obviously I tried out for it.

Duke University president Richard Brodhead, who abandoned his own students and took the word of a prostitute before knowing the facts in the infamous Duke Lacrosse case, has served as co- chairman of an allegedly bipartisan group convened by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to investigate the value of the humanities in the college curriculum. Members of the quango included filmmakers Ken Burns and George Lucas, musicians Yo-Yo Ma and Emmylou Harris, actor John Lithgow and retired Supreme Court justice David Souter -- an odd assortment to be called on to interpret academic trends. Said Brodhead in a...

"Star Wars" creator George Lucas could, indeed, make good on his idea of building affordable housing right next door to the high-income NIMBYs who blocked his plans for a production studio near his Lucas Valley ranch complex. His Marin County neighbors and conservationists have dismissed Lucas' musings as sour grapes, and say low-income housing could never be built in such a remote and environmentally sensitive location.But those in the know disagree.There's a feeling on the Board of Supervisors, which has final say over the project, that it fits into the county's desire for more low-income housing - and by the...

Filmmaker George Lucas is pushing forward with plans to build low-income housing at Marin County's picturesque Grady Ranch, a vow of his that was widely dismissed as an insincere attempt by the billionaire to thumb his nose at complaining neighbors. The Marin Community Foundation announced Tuesday that it is working with Lucasfilm to "explore options" for building affordable housing in the location where the movie mogul wanted to build a film studio until residents in an adjacent subdivision protested. . . . Lucas...withdrew his plans last month to build a large mission-style movie-making studio on Grady Ranch, blaming the Lucas...

Star Wars creator George Lucas said Monday that Hollywood studios refused to back his new film Red Tails - about World War II's Tuskegee Airmen - because the cast was all black. ... Hollywood balked given the message Lucas was trying to convey. “I wanted to make it inspirational for teenaged boys. I wanted to show that they have heroes, they’re real American heroes, they’re patriots that helped to make the country what it is today. And it’s not Glory where you have a lot of white officers running these guys into cannon fodder. It’s like a real, they were...

Darth Vader will lose a little more of his dignity in Star Wars original trilogy Blu-rays. Listen for yourself! George Lucas is not satisfied with turning the puppet Yoda in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace into a CG creation. Or just fixing some of the wonky lightsabre effects in the original trilogy. He's going a bit further. Lucas had promised that fans would have a few new details here and there to notice in his newly remastered HD versions of his classic trilogy — and now the first details are leaking out. And fans are not happy. Some of the...

As the eldest daughter of Star Wars creator George Lucas, the force was bound to be with her. After years of Martial Arts training, Amanda Lucas, 30, has become a professional cage fighter. As incredible pictures have been released of her training, the adopted eldest daughter of George, who appeared in the Star Wars prequels, said she turned to fighting to battle her own demons caused by growing up as a 'fat and wimpy'' kid. She said her billionaire father is 'very supportive' of her new career as a pro cage fighter - but he can't stand to watch her...

Funnyman Seth Rogen was left stunned by a recent encounter with his moviemaking hero George Lucas - because the Star Wars director spent 20 minutes telling him the world would end in 2012. Rogen was left speechless when Lucas and Steven Spielberg joined a movie meeting he was a part of - but the encounter has left him worried his life will be over next year. He recalls, “George Lucas sits down and seriously proceeds to talk for around 25 minutes about how he thinks the world is gonna end in the year 2012, like, for real. He thinks it.

From the horrible ideas department comes the news from George Lucas that he's buying "the film rights to dead actors." You know, so he can resurrect them virtually for upcoming movies.

Things aren't going well for the original Dark Lord of the Sith. Dave Prowse, who wore the Darth Vader costume in the first three 'Star Wars' films, has been banned from the forthcoming Lucas Film Star Wars Celebration party in Orlando, Florida. Not only that, he's been told his presence won't be welcome at any Lucas Film/Star Wars-related events. There could be a reason, though, seeing as Uncle George is probably fuming at the comments Prowse recently made to SlashFilm about not receiving any residual payment for 'Return of the Jedi' -- because it didn't make a profit(!):

30 years. Three decades. Man, do I feel old. Many of you weren't even born in 1980. That is a scary thought. Me, I was 6 years old and a Star Wars fanatic from the first moment I saw the opening scene of the original movie. My generation didn't play cowboys-and-indians, or soldiers on a battlefield...we were Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and the rest of the characters from "A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away"...