Discussion Mark Hamill interview on ETOnline...states "They're talking to us"

Exactly. Keep in mind that these actors are in some cases as protective of their characters, or of the franchise, as we can be, and certainly Mark Hamill would have to qualify as one of those cases. An avid comic reader from childhood, he's always had one foot firmly planted in our proud geek culture in a way that the other two of the Big Three haven't, and so I have to assume he understands how important it is to get it right. If he's going to commit to this, it's only natural that he'd want to make sure the story does either his character, all the OT characters, and/or the franchise itself proper justice, or at least to make sure he's not going to end up in a nuked refrigerator.

 

Notice that in the interview he mentions they will just write these characters out if the actors choose not to appear. That she be a pretty clear indicator that these characters will not be the ones carrying the movie, and rather doing a passing on the torch type mindset. Not sure how much tweaking the script would need if they write these folks out, but the fact that they can tells me your fear are unwarranted.

 

Kenedy and Arndt canceled the meeting twice, thats not a good sign. It seems Mark Hamil is a difficult Partner /Actor for them and his wishes (hiring all the old crew) is way to overstretched. They only will hire the big three and maybe Chewbacca and the both droid actors which are already in Lucasfilm business with PT and TCW.

I also think they will only have some cameos. They are planned for Cameos, not more. The fact Lucas claims (threatens) that they would delete their roles from the script shows that they cant be the main characters.

I think Harrison Ford Carrie Fischer and Hamil will have Cameos. Thats all.

 

You haven't read a lot of stuff from or about Mark, have you?

First off, Kennedy and Ardnt have their hands super full, and are super busy - not just with Star Wars.

Second, Mark's an uber geek and is the first to admit it BUT he's also very good at keeping his mouth firmly shut. He's also got a wicked, self depreciating sense of humor (the quote was "they're busier than I am!")

Over the years, he's begun to actively embrace 'Luke'* while exploring other things - He won't 'let us down'...

*Favorite MH story - at C5, I was blessed to be able to sit with him during an autograph session. After we wrapped up, and the curtain was closed, we heard this ungodly wailing - Mark said 'open the curtain' and there in a stroller was a little 2-3 year old having a meltdown. Mark shouted across the floor "Hey Kid!" *Kids eyes bug out, being addressed by THE JEDI after all) "Real Jedi DON'T throw tantrums!" *silence* and then

 

Well at least they won't be re-casting.

 

Nah they should do em' as Muppets.

 

No CGI/use that Looper prosthetics on another actor to make them resemble the OT actors more.

 

I've never been one to yearn for meeting my heroes (although I wish I could've talked songwriting with Lennon and politics with Lincoln), but I'd sure like to make Mark's acquaintanceship.

 

I was really afraid of meeting both him and Carrie - after all, who wants to find out after 30 years that the person they admired from afar turns out to be a real prat, but both of them, indeed 99% of the people associated with the films whom I've been blessed to meet are incredibly warm, funny people, and karmicly deserve all the success they get - there's only one person whom I wouldn't care if I ever had to see or interact with ever again, and everyone else seemed to think he was a putz anyway!

 

Who's that?

 

Does his name rhyme with Pavid Drowse?

 

Oh no, it wasn't him - or R2, or any of the Fetts, or Chewie or Maul or Ewoks, or Lando...

 

Shut up! Anthony?!

 

Wow. Wow.

 

No, not realy. I just heard about his voice acting for Joker and his little disput/complaint about George beeing not so warm or familiar with him. Cant remember the exact words but he seemed to be miffed that Lucas did not realy care about the old crew that much.

Dude thats not an excuse for canceling a meeting twice. Thats respectless behaviour of Kennedy and Arndt. Its not like they want to discuss the selling of Star Wars to Disney with Mark Hamill...If he does not want or his Demands are to overstretched, than possibly they cant come together.

Okey?

 

Since we are talking about Mark, I wanted to share a funny story about him - As I said, he's a nice guy and has fun with the whole thing these days.

 

Wait. Do you imply he is not 100% serious with this interview and trolling Kennedy+Arndt a bit?

Does he even want to be Luke again, if it is not the same as in the OT (Same Crew and that original SW Feeling)? As you say he seems to be the biggest SW Fan of all and if it is not real Star Wars in his eyes, maybe he dont want to be in this new Disney project? As a true Geek the money would not interest him, if he would sell his own ideals for it?

 

I don't pretend to know what Mark is thinking, I can just go on what I've seen and heard. like everyone else. I DO however think that he does harbor a love for the franchise, he has had a lot of fun with it (especially over the last few years - his appearance in Jay and Silent Bob is a testament to that - worth watching just for his line "Don't **** with a Jedi Master, Son"

Of COURSE he'd take the money (and be well paid for an appearance) - being a Geek (even a world class one) doesn't mean he can magically fund his interests and lifestyle (interesting to note that Alec Guiness did his bits in Empire and Jedi free - but that was when the franchise was in some hurt still) and I won't begrudge him a penny...

 

Here's an example of the sort of role where you could write it for the character Luke or you could just put in an all new character.

Luke is training Jedi in the seclusion of the Endor forest, the location of the new Jedi Temple. The film starts with him training a bunch of young kids, he's on screen for maybe the first 5 minutes or so.

You could easily substitute him out and put a new character in there, he won't be central to the plot as that would take a major re-write (which seems to have been ruled out) or a re-cast (which has been ruled out).

 

I wouldn't underestimate Mark's ethics about actor pay, or diminish them as greed. Mark has gone on the record as being VERY critical of the modern, corporate Hollywood's failure to adequately pay actors (or specifically offering percentage points, merch points, etc). He has gone so far as to namedrop the "1%" in the process in his studio critiques, and call himself very pro-union. Mark did not like seeing the Arkham games make billions, and none of the voice actors seeing a dime of the profits.

 

It's been said years ago, decades even, that the ST would be about Luke passing his knowledge on to the next generation. That's the one thing that has been known about the ST since the beginning so I don't know why people have been speculating how major of a part each of the big three will have--they will be supporting characters--it's the only thing we can be certain about concerning the ST.