Walt Disney + Star Wars = endless possibilities
By Scott Feschuk - Friday, April 26, 2013 - 0 Comments
A Star Wars movie every year? Scott Feschuk imagines the synergies
Photo illustration by Sarah MacKinnon
Walt Disney Co., which paid $4 billion for George Lucas’s film company, has announced that, beginning in 2015, it will release a Star Wars movie every year—yes, every single year. Let’s look ahead:
2015: Although many are eagerly anticipating J.J. Abrams’ take on the series, some are apprehensive that he will introduce to the Star Wars universe the element of time travel—which would enable a middle-aged Luke Skywalker to encounter his younger self, his older self and, quite possibly, a very confused Spock. On the other hand, it could also bring together seven Yodas for the most backwards-talking, ass-kicking climax in film history. Let’s agree to let the time-travel thing slide so long as Abrams uses the device to have two incarnations of Jar Jar Binks beat each other to death.
2018: The franchise is entrusted to other directors, beginning with Michael Bay—who opens his film in flashback with a 14-minute shot of a young Princess Leia (Megan Fox), clad in cut-off jeans, leaning over a landspeeder to tinker with its engine. On the radio we hear the sounds of Alderaan’s best Aerosmith cover band. Continue…
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‘Nature Wars’ author Jim Sterba on Bambi and wildlife overpopulation
By Ken MacQueen - Wednesday, December 12, 2012 at 10:36 AM - 0 Comments
In conversation with Ken MacQueen
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHANIE NORITZ
Jim Sterba is a veteran foreign reporter at the Wall Street Journal and one-time war correspondent, but his latest book, Nature Wars, is about insurgency of a different sort: the resurgent population of North American wildlife and the uneasy relationship with its neighbours. Both humans and overabundant populations of deer, bear, goose, beaver, coyote and others have taken to suburban life with sometimes disastrous consequences. “We turned a wildlife comeback miracle into a mess” of fouled parks, deer-vehicle accidents and downed jetliners, he writes. He argues our Disneyfied view of animals has tipped the balance of nature.
Q: I live in British Columbia, where trees are sacred and we love our wildwood creatures. Each has their own special interest group. Yet you say we have too much wildlife.
A: Certain species are over-abundant, like white-tail deer in many parts of the country. Some are just nuisances, like Canada geese. Some are damaging, like beavers. The problem with bears is that people have such an anthropomorphized view of them because they haven’t been around bears a lot, except teddy bears, so when a bear shows up they think, “Oh, it’s a cute little person,” and they throw it a doughnut, or they let it rifle through the garbage can and take its photograph, and the bear begins to associate the smell of people with food, not fear. It’s not the bear’s fault, it’s our fault. Continue…
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Coming now to a TV near you
By Katie Engelhart - Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 11:40 AM - 0 Comments
The future of local programming is on-demand, all the time
Traditional television needs a fairy godmother. Or maybe a visit from a knight in shining armour. Perhaps that’s why Rogers Communications, one of the country’s largest media companies, is betting on the man who was at the helm of Walt Disney Co. when it launched hit titles like Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King.Last month, Rogers (which owns Maclean’s) announced plans to invest millions in Vuguru, a Web video studio launched by former Disney chairman Michael Eisner—the man credited with reviving the Magic Kingdom at a time when Disney was flailing financially. The investment bought Rogers a minority stake in the venture, which will produce around 30 Web series every year, each made up of “mini-sodes” that are a few minutes in length. It may be Rogers’ foothold into what many see as the future of television. Continue…
