Ian Beattie & Miltos Yerolemou head to Comic Con >>>
Monday, June 15
LEGO recreation of The Force Awakens wrecked Star Destroyer
This guy builds an amazingly detailed diorama >>>
Disney’s three Star Wars movies have already paid for the purchase of Lucasfilm
Money, money, money and even more money >>>
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Blu-ray packs let you choose ‘Light’ and ‘Dark’ sides
Art has been released for the DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 2-disc editions of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Mountaineers And Youthful Granny Beat Star Wars In The Far East
Increasingly, Disney’s decision to make South Korean boy band idol LuHan its ambassador for Star Wars in China (where the film doesn’t open until early January) looks like a canny one. And not just because of the potential for “LuHan Solo” type gags.
This morning the internet was awash with stories about how Star Wars: The Force Awakens had opened at number one in every territory where it has opened already… except two: South Korea and Vietnam.
So what’s beaten the Force in those countries? In both cases, home-made films. Seems there’s a considerable interest in “Hallyu” – the Korean pop culture wave – in the region at the moment that’s being reflected at the box office. And while the film that beat Disney’s blockbuster in Vietnam was technically Vietnamese, it was actually a remake of a South Korean film.
That film was Sweet 20, based on the 2104 South Korean film Miss Granny, a fantasy about a grandmother who wakes up as her 20 year-old self after a visit to a strange photo-studio (its production company CJ E&M seems to be franchising out the concept to various other countries for remakes too, including Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, India and Germany). Amazingly the Vietnamese remake was in its second week of release when it managed to beat Star Wars.
In South Korea Star Wars: The Force Awakens was beaten by true-story-inspired mountaineering adventure drama The Himalayas which grossed $8.7 million as opposed to Force’s $7.9 million performance over the same period.
Disney probably isn’t too worried about being bested in smallish territories such as South Korea and Vietnam, but China is a different matter. It’s now the second-biggest market for movies on the planet so Disney would obviously love to see Star Wars breaking records there too. That’s why it has turned to LuHan, whose old band, EXO, incidentally, has already released a single and video called “Lightsaber” with Disney’s full co-operation (see it here). LuHan’s single, called ‘The Inner Force” is imminent.
According to Disney has been made an honorary member of the “Jedi Order” in China. He’ll be appearing in local advertising spots and at promotional events, and popping up on TV and all over the internet to give The Force Awakens the local seal of approval.
LuHan doesn’t seem a particularly loyal ambassador, though. Brand LuHan is also adding its weight to Dreamwork’s Kung Fu Panda 3, which comes out in China just a couple weeks after The Force Awakens.
LuHan has nearly 12 million followers on Weibo and holds the Guinness World Record for most comments on a single Weibo post (which was about Manchester United). His post announcing his official connection with Star Wars — “I am honored to be the Star Wars ambassador to China, May the Force be with you!” — has been retweeted some 1.5 million times. So you can tell why Disney and Dreamworks weren’t going to come on too strong about demanding his exclusivity.
[via The Hollywood Reporter]
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Guardians Of The Gallery: Christmas Groot, Strictly Doctor Who, Punisher Harpist & More
There’s a definite seasonal flavour to Buzz’s round-up of interesting, weird and cool pics and videos this week.
••• Guardians Of The Galaxy director James Gunn Instagrammed this fantastic Groot Chtistmas tree, created by WolfenM. You can see loads more on his Flickr.
••• Comic characters rarely age. Mr Fantastic actually looks like he’s grown younger over the years, though he may just be dyeing his hair these days. But what if they did age? That’s exactly what artist Eddie Liu has been pondering with these great portraits. Though quite why all his male DC characters have aged into distinguished-looking senior citizens while Wonder Woman has become Dot from EastEnders remains a mystery…
••• We thought Doctor Who had finished last Saturday, but there was a surprise extra episode on BBC One this Saturday night. It was very short and the Doctor had regenerated again into The Wanted’s Jay McGuinness but at least we know who’s playing the new companion now – Strictly Come Dancing’s Aliona Vilani.
••• Comic Book Resources has an occasional feature called “Shelf Porn” (we would explain the concept but the pictures speak for themselves) and the most recent entry was an absolute doozy. Sherry Konkus is a harpist and Punisher fan from Michigan, and she’s combined her two interests into a wonderfully bizarre display at her home. We just love the idea of Frank Castle sitting on a giant ball of wool…
••• A bunch of Star Wars: The Force Awakens stars took part in a Twitter Q&A to promote the film earlier this week. Nobody expected this would lead to a duet from Daisy Ridley and Oscar Isaac, but they spontaneously burst into a version of perennial favourite “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”. Maybe they thought they were on Hoth.
.@sherrilynling asks to Oscar and Daisy: can the two of you do a duet sometime? #TwitterAwakens pic.twitter.com/z6WkI3dXIa — Star Wars (@starwars) December 5, 2015
••• So who’s the fastest man alive? The Flash or Quicksilver? Marvel fans may not like the answer…
••• BOOM! Studios is launching its new Mighty Morphin’ Power Ranger series in January with a #0 issue. IGN this week revealed that every issue will have a Zord variant cover, starting with the Tyrannosaurus Zord. We know which set we’ll be collecting if they’re all as mighty as this.
••• This image is actually a couple of years old now, but we love the idea of TMNT Christmas tree baubles so much they may become the Wizard Of Oz of Guardians Of The Gallery, putting in an appearance every year. You can find out how to make them here…
••• After weeks of Star Wars-dominated Guardians Of The Gallery articles (is there a film coming out or something?) but this week there’s only one. A pair Hellcat muscle cars were pimped in the black-and-white uniform of a First Order Stormtrooper while a Viper ACR was repainted with a Kylo Ren-themed in a joint Star Wars/Fiat Chrysler publicity stunt. They toured the streets of LA over the weekend Fiat Chrysler encouraged Star Wars fans to post photos of themselves with the landspeeders… cars.
••• These are a late addition this week, added after we first went live with the feature, but they were too good to wait until next week to show you. Digital artist Allan Johnson shared a portfolio of his digital makeover of US dollars at Moviepilot [via ComicBook.com], replacing the faces of the US political luminaries with comic and movie characters.
