Hell indeed freezes over!
After an 18-hour drive from Denver to Los Angeles (forced to take the southern route–long story), we kicked off another round of interviews bright and early Monday morning, and we couldn’t have asked for a better start! Jeff Bond (Geek Monthly Editor-in-Chief) answered a range of questions about the unique dynamic between George and his fans, and Geekscapist extraordinaire Jonathan London speculated about the origins of geek culture’s disappointment with George’s latest works, in his truly unique style. He gave us numerous classic moments, but none better than his on-the-spot realization that THE CLONE WARS, in its glorification of Anakin Skywalker, might be akin to the release of HITLER: THE ANIMATED SERIES! For some strange reason, the same topic resurfaced this afternoon in San Diego, during our interview with Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning sci-fi heavyweight David Brin (STAR WARS ON TRIAL). We met David at his beautiful house, and he, too, discussed the moral implications of not only glorifying Anakin, but redeeming him at the end of ROTJ. For him, the ghosts of Yoda, Obi-Wan and Anakin at the end of the film is a vision of what Jedi Hell might look like; and to those of you already familiar with his thought-provoking deconstruction of Yoda, all I can say is: wait until you see how he delivers it in person! It was a true performance and a real treat. David is one of the most extraordinarily witty subjects we’ve had the privilege to interview to date, and I simply can’t wait to cut his best and most relevant sound bites into the film. He also couldn’t have been a most gracious host. He let us pick oranges from the trees in his yard (they were delicious!), and gave us chocolate-covered coffee beans for the road. Thank you, David!
Eye of the beholder: David Brin for the prosecution
Long, but exciting day tomorrow. We start with Chris Strompolos (RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: THE ADAPTATION) in the morning, and then Joe Nussbaum (GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE) and Doug Jones (Senior Programmer for the Los Angeles Film Festival) in the afternoon. We had to reschedule our interview with Chris Gore to Saturday, but we chatted with him for an hour or so in the lobby of G4, and there’s no doubt he will be a lot of fun. He basically didn’t expect us to show up with a crew of five and so much equipment, so we’ll relocate the interview at his house, which is great, because it sounds like he has quite a few collectibles to show us. I’m particularly intrigued to see the George Lucas action figure he purchased on Ebay. I’ll have to post pictures, for sure.
AOP