Returning To A Galaxy Far Far Away

Disney has announced the official cast for the upcoming Star Wars sequel!
It includes Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, and Peter Mayhew, who'll reprise their roles as Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, R2-D2, C-3PO, and Chewbacca. And of course John Williams will once again create the trademark musical score.
We've known this was likely for some time (see my blog Nov.2012), and I even wrote that George Lucas let the cat out of the bag and said the original cast was coming back.
Of course, some of the originals nowadays require galatically-designed zimmer frames (!), so there'll also be a new line of young Jedi facing new threats to the galaxy (which is still far, far away...).
The sequel is due in 2015 and will be the first of a new trilogy for the Star Wars franchise. In addition, Disney also announced plans for spinoffs, including Han in a (cue bad pun) solo adventure, as well as a stand-alone anti-hero bounty hunter Boba Fett movie.
The 'big three' - Han, Leia, and Luke - will have supporting roles while the main events focus on the newer cast members, and at least one of those younger actors portrays a child of Han and Leia. So, no more scenes of Luke snogging his sister then...
Oh, and May the 4th be with you!

Bob Hoskins Dies

UK actor Bob Hoskins died this week after a bout of pneumonia, at the age of 71.
He'd retired from acting in 2012, due to the onset of Parkinson's disease, an incurable muscular disorder.
Hoskins was born in 1942 in Suffolk, where his mother was living after being evacuated due to the heavy bombings in London. He received only limited education and left school at 15, but with a passion for language and literature. A regular theatre-goer, Hoskins dreamed of being on stage, but worked many odd jobs for a long time to make ends meet - steeplejack, trainee accountant, circus fire-eater and hotel porter were just a few.
His big break came by accident, when he accompanied a friend to some auditions, only to be confused for one of the auditioners, having a script pushed into his hands and being told: "You're next"...
His career began on British tv shows. Moving into big film roles, his turn as a mobster in The Long Good Friday (1980) defined his tough guy persona.
He was nominated for a best actor Oscar in 1987 for Mona Lisa, in which he starred opposite Sir Michael Caine and Robbie Coltrane, and won a Golden Globe award. Caine says: "He was one of the nicest and best actors I have ever worked with."

His big Hollywood break came in 1988 when he played Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination. He then went on to 1990's Mermaids and Hook (1991).
His portrayal of J.Edgar Hoover in Nixon (1995) earnt him a Screen Actors Guild nomination, while in 2001's Enemy At The Gates, he played the cold-blooded future Russian premier Nikita Krushchev.
In later years he took on parts in smaller films, including Made in Dagenham, about women seeking equal pay with male workers at a car plant near London. He also played the voice of the character Winston in Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006). The British Film Institute's Sight & Sound magazine says Hoskins was one of the most recognisable UK actors of the 1970s and 1980s.
My favourite Hoskins movie was with Judi Dench in Mrs Henderson Presents (2005). Keep your eyes peeled for him in many films of the past three decades - yes, even 1982's Pink Floyd The Wall (!!!).
Bob Hoskins: often understated, never under-rated.

Extreme Uzbek Broadcasting!

All Uzbekistan's tv and radio stations have been ordered to rig their facilities to be blown up!
Broadcasters in the landlocked Central Asian country must place "self-destruct devices" on transmitter gear by 14 May so, if the station falls into hostile hands, all broadcasts

can be cut instantly.
You'll recall the recent captures of broadcasting stations in Ukraine by pro-Russian forces: this is perhaps the Uzbek way of pre-empting similar events.
Uzbekistan's National Security Service (SNB) is overseeing this last resort in censorship. It's also checking ventilation ducts in broadcast buildings: ducts and shafts leading toward studios must not be big enough for anyone to crawl through.
No more live programming either, not even news. At least two men from the Interior Ministry must be part of every station's staff. And only a handful of people would have access to a station's detonation device... hopefully no-one who's pissed off with the boss!
Journalists must submit in advance all questions they intend to ask at a press conference, for approval, and they can't travel abroad without SNB approval.
It's standard Uzbek practice that everyone entering a station is checked and their documents scrutinised, sometimes more than once. There's also a list of topics, some going back years, that are not to be mentioned, and guests are reminded of these taboo subjects continually from the time they enter the station until their programme starts.
All this to safeguard the Uzbek version of "freedom of the press"!