If George Lucas has his way, the Star Wars saga might soon be coming to the small screen. “The project does not include any Skywalkers or other familiar characters from the six hit films.” Lucas says that the idea for a TV version of the wildly popular film series has so far been a tough sell with Hollywood executives.
Author: sbergman
More Of The Günter Grass We Never Knew
The devoted housekeeper of controversial novelist Günter Grass has marked his 80th birthday by releasing a touching memoir of his domestic side. The “seemingly mundane domestic reflections, based on her diaries and letters home, are being seen by the publishing world as a welcome antidote to the admissions [of Grass’s membership in the Waffen SS] that shocked his fans around the world.”
UK Poet Returns To His Park
“Twenty years after he gave his first reading there, award-winning poet Simon Armitage has returned to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield, as its artist-in-residence. Armitage has written five new poems inspired by artworks on display in the park – including installations by James Turrell and Andy Goldsworthy – and will publish them next spring.”
Hosseini Backs Kite Runner Film Delay
Concern for the safety of three young Afghan actors who participated in a homosexual rape scene for the film version of the hit novel, The Kite Runner, caused producers to delay the release of the movie while the actors and their families were moved to safety. The decision was controversial, but the author of the book has now come out to publicly defend the delay.
The Art of Sex
A London exhibition showcasing erotic art through the ages is rekindling old debates on art and pornography. “The exhibition throws light on how different cultures at different times have viewed sex. What it reveals above all is how styles of art have changed over the centuries, while human beings and their desires have essentially stayed the same.”
iKarajan
“Step aside maestro. Would-be conductors now have a system that allows them to change the tempo and dynamics of a virtual orchestra with the wave of a hand… Instead of a baton, [a scientist] equips the would-be conductor with an eWatch, a computer the size and shape of a large wristwatch that contains accelerometers and tilt sensors.”
Defiant Barenboim To Lead Wagner In Berlin
Conductor Daniel Barenboim has courted Wagner-related controversy in the past, challenging Israel’s unofficial ban on the notoriously anti-Semitic composer’s music. Now, he’s bringing his Divan Orchestra, made up of Palestinian and Israeli musicians, to Berlin, to perform Wagner’s Die Walküre at Waldbuhne, the outdoor arena built for the Berlin Olympics in 1936 at which some athletes gave the Nazi salute in front of Hitler.
From Autistic To Artistic
“The Oily Cart is a widely acclaimed, London-based theater company that specializes in theater for the very young and for kids with special needs. Its three, middle-age founders — Max Reinhardt, Tim Webb and Amanda Webb — have been invited… by the Chicago Children’s Theatre to do something radical. They are developing an original theater piece designed especially for autistic youngsters and their families.”
That Seat Better Be Comfortable
“Tickets for a six-performance run of Shakespeare’s King Lear, starring British actor Ian McKellen, at UCLA in Los Angeles are fetching as much as $1,700 online.”
Is Muti Getting Serious About Chicago?
Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony have been playing footsie for years now, and despite multiple denials from both sides, it’s clear that the CSO would like to at least consider the fiery maestro as a candidate for music director. Now, following a successful European tour together, Muti is sounding less reticent. “There must be a reason that this great orchestra and I have come together at this moment in our histories. And I am really thinking hard about what this should mean.”