Showbits

Though this is slightly older news, I recently encountered a geek who hadn't heard, so for those who still don't know about it, here's a PSA:

Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich are channeling their inner geeks with Robot Chicken: Star Wars, a special for Adult Swim.

The 30-minute stop-motion animation special, directed by Green, spoofs key scenes and favorite characters from the Star Wars universe, including the sci-fi saga's creator, George Lucas. It was done in collaboration with Lucasfilm, and Lucas is on board to voice the animated version of himself.

Additionally, Robot Chicken: Star Wars will feature Mark Hamill as the voice of Luke Skywalker in one sketch and a voice cast that includes Conan O'Brien, Seth MacFarlane, Robert Smigel, Malcolm McDowell, Hulk Hogan, James Van Der Beek, Donald Faison, Abraham Benrubi, Breckin Meyer and Joey Fatone.

The special… will premiere at 10 p.m. June 17 on Adult Swim, kicking off a best-of Robot Chicken marathon that will feature reruns of the Star Wars special at the top of every hour.

Story continues at the Hollywood Reporter. Watch the trailer at StarWars.com. And for those of you attending Celebration IV, the Star Wars convention occurring May 24 – 28 in Los Angeles, see Seth Green on a writers' panel.

Die Hard 4 — officially known as Live Free or Die Hard — comes out June 27th, heralding John McClane's escape from retirement for the special occasion of fighting Internet terrorists. His sidekick — who, for the first time in the franchise's history, is not black — is Justin Long, the television commercial personification of Apple's Macintosh.

Is it just me, or do yesterday's actors not know when to call it quits? Not only is Harrison Ford a worrisome casting choice for an aging Indiana Jones, but Bruce Willis now seems better suited to the suspense of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable than he does the barefooted action hero of two decades ago.

With Bruce Willis in the spotlight, Die Hard might not be able to survive as in the action genre. Perhaps something tamer would be more up his alley — such as the following holiday special?

There's nothing like a good spoof — and most of the parodies I see are nothing like a good spoof.

Originality is a key factor. Star Wars parodies abound, and wading through the morass takes some effort. (Just look at the search results in YouTube.) But be it in Star Wars or elsewhere, there are two rarely-exploited formats of spoof that, when done well, realize great potential.

One approach is to portray a film as a genre other than its own. George Lucas' universe is effectively seen from the perspective of a Cops television show in the legendary fan film TROOPS. This same concept can turn the cult classic Office Space (imagine a live-action Dilbert) into a horror film:

The other parody format is a mash-up of two films that have no rights being amalgamated, which Star Wars accomplishes with Tie-Tanic. Elsewhere, this technique combines two Ben Affleck films into one continuous reality. Though it was funnier and more relevant five years ago when its source material was fresh, Pearlmageddon is still exemplary of such humorous fusions:

There are plenty of other examples of these methods out there; look for The Shining as a romantic comedy, or a sequel to Titanic that takes elements from Awakenings and The Fugitive.

What are some of your favorite spoofs, either fan-made or official? (And did you find the Easter Egg [and yes, that's a hint!] in the links above?)

I've found a couple amalgamations of Star Trek with other media, but the following is one of the most amusing I've encountered:

If more serious variations on the Star Trek universe appeal to you, check out the upcoming book Glass Empires, an anthology of tales from the Mirror Universe, encompassing TOS, TNG, and Enterprise. I guess they think DS9 has had enough Mirror stories — yet the arc in the current DS9 novels is leading toward that stage. I wonder what the tie-in is?