Should We Be Excited That Carrie Fisher Is In ‘Star Wars’ Mode?

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday March 6, 2013 @ 8:07am PST
Mike Fleming

My kids constantly bring up a quote they attribute to Benjamin Franklin, which is, roughly, “don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” I continue to be less than dazzled about the casting progress made so far on a relaunch of Star Wars, web reports continue to have me concerned and underwhelmed about the picture that JJ Abrams is putting together over there at Disney.

First, we have rumors that Harrison Ford will sign a three-picture deal to return to the new Star Wars films that JJ Abrams is putting together. Now, in a magazine called Palm Beach Illustrated, we have Carrie Fisher confirming on the record that she will bring back Princess Leia. The other thing she does is confirm what we are all thinking when asked what Princess Leia is like today. “Elderly,” she said jokingly. “She’s in an intergalactic old folks’ home.” Fisher long ago moved on to become a successful script doctor and author, and this feels to me a bit like Sally Field returning for one more installment of Gidget.

Even though George Lucas came as close as humanly possible to running Star Wars into the ground with that prequel trilogy and the unsuccessful attempt to launch all six pictures as 3D conversions before selling the whole thing to Disney, JJ Abrams is two for two in fixing franchises, after working with Tom Cruise as producers to relaunch Mission: Impossible with Ghost Protocol, and in the reboot of Star Trek. Am I the only one who finds the prospect of the original Star Wars cast to be profoundly unexciting, in the same way I felt about the last Indiana Jones movie, when Ford stayed too long at the dance? I also wish Abrams was expending his considerable talents on original projects the way his hero Steven Spielberg (excusing that Indy Jones pic) continues to do.

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‘Star Trek’ Vs. ‘Star Wars’ Vs. ‘Twilight’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday December 12, 2011 @ 7:25pm PST

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R.I.P. Eddie Fisher

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday September 23, 2010 @ 5:41pm PDT

Reliable sources tell me that Eddie Fisher has died. He was 82. [UPDATE: His daughter, Tricia Leigh Fisher of Los Angeles, told the AP that he died Wednesday night at his Berkeley home of complications from hip surgery.] The singer … Read More »

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Tonight’s ‘Entourage’: DH Makes A Cameo

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Sunday August 15, 2010 @ 3:33pm PDT

Deadline Hollywood got a brief shout-out on the show last week. Tonight, we get a screenshot, and Carrie Fisher playing one of our reporters, and several moments integral to the storyline. I won’t give away more than that except to repeat Ari Gold’s complaint that: “Deadline Hollywood would run a story about me having a … Read More »

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