Princess Leia: a New Disney Princess

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It seems like old news now that I'm finally blogging about this today, considering the news broke only 48 hours ago.  But it is big news.  BIG NEWS to us geeks.  The Mouse bought the rights to Lucasfilm.  And there's going to be three more Star Wars movies: Episode VII, VIII, and IX, the first slated for 2015 with the rest following every 2-3 years after.

I'm ecstatic about the news.  Being both a Disney and a Star Wars freak, imagining the two together has always worked well in my mind.  I rode Star Tours, the Star Wars themed ride at Disneyland, before I saw the movies in the 5th grade on VHS (DVD's hadn't been invented yet . . . that makes me feel old . . . ).  And the very first journal entry I ever wrote when I was in elementary was over rumors that there were going to be three additional Star Wars movies, of course Episode I wasn't released until I was a senior in High School.  I was that far ahead of the curve.

I'm one of those Geeks who's adopted the Thrawn trilogy as my Episode VII, VIII, and IX.  What's the Thrawn Trilogy?  It's Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy (Thrawn's the bad guy . . . an epic bad guy.)

 

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And Heir to the Empire introduced us to what I believe is the most famous Star Wars expanded universe character Mara Jade.  Her character later becomes Mara Jade Skywalker.  Yes, she marries Luke, and they have a kid named Ben . . . if you don't know who they named him after . . . I'm not going to explain.  She also has a dark past.  Emperor Palpatine raised her.

And if you've read my blog post about the origin of the name Cerulean Jade, the musical duo I'm in, you'll learn Jade is me.  Ever since reading Heir to the Empire in the 6th grade I've been obsessed with Mara Jade.  She's an awesome character.

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I highly recommend the book series.  Till this day I stand by the fact that it's the best, well crafted, amazing 3 novels I've ever read.  They're masterpieces.  

And these books got me into reading.  Before Heir I read Baby Sitters Club and Boxcar Children, but Heir to the Empire made me thirst for the written word.  

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So what will be in the new movies?  What can we expect?

Everything now is speculation, but there are some hints our there.  This last summer George Lucas met with Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher.  Mark said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly online:

"Yeah, last August, he asked Carrie and I to have lunch with him and we did. I thought he was going to talk about either his retirement or the Star Wars TV series that I’ve heard about — which I don’t think we were going to be involved in anyway, because that takes place between the prequels and the ones we were in and, if Luke were in them, he’d be anywhere from a toddler to a teenager so they’d get an age-appropriate actor — or the 3-D releases. So when he said, “We decided we’re going to do Episodes VII, VIII, and IX,” I was just gobsmacked. “What? Are you nuts?!” [Laughs] I can see both sides of it. Because in a way, there was a beginning, a middle, and an end and we all lived happily ever after and that’s the way it should be — and it’s great that people have fond memories, if they do have fond memories. But on the other hand, there’s this ravenous desire on the part of the true believers to have more and more and more material. It’s one of those things: people either just don’t care for it or are passionate about it. I guess that defines what cult movies are all about."

Then Mark said on his twitter:

 “Congratulations to George for today’s mega-deal! Can’t comment on Ep 7 before I have all the facts which are short supply right now — Patience.”

Even he didn't know about Disney buying Lucasfilm, but I find it interesting that he and Carrie were told about episodes VII, VIII and IX just a few months ago, especially since Lucas stated he wasn't going to make another film.

It's also well established that George Lucas won't serve as more then creative consultant.  He's given his story plans to Disney, but it appears that Lucas isn't writing the scripts, and he's not directing.  So who is writing and directing?  A lot of speculation out there, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's someone already in the Disney family (which now expands to Marvel, Pixar, The Muppets and any show on ABC), but they could bring someone new in.  I'm curious, but I get the feeling it will be a while before we find out.

So will there be any material from the expanded Star Wars Universe used?  From what I've read the story will be entirely new, and nothing from previously created expansions.  (So no Mara Jade . . . ) but I've heard two different hints.  I've heard that Luke Skywalker will be in it (that's the most consistent rumor.)  In one thing I've read Episode VII takes place a few decades after Return of the Jedi.  So does that mean between 20-30 years?  I guess Luke will be between 47-57 years old?  I don't know.  Then I've also heard that Luke will be in his 30's-40's.  

TheWrap interviewed Dale Pollock, the unauthorized biographer of Lucas.  He claims he got to read the story outlines Lucas wrote and states:

“It was originally a 12-part saga.  The three most exciting stories were 7, 8 and 9. They had propulsive action, really interesting new worlds, new characters. I remember thinking, ‘I want to see these 3 movies.’”  

But who knows what will happen, and there's a chance Disney may choose to move away from Lucas's original vision.  But in any case I'm super excited and can't wait!  2015 can't come soon enough.

It should be noted that 20th Century Fox owns 5 of the previous Star Wars movies till 2020, and owns A New Hope, episode IV, permanently.  It will be interesting to see if Fox will ever let A New Hope go.  I hope so.

What's in a Name? How Cerulean Jade came to be.

What's in a name?  A whole lot actually.

When my brother Steven and I decided to form a musical duo we realized that we needed to find a name that symbolized us.  It seemed simple at first, but it quickly became quite difficult.

We love the Carpenters, who we grew up listening to, but calling ourselves The Stufflebeam's sounded too Osmond-ish.  The Osmonds are amazing, but with us being Mormon as well, it was just a little too close for comfort.  Though Stufflebeam really is a cool name.

Then there was a period where we were seriously considering Kit and Caboodle.  We just thought the name fit us and was really fun.  It was kinda quirky.  Some family members were against it, but Steven and I stayed with the idea, doing research.  An amazon search later found us a group called Kit and Kaboodle, so that name, now to my hindsight relief, went out the window.  So we were back to the drawing board.  I whipped out a Thesaurus (how I love that book) to find unique and interesting words, but everything we plugged into iTunes and Amazon had already been used.  Then Steven and I began finding words that represent us.  I don't know who came up with it, but someone mentioned "Cerulean Jade," and in that moment we knew we found it, and another search later proved it was original!

Cerulean represents Steven.  He's an artist (and as you can see in the picture above I still have a bit of improving to do) and with him being an artist, his favorite color couldn't simply be blue.  No, that would be too easy, he has to have a favorite hue.  Cerulean.  We played a game once several years ago to see how well we knew each other, picking really hard questions, and he asked me what his favorite color was, thinking I'd say blue.  Nope, didn't fall for it, I totally knew it was Cerulean, though I didn't tell him how I remembered that.

Now this is where I get to embarrass him.  I remembered his favorite hue thanks to Pokemon.  My brothers were the biggest fans!  Of course, I should admit that I watched the show too, and still have some collectables.  It was fun, but he was really into it, and the character Misty came from Cerulean Gym.  And I think that's where his love for the shade began, though he might have a different opinion.

Jade represents me, and though it's a green hue, my connection to jade has nothing to do with the color . . . though my favorite color is green.  I blame my Irish heritage for that.  This is where I get to admit my personal geekness.

The first book series I read on my own, outside of classroom assignments, was back in the sixth grade when the Star Wars Heir to the Empire trilogy was growing in popularity.  The last book of the series, The Last Command, had just been published, and the series was bringing Star Wars back into Pop culture.  I was first introduced to Star Wars in the fifth grade.  And Timothy Zahn, the brilliant author behind the books, created this character called Mara Jade.  She's amazing, and I kind of became obsessed with her.  I've got the action figure.  But she's this super intense, deep, complicated character with spunk.

But as I began to research Jade and what it meant to the those in the Orient and ancient Egyptians, and even the Mayans and Aztecs, the more I began to fall in love with Jade itself.  I just read on Wikipedia that "In Chinese culture, if one wishes to express one's love for someone, one gives them something made of the gemstone jade or an object that is colored jade."  Apparently that needs to have a citation, but it's neat.  A Chinese book of verse states "When I think of a wise man, his merits appear to be like jade" and "Gold has a value; jade is invaluable." (I got that from about.com)  "Jade symbolizes beauty, nobility, perfection, constancy, power, and immortality in Chinese culture."  For the Egyptian's Jade symbolized inner peace, balance, and love.  Jade is beautiful and comes in many colors.  I'd love to one day own a peace of violet jade.

So that's how Steven and I became Cerulean Jade.

Always,
Sarah