'Star Wars' Auditions - Hayden Christensen Competed With 12 Actors to Play Anakin, Including an Oscar Winner Who Turned It Down

Leslye Headland, creator of the new Disney+ series Star Wars: The Acolyte, will make her Broadway debut this fall with the Second Stage Theater production of her play Cult of Love. Trip Cullman (Lobby Hero, Choir Boy) will direct.

The Locarno Film Festival will pay tribute to award-winning Star Wars, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Indiana Jones sound engineer, editor and voice actor Ben Burtt at its upcoming 77th edition in August.

The Acolyte” is pushing back against those who say that her show is “woke” propaganda featuring “lesbian space witches,” slamming the criticism as “reductive.”Leslye Headland, the “first openly queer person to create” a major Star Wars project as The Hollywood Reporter (THR) described her, spoke to the outlet this week about the backlash the show has gotten for its progressive themes, telling the outlet that she never intended to make a show with an overt political agenda, even if it contains some LGBTQ messaging.“I don’t believe that I’ve created queer, with a capital Q, content,” Headland told the entertainment outlet.“Star Wars: The Acolyte” has proven to be one of the most divisive entries in the Star Wars franchise since its debut on Disney’s streaming platform earlier this month. Despite being a hit with critics – it currently features an 85% Rotten Tomatoes rating among professional movie reviewers – it has a 14% audience score, the lowest rating in that category among all Star Wars content.The Disney-owned film franchise has been criticized by fans in recent years who claim the company has embraced “woke” storylines and characters, with fans slamming “The Acolyte” as the most progressive one yet.The show’s LGBTQ reputation has preceded itself, generating a now-viral moment where a journalist from The Wrap told Headland and non-binary series star Amandla Stenberg during an interview that the show is “arguably the gayest Star Wars by a considerable margin.”Though she and the actor were amused by the question, Headland suggested it wasn’t something she was aiming for.

Biopics about popular musicians are major moments for the actors who land the roles, and that was certainly the case for Austin Butler!

The Acolyte star Amandla Stenberg has written and released a song in response to a racist backlash against the Star Wars prequel show.The show is set 100 years before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and the first four episodes are streaming now on Disney+.It was created by Russian Doll’s Leslye Headland and stars Stenberg (The Hate U Give, Bodies Bodies Bodies) in the twin lead roles of Osha and Mae.

EXCLUSIVE: Seven years after Ryan Bartlett left UTA to launch Hyperion, the veteran talent agent is leaving the boutique agency to join Independent Artist Group. He will work in IAG’s talent department, reporting to Andrew Rogers in a reunion for the duo who were agents together at Paradigm where Rogers headed Motion Picture Talent.

Rosario Dawson, Hayden Christensen, and Lucasfilm Creative Chief Dave Filoni were on the Happy Sad Confused podcast to discuss the “Star Wars” series “Ahsoka” this week (read our review). And while all eyes are on season two of “Ahsoka,” which Filoni says he’s writing, so it’s presumably on the way at some point, many fans are wondering what’s going on with the feature-length film.

As we know from yesterday’s excerpt from an upcoming episode of The Playlist’s The Discourse podcast featuring Jude Law promoting his forthcoming film period drama “Firebrand” opposite Alicia Vikander (read our review), the actor basically turned down an early version of “Superman” when Brett Ratner was attached to direct. For years, Law seemed to avoid most franchises.

“The Sunday Times,” Dunne wrote, “First of all, let me cut to the chase and say that Carrie never became my girlfriend. She knew, long before I did, that being lovers would diminish our possibilities.

Taylor Lautner became one of Hollywood’s biggest young stars after playing Jacob Black in the Twilight franchise. However, you might be shocked to learn that he actually had to fight for the part twice.

Warning: Spoilers ahead Star Wars fans have been left reeling by the shock of a major name actor being killed off in the opening minutes of the new prequel series The Acolyte.The show is set 100 years before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and the first two episodes were released to streaming on Disney+ on June 4.The Acolyte has been created by Russian Doll’s Leslye Headland and it stars Amandla Stenberg (The Hate U Give, Bodies Bodies Bodies) in the twin lead roles of Osha and Mae. The two characters are raised by a coven of witches, led by Jodie Turner-Smith, and are separated by tragedy, with Osha training as a Jedi before lapsing, while Mae turns to the dark side.In the opening moments of the first episode, we see a mysterious woman enter a bar and kill the Jedi Master Indara, played by Carrie-Anne Moss.

No amount of rewatching, revisionism, and distance makes the leaden “Star Wars” prequels good, sorry (lord knows I’ve tried). But teeming with terrifically substantive ideas, just not convincing in the execution of any of them, the most juicy and complex legacy that George Lucas ever left “Star Wars” with—something the franchise always seems to flirt with and yet never fully embrace—is the notion of failure, and the Jedi Order as a deeply flawed and ultimately ruinous organization.

The Divergent film series, based on Veronica Roth‘s novels, is the sort of classic teen movie that defined a generation.

Robert Pattinson became a household name for his portrayal of Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies. However, he almost wasn’t cast over concerns he wasn’t attractive enough for the part.

Charlie Hunnam has lined up his next big acting project, and he’s playing a character that fans already love!

Star Wars suffer more harassment “because of the fan base being so male dominated”.The franchise has long fielded misogynistic and racist comments from online trolls, with both Daisy Ridley and Kelly Marie Tran previously leaving social media as a result of the abuse.Now, ahead of the release of the new Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte, the same issue has repeated itself, with some fans referring to the show as “The Wokelyte” due its diverse cast.Created by Leslye Headland, The Acolyte is set long before the events of The Phantom Menace (1999) and charts the emergence of the Dark Side during the High Republic era.“Operating within these giant franchises now, with social media and the level of expectation — it’s terrifying,” Kennedy said, in a new interview with The New York Times.“I think Leslye has struggled a little bit with it. I think a lot of the women who step into Star Wars struggle with this a bit more.

Lucasfilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy has heard the noise from some Star Wars fans unhappy with the franchise’s direction.

Carrie Fisher got back on drugs to slim down for the Star Wars sequels… At least that’s what her pal James Blunt says.

Earlier today, we shared a news item about Rahul Kohli being a bit heartbroken that he didn’t land a role in Marvel Studios’ “The Fantastic Four.” Now, here’s a story about another actor, Glen Powell, who is finally able to joke about the fact that he “blew” the final audition for a major “Star Wars” role.

James Blunt has blamed the pressure of the Star Wars workload for Carrie Fisher’s drugs relapse.The Princess Leia actor died in 2016 after suffering a cardiac arrest on board a flight from London to Los Angeles. She was 60 years old.The coroner’s report later confirmed that cocaine plus “traces” of heroin and MDMA (also known as ecstasy) had been found in her system.