A few days ago, there were reports that *NSync's cameo in Episode 2 was cut due to the response of dismayed SW fans everywhere. Not so, says Lucasfilm spokeswoman Lynn Hale:

"The *NSync guys were shot as extras ... in a background scene," she said. "Whether that makes it into the movie or not won't be determined until [director] George [Lucas] has a final edit, and he won't have that until close to the time of release." Clones is slated for a May 16 release.

So we'll just have to wait and see...



EDIT: ESPN.com had the following poll on their website:

What was George Lucas thinking when he nixed plans to have members of the pop group *NSync appear in "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones"?

A. He wanted Jar-Jar Binks to remain the most annoying character in "Star Wars" history.

B. Britney Spears, girlfriend of *NSync's Justin Timberlake, refused to reprise Princess Leia's famous "chain-bikini" scene.

C. After being overwhelmed by protesters in an Internet petition and lampooned by "Saturday Night Live," he simply came to his senses.

D. JC Chasez and Joey Fatone refused to wear "Jedi helmets" for fear of messing up their hair.

E. The Backstreet Boys were unavailable for "Episode III."

F. At 5-foot-9, Chris Kirkpatrick is much too short to be a Jedi ... and he refused to take the role of a clone.

Last I checked...C, B and A were the answers chosen the most.

Yesterday, I went to the LA Auto Show at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and needless to say--the cars on display were pretty cool...not that the cars I saw at the show in January of 2000 weren't any good. Among the highlights of the show were the Maserati, Ferrari and Lamborghini exhibits. The Lamborghini continues to be one of my all-time favorites cars. Imagine the whiplash you'd get driving a car that can go from 0 to 60 MPH in 3.2 seconds!!! Yup, Lamborghinis rock. The Porsche exhibit was also cool...but I'd rather spend 187 GRAND on a nice house than the newest version of this German vehicle. Of course, $187,000 is pocket-change by Shaq's standard. How sad...for us non(pro)-athletes, that is.

Also, a prop vehicle that will be featured in the upcoming Steven Spielberg film Minority Report (due out in summer of this year and featuring Tom Cruz, err Cruise) was also on display. Made by Lexus, this vehicle kinda resembles the futuristic cars shown in Spielberg's previous film Artificial Intelligence, but the Lexus version is much better. There were also some cool hybrid cars on hand...which UNLIKE regular cars get terrific mileage! Compare 56 miles per gallon a Honda fuel cell vehicle would get as opposed to the measly 19 miles per gallon a Jeep gets when you drive on the highway. Horrendous...



Anyways, there are too many cool autos featured at the Show to mention in my Blog, so I'll just say...it's great having a driver's license. Not that I'm gonna buy any of the cars mentioned above anytime soon--or in this lifetime or dimension!

Pop. The Force. Pop. The Force. POP?? I was just checking out TheForce.Net. as usual when I read that some members from the group *NSync are gonna make small cameos in Attack of the Clones. Does that ACTUALLY mean Episode 2 stands a chance of making as much cash as Titanic??? Hahaha! NO. But it DOES mean we might see Britney Spears, Shakira or Beyonce from Destiny's Child as Padme's new handmaidens in Episode 3. I WISH! Anyways, here's an article from MTV.com...which also mentioned the news (good if you're a pop fan, bad if you're a fanatical Star Wars fan):

"Now that they've taken over planet Earth, *NSYNC are prepared to blow up in a galaxy far, far away. A few of the *NSYNC guys will appear in "Star Wars - Episode II: Attack of the Clones," according to a spokesperson from Lucasfilm.

The spokesperson didn't know specifically which members have cameos in the movie, which will be the fifth "Star Wars" release from creator George Lucas. The guys will be seen for a fleeting moment in a "big scene with lots of extras."

The roles materialized after the group members, who are all fans of the sci-fi saga, asked the new film's producer, Rick McCallum, for bit parts.

"Star Wars - Episode II: Attack of the Clones," which stars Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen, hits theaters May 16."



I wonder what Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi) thinks? Being as outspoken as his predecessor Sir Alec Guiness (Obi-Wan in the original trilogy), either he's indifferent to the idea or he considers this cameo thing yet another thing he hates about Hollywood movies. Oh well.

UPDATE: According to EW.com, the *NSync members will play Jedi extras who get blown away by battledroids during (SPOILERS! Underline to read) the arena battle on Geonosis at the end of the film.

UPDATE #2: Considering the fact it was Episode 2 producer Rick McCallum's idea and not George Lucas' idea (according to new reports), *NSYNC might not make the final cut of the movie afterall. If SW fan reactions are any indication, Lucas better be in the editing room right now!

WELL, CONSIDERING THE FACT I’M GONNA BE IN LAS VEGAS ON NEW YEAR'S EVE (I'm leavin' tomorrow)...let me give a recap on 2001 today:

First of all, what a year it’s been. Obviously, the September 11 attacks top the highlights of what took place in the first official year of the 21st century. The New York Yankees finally lost in the World Series after winning 3 titles in a row (LIKE they don’t have enough titles already), Pearl Harbor wasn’t as good as people thought it’d be, and NASA successfully puts a space probe in orbit around Mars after 2 back-to-back failures in 1999. THAT, and the Lakers win back-to-back titles last June…despite a turbulent year with that feud between the Big Aristotle (aka Shaquille O’Neal) and Michael Jordan’s true heir (aka Kobe Bryant). THAT, and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan is kaput thanks to the U.S. helping rebels whup their fanatical ass. But Osama Bin Hidin’ is most likely still alive-- Bastard. And lastly, the Baltimore Ravens win the Super Bowl. Of course, it’s all about the Rams or the Raiders…two former Los Angeles teams. Mostly it’s all about the Rams.

Personally, this year was pretty much a downer for me. I actually grew very cynical and jaded after Denise told me she had a boyfriend, and also, when another girl I used to like in high school indicated to me through a conversation on AOL Instant Messenger how scandalous ladies can be sometimes, or most of the time. I even grew very resentful of people I knew personally who was with someone (my friends included), and even wondered if there was ONE girl out there who didn’t freakin’ have a boyfriend. Yup yup, this year personally sucked.

On the plus side, I managed to write four full-length screenplays this year….the Hard-Cores trilogy (all 3 scripts are 120 pages) and a separate spin-off story (95 pages) to that plot-line. Of course, if you asked me what the story is, you’re gonna be in the dark—since the stories were inspired by personal events that took place earlier this year (specifically, Denise saying she’s spoken for and an interesting night where I chilled with 4 of my friends while they hot-boxed one of my friends’ car!)--causing a real narrative to pretty much be absent from my scripts. Ewan McGregor’s character Curt Wilde remarked in Velvet Goldmine…"real art isn’t based on personal experiences." My scripts can be Neo-Realist films, so SCREW YOU!

Looking forward to 2002, there ARE a couple of things to look forward to…in areas non-romance related. For starters, and in non-chronological order, Episode 2 comes out in May. And second, Spider-Man comes out 2 weeks before Episode 2 does. Third, the Lakers attempt their 3-peat beginning in April…and NASA resumes construction on the International Space Station. Yea, I’m a science guy. Haha! UGH. Oh yea…The Two Towers, the second installment to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, comes out in Winter of 2002. Hopefully, around the time of TTT’s release, Bin Laden will finally be discovered as being blasted to bits by U.S. smart bombs or finally being captured by American or British Special Forces while performing a sex act on an Al Queda male buddy. Whatever.

Anyways, that’s it for now. Here’s hoping next year is better than this year. Either that, or you can call me Cynical Man besides Parman. Or Cynical Boi besides Punkboi. Or Grumpy bastard besides Richard. The list goes on-and-on...

Woohoo, can't wait till Scary Movie 3—Episode 1: Lord of the Brooms comes out next year. It's gonna be a big blockbuster!!!




Disturbing news courtesy of TheForce.Net.

I saw Lord of the Rings again today (one of my brothers wanted to see it) and just wanted to point out that Sean Astin's character IS Frodo's biatch and Cate Blanchett's scenes are a total waste of time...unless Frodo DOES use that bottle that she gave to him in any of the next two LOTR installments. Too bad I won't know till Christmas 2002, not that I'm actually looking forward to THAT epic film, but another one that comes out 7 months before it.



If you don't know what other epic film I'm talking about, then you obviously haven't read my past journal entries.

Well, I saw Lord of the Rings with my friends today and needless to say...it was a great film but NO Star Wars. What I mean by this is that at 2 hours and 58 minutes, you don't know when the movie is gonna end unless you check your watch. Not to say there were a lot of boring scenes or anything, there WEREN'T. But at least you know when The Phantom Menace and Return of the Jedi are gonna end because every SW film has a big battle sequence and a nice John Williams music number at the end. With Lord of the Rings, you get an action scene that you think is gonna mark the end of the film--but then you have several minutes of dialogue, then action again, then dialogue... LOTR doesn't look like it has the same ability to draw repeated viewing by the same moviegoers that the SW films did. ALSO, Rings has very few memorable dialogue (By now you can tell I'm an elitist SW fan, haha).

Also, I like the mythology that George Lucas created a lot better, although J.R.R. Tolkien definitely created an awesome universe for LOTR. But that's another thing, with Star Wars, you ALSO have magic (the Force), you have monsters, you have wierd-looking creatures, and you have cool villians that wear black cloaks (Darth Maul as opposed to the Ringwraiths). Yet, in Star Wars you also have SPACE TRAVEL (duhhh, STAR Wars)--which makes visualizing being in the universe that Lucas created more adventurous than the one Tolkien created. I find it much more exciting imagining myself being in a lone X-Wing starfighter flying through space than being in a small boat going down a river on a trip to Mt. Doom or whatever that volcano is called in Rings. But it's all good. LOTR was a well-down film (despite the fact the death of a major character had its impact diminished by the fact he was still alive and talking incessantly even with THREE ARROWS shot into him). I'd probably watch it one more time at the theater...then see it on DVD.

So Lord of the Rings is being called this millennium's Star Wars, huh (but only better)? We'll see. Independence Day was called "Star Wars for the new generation" back when it came out in 1996...and look what happened. Are people still talking about it? Remember, the visionaries for Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are the books' authors (J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling), not the directors (Peter Jackson and Chris Columbus, as gifted as they are). Which means the real phenomenon occurred with the books themselves. George Lucas is the visionary behind Star Wars itself...not a director trying to be faithful to a popular piece of literature. If Lord of the Rings gets really good word of mouth and makes lots of pocket change (which Harry Pothead, err Potter has done so far)...then you can say it is this millenium's so-and-so. Before then, let's not get our hopes up.

One other thing: LOTR also needs cheesy yet memorable dialogue to be like Star Wars, like "May the Force be with you," "The Force will be with you always," "I am your father" (okay, that one isn't cheesy), and "I was going to go to Toshi Station to pick up some power converters!" Nuff said.


Okay, I'll admit that these Sith Lord-looking dudes (Ringwraiths) look cool:

Just wanted to point out that I saw Not Another Teen Movie last Friday. Not as funny as I thought it'd be...but it sure had quite a couple of scenes with gratuitous nudity in it! The chick who is supposed to be like Shannon Elizabeth's Nadia from the American Pie films showed her, uh, bare skin in every scene she was in during the film. And Joy Bisco from The Debut was featured a lot too.

Today, I saw the new full-length trailer to next May's Spider-Man movie...and needless to say: COOL. But Attack of the Clones is still my favorite movie for 2002 since I wanna see it for the film itself. Spider-Man is gonna rock, hopefully, but I'm mostly eager to watch it cuz my two friends and I are suppose to be extras in the World Unity Festival sequence (some scenes from this sequence were shown in the trailer).