WFH, The Force Awakens trailer and New York Rangers blank the Flyers

It was a bit of impromptu WFH today as Zoe told us last night that she has an INSET day today. We knew she had one on Monday which was in  our calendar but the school had craftily snuck another on in. Not a bad working day over all but not as much was accomplished as had been planned by the team.

BIG highlight of the day was finally getting to see the Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens trailer.

Talk about emotional, it brought a tear to my eye. I am so excited now, only a year to go before the film actually hits the cinema! If you haven't seen it yet then here it is:

Due to it being holidays in the good old USA there were lots of matinee ice hockey games so we got to watch New York Rangers v Philadelphia Flyers at 6pm rather than midnight! Rangers started with Cam Talbot in goal giving Lundqvist the night off as presumably he will be starting tomorrow night in New York. The game started with a lot of pressure from the Flyers which was a cause for concern. Rangers went on the power play and Dan Boyle made it 1 - 0 with a wicked slap shot. Almost immediately afterwards the Flyers were on the power play but the Rangers killed it off. Rangers then failed to take advantage of another power play opportunity. There was lots more pressure from the Flyers but the Rangers defended well. First period ended with the Rangers winning 1 - 0. Shots on goal were NYR 10 and PHI 8.

Second period started with the Flyers putting on the pressure again. Rangers successfully killed off another Flyers power play. Martin St. Louis then scored his 1,000th career point as he extended the Rangers lead to 2 - 0. There was then a surge from the Rangers seeing them really start to dominate the play. Period ended with the Rangers still leading 2 - 0. Shots on goal were NYR 11 (21) and PHI 7 (15).

Third period started well until the Rangers gave up a stupid high sticks penalty resulting in a four minute penalty (due to drawing blood). I was worried but I needn't have. Rick Nash popped in a beautiful short handed goal giving the Rangers a 3 - 0 lead while on the penalty kill! The Rangers were good on defence and and the end ended with a fantastic Rangers 3 - 0 victory and shut out for Cam Talbot. The Flyers fans booed their team! Shots on goal were NYR 3 (24) and PHI 11 (26)

After the hockey it was time for kebabs and How To Train Your Dragon 2.

Star Wars stuff

It's been a while since I made any Star Wars related posts so I thought it was time to do another one. I'm always keen to do my bit for charity where I can so recently I decided to make some purchases from the R2-KT Fan Club site to get some cool stuff and support great causes. Here'y my stash of patches:

 

The trailer for Episode VII: The Force Awakens is due to debut at selected cinemas in the US this Friday. It has also been confirmed that it will be released on iTunes on the same day so that's a result for me! If you can't wait that long then here is nice little fan made trailer to whet your appetite.


..and here is Malcolm Tucker describing Star Wars:

Revenge Of The LEGO Star Wars Sith and Episode VII fun

Gradually my Sith Empire is expanding! I've not got round to doing updates as they came in so we now have an additional ten joining the ranks!

Sith Lord

Lord Adraas

Darth Plagueis

Darth Traya

Darth Nihilus

Nautolan Sith Lord (think Kit Fisto if he turned)

Savage Opress

Asajj Ventress

Darth Maul (from The Clone Wars)

Darth Revan

There was some exciting Episode VII news this week with some captured footage from Greenham Common that appears to show some builds of a Millennium Falcon and X-wing.

It is possible that we will see a black X-Wing too, top left here:

There is also speculation as to whether or not we'll be seeing fragments of The Empire (or even a Death Star) after JJ Abrams posted this little gem following on from the recent Apple Watch event:

Does that background look a little bit familiar to you? ;)  It could of course just turn out to be nothing but given the last note that hinter at a return to the Millennium Falcon (and now the footage above) it could be that there is something in it!

Just in case you were wondering how important a soundtrack can be to a movie, here's the Star Wars Episode IV Throne Room scene WITHOUT John Willams' score, AWKWARD!

Force For Change, X-Wings and Star Wars Rebels trailer

As part of UNICEF's Force For Change campaign, Star Wars Episode VII director J.J. Abrams released this marvelous little video. There seems to have been some debate as what this ship really is with lots of fans online claiming it has to be a Z95 Headhunter. It has however been confirmed that this is NOT the case despite the appearance. Looks like we'll be seeing an X-Wing in Episode VII. Oh yes!

Nice to see a mouse droid putting in appearance too.
To find out more about Force For Change go here: http://forceforchange.starwars.com

In other Star Wars related news a new full trailer has been issued for Star Wars Rebels.

Osteopath, William Shakespeare's Star Wars, movie and TV updates and Germany storm to World Cup final!

I'm pleased to report that my back hasn't be hitting me with loads of pain of late.The osteopath sessions have definitely been helping. Had a session tonight and he manipulated me a lot harder than he had done in the past which left me feeling a little bit sore.

I've just taken delivery of the last part of a book trilogy that I have been collecting. I've been waiting for them all to be published before I started reading them so now I can. Here's a video of the final part:


There was sad news this week as Kevin Smith has revealed that Clerks 3 will be delayed as he doesn't have a backer for it. Clerks 2 cost $5M to make and took $24M at the box office so I would have thought that asking for $6M to make Clerks 3 with that sort of return would have been a no brainer. Sadly The Weinstein Company were happy to distribute the movie but weren't prepared to finance this one. I have no doubt that Kevin Smith will get the money from somewhere and then The Weinstein Company might end up kicking themselves for passing it up.

Guardians Of The Galaxy might not be for everyone but I can't wait until 1st August when it is release so I can go and see it. Marvel's films of late have set the bar pretty high and I suspect that Guardians isn't going to let us down.They released an extended look trailer this week which just has me getting excited.


October 7th see the release of CWs new TV series The Flash. I posted a teaser a while back but now we have a very exciting looking Behind The Scenes Pilot trailer.


We received more Star Wars Episode VII news and rumours this week. The latest cast announcements are that both Crystal Clarke and Pip Andersen are now on board for filming. Clarke is a relatively unknown actress and Andersen is a parkour expert. Next is the rumour that the Forest Of Dean may well be being used as a location for filming of Episode VII. The one thing that "could" lend this story some credence is that it was the BBC that came across a huge film crew that have set up camp at Puzzlewood. No confirmation has been received on this yet. Here's the BBC news report with a brief segment on Anderson plus a report from Puzzlewood.


"The Star Wars universe has always been about discovering and nurturing young talent and in casting Episode VII we wanted to remain absolutely faithful to this tradition. We are delighted that so many travelled to see us at the open casting calls and that we have been able to make Crystal and Pip a part of the film," said producer and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.


I had completely forgotten about the Brazil v Germany World Cup semi final until I got a text from mum. I turned on the TV with the game 24 minutes in and Germany leading 3 - 0 only for them to get another two and head into the second half leading 5 - 0. Totally unbelievable although I was delighted! Quiet start to the second half until Germany made it 6 - 0 at 69 minutes. A beautiful finish put Germany 7 - 0 up at 78 minutes. Some sloppy play at the end gave Brazil a consolation goal at 90 minutes. The game ended 7 - 1 with Germany storming into the World Cup final where they will face either Holland or Argentina.

Leaked Star Wars Episode VII Filmset Footage!

This video is really cool. OK it's not actual leaked footage at all but it is very well done. Big thumbs up to the creator.


It was an incredibly frustrating day at work today and this little clip took all the pain away aqnd made me forget about it!

Interesting day, osteopath, Kevin Smith cries, Phineas & Ferb Star Wars trailer

Well it was an interesting day at work today. Mr Cock Up was on the rampage with some astonishing revelations coming out of the woodwork. Some people are clearly in the wrong job. Ho hum LOL

Visited the osteopath on the way home and he was impressed with how things are going already. Still some hard yards to go through but I was very happy. I was bent, pulled, stretched and squashed again but didn't feel quite as ouchy afterwards as I had done last week. I've been given some light stretching exercises to start doing now too. So that's three sessions down, number four is the same time next week!

Kevin Smith has taken a trip to London to see JJ Abrams and visit the set of Star Wars Episode VII.Now this is a man whose judgement I would trust implicitly regarding anything related to Star Wars. This is what he had to say on Twitter and Instagram:

Visited JJ and his EP VII set. I signed the NDA so all I can share are this old Bantha-Tracks subscriber's tears and snotty nose of joy. The Force is WITH this movie. Holy Sith...

I couldn't get the embed code to work so here is the picture of Mr Smith shedding a tear from Instagram, HOLY SITH INDEED!!:

Twitter:

Visited JJ and his EP VII set. I signed the NDA so all I can share are this old Bantha-Tracks… http://t.co/LVY9yzlAeM
— KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) June 30, 2014

Disney have just released the Phineas & Ferb Star Wars trailer for their Out Of This World weekend. Phineas & Ferb Star Wars is scheduled to be shown on Saturday 26th July.

Star Wars updates.. and some trailers

Well there are a few Star Wars Episode VII bits floating around at the moment. First up is that Harrison Ford is now out of hospital following his foot injury on set. He has a broken foot and now needs a prosthetic frame. There are two flavours of rumour. First up is that there is a call to try and delay the filming to allow him time to recover. The second one is that they'll use Ford's stunt double and some CGI trickery to bring it all together. Time will tell on that one!

It has now been confirmed that Andy Serkis (who played CGI Gollum, Cesar and King Kong) is doing some performance capture work for Episode VII as a consultant with his firm Imaginarium and will also have a role in the film. What that may be he is not at liberty to say.

The final interesting thing is that there is a rumour doing that rounds that Billie Lourd (Carrie Fisher's daughter) is lined up to play Princess Leis in flashback scenes. Given that this rumour is doing the rounds in the tabloid press it's probably cobblers but you never know!  

In other Star Wars news a French trailer has appeared online for Star Wars Rebels which reveals that Obi-Wan Kenobi is being included!

Dr. Who is set to return to our TV screens on Saturday 23rd August and the BBC are currently sending out their teasers with a picture and a trailer.

Here's a teaser trailer for Dracula Untold


....and I'l leave you with the Star Wars prequels done in a Guardians Of The Galaxy stylee!