The Galactic Menagerie, a Wes Anderson like Star Wars story

Showing all posts tagged: Stanley Kubrick

The Galactic Menagerie, a Wes Anderson like Star Wars story

2 May 2023

Earlier this year we saw what might have happened had Star Wars creator George Lucas made 2001: A Space Odyssey. But instead of asking what might have happened had Stanley Kubrick made a Star Wars film, what about imagining Wes Anderson doing so instead?

Well, imagine no more. Sort of. The Galactic Menagerie, is a Star Wars story with all the pastel coloured eccentric whimsy of a Wes Anderson film:

Journey to a galaxy far, far away and experience a unique adventure featuring Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, and other fan favorites. Watch as they navigate the Galactic Menagerie, a universe filled with eccentric creatures, charming droids, and peculiar locations reminiscent of Anderson’s beloved films such as “Moonrise Kingdom” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”

And all the usual Wes Anderson suspects are here as well. Scarlett Johansson stars as Princess Leia, Edward Norton as Han Solo, Bill Murray as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jeff Goldblum as the emperor, Owen Wilson as Darth Vader, and Timothée Chalamet as Luke Skywalker.

The trailer was crafted by Shelby and Caleb Ward of Curious Refuge, using a variety of AI tools. Something like this had to happen sooner or later. I wonder if Anderson’s soon to be released sci-fi feature, Asteroid City, had anything to do with it?

As for the Galactic Menagerie, too bad it’s not an actual film, hey?

Exquisite Gucci ad by Alessandro Michele a Stanley Kubrick homage

31 August 2022

Alessandro Michele, creative director of Gucci, shows off the Italian luxury fashion house’s latest designs and accessories in an advert blending numerous Stanley Kubrick films, as a homage to the late American filmmaker.

2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut, are among Kubrick’s work that Michele decided to re-inhabit:

As an act of love, I decided to reinhabit Kubrick’s films, pushing to the core this incendiary approach. I took the liberty of disassembling, blending, grafting and reassembling them. Sticking to my creative praxis, I seized those movies, resemanticizing them, populating them with my clothes.

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No aliens: Carl Sagan’s big 2001: A Space Odyssey contribution

16 May 2022

Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, who co-wrote the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey were at loggerheads for years as to how to portray the highly advanced aliens who created the mysterious black monolith seen throughout the film.

Kubrick had been considering depicting the extra-terrestrials as human-like, until American cosmologist and author Carl Sagan suggested not showing them at all. Best idea ever. The approach created so much more intrigue.

Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, speak at 2001: A Space Odyssey screening, Sydney, Australia

1 October 2006

Anyone who has even once watched 2001: A Space Odyssey, could be forgiven for thinking the two lead actors, Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, who portray astronauts Dave Bowman and Frank Poole respectively, mightn’t exactly be the life of the party, were they ever to meet them.

After all, nary a snigger, let alone the merest of smiles, is ever forth coming during their ill-fated deep-space voyage towards Jupiter. Aside from the BBC 12 interview that is, but such theatrics are referred to as spin in today’s post-2001 world.

Were you however to meet Dullea and Lockwood in person, you’d be forgiven for believing they were part of a comedy act. A latter day version of Laurel and Hardy, god help us, piloting humanity one-way through the final frontier. “It’s full of Aussies,” quipped Lockwood, to much amusement, as the actors walked on to the stage at the Orpheum theatre, in the Sydney suburb of Cremorne.

The actors were speaking at a special 2001 event held on the evening of Wednesday 27 September, 2006. The event also included a screening of the seventy millimetre version of the movie. “A very good print, actually,” Dullea told us.

And he was right, not only was the film visually stunning (as always), but the soundtrack really hit the audience in the face also. Never before has the Moon monolith’s electronic scream seemed so shrill, so high pitched, so prolonged.

The pair spoke with Australian film critic David Stratton, and for the most part talked candidly about almost, well everything. The conversation was laced with anecdotes about working with director Stanley Kubrick, and the movie itself.

There were plenty of asides, including discussion on the “science of acting”, with Lockwood insisting improvisation is not an acting method per se. Lockwood also told stories about meetings with people such as Orson Wells, John Lennon, and Neil Armstrong, over the years.

There was little doubt that the pair’s participation in 2001 was a highlight of both their acting careers. And how couldn’t taking part in the greatest movie of all time, not be? Greatest movie of all time?

Lockwood related once meeting someone — possibly not a fan of the film — who told him 2001 was ranked as the thirty-fourth greatest movie ever. “Oh yeah?” Lockwood had retorted, “well, name the thirty-three movies that come before 2001 then.”

If that’s not the greatest comeback of all time, what is?

Originally published Sunday 1 October 2006.