The Clock Is Ticking...

Yep, the countdown has started. Well, it could have started at any point, but, well... Look, the new Star Wars film comes out in exactly one year. It has been confirmed that Episode III will be released on May 19th, 2005. What it's going to be called is another question. The papers were all full of it being called "Birth of the Empire", but then the official Star Wars website www.starwars.com "accidentally" said it would be called "The Creeping Fear", but then it was April 1st.

Anyway, I'm excited. This will be the BIG one, the one where it all kicks off - the big Anakin/Obi-Wan showdown, the death of Padmé, the birth of Luke and Leia (though obviously not in that order...), and the moment we've all been waiting for, the moment when Anakin becomes Vader. I personally hope it's the last scene of the film - just imagine Vader's theme thundering out in glorious Dolby Digital, the sound of his breathing, and the first shot of that cool helmet.

Um, that sounded a bit crap (and a little bit suspect...) You know what I mean. I hope.

Just as long as they don't balls it all up with too much CGI and some crappy slapstick moments... You know who you are, Jar-Jar Binks... Don't make us come down there....

Until then, though, we've got to all be content (heck, ecstatic) with the release of the Classic Trilogy on DVD on September 20th. Finally we'll be able to see A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi in glorious, pin-sharp DVD-ovision! Of course, these will be the Special Editions released a few years back, as George Lucas has decided these are the "correct" versions of the films. I personally think they should have released them in dual-format, like they have done with the Alien Quadrilogy, so you can decide which version you want to watch. On the plus side, there are rumours that the nasty CGI Jabba in A New Hope has been replaced with the smoother version from The Phantom Menace, and that Ian McDiarmid has re-recorded the Emperor's scene in Empire, just to keep things nice and contiguous.

Happy St. George's Day!

Well, yes, I'm very pround to be English, so I don't feel it's a bad thing to celebrate St. George's Day. If the Irish can celebrate St. Patrick's Day in every single corner of the known universe (especially in the US, where of course, every single person is Irish!), then why can't we celebrate our own patron saint? So get your flags out and celebrate! (Drinking warm beer is obviously optional, and we don't condone that sort of thing here!)

The Public Face of a Private Grief

If any of you have seen the papers today, then you'll have seen the pictures of Gloria Hunniford at her daughter, Caron Keating's funeral. Now, I understand that such things as this are news-worthy, but I don't believe that we should have to share in a very private time for her family in such an explicit way. The pictures of Gloria showed a poor mother who has lost her daughter, and was absolutely heart-broken, and yet the papers show it as if it's yet another picture of Jordan getting her over-exposed chest out again.

As someone who has gone through such a loss, and has watched his family deal with their grief, I think it's absolutely disgusting to have it splashed over the tabloids like that. I think something so private should stay that way, regardless of how famous you are.

Karma (Again!)

See, exactly my point. On Wednesday I went to see Duran Duran. Good Karma.

On Wednesday, Caron Keating died. Bad Karma.

On Wednesday, I found out that Disney were bringing out a film based on Chicken Licken. Not much harm in that, you might think, but me and a couple of hugely talented friends were just about to start work on our own Chicken Licken film. I'd written the script, and they were getting all geared up to start the artwork and pre-production. Bad Karma.

Do they balance out, do you think?

The Wild Boys are Back!

When I was younger, one thing that really pissed me off was the fact that I would probably never get to see the original Duran Duran line-up performing live. After Live Aid, both Roger Taylor and Andy Taylor got fed up and left, leaving Nick Rhodes, Simon Le Bon and John Taylor. They carried along for a while, being joined by Warren Cuccurullo, who left a couple of years ago, quickly followed by John Taylor. It all seemed as if it was all over...

And then they all announced they were getting back together! They recorded a load of new songs, and played a few gigs in the USA, to huge acclaim. And this week, they started their sell-out run of shows in the UK... and I got to see them at Wembley! Hurrah!

I could bore you all by writing a full-on gig review, but I won't. I'll just say that Goldfrapp were absolutely brilliant in support, even if most of the people there didn't give a fig. Damn, that girl can sing! (BTW, I heartily recommend their Black Cherry album.)

And the boys themselves were brilliant, playing most of their big hits, some of their smaller hits and some quite fab new material. They all played their little hearts out for nearly 2 hours! All the crowd danced and sang along for nearly the whole night (especially to Notorious and Is There Something I Should Know?), and a thoroughly good time was had by all! If you have the means, I heartily recommend a visit. They rock!

So, there you go. If you're very lucky, sometimes dreams can come true! (And I heard my favourite ever song (The Reflex) played live. Karma's a good thing sometimes!