Star Wars Episode VII: Jaina Solo.

This week has seen the reports that Harrison Ford is set to reprise one of the most iconic roles in cinema history as Han Solo for Star Wars Episode VII. When a new trilogy was announced fans were quick to question whether Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher would be returning and this news seems to be positive, especially because Ford’s role is being called ‘significant’. This would also support the theory that the new trilogy would focus on the children of Han Solo and Princess Leia (Jaina, Jacen and Anakin Solo) who were introduced as part of the expanded universe.

There were also reports (because, of course, this is all speculation at the minute) that the main character in the new trilogy would be a female, which seems to point to Jaina Solo. Jaina and her twin brother Jacen are primary protagonists in a lot of the expanded universe literature so it would make sense that they would be the focus of the new trilogy, especially as this would easily allow Han Solo, Princess Leia and Uncle’s Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca (maybe?) to return. So if this was to come to fruition, who would play Jaina Solo?

 

Jennifer Lawrence

We don’t know if Jaina Solo will be the main character but if she is she’s going to be pretty young, late teenage years at oldest, surely? And Lawrence is currently playing the most famous teenager in film, Katniss Everdeen. She is also playing a younger version of Mystique in the X-Men trilogy so she is clearly adjudged to look the part. Although her working in these two big franchises already mean that she may not have the time to appear in the new Star Wars trilogy as well. However, she is one of the hottest talents in Hollywood at the minute so surely will be considered?

 

Odette Annable

Annable is another relative unknown but is a more likely choice than Tonkin. She has film experience and one of those films she has been in was (another JJ Abrams project) Cloverfield. Since then, most of her high profile work has come on television appearing in Life On Mars, Brothers & Sisters and the final series of House. At twenty seven years of age producers may feel that it is a bit late for her to try and force her way into being a Hollywood starlet but could easily fit the role of Jaina Solo in my opinion. The only problem here is that she just looks too ‘nice’ and clean cut for the part possibly.

 

 

Phoebe Tonkin

Tonkin is a little known Australian actress best known for her work on television shows Home and Away, The Secret Circle and The Vampire Diaries. She is soon set to appear in The Originals, a Vampire Diaries spin-off but I highly doubt that her television work would stop her from being considered for a role in Star Wars. I think that Tonkin has a shine to her and would not look out of place as the daughter of Han and Leia. When the original Star Wars films were made they took a bold step by casting unknowns in the lead roles. If they’re willing to be as daring again then maybe Tonkin should be looked at. I think Tonkin would be my pick of these three candidates.

 

So they are my three picks for the role of Jaina Solo. Tomorrow I’ll be looking at who could play her twin (younger by five minutes) brother; Jacen Solo.

More Marvel News – Avengers, Captain America and X-Men!

As we approach the end of April/beginning of May The Avengers is getting more and more attention and it hasn’t exactly been flying below the radar anyway. But over the last couple of days Marvel have announced a couple of interesting things and released a couple more pictures to go with their sure fire summer superhero smash!

A new picture of the Hulk has been released, a still from The Avengers giving audiences a better look at the big green monster. Since they are using motion capture on Mark Ruffalo to film the Hulk’s scenes you would expect the Hulk to resemble Ruffalo. But just how much the two do look alike is still amazing to me. Where Ed Norton’s Hulk didn’t really look like the actor you can really see here the effort that has gone into the Incredible Hulk and he looks fantastic, you can clearly see Ruffalo in there.

A new still featuring Captain America has been released from the set of The Avengers but that’s not all. Marvel have announced that the release date for Captain America 2 will be April 4th, 2014. It was expected that the super soldier would be receiving a sequel as Marvel continue their domination on the superhero scene at cinemas but it was unclear when this would be. Now it has been announced along with a brief synopsis stating that Captain America 2 will pick up where The Avengers leaves off and will follow Steve Rogers as he continues his integration into a new world and continues his affiliation with S.H.I.E.L.D and Nick Fury.

And finally… It has been announced that the sequel to X-Men: First Class will start filming in January of next year. Fox needed to be quick out of the gate with this sequel as Lionsgate are planning to film Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games, which also features Jennifer Lawrence, who stars as Mystique in the new mutant films. It was a competition for Lawrence’s schedule and it looks as though X-Men will win. Nothing is known about the plot for the second X-Men film yet but we do know that Matthew Vaughn is returning.

The pictures from The Avengers and the news surrounding X-Men and Captain America is sure to please comic book fans.

House at the End of the Street Trailer

Whilst she currently dominates the box office with The Hunger Games, this is the first trailer of Jennifer Lawrence’s next film, House at the End of the Street which will target a different audience to her other films as this is a horror thriller.

Jennifer Lawrence plays Elissa who moves with her mother, Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) to a house in a small, upscale, rural town. However, soon after their arrival events begin to happen that can not be explained by any kind of logic and Sarah and Elissa learn that the town is in the shadows of a chilling secret.

The trailer may seem a little underwhelming to a lot of people but I think that it is actually a very clever attempt at marketing.

“Before you experience the fear, before you know the pain, to witness the horror, to uncover the truth, you have to go back to where it all began” is what the trailer tells us and this is very neatly intercut between scenes of the film moving both forwards and backwards. The entire style of the trailer is backwards really, where we get the action at the beginning and the story explained towards the end of the trailer.

It’s impressively cut, the trailer, but doesn’t do much to entice the audience into seeing House at the End of the Street. Although, with the millions of new fans Jennifer Lawrence has thanks to The Hunger Games I wouldn’t be surprised if this film did pretty well.

The Hunger Games

UK Cinema Release: 23rd March 2012

Okay, so I will admit I haven’t read the novels which the film is based on and I have no intention to, but the trailer makes The Hunger Games seem like a film I might be interested in.

The plot, what I can tell from the trailer, seems pretty basic. We have our hero, or heroine in this case: Katniss, played by the beautiful and talented Jennifer Lawrence. She is seemingly forced to run from her home and then forced to fight in these famous ‘Hunger Games’ as a representative of her district. Catch is, only one of the 24 competitors is allowed to survive. We’ve all seen similar stories before so we can guess the ending already. Katniss survives perhaps? But it is how she does it and what happens to her friends that will keep the audience interested.

The action scenes from the trailer don’t look too intriguing and the supporting cast don’t really seem to impress me either, albeit this is only a trailer, I imagine and hope that stronger performances are given in the actual film. But it will be interesting to see Jennifer Lawrence headlining a mainstream cinema release. She first came to mainstream attention as Mystique in X-Men First Class last year, despite being nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Winter’s Bone.

I look forward to seeing the movie and hopefully being entertained as it seems like a bit of a popcorn flick rather than a ‘thinker’.