On a tangential note: Any fan of the Wire needs to watch the latest episode of In Treatment with the actor that played Royce. God damn.

 Will do, I'll need to blow up a small city to gather the power necessary but it will be worth it. Sorry, (spins globe)... Ku-rungala, Sri Lanka.

 There's a bunch of stuff that could be called fan fiction that's just as good or better than "author fiction", Grant morrison's New X-Men and All Star Superman, Dark Knight Returns, etc.

 The Alien franchise could be an example, I think.

 Bad fiction and Fan Fiction are not mutually exclusive, just as Good fiction and "Author fiction" aren't.



 I would have to be emotionally invested in the franchise to feel bitter about Star Wars. But really, I didn't see the movies until my late-ish teens, and I liked Empire and thought parts of it where really boring and/or cheesy. Being a nerd at heart, I couldn't help but feel excited about the concept of magic monks fighting with laser swords, so I got excited when the prequels started coming out, and even then I wasn't really *that* dissapointed because the magic-monk-laser-sword stuff was cool in all three movies and the rest was usually boring and/or cheesy.

 Not to bee *too* argumentative, but isn't this world a hodge-podge of samurai and pulp movie tropes? combined with very effective and imaginative FX people?

 I realize I'm just airing my cynical "those movies aren't that great, but are certainly milestones" POV, I guess I'm envious of all the joy most fanboys feel regarding the franchise.





 Maybe as a consultant whose advice could be ignored.




 What (little) I know about Star Wars, is that, yeah, Lucas' backbone and initiative, made it possible for Star Wars to exist, using techniques and methods that've never been used before in something no one, except him, believed in.

 But now, that he's a mogul, and he doesn't have to fight anyone, what does that backbone bring to the equation?

I wrote that in my post originally, but I erased it, because I wasn't really trying to argue against Empire's merits. But yeah, most "emotional" line readings are usually terrible in those movies, (Except Ford, James Earl Jones, and all the British actors).

But isn't the Empire Strikes Back more an exception than the norm? I guess it is to me. And it shows something that Lucas wasn't able to achieve once on the next movies.

 Compare the defeat in Empire Strikes Back, where the characters are pretty much silent and morose, and the defeat on Rise of the Sith, where it was necessary to have Darth Vader screaming like a maniac, and Padme having a cartoon nanny inform us she died of sadness.

 And, yeah, I loved Mcnulty on Mona Lisa Smile. I mainly meant Freamon, Bunk, Marlo, Carcetti would be cool.

the worst parts of all the SW movies are the ones that try to be dramatic and convey any kind of "real" emotion, Star Wars is at its best when it's just pulpy fun. The only way this could not be terrible, is if Lucas wasn't involved at all.
 
 Oddly enough, I can kinda see the elements that could be compared to the wire in the prequels, all about looking at the different parts of the system, the alliances, the politics, the thing is, if you have Lucas' vision for directing and writing, you end up with, well, the phantom menace.

 All in all, it's good to hear Lucas likes The Wire, let's see if he exploits that incredible talent pool. Marlo would be a hell of a sith lord, Omar as a bounty hunter? makes me want to write terrible terrible fan-fiction.

the title alone makes me laugh

http://gawker.com/5003867/the-scientologists-glitzy-birthday-party-for-tom-cruise

 Check out his dope dance moves

I'm starting to think a rubber suit on a bodybuilder would be better than this, it's just absolutely fake-looking.

Yeah, I wonder why they didn't tell him, they would keep him around if the show was renewed for a second season. Also, that scene everyone complained about, with Omar jumping out a second story window, actually happened.

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/2008/03/wire-david-simon-q.html

super long interview about the finale with David Simon.

Fun Fact: Cheez was Randy's dad.

ooh much better

Or that crazy comedy about torture and murder and religious persecution.

Edit: here's the explanation

"A follow-up question was did he ever see a finished film and want to re-paint the poster. Drew said “yes,” and someone yelled out ”The Name of the Rose.” Drew laughed, “That one is not my fault.”

“The producers had this really dark movie about monks and murder and were terrified of it. They had no idea how to market this film, so they told me to paint the poster as if it were a comedy. It wasn’t a comedy, but I gave them what they wanted, a totally inappropriate poster.”

http://www.popthought.com/display_column.asp?DAID=475

nah Steve I agree with you, Harrison Ford in the Last Crusade photo has a pulpier comic book feel than the one in the new poster, he really does look like an actual photograph of Harry.

 Incredible renderer aside, I can't say I'm a fan of the "cram all the faces you can" style of poster-making. Seems in the new one they're more worried to put the head-sizes according to payscale and not the best composition. (to answer strang, I really see Ford's face much proportionate to the other head sizes, maybe because Sean Connery got páid about the same.)