May the 4th be with you: International costume organization brings joy and authenticity to Star Wars Day
Members from the local 501st Legion discuss their love of Star Wars and upcoming charity events to celebrate May the 4.
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Geek Dad
2 hours ago
- Geek Dad
Father's Day Gift Guide 2025
Welcome to the 2025 Father's Day Gift Guide. The force is strong with this one, including only our favorites for the best dads in the galaxy. It's short, sweet, and to the point of the holiday, which is to shower dad with the geeky gifts he is bound to love. Let's get into it! LEGO Star Wars Jango Fett Helmet Price: $69.95 Amazon Perfect for the prequel-loving dads, his 616-piece LEGO set brings Jango Fett's iconic Mandalorian helmet to life in amazing detail. From the color-scheme to the adjustable range finder, it's a stylish display piece that's as fun to build as it is to show off. Whether he's Team Fett or just a sucker for sharp helmets and sharper aim, this set is a must-have addition to dad's Star Wars shrine or desk. – Dakster Hiltz Galaxy's Greatest Dad Trophy Price: $39.95 sionnach Studios Is your dad a LEGO and Star Wars or Doctor Who fan? These custom-made trophies and awards are the perfect unique gift! Available in a Star Wars and Doctor Who style as well as various skin tones (in addition to the standard yellow), this is a gift that will surely bring a smile to dad's face! Trophies are 8″ tall, not actual LEGO scale. – William J. Ted Lasso: The Richmond Way Price: $61.42 Amazon For dads (like me) who missed its original run on Apple+, Emmy Award-winning sports comedy Ted Lasso is now available as a beautiful Blu-ray box set. Its seven discs contain all three seasons of the beloved series, wherein a small-time American football coach (Jason Sudeikis) is brought in to manage a struggling British soccer team. Hijinks, hilarity, and a surprising number of heartwarming moments follow as Lasso and AFC Richmond navigate the English Premier League in an underdog story for the ages. [Review materials provided by Warner Bros. Television.] – Z. WiperTags Price: $17.95 Amazon Recently, my family gifted me one of my favorite automotive accessories of all time: WiperTags. While the expansive product line includes a mindboggling number of decals—from animal and holiday-themed fare to the ubiquitous waving-arm characters—this particular set features two iconic (but legally distinct) professional wrestlers locked in combat. Now, when I engage my back windshield wiper, not-Randy Savage delivers a crushing elbow drop to not-Hulk Hogan, an occurrence that delights both me and my fellow drivers on our daily commute. – Z. DripEZ BBQ & Meal Prep Tubs Price: $34.99 – $124.99 Dripez If Dad likes to barbecue, then this may be the perfect accessory for him. These BBQ and meal prep tubs are great for marinating meat and vegetables, and there's even a built-in cutting board in the base! They're available in multiple colors and styles, and fold down flat for easy storage. I used one recently to marinate some Korean short ribs for the smoker, and it worked great while also cutting down on the mess. – Paul Benson Wautton R18 EDC Titanium Alloy Mini Flashlight Price: $34.90 Wautton This tiny flashlight can hook onto your keyring so you've always got a bright light handy, and it's both durable and water resistant so you can use it just about anywhere. Bonus: you don't have to hunt down little cell batteries because it has a USB-C port for charging. Comes in silver or the multicolored rainbow coating. – Jonathan H. Liu Dungeon Crawler Carl series Price: $30-$39 per book If Dad likes books, videogames, and aliens, get him started on this rollicking sci-fi series. Carl (with his girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut) gets stuck in a multi-level dungeon that's part of an intergalactic reality show. If he survives, he could win back Earth from its new overlords, but first he has to crawl through several levels of virtual hell. There are six volumes so far with a seventh coming in September 2025. – Jonathan H. Liu Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
Toronto Sun
27-05-2025
- Toronto Sun
Ryan Reynolds reveals details on R-rated ‘Star Wars' movie pitch
Get the latest from Mark Daniell straight to your inbox Ryan Reynolds attends the world premiere of Deadpool and Wolverine. Photo by Getty Images After spearheading Marvel's first R-rated superhero movie with last year's Deadpool & Wolverine , Ryan Reynolds says he has made a similar pitch to take the Star Wars universe in a different direction. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account 'I pitched to Disney, I said, 'Why don't we do an R-rated Star Wars property? It doesn't have to be overt, A+ characters. There's a wide range of characters you could use,'' he said in an interview with Scott Mendelson's The Box Office podcast. 'And I don't mean R-rated to be vulgar. R-rated as a Trojan horse for emotion. I always wonder why studios don't want to just gamble on something like that.' Star Wars has experimented with darker storylines, most recently in its two-season Rogue One spinoff Andor , but the franchise has firmly remained in the PG realm. Reynolds said he liked the idea of expanding the story as a way to ' surprise' Star Wars fans. But his story wasn't one that he was angling to star in. 'I'm not saying I want to be in it. That would be a bad fit,' he said. 'I'd want to produce and write or be a part of behind the scenes. Those kinds of IP subsist really well on scarcity and surprise. We don't get scarcity really with Star Wars because of Disney+, but you can certainly still surprise people.' Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Putting something darker onto streaming, which Disney has also tried with last year's Acolyte series is more likely, but Reynolds insisted to Mendelson that an R-rated big screen adventure would leave a more lasting impression. 'You're never going to get the same emotional investment from a streamer that you are from a theatrical movie, because they're getting in cars and paying for parking, and babysitters, and sitting down, and watching the movie, and then driving home. That's the emotional investment you can try to sell,' he said. 'On a streamer, my only note, always, is that, for God's sake, with everything you can, to grab them in that first shot, like that first thing that happens in the movie… Start with something, 'Holy s—!' and then, 'How did we get here?'' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. People sitting at home can quickly become disengaged in a way they can't when they're at the cinema. 'W e have all these distracto-fat things clogging our arteries of attention, and it is so easy to tune out unless you have them right at the top,' he said. Before it was reimagined into The Book of Boba Fett TV series, James Mangold, who is slated to write and direct an upcoming Star Wars film, eyed his own take on the intergalactic bounty hunter that was ' borderline rated-R.' 'At the point I was doing it, I was probably scaring the s— out of everyone, but I was probably making much more of a borderline rated-R, single-planet, spaghetti western,' Mangold told the Happy Sad Confused podcast in a 2023 interview. 'The world would never be able to embrace Baby Yoda if I had made that, because he didn't really belong in the world I was kind of envisioning.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Mangold's new entry will focus on the dawn of the Jedi, but he said that writing his earlier Boba Fett movie was a 'beautiful period' in his life. 'I was just listening to Ennio Moricone all day, all night and typing away,' he said. 'But I'm not sure it ever would've happened. I'm not sure it was in anyone's plans what I was thinking about.' After Andor wrapped its second season earlier this month, the Star Wars universe will expand with a Mandalorian spinoff movie hitting theatres next May. Reynolds' Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy is also set to go into production on Star Wars: Starfighter with Ryan Gosling later this year. The plot is still under wraps, but Levy announced at Star Wars Celebration last month that the film will take place roughly five years after the events of 2019's Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker . This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'This is a standalone adventure that takes place a few years after the events of Episode IX ,' the filmmaker teased. 'What could that mean? It could mean so many things … This is not a prequel. This is not a sequel. It's a new adventure.' Also on the horizon: a new trilogy from X-Men scribe Simon Kinberg, a Star Wars film directed by Taika Waititi, and the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey in a film helmed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. mdaniell@ Read More World Canada Music Olympics World
Calgary Herald
22-05-2025
- Calgary Herald
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water: Jaws turns 50, but still resonates — and terrifies
Article content Jaws is a powerful reminder that excellence in filmmaking isn't always equated with mega budgets. At the time, Jaws grossed $100 million US within 60 days, which was a record achievement back then. It broke box office records previously set by other movies of the early 1970s, such as The Exorcist and The Godfather. Jaws ultimately grossed $470 million US around the world, after being made for under $9 million US. It was the highest grossing movie in history until Star Wars took that title a couple of years later. Article content The movie not only led the way for the creation of the aforementioned summer blockbuster; it proved the power of suspenseful shows in terms of being able to attract significant audience and significant revenue. Article content Jaws also demonstrated the irreplaceable feeling of watching a big movie on a big screen alongside a few hundred strangers. To have hundreds of others occasionally jump or scream at the same movie moment is a unique feeling. Just ask anyone who saw Jaws in a movie theatre 50 years ago. Article content Article content Another claim to fame for Jaws was its effective use of music. The theme song, based on the repetition of two notes being played one after another, became recognizable around the world. The composer, John Williams, won an Academy Award for the movie's musical score and the American Film Institute many years later ranked it as the sixth-greatest movie score. Article content Article content Other bits and bites from Jaws Article content Jaws won a total of three Academy Awards; the aforementioned Best Original Dramatic Score award and the awards for Best Sound and Best Film Editing. It also garnered a nomination as Best Picture, but lost to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. At one point before production on the movie started, producers debated the idea of trying to train and use a living great white shark in the movie. It quickly became apparent the idea would never work. Instead, the shark used in most of the scenes was actually one of three mechanical sharks, nicknamed Bruce. Up to 40 special effect workers spent time producing the sharks. Sometimes, those sharks didn't work perfectly, leading some workers on the set to call the movie Flaws, according to a Roanoke Times article published on the 30th anniversary of the movie. The movie also contained footage of real sharks, filmed in Australia. To make sharks in that footage appear larger, a short actor in a smaller-than-usual shark cage was used in shots. The three principal actors in Jaws spent so much time on the water shooting scenes that they often got seasick. The movie was originally scheduled to shoot for 55 days. Instead, it took 159 days, leaving Spielberg to tell journalists it left him worrying this would ruin his career. Spielberg told costume and set designers on the movie to avoid using anything red in terms of backgrounds or the actors' wardrobes so that when red blood would appear in a dramatic scene, it would be even more jarring to someone watching the flick. Spin-off merchandise from the movie has included everything from Jaws-theme purses and beach bags to tub toys and whisky glasses. One of the strangest items, a Japanese bath bomb, is shaped like a little blue boat, but as it dissolves in bath water a toy shark appears, along with an ample supply of blood-red liquid. In 2016, Tragically Hip lead singer Gord Downie sported a Jaws T-shirt for some performances during the band's final tour before his death. Why? Well, some speculated the shark represented the cancer that would ultimately take his life. His stylist told media the T-shirt was a personal item that Downie decided to wear. Craving more shark content? Don't worry. Discovery channel's Shark Week is only a few weeks away, July 6-13, 2025.
