Marcus Errico

We now have photographic proof that little Chicago West is the spitting image of her mom, right down to the furry pink ears.

Kim Kardashian finally introduced her newborn daughter to social media on Monday with a post on Instagram. The picture — taken before her recently revealed pink ‘do — shows mother and daughter, in matching filters, snuggling in bed.

Baby Chicago

A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Feb 26, 2018 at 1:55pm PST

This is the first pic Kardashian has shared of her third child, who was born to the reality star and husband Kanye West via surrogate on Jan. 15. The only previous glimpse we’ve gotten of the baby was of a swaddled Chi in a YouTube video by Kardashian’s younger sister Kylie Jenner announcing the birth of her own daughter, Stormi Webster, earlier this month.

Previously, Kardashian said Chicago had a little bit of her two siblings — North, 4, and Saint, 2 — in her.

The sweetest! Best baby! She looks a tiny bit like North and a tiny bit like Saint but definitely her own person! https://t.co/8jZyc7wokj

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) February 24, 2018

But to us she’s a mommy’s girl pure and simple.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

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David Benioff (L) and D.B. Weiss accept the award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for HBO’s Game of Thrones at the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards. (Photo: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson)

Here’s some news that’s bound to send geek fandom into hyperdrive. The guys who took us to Westeros are ready to explore whole new worlds. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the Emmy-winning creators of HBO’s Game of Thrones, have signed on to write and produce a series of Star Wars films, Lucasfilm announced Tuesday.

The Benioff and Weiss movies will be completely separate from the central Skywalker Saga, which is set to conclude with 2019’s Episode IX, as well as the new trilogy of Star Wars-themed films that The Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson is crafting.

Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy thinks the duo’s transition from George R.R. Martin fantasy to George Lucas sci-fi will be seamless.  “David and Dan are some of the best storytellers working today,” Kennedy says in a statement. “Their command of complex characters, depth of story and richness of mythology will break new ground and boldly push Star Wars in ways I find incredibly exciting.”

Benioff and Weiss are currently overseeing the final season of Thrones, which is set to air in 2019. Once that wraps, they will blast off into their new roles. “In the summer of 1977 we traveled to a galaxy far, far away, and we’ve been dreaming of it ever since,” they said in a joint statement. “We are honored by the opportunity, a little terrified by the responsibility, and so excited to get started as soon as the final season of Game of Thrones is complete.”

Per usual, Lucasfilm was light on details of the new project, but between Johnson’s trilogy, the Benioff-Weiss films, and the ongoing stand-alone Star Wars Stories (including the upcoming Solo and planned Obi-Wan Kenobi entry), the Disney-owned studio has at least a decade’s worth of films in the pipeline.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: 

Scoundrels unite! 8 things we learned from the first ‘Solo’ trailer

Hello, Jar Jar?! Rian Johnson not averse to bringing back old characters to new trilogy

How ‘Episode IX’ can give Leia the send-off she deserves

Watch the trailer for ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’:

Makeup artist Nick Maley wasn’t happy with his application of this character’s makeup. “I always felt that the texture of the prosthetic didn’t really work terribly well with the texture of the actor’s face,” he told Yahoo Movies. (Image: StarWars.com)

Alfie Curtis, the British actor who earned a place in the Star Wars pantheon for playing the menacing Mos Eisley Cantina scofflaw with the “death sentence on 12 systems,” has died, according to the BBC. He was 87. News of Curtis’s death was first reported by the fan site Elite Signatures.

The London-born Curtis had dozens of credits in British film and TV — and a bit part in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man — but the London-born actor guaranteed himself a bit of sci-fi immortality by playing Dr. Cornelius Evazan, one of the most wretched members of Tatooine’s wretched hive of scum and villainy in 1977’s original Star Wars: A New Hope. Evazan is the disfigured cantina patron who, with partner Ponda Baba (aka “Walrus Man”), famously harasses Luke Skywalker. “He doesn’t like you,” Evazan tells Luke. “I don’t like you, either.” As the two draw their blasters, they are sliced and diced by Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber. (Watch the entire exchange beginnning at the 1:45 mark below.)

The scene enshrined Evazan in Star Wars lore. The character’s backstory was fleshed out in the short story collection Tales From the Mos Eisley Cantina, where we learn he was a surgeon who specialized in deforming his patients. Evazan and Ponda Baba do cameos on the streets of Jedha in Rogue One, one of many fan-serving Easter eggs director Gareth Edwards included in the 2016 film. (However, that version of Evazan was played by actor Michael Smiley.)

Alfie Curtis seems much more pleasant than his fight-picking cantina counterpart, Dr. Evazan, in this casting card from the Ugly Agency. (Image: The Ugly Agency)

No additional details of Curtis’s death have been released, but his onetime nemesis remembered him fondly on Twitter:

ALFIE CURTIS made the #StarWars Mos Eisley Cantina scene (one of the most memorable I've ever been a part of) even MORE memorable. As horrific as he was on-camera, off-camera he was funny, kind & a real gentleman. Thanks Alf- you'll be missed. #RIP ❤️- mh pic.twitter.com/laxKvbGmrd

— @HamillHimself (@HamillHimself) December 27, 2017

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

The ‘Star Wars’ cantina scene: The out-of-this-world story behind the galaxy’s favorite dive bar

Rare behind-the-scenes photographs of the ‘Star Wars’ cantina

‘The Last Jedi’: All the Easter eggs, callbacks, and cameos

Watch: How you can visit Tatooine in the U.S.A.

Photo: Lucasfilm

The startling sacrifice of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars, 1977’s A New Hope, established early on that no character in the space opera was safe. From the slicing and dicing of Qui-Gon in The Phantom Menace to the murder of Han Solo in The Force Awakens, fans have come to realize that their heroes don’t always have happy endings. The Last Jedi ratchets up the body count in new and stunning ways. In a movie loaded with whoa! moments, here’s our ranking of the five demises that truly left us gobsmacked.

Consider this your obligatory spoiler warning: Continue reading at your jeopardy.

Photo: Lucasfilm

5. Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo

Holdo, we hardly knew ya. Laura Dern’s stay in the Star Wars galaxy was short-lived, as her selfless Resistance leader didn’t even make it to the third act alive. But boy did she get a kickass sendoff, not only going down with her ship, but also gutting the First Order fleet with an incredible hyperspace kamikaze that has elicited a huge ovation at every screening we’ve attended.

Photo: Lucasfilm

4. Captain Phasma

The First Order’s imposing chromed-out trooper suffered an ignominious blow in The Force Awakens, dumped into Starkiller Base’s trash compactor after shutting down the shields that allowed the Resistance to take out the weaponized planet, leaving her fate in doubt. But she managed to escape (as outlined in a recent Marvel Comics miniseries), rejoin her comrades, and in The Last Jedi go mano a mano with her treacherous former underling Finn, né FN-2187. Their combat is one of the film’s key moments, and Finn (with a little help from his friends) wins the day. Her helmet shattered, Phasma tries to rally, but this time there’s no escape, as she plummets into a fiery abyss. Like Boba Fett before her, Phasma was a Star Wars character whose killer costume outshone her onscreen exploits, but her presence will be missed in Episode IX.

Finn vs. Phasma. (Photo: Lucasfilm)

3. Supreme Leader Snoke

After being glimpsed in holograph form in The Force Awakens, Snoke appears in the terrifying (digital) flesh in The Last Jedi, aboard his Star Destroyer Supremacy, in a spartan throne room surrounded by his scarlet-armored Praetorian guard, draped in golden robes. The towering Snoke is a formidable, if one-note villain, spitting the usual malarkey about ruling the galaxy while blind to Kylo Ren’s betrayal. While no one is sorry to see Snoke go, he gets a satisfying death by lightsaber, which in turn sets off an even better fight, where Kylo and Rey partner to take out his forces.

Snoke lashes out at Rey. (Photo: Lucasfilm)

2. Admiral Gial Ackbar

Writer-director Rian Johnson fakes out the audience early on, as the Resistance command ship leads the evacuation from D’Qar and takes a direct hit on the bridge. The camera follows General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) as she gets sucked into space. And for an exasperating moment, we believe her end has come. But Leia taps into her innate Force powers and surges back to the ship. While Leia lives, another cherished Star Wars fan favorite perished offscreen, his death remarked in comments to the surviving crew: Admiral Gial Ackbar.

While he doesn’t get a showcase moment like the others on this list, his death is one of the most gut-wrenching, considering his long service onscreen and in the books and comics. Introduced in Return of the Jedi, the fish-eyed Mon Calamari officer and hero of the Rebellion, who uttered one of the classic all-time lines (“It’s a trap!”), was coaxed out of retirement by Leia to serve in the Resistance and was a key architect of the destruction of Starkiller Base. R.I.P., good sir.

Ackbar parodied his most famous line at the end of production of The Last Jedi, proclaiming, “It’s a wrap!” The moment was caught for a behind-the-scenes video. (Photo: Lucasfilm)

1. Luke Skywalker

Han Solo’s death at the hands of his son, Ben, was a game changer, making it clear that none of the three major heroes from the original trilogy would be safe in the new series. With Carrie Fisher’s passing and Lucasfilm announcing that it would not recast or digitally recreate her Leia, we knew the princess/general’s future was limited, which is why we thought she might not escape being sucked into space. Ultimately, though, it was Luke Skywalker, decades removed from his farmboy days on Tatooine, who didn’t escape Last Jedi alive.

Photo: Lucasfilm

After using heretofore unseen powers of Force projection, Luke engages in a massive, samurai-style battle, taking on the entire First Order, including a line of assault walkers, to buy time for the Resistance to flee. Following the battle, we see Luke sitting cross-legged back on Ahch-To. He looks up at the setting sun and, for a moment, sees the dual stars of Tatooine one last time. He is at peace. And then he’s gone, vanishing into the Force, leaving only his robes behind. Perhaps he’ll return as a Force ghost, but that doesn’t make his loss any less shattering.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

How ‘The Last Jedi’ borrowed unused Vader concepts for Snoke’s big scene

Secrets of ‘The Last Jedi’ biggest scenes, from a major return to Luke’s huge moment

‘The Last Jedi’: All the Easter eggs, callbacks, and cameos

The Last Jedi has arrived in theaters, offering an expansive new vision of the Star Wars universe as conceived by writer-director Rian Johnson. To accomplish his vision, Johnson teamed with production designer Rick Heinrichs (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Captain America: The First Avenger) and Lucasfilm’s in-house team of “visualists.” Together they dreamed up new planets stocked with never-seen species, original characters, sleek starships, and lots of porgs. Their concept art, costume sketches, and storyboards have been collected alongside author Phil Szostak’s detailed commentary in the new The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Yahoo Entertainment got a sneak peek at the book and exclusively present some of the highlights here.

__________________________ All images via The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi by Phil Szostak, and Lucasfilm Ltd. © Abrams Books, 2017; © 2017 Lucasfilm Ltd. and TM. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.

 Porgs

After Rian Johnson settled on the look of the adorable space penguins, artist Jake Lunt Davies offered versions in virtually every color of the rainbow. (Image courtesy of Abrams Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. Used under authorization.)

Source: Yahoo Movies

More porgs

The colorfully tinted porgs gave way to the plainer white-and-brown fowl seen in the film — and hinted at here by the bookending birds. (Image courtesy of Abrams Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. Used under authorization.)

Source: Yahoo Movies

First Order advances

Kylo Ren prepares to disembark after his command shuttle touches down on the mineral planet, ahead of the encroaching — and imposing First Order forces — in this striking image by James Clyne. (Image courtesy of Abrams Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. Used under authorization.)

Source: Yahoo Movies

Rey and Luke

Daisy Ridley’s aspiring Jedi shows her lightsaber prowess during to mentor Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) during her training on Ahch-To in Karl Lindberg’s visualization. (Image courtesy of Abrams Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. Used under authorization.)

Source: Yahoo Movies

Resistance in disguise

This image by Paul Catling shows Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran), DJ (Benicio del Toro), Finn (John Boyega, and BB-8 (under the crate) in disguise as First Order officers as they infiltrate Snoke’s Star Destroyer on a top-secret. mission. The final version in the film is nearly identical. (Image courtesy of Abrams Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. Used under authorization.)

Source: Yahoo Movies

Snoke

Robert Rowley’s conception of the First Order’s supreme commander in profile. The towering, berobed Snoke (played in mo-cap by Andy Serkis) is seen in the flesh in The Last Jedi after previously appearing as a hologram in The Force Awakens. (Image courtesy of Abrams Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. Used under authorization.)

Source: Yahoo Movies

Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi

The beautiful crystal foxes known as vulptex are among the most memorable new creations in The Last Jedi. This concept by Aaron McBride reveals the beauty of the Crait critters. (Image courtesy of Abrams Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. Used under authorization.)

Source: Yahoo Movies

‘Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi’

The cover is taken from a James Clyne illustration showing Rey on the a bluff of Ahch-To with the Millennium Falcon below. (Image courtesy of Abrams Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. Used under authorization.)

The T. rex takes down a Carnotaurus. (Photo: Universal Pictures)

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom‘s first trailer debuted Thursday, and making good on his promise, director J.A. Bayona delivered more dinosaurs in two-plus minutes than we’ve seen in any of the four previous Jurassic movies.

The preview is jam-packed with prehistoric beasties, from longtime franchise favorites like Velociraptor and T. rex to several species we haven’t seen before (or were listed in the park’s database); the climax features dozens and dozens of stampeding creatures racing from an exploding volcano toward an ocean-fronting cliff.

So. Many. Dinosaurs. (Photo: Universal Pictures)

We set playback on super slo-mo and revisited the Fallen World trailer to catalog each of the creatures onscreen. Here’s a quick field guide.

Velociraptor: Our first glimpse of the saga’s seminal hunter comes early on, with a flashback showing Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) bonding with baby Blue, the alpha raptor from Jurassic World. We later see their reunion, which doesn’t seem to go so well.

Owen and baby Blue in a flashback scene. (Photo: Universal Pictures)

Compsognathus: The diminutive dino frolics among the souvenirs in the trashed park.

Those toys are so lifelike. (Photo: Universal Pictures)

Brachiosaurus: These towering sauropods with the distinctive snouts were first seen in Steven Spielberg’s original Jurassic Park.

Photo: Universal Pictures

Tyrannosaurus rex: We bet the iconic, battle-scarred titan of Isla Nubar won’t stay down for long.

Photo: Universal Pictures

Stegosaurus: She’s all packed up and ready for delivery.

Is this covered under Amazon Prime? (Photo: Universal Pictures)

Baryonyx: This carnivorous dino, which resembles a Spinosaurus sans sail, is new to the Jurassic scene … and apparently hungry.

Baryonyx is on the scene. (Photo: Universal Pictures)

Pteranodon: The flying reptiles (not technically dinosaurs) have been fixtures in several Jurassic films.

Isla Nubar’s air force. (Photo: Universal Pictures)

Gallimimus: The stampeding ostrich-like dinosaurs from the original Jurassic Park are still on the move.

An erupting volcano sends the dinos off to the races. (Photo: Universal Pictures)

Apatosaurus. Don’t get in the way of these ginormous sauropods.

Triceratops: The three-horned creature’s Jurassic lineage stretches back to the 1993 Spielberg original.

Outta the way! Apatosaurs (with the long necks) and Triceratops coming through. (Photo: Universal Pictures)

Carnotaurus: Another newcomer to the Jurassic-verse, the terrifying horned theropod might be best known for being the antagonistic species in Disney’s animated feature Dinosaur.

Everything about Carnotaurus is frightening, except its teeny-tiny arms. (Photo: Universal Pictures)

Allosaurus: Previously seen only n holographic form in the visitor’s center, the Allosaurus is almost as formidable as T. rex.

Eww, dino drool! (Photo: Universal Pictures)

Ankylosaurus: The armor-plated dinosaur might be an herbivore, but that tail can do some damage.

The gyrosphere gets an escort from an Apatosaurus, Pteranodon, and Ankylosaurus. (Photo: Universal Pictures)

Styracosaurus: A relative of the Triceratops, the imposing Styracosaurus has a spiked frill … but can it swim?

Let’s hope she can do the dino paddle. (Photo: Universal Pictures)

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom hits theaters June 22, 2018. Watch the trailer:

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’: Chris Pratt tries to save the dinos from extinction

‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ teaser promises more dinosaurs, more Jeff Goldblum

The sky is falling — but luckily for the dinosaurs of Jurassic World, Chris Pratt is around to save the day. Or get fried trying.

After a week of teases, the first trailer for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom arrived Thursday night, promising the most intense dinosaur action the Park franchise has ever seen. Set four years after the first movie, we find former park administrator Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard, finally swapping her signature high heels for more practical footwear) attempting to recruit bitter ex-boyfriend and raptor whisperer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) to lead a mission back to Isla Nubar to help rescue the reptilian residents, including his pal Blue, from the magma bombs of an erupting volcano.

As Owen puts it, “What could go wrong?”

So, so much.

Owen and baby Blue in a flashback scene. (Credit: Universal Pictures)

Cue prehistoric creatures tooling around the remains of the amusement park. Then there’s Owen urging his team members to “run!” amid a cloud of smoke and rampaging dinosaurs. We get a killer Carnotaurus vs. T. rex confrontation. And finally our heroes’ gyrosphere careens toward an ocean-facing cliff amid a full-on stampede… and only one way down.

The T. rex takes down a Carnotaurus. (Credit: Universal Pictures)

Also returning for more dino danger is Dr. Chaos himself, Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), who we see testifying at some kind of government hearing, telling the assembled politicos that “life will find a way.”

The dinosaurs face a new extinction event. (Credit: Universal Pictures)

B.D. Wong is back as the scheming geneticist Dr. Henry Wu in the sequel to 2015’s blockbuster Jurassic World, while newcomers include James Cromwell, Geraldine Chaplin, Toby Jones, Ted Levine, and Justice Smith (from Netflix’s The Get Down), who looks like he’ll be sharing plenty of screen time with Pratt and Howard. J.A. Bayona directs.

Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom erupts into theaters on June 22, 2018. Check out the new poster:

(Credit: Universal Pictures)

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ teaser promises more dinosaurs, more Jeff Goldblum

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Ralph McQuarrie’s cover art for Christmas in the Stars (Image: Lucasfilm)

Forty years ago, Meco Monardo’s disco version of the Star Wars theme song was a smash hit, outselling the original John Williams soundtrack and allowing the trombone-playing music producer to carve out his own lucrative niche in the recording industry covering sci-fi movie scores. By 1980, “disco was dying,” as Meco explained to Yahoo Entertainment during a 2015 interview, but he still had Star Wars fever. His version of The Empire Strikes Back’s “Imperial March,” featuring more of a rock ‘n’ roll vibe, had just peaked at No. 18.

Bolstered by his latest Star Wars-related smash, the never-shy Monardo decided to swing for the fences. “I wrote a letter — I think it was nine pages long — to George Lucas,” the producer recounted. “I said, ‘You don’t know me,’ and then I explained about all the Star Wars music I did… I said, ‘Why don’t we do a Christmas album together.’

“Then I had the only phone call I ever had with George Lucas,” said Monardo. “I did most of the talking, but he told me some ideas, and what we could use.” And did Lucas deliver. The filmmaker permitted official droid, Wookiee, blaster, and starship sound effects created by Lucasfilm’s Ben Burtt to be used, flew in Anthony Daniels to “sing” C-3PO’s songs, and provided cover art painted by Oscar-winning designer Ralph McQuarrie. Lucas even dispatched Darth Vader (at least a guy in a Darth Vader costume) to a recording session at New York’s Power Station, the state-of-the-art recording facility Meco’s partner, Tony Bongiovi, built with his share of proceeds from Meco’s original Star Wars single. “I realized that George Lucas had sent Darth Vader to make sure everything was going right,” quipped Meco.

Darth Vader gets instruction from Meco during the Christmas in the Stars session. (Meco Monardo/TheForce.Net)

“We were in good favor with George Lucas, because there’s royalties that get paid to John Williams and George Lucas and all those other people,” Bongiovi recounted to the CBC in 2014. Bongiovi also explained that that they could have had access to stars Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford but “they’re not singers, so they don’t fit on a record album” (something the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special proved two years prior). The producers did want to bring in Frank Oz to croon a song called “The Meaning of Christmas” as Yoda, but he was tied up filming The Great Muppet Caper.

Unlike his previous cover-heavy albums, Meco started from scratch with the music. He and Bongiovi needed Star Wars-themed Christmas songs and they needed them fast, but they weren’t having much luck with the songwriters they approached. Enter a struggling composer named Maury Yeston, who was trying to put together the musical that would become Nine and could use some extra cash. “I met with Meco and I said, ‘Look, this may sound ridiculous to you, but if you want to do a Star Wars Christmas album you have to have a story,” Yeston told the CBC. “This is obviously Christmas in the world of Star Wars, which means this is in a galaxy far, far away, thousands of years ago. It’s not now. So call it Christmas in the Stars.” Meco was sold on the idea of the album having a through-line and recruited Yeston.

Yeston, who would go on to win a Tony Award for Nine and eventually write the smash Broadway musicals Titanic and Grand Hotel, cranked out nearly 20 Yule-appropriate tunes, nine of which made the final lineup. “The Meaning of Christmas,” minus Yoda, was radically retooled from the original version because Lucas didn’t want any of the traditional, religious-themed lyrics associated with the Force. It established the story of the album, set in a factory where droids make gifts for one “S. Claus.”

Other tracks included the Daniels-warbled title cut…

And “What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb?),” which was released as a single and reached No. 69 on the charts.

Then there was the ditty “R2-D2, We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” which marked the inauspicious debut of Bongiovi’s teenaged cousin, a wannabe singer named John Francis Bonjiovi Jr.

“He was sweeping the floors, and his cousin Tony said he could sing,” Monardo said of the artist who would soon rebrand himself as Jon Bon Jovi. “But he denied it forever and forever.” Bon Jovi reluctantly came clean to Forbes a few years ago. “[Meco] needed a kid,” the rocker admitted. “So he said, ‘Can you really sing?’ I said, ‘Yeah,’ and he said, ‘Do it.’ So they wrote me down like a session musician … It took 20 minutes, there was nothing to it.” Bon Jovi got $180 for his first professional recording, fronting a kid chorus four years before his namesake band would have a breakout hit with “Runaway.” (That’s the adolescent Bon Jovi on the solo vocals beginning at the 45-second mark below).

Meco’s label, RSO, anticipated a huge demand for Christmas in the Stars and pressed a stunning 150,000 initial copies in November 1980. But the company had serious fiscal issues and was abruptly shuttered (the record company owner “Robert Stigwood was screwing the Bee Gees out of money,” Meco claims), meaning there was virtually no promotion for the album. The closure also denied a second pressing that would have featured a tweaked cover crediting Lucas as a co-producer at the request of the filmmaker, who, according to Meco, “liked the record.”

In the decades since, the album has been reissued on CD and is still available via online music services, but it has never achieved the heavy rotation of other novelty holiday releases. Christmas in the Stars might not have have been the hit its creative team was looking for, but withStar Wars back in the public consciousness, now is the perfect time to revisit a Jedi jingle or two.

[Editor’s note: This story was excerpted from “The Wild Story of Disco Star Wars: How the Universe Aligned to Create Meco’s Masterpieces” published in 2015.]

Watch Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher discuss the ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’ and how it could be rebooted today: 

  Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: 

Rian Johnson open to bringing back old characters — including Jar Jar — in his upcoming ‘Star Wars’ trilogy

The porg problem: ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ cast sounds off on movie’s polarizing space penguins

Ralph McQuarrie’s cover art for Christmas in the Stars (Image: Lucasfilm)

Forty years ago, Meco Monardo’s disco version of the Star Wars theme song was a smash hit, outselling the original John Williams soundtrack and allowing the trombone-playing music producer to carve out his own lucrative niche in the recording industry covering sci-fi movie scores. By 1980, “disco was dying,” as Meco explained to Yahoo Entertainment during a 2015 interview, but he still had Star Wars fever. His version of The Empire Strikes Back’s “Imperial March,” featuring more of a rock ‘n’ roll vibe, had just peaked at No. 18.

Bolstered by his latest Star Wars-related smash, the never-shy Monardo decided to swing for the fences. “I wrote a letter — I think it was nine pages long — to George Lucas,” the producer recounted. “I said, ‘You don’t know me,’ and then I explained about all the Star Wars music I did… I said, ‘Why don’t we do a Christmas album together.’

“Then I had the only phone call I ever had with George Lucas,” said Monardo. “I did most of the talking, but he told me some ideas, and what we could use.” And did Lucas deliver. The filmmaker permitted official droid, Wookiee, blaster, and starship sound effects created by Lucasfilm’s Ben Burtt to be used, flew in Anthony Daniels to “sing” C-3PO’s songs, and provided cover art painted by Oscar-winning designer Ralph McQuarrie. Lucas even dispatched Darth Vader (at least a guy in a Darth Vader costume) to a recording session at New York’s Power Station, the state-of-the-art recording facility Meco’s partner, Tony Bongiovi, built with his share of proceeds from Meco’s original Star Wars single. “I realized that George Lucas had sent Darth Vader to make sure everything was going right,” quipped Meco.

Darth Vader gets instruction from Meco during the Christmas in the Stars session. (Meco Monardo/TheForce.Net)

“We were in good favor with George Lucas, because there’s royalties that get paid to John Williams and George Lucas and all those other people,” Bongiovi recounted to the CBC in 2014. Bongiovi also explained that that they could have had access to stars Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford but “they’re not singers, so they don’t fit on a record album” (something the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special proved two years prior). The producers did want to bring in Frank Oz to croon a song called “The Meaning of Christmas” as Yoda, but he was tied up filming The Great Muppet Caper.

Unlike his previous cover-heavy albums, Meco started from scratch with the music. He and Bongiovi needed Star Wars-themed Christmas songs and they needed them fast, but they weren’t having much luck with the songwriters they approached. Enter a struggling composer named Maury Yeston, who was trying to put together the musical that would become Nine and could use some extra cash. “I met with Meco and I said, ‘Look, this may sound ridiculous to you, but if you want to do a Star Wars Christmas album you have to have a story,” Yeston told the CBC. “This is obviously Christmas in the world of Star Wars, which means this is in a galaxy far, far away, thousands of years ago. It’s not now. So call it Christmas in the Stars.” Meco was sold on the idea of the album having a through-line and recruited Yeston.

Yeston, who would go on to win a Tony Award for Nine and eventually write the smash Broadway musicals Titanic and Grand Hotel, cranked out nearly 20 Yule-appropriate tunes, nine of which made the final lineup. “The Meaning of Christmas,” minus Yoda, was radically retooled from the original version because Lucas didn’t want any of the traditional, religious-themed lyrics associated with the Force. It established the story of the album, set in a factory where droids make gifts for one “S. Claus.”

Other tracks included the Daniels-warbled title cut…

And “What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb?),” which was released as a single and reached No. 69 on the charts.

Then there was the ditty “R2-D2, We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” which marked the inauspicious debut of Bongiovi’s teenaged cousin, a wannabe singer named John Francis Bonjiovi Jr.

“He was sweeping the floors, and his cousin Tony said he could sing,” Monardo said of the artist who would soon rebrand himself as Jon Bon Jovi. “But he denied it forever and forever.” Bon Jovi reluctantly came clean to Forbes a few years ago. “[Meco] needed a kid,” the rocker admitted. “So he said, ‘Can you really sing?’ I said, ‘Yeah,’ and he said, ‘Do it.’ So they wrote me down like a session musician … It took 20 minutes, there was nothing to it.” Bon Jovi got $180 for his first professional recording, fronting a kid chorus four years before his namesake band would have a breakout hit with “Runaway.” (That’s the adolescent Bon Jovi on the solo vocals beginning at the 45-second mark below).

Meco’s label, RSO, anticipated a huge demand for Christmas in the Stars and pressed a stunning 150,000 initial copies in November 1980. But the company had serious fiscal issues and was abruptly shuttered (the record company owner “Robert Stigwood was screwing the Bee Gees out of money,” Meco claims), meaning there was virtually no promotion for the album. The closure also denied a second pressing that would have featured a tweaked cover crediting Lucas as a co-producer at the request of the filmmaker, who, according to Meco, “liked the record.”

In the decades since, the album has been reissued on CD and is still available via online music services, but it has never achieved the heavy rotation of other novelty holiday releases. Christmas in the Stars might not have have been the hit its creative team was looking for, but withStar Wars back in the public consciousness, now is the perfect time to revisit a Jedi jingle or two.

[Editor’s note: This story was excerpted from “The Wild Story of Disco Star Wars: How the Universe Aligned to Create Meco’s Masterpieces” published in 2015.]

Watch Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher discuss the ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’ and how it could be rebooted today: 

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Remember how Yoda pushed Luke Skywalker in the swamps of Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back — running the aspiring Jedi through a rigorous cardio and parkour regimen like some sadistic junior high PE teacher? Well, that was nothing compared to what the cast of Star Wars: The Last Jedi endured to get into fighting shape.

As revealed in a new featurette Saturday (watch above), director Rian Johnson and his stunt crew drilled stars Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Gwendoline Christie (Captain Phasma), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), and newcomer Kelly Marie Tran (Rose Tico) in a grueling combination of martial arts and melee combat. The clip teases some of Rey’s improving lightsaber skills — which will apparently come in handy as she battles numerous foes and the whirling dervish that is Driver’s Kylo Ren — as well as the hugely anticipated showdown between Finn and Phasma. Boyega admits he wanted to do the entire scene himself, no stuntman, while Christie confesses that she’s never worked so hard on a role (we’re looking at you, Game of Thrones).

Disney, Lucasfilm, and the cast are getting the hype machine into overdrive ahead of the film’s Dec. 15 release. On Friday, Johnson and his stars invaded Jimmy Kimmel Live, where they regaled the host with their wildly varied thoughts on the film’s overly adorable porgs, Luke Skywalker’s beard, and what it was like playing in the Star Wars universe (watch below).

Meanwhile, Johnson, under much prodding from Kimmel, offered up one teensy spoiler, revealing the very first word of dialogue from the film. Ready or not, here it is:

Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens Dec. 15.

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Photo: eBay U.K.

Sure, that AT-AT loft bed was nifty, but it’s pure Padawan level compared with this bit of DIY Star Wars Jedi mastery. YouTuber Colin Furze teamed up with eBay to create this life-sized replica of Kylo Ren’s TIE Silencer, the wannabe-Vader’s sleek new ride in The Last Jedi.

Photo: eBay U.K.

The model, unveiled Thursday on eBay’s U.K. channel, was completely built using items found on eBay, including the steel frame, welding supplies, paint, LED lights, pilot’s seat, display, and personalized license plate.

Photo: eBay U.K.

Five people worked seven weeks to construct the craft, and the completed rig is currently on display at the Burghley House in the U.K. until Dec. 11.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi arrives in theaters Dec. 15.

Watch the reveal of the TIE Silencer:

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Coco arrives in theaters today, no doubt sending droves of Disney-Pixar fans the multiplex in search of the studio’s most famous Easter eggs, notably the Pizza Planet truck, the Luxo ball, and “A113,” along with nods to past and future animated films. But fans don’t have to leave their homes to see most of these — in fact, many of Pixar’s most common hidden objects can be found in trailers and clips released before Coco even arrived in theaters. Here’s a sampling:

Luxo ball  

In March, Disney released Dante’s Lunch, a short sequence from Coco introducing Dante the dog. The native Xoloitzcuintli tears through town chasing a bone that we learn belongs to the film’s trickster, Hector (voiced by Gael García Bernal). Along the way, he smashes into several stalls in the local market. As you can see, one of the lucho libre mask in this stand uses the same single-star design as the Luxo ball, an Easter egg dating back to Pixar’s very first short.

(Photo: Disney-Pixar)

This isn’t the only glimpse of the ball we get. In the most recent trailer, the ball is briefly seen.

(Photo: Disney-Pixar)

Pizza Planet truck

Pixar’s best known Easter egg (with the Mexican-appropriate Pizza Planeta signage) zips by Miguel’s home, as seen in a Coco clip titled “Not Like the Rest” released last week.

(Photo: Disney-PIxar)

A113

An ode to the legendary Cal Arts classroom where many top animators studied, this is possibly Hollywood’s most prolific Easter egg, appearing in more than just Pixar films. As seen in the Coco trailer, A113 is the room number for the Bureau of Family Grievances in the Land of the Dead.

(Photo: Disney-PIxar)

Lightning McQueen

The corn-eating kid, first seen in the Dante’s Lunch short, is sporting a pair of sneakers that pay homage to one of Pixar’s most popular characters. Ka-chow!

(Photo: Disney-PIxar)

Nemo found

In this shot, which is featured in several trailers and the “Not Like the Rest” clip, Pixar’s celebrated clown fish is chilling.

(Photo: Disney-PIxar)

Nemo, Marlin, Dory, and Destiny (and Remy)

Some of the featured fish from Finding Nemo/Finding Dory, as well as Remy the rat from Ratatouille, are gathered on a table of alebrijes in the “Not Like the Rest” clip.

(Photo: Disney-PIxar)

(In the film, as this scene continues, you can also spot piñatas of Woody and Buzz from Toy Story along with Mike from Monster’s Inc hanging in a booth in the marketplace.

The Skrillex-Sid two-fer

As Miguel watches the talent show, there’s one act who not only bears a striking resemblance to the popular DJ, but is wearing the same skull shirt as Toy Story‘s Buzz-abusing bully.

(Photo: Disney-PIxar)

Heimlich, RIP

As noted by the super-fan blog Pixar Post, the photo on the tombstone at the end of Dante’s Lunch (which also appears in a Coco trailer) appears to be of late Pixar legend Joe Ranft, the animator, writer, and voice actor who earned an Oscar nod for co-writing Toy Story and gave voice to Heimlich the caterpillar/”beautiful butterfly” in A Bug’s Life. Meanwhile, director Lee Unkrich told the site Metro that “at the very end of the movie we kind of do a digital ofrenda” that features photographs of dearly departed submitted by Pixar employees. Among those included: former Pixar CEO Steve Jobs and Don Rickles, the voice of Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story films.

(Photo: Disney-PIxar)

John Ratzenberger

Despite the film’s predominantly Latino cast, Ratzenberger, long considered Pixar’s good-luck charm, continues his streak of appearing in every one of the studio’s feature films. In Coco, he plays a ghost called Juan Ortodoncia. Alas, he’s not featured in any of the video clips released thus far, so keep your eyes peeled when you go see the movie.

Watch the full ‘Not Like the Rest’ clip:

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It’s been a banner week in the Johnson family. Yesterday, Simone Garcia Johnson was named this year’s Golden Globe Ambassador (formerly known as Miss Golden Globe). Today, her dad, Dwayne, is saving the world from giant monsters. Warner Bros. has dropped the first trailer for Rampage, based on the classic 1980s video game that saw three ginormous beasts — the Kong-esque gorilla George, the Godzilla-like reptilian Lizzie, and werewolf Ralph — wreak havoc across the globe. Of course, the game didn’t have the Rock protecting us.

Johnson stars as Davis Okoyea, a primate expert who prefers animals to people (“Animals get me,” he quips at the outset of the preview), and his best bud is a white ape named George. As revealed in the trailer, George discovers what appears to be an extraterrestrial object that causes him to grow… and become more dangerous. We quickly learn that there’s also a mega-wolf on the loose being tracked by soldier of fortune, played by Joe Manganiello, and Agent Russell, a (certain to be devoured) shady government mucky-muck played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

All Davis wants to do is find a way to save his simian pal, who’s soon running with a bad crew. By the end of the trailer, both George and wolfie are going on a bender in the Windy City, as the third member of their monster squad, a mutated crocodile, swims in to join them. Yikes.

Noemie Harris, Malin Akerman, and Marley Shelton also star in the film, which was directed by Brad Petyon (San Andreas), who appears to be playing up the camp in the two-minute, 30-second trailer. Watch above and judge for yourself.

Rampage romps into theaters April 20, 2018.

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Jude Law, Ezra Miller, Claudia Kim, Zoë Kravitz, Callum Turner, Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, and Johnny Depp in Fantastic Beast: The Crimes of Grindelwald (Photo: Warner Bros.)

So that’s what young Dumbledore looks like. Jude Law makes his Wizarding World debut in this first-look photo of the cast for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the follow-up to last year’s hit Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The sequel’s official title, cast photo, and plot summary were unveiled Thursday.

Law will play the gifted mage Albus Dumbledore, offering a glimpse of the powerful wizard before he became the Hogwarts elder who mentored Harry Potter. He’ll be a key ally to Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander, the central figure in the planned five-part Fantastic Beasts saga.

The ensemble also includes returning players Katherine Waterston as the reinstated Auror (and Newt’s future wife) Tina Goldstein; Alison Sudol as Tina’s empathic sister, Queenie; Dan Fogler as the No-Maj baker Jacob Kowalski; Ezra Miller as the shape-shifting, havoc-wreaking Credence; and Johnny Depp as the big bad Gellert Grindelwald. Zoë Kravitz, only glimpsed in a photograph in the first Fantastic Beasts, will be seen in the flesh as Leta Lestrange, Newt’s former love now engaged to his older brother.  Joining them will be franchise newbies Callum Turner as Newt’s brother/Leta’s fiancé Theseus Scamander and Claudia Kim as Maledictus, a woman infected with a blood curse that transforms her into a fantastic beast.

(Credit: Warner Bros.)

Here’s the official summary:

At the end of the first film, the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Depp) was captured by MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America), with the help of Newt Scamander (Redmayne).  But, making good on his threat, Grindelwald escaped custody and has set about gathering followers, most unsuspecting of his true agenda: to raise pure-blood wizards up to rule over all non-magical beings.

In an effort to thwart Grindelwald’s plans, Albus Dumbledore (Law) enlists his former student Newt Scamander, who agrees to help, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead.  Lines are drawn as love and loyalty are tested, even among the truest friends and family, in an increasingly divided wizarding world.

Directed by David Yates from a screenplay by J.K. Rowling, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will apparate into theaters on Nov. 16, 2018.

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Spoiler alert: The ship still sinks.

To celebrate 20 years of CGIcebegs, Leonardo DiCaprio’s questionable sacrifice, and Céline Dion’s heart forever going on, James Cameron is bringing Titanic out of drydock for another voyage in movie theaters. Cameron will relaunch his Oscar-winning smash hit — the highest-grossing movie of all time— in select AMC theaters for one week beginning Dec. 1.

The filmmaker teamed with Dolby Laboratories to digitally polish the film for its holiday-season run, which will include 3D showings. “We mastered a few minutes of Titanic in Dolby Vision and I was stunned. It was like seeing it for the first time,” Cameron gushes in a press release. “It’s beyond anything you’ve seen before. The image leaps off the screen as bright and vibrant as life itself. This is the way all movies should be seen and without a doubt, Titanic has NEVER looked better.” Watch the new trailer above.

Tickets and theater information are available at www.amctheatres.com/titanic, with each purchase also including a free digital download of the film.

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Deadpool is back and you know what that means…. It’s arts-and-crafts time?!

The teaser trailer for Deadpool 2 dropped Wednesday morning, featuring Ryan Reynolds channeling his inner Bob Ross as he paints a picture of the hugely anticipated anti-superhero sequel using all the colors of his very bonkers rainbow (including such skewed hues as “A Clockwork Orange,” “Soylent Green,” “Mennen Black,” “Box Office Gold,” “Pretty ‘N Pink,” “Betty White,” and, of course, “Yellow Snow.”).

Before we get to see Mr. Pool’s completed masterpiece, we get a few tantalizing glimpses of the new action, featuring  a combination of returning characters and newcomers, notably Josh Brolin’s Cable — all of whom assemble in oily form for a Thanksgiving canvas by the end of the teaser’s two-minute runtime.

Deadpool 2 cast (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

Fox also released the, um, official synopsis for the sure-to-be-demented Deadpool 2:

After surviving a near fatal bovine attack, a disfigured cafeteria chef (Wade Wilson) struggles to fulfill his dream of becoming Mayberry’s hottest bartender while also learning to cope with his lost sense of taste. Searching to regain his spice for life, as well as a flux capacitor, Wade must battle ninjas, the yakuza, and a pack of sexually aggressive canines, as he journeys around the world to discover the importance of family, friendship, and flavor — finding a new taste for adventure and earning the coveted coffee mug title of World’s Best Lover.

Directed by David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, John Wick), Deadpool 2 stars Reynolds as the Merc With a Mouth, Brolin as time-hopping frenemy Cable, Zazie Beetz as lucky mutant Domino, T.J. Miller as Weasel, Morena Baccarin as Vanessa, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Sepfan Kapičić as Colossus, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, and Karan Soni as Deadpool’s cab driver, Dopinder.

Deadpool 2 crashes theaters June 1, 2018. Consider youselves warned.

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  Millennium Falcon in disguise (Photo: Google Maps)

Carmen Sandiego and Waldo ain’t got nothing on the Millennium Falcon. Ever since Disney and Lucasfilm have relaunched the Star Wars film franchise, fans have been going to great lengths to sleuth out clues to the stories. But perhaps the greatest sport to arise is the Twitter game of “Find the Falcon,” in which intrepid Force aficionados use any means necessary to locate the most iconic vessel from that galaxy far, far away and reveal it on social media.

This week’s headlines came courtesy of one Kevin Beaumont, a Brit who, using Google Maps, was able to spot the disguised ship near Longcross Studios outside of London. As you can see, Disney covered the Falcon with sheeting and tucked the beloved “hunk of junk” behind a ring of shipping containers, shielding it from fans and Imperial troops alike.

Lol Disney tried to hide the Millennium Falcon by surrounding it with shipping containers. Also, it’s on Google Maps. https://t.co/LgerDntmKQ pic.twitter.com/SfuYkmHJbl

— Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) November 9, 2017

The ship, which was used recently for both The Last Jedi (out Dec. 15) and Solo: A Star Wars Story (out (May 25, 2018), is presumably parked on the lot until shooting begins on Star Wars: Episode IX early next year.

With cloaking technology limited to Star Trek movies, this isn’t the first time aerial views of the ship have leaked despite Fort Knox-level security (reportedly including anti-snoop drones) around the Star Wars productions. These images surfaced on Twitter last year of the London-area Last Jedi set.

Star Wars: Episode VIII set pictures pic.twitter.com/PEungJckAA

— Star Wars Direct (@StarWarsDirect) April 30, 2016

And back in 2014, when The Force Awakens was in production, the Falcon was being rebuilt at Greenham Common airfield outside London, which wasn’t restricted airspace. Discovered by posted by pilot named Gordon Macmillan, the initial shots of the Resistance headquarters with a partially constructed Falcon and an obsucred X-wing fighter were scrubbed from Twitter by Lucasfilm. However, once word got out, subsequent spy shots quickly popped up.

#StarWarsEpisodeVII Filming at RAF Greenham Common on Saturday pic.twitter.com/d6lw6TS2aX

— Justin Reeves (@1JUS) September 10, 2014

Whoo! Full size Millenium Falcon & X-Wing fighters on set for the new Star Wars film. pic.twitter.com/vKJEkVF7mO

— Ste. (@Ste_F1) September 29, 2014

As one commenter put it, “The secret Rebel base isn’t so secret.”

Now that the latest Falcon has been found by fans, it’s only a matter of time before Lucasfilm hides it again, and the cat-and-mouse game begins anew.

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