In Hollywood last evening there was a live script reading of "The Empire Strikes Back," staged by director Jason (Son of Ivan) Reitman. This star-studded reading took place at the Ace Theater in downtown Los Angeles, and seemed to be quite a hit, according to The Wrap. But the event was topped off by an appearance by the original Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill.
Also at the event to round out the cast were: Jessica Alba as Princess Leia and, in a bit of odd gender-bending, Ellen Page as Han Solo. Reitman also brought out Rainn Wilson to play Chewbacca, but he saved the best for last, stating, "So in the role of the Emperor, originally played by Clive Revill, and the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, originally played by Alec Guinness...Mark Hamill!"
From the Wrap piece: "With that, the audience screamed and leapt to its feet as the original Luke Skywalker walked onstage and hugged the new cast, beginning with Aaron Paul, who protrayed Luke for this reading.
"And when Hamill turned out to do pretty spectacular impressions of both Guinness' Obi-Wan and Revill's Emperor, the capacity crowd hit a level of galactic ecstasy that wouldn't even have been ruined by a surprise appearance by Jar-Jar Binks."
From the overall tone of the article this seemed like the place to be last night: with an audience of "Star Wars" fanatics, already cranked up due to next year's release of "The Force Awakens," who wanted to hear and applaud familiar lines like "I am your father," and "I love you"/"I know," and "I'm not afraid"/"You will be."
They got all those beloved lines, as well as a few others that aren't in the original film because Reitman used a hybrid of the original script and the shooting script. The crowd also got some choice stage direction: When Reitman read the original description of a "long, deep" kiss between Han and Leia, he muttered, "Oh, George."
The more things change, the more they stay the same...but it is rather nice to see Hamill getting all this love and attention once again.
