Ewan McGregor’s New Star Wars Project Revealed
Better call Maul! One of our most trusted moles is back with exclusive details surrounding Ewan McGregor’s all-new recording session for Disney. So prick up your ears, young padawan, as we reveal what Master Obi-Wan has been up to after the jump.
There’s good news and bad news surrounding Ewan McGregor’s most recent recording session for Disney. First: the good news! This latest Obi-Wan-themed project has sealed the deal regarding the upcoming Kenobi-centric spinoff trilogy. Disney Lucasfilm brass were so impressed with McGregor’s positive attitude during the 5-hour studio record, they immediately greenlit additional Star Wars adventures. This upcoming series of films will shed light on how the young Jedi spent his days and nights 😉 while on Tatooine watching over Luke Skywalker.
Now onto the lukewarm (see what we did there?) notsogood news: McGregor was at Disney as part of a company-wide initiative to inject more fun and wonder into the massive corporation. “Force for Fun” owes a debt to Disney’s recent successful collaboration with Google, wherein Google users could customize their Google products based on Force affinity. The program was such a hit, Disney CEO Bob Iger decided to launch a supercharged version of it for employees.
“Force for Fun” lets employees choose Light Side or Dark Side and that choice opens up a wealth of real-world possibilities. Everything from lunch menus to parking spots will then be tailored to reflect an employee’s choice.
“What the hell does Ewan McGregor have to do with this?” Great question! One of Force for Fun’s marquis components is a Ben Burtt-designed voicemail system that lets employees choose from a variety of Star Wars characters to use as their voicemail greeting. The greetings themselves range from basic soundbytes from past films mashed up with the employee’s name using text-to-speech technology to more ambitious all-new recordings reserved for senior management.
FSW can attest to the voicemail system’s accuracy as a call to our source went to voicemail and this is what we heard:
(Jar Jar Binks): Oh nosaaa (name) is go byebye. Yousa leave message after beepsa okey dae! Bad goober fish no!
The combination of Ahmed Best’s vocals and the text-to-speech was very impressive. Our source returned our call and let us in on the following details regarding Force for Fun’s newfangled voicemail and Ewan’s contributions:
Low level employees like me get to choose from canned lines from the Prequel films, or Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Rebels. You just enter your name and pick the soundbyte, then customize it if you need, and the text-to-speech does its best job matching the tone of the original voice actor’s performance. I chose Jar Jar because it’s a great way to get people to smile or become enraged.
Mid-level employees get to choose character soundbytes from the Original Trilogy and The Force Awakens.
Senior VPs receive the best voicemails ever. Custom performances read by the original actorsI Absolutely no text-to-speech at all. The greatest part – every actor who participated got back into the sound booth did so in costume to better embody their Star Wars characters. It has been several years for most, so totes understandable, right?!
Some of my fave voicemails I’ve heard so far include….
(for low level employees)
Poe Dameron: “Leave your message on my mark!!! Awhoooooo! My job’s done here. Let’s go home.”Little Anakin: “Now this is voicemailing!”
Darth Maul: “At last we shall reveal ourselves to the Jedi. Leave a message for Amy and it shall be done.”
Scottish sounding guy from TFA: “Yaa well leave a message or tell it to Kanjiklub for all I care!”
(for mid level suits)
Vader: “We would be honoured if you would leave a voicemail for us.”Lando: “You’ve gotta lotta nerve showing yourself around here. Message better be good.”
Luke: “Jeff and I went down to Toschii station to pick up some power converters. You know what to do.”
Jabba: “Stefanie no bogga. Ho ho hoooo. (Beep)”
Finn: “I’m in charge now! Leave a message after the beep!”
Maz Kanata: “I hear the voice of a person who wants to leave a message.”
THE BEST ARE RESERVED FOR BOB IGER, KATHY KENNEDY, AND SOME OF OUR C-LEVEL SUITE BOSSES.
Bob Iger’s voicemail as performed by Adam Driver:
“Your message? Where is it? Give it to me. Bob and I will finish what you started.”Kathy Kennedy’s voicemail as performed by Daisy Ridley:
“Sorry Kat’s not here, and I understand. I know all about waiting. Leave a message and she’ll get back to you. I promise, my friend.”Ricky Strauss (head of Disney Marketing) has his performed by Han friggin’ Solos!
“Your voice. Your message. Ricky’s return call. It’s true. All of it.
How amazing does that sound?! I think we can all say working at Disney would be insanely cool, and this just sweetens the gig for the lucky souls who do. As for McGregor’s recording session, our source had this to say:
Ewan is sex on wheels. Literally. We were told he’d show up around noon so a bunch of us waited outside in the parking lot. Before you know it, we hear a carrier plane overhead… which was odd… but it got even odder. A small figure hops out of the plane ON A MOTORCYCLE! All we could see were a set of wheels and a small man in a squirrel suit somehow flying the damn thing. As he got closer, he pulled the chute he had strapped to his back… that’s when we could see it was Ewan in his Obi-Wan outfit. The guy’s a madman! He landed on a single wheel, and held a wheelie until he reached the parking lot, where he started making donuts for us. After 5 minutes or so, he hopped off his ride and went inside. We were all stunned to say the least. But it’s not over yet… as we approached his Harley, we noticed what he had burned into the ground… these weren’t just donuts. He had written Obi-Wan into the pavement!!! We. Are. Not. Worthy. Best. Jedi. Ever.
McGregor clearly went above and beyond. The man is a consummate professional and his voicemail work impressed everyone. Thank goodness we can confirm that he will indeed star in a series of films centered on him for a change. Proof that voice acting can go a long way, even in today’s day and age. Just look at Mark Hamill!
For the record, FSW would choose a Darth Maul voicemail just so we could refer to it as our voicemaul message. What character would you choose to record your voicemail if you worked at Disney? Have any other ideas we can seed to Disney regarding their Force for Fun? Tell us in the comments or on our messageboards!
