Star Wars firm fined £1.6m for Harrison Ford injury on set

The production company behind the last Star Wars film has been fined £1.6m after Harrison Ford was injured on the set.

Ford was hit by a hydraulic metal door that was part of the Millennium Falcon spaceship while shooting Star Wars: The Force Awakens at Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire.

He had to be airlifted to hospital for surgery with production suspended for two weeks following the accident.

Foodles Production (UK) Ltd, which is owned by Disney, pleaded guilty earlier this year to two charges brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The HSE claimed the rapidly-closing door hit Ford with a force comparable to the weight of a small car. Judge Francis Sheridan said the firm had failed to communicate its risk assessment to the 74-year-old actor.

Ford needed a surgery to screw together the fractured tibia and fibula bones in his left leg and plastic surgery to a cut on his left hand. The actor, who was 71 at the time, could have also been killed. Ford received a compensation settlement from the firm, which was also ordered to pay £20,861 in costs as well as being fined.

A Willy Wonka’s treat

Warner Bros. and Harry Potter producer David Heyman are teaming up with the Roald Dahl estate on a reboot of the classic film Willy Wonka.

Heyman and Michael Siegel, the manager of Dahl’s estate, will produce the film which will focus on the story of Wonka himself.

Warner Bros. also put out another adaptation in 2005, which starred Johnny Depp as Wonka and was directed by Tim Burton, and is currently working on a stage version which is set to open on Broadway in April 2017.

The original source, Dalh’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was published in 1964.

Candy Crush as a TV game show

CBS says it has ordered a one-hour, live-action game show based on the addictive, online franchise Candy Crush.

“We are huge fans of Candy Crush and, like so many others, we know the ‘rush’ of advancing to the next level of the game,” Glenn Geller, president of CBS Entertainment, said in a statement.

“The Candy Crush franchise is a world-renowned property, so when the head of our interactive and games division, Peter Levin, brought this IP to Lionsgate, we instantly knew it would make an incredibly visual, physical and fun TV programme,” added Kevin Beggs, chairman of Lionsgate Television Group.

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 5th, 2016