Mark Hastings

Formerly Co-Founding Director at Open Frequency, Former Director and Treasurer at @IGDAScotland

[Cladach @Cladach_em]

@DanNeidle "Hmm today I will give large financial benefits only to firms smaller than a certain size"

[History Nerd @_HistoryNerd]

In 1977, before anyone knew what Star Wars would become, Alec Guinness sat down to explain how a knighted Shakespearean actor ended up in a science fiction film he almost turned down.

The script arrived while Guinness was finishing a picture in Hollywood.

The name attached to it impressed him.

"I heard it had been delivered by George Lucas, and I thought that was impressive because he was a respected young director."

Then he learned what kind of film it was, and his enthusiasm collapsed:

"When I found out it was science fiction, I thought, 'oh crumbs,' and felt it simply wasn't for me. But then I started reading."

What kept him going wasn't the writing. By his own account, the writing was a problem:

"It seemed to me the dialogue was pretty ropey, but I had to keep turning the page. That is an essential quality in a script. You have to want to know what happens next."

That instinct, the inability to put the pages down, was enough. He met Lucas, the two got on well, and Guinness found himself signing on.

Then comes the part of the interview that has since become legend, told here in 1977 with no idea of how the numbers would balloon.

Guinness recounts the percentage deal:

"My agent asked for 2% because we didn't think it would make any money. I'd never had a percentage on a film before."

The story of how it grew is almost comic in its modesty:

"The day before the film opened in San Francisco, George Lucas phoned me. He's very diffident and shy, and said he thought the movie was going to be all right. He said they were grateful for the little alterations I suggested and offered me another half percent, making it two and a half. A few weeks later, I asked the producer for something in writing, and he mentioned a quarter percent, so it ended up being 2 1/4%."

A modest slice of a film nobody expected to earn anything.

Asked what fascinated him about it, Guinness reached past the genre and landed on something simpler:

"I think it has a marvelous healthy innocence. It has great pace, it's wonderful to look at, and it's full of guts. There are no horrors and no sex at all."

He described the strange aftereffect of watching it:

"It had a sort of wonderful freshness about it. It was like fresh air. When I came out of the cinema into London, I thought the city looked gritty and full of rubbish because the film had been so invigorating. It's simple stuff for all ages."

And already, before the franchise existed, people were reading more into it than Guinness ever intended. Asked if he was becoming a kind of guru figure, he answered with characteristic dryness:

"I am getting some pretty strange letters. One said, 'my wife and I have got problems, would you come over and live with us for a few months?'"

[Doc Strangelove @DocStrangelove2]

Humanity are supposed to be the caretakers of this world, we are not suppose to be its destruction.

[Mark Hastings @RMHasty]

With Salah and Robbo leaving it's easy to forget that today Hendo finally got the sendoff he deserved.

[Ian Doyle @IanDoyleSport]

Lap of appreciation for Jordan Henderson

[Sky Sports Premier League @SkySportsPL]

Mo Salah in tears as he hears 'You'll Never Walk Alone' for one last time at Anfield 🥲

[Liverpool FC @LFC]

You'll Never Walk Alone ❤️

[beIN SPORTS @beINSPORTS_EN]

🇪🇬👑

@MoSalah, Liverpool legend 👏

#beINPL #LFC

[Mark Hastings @RMHasty]

Legends.

[Mark Hastings @RMHasty]

Salah in tears. Doubt he's the only one.

[Mark Hastings @RMHasty]

I remember watching this. I think we all knew he'd be a legend as soon as we saw it.

[Liverpool FC @LFC]

A year ago today this man became a Red... 🔴

Who could forget THAT Andy Robertson 70-yard gut-busting press!! 🏃💨💨

[Liverpool FC @LFC]

Two of our greats.

[Mark Hastings @RMHasty]

I love this Club. Always will. #YNWA

[James Pearce @JamesPearceLFC]

Mo Salah encourages his two daughters, Makka and Kayan, to score a goal in front of the Kop.

[Anton Gerashchenko @Gerashchenko_en]

The moment of one of today’s Russian strikes on Kyiv.

I can see that fewer and fewer people are reading news from Ukraine. I understand that on a Sunday morning, people don’t want to read about war. They want to sleep a little longer, drink good coffee, and sit in the sun. I understand that. The algorithms on X limit content about war, destruction, and suffering. You have to make an effort to even see this information.

All of this is understandable on a human level. But unfortunately, if you remove Putin and the war from your information feed, they do not disappear from reality.

Putin is a sadist and a maniac. He is a threat to all of humanity.

There needs to be active resistance. News from Ukraine needs to be shared. People need to keep their focus.

Despite a sleepless night, I’m still here. And I’m grateful to everyone who continues to stand with us.

One day, we’ll drink morning coffee together in a beautiful, peaceful Kyiv.

[Harry Cole @MrHarryCole]

There should be show trials for this farce

[Looking for Growth @lfg_uk]

A “local resident” has objected to plans to develop an estate.

The only problem? He doesn’t live there.

In fact, he doesn’t even live in the country. Or the continent.

He objected from… Australia.

This is what our laws do. They support blockers, even if they don't live here

[Max Klinger @MaxE2review]

To put this in perspective, this railway is costing (minimum) £1,000,000 for every 2 metres of track.

Planning on it started in 2009 and it won’t to be completed until earliest the 2040s.

It’s only 215km long. Will take over 30 years to build. China built a faster train line that’s over 6 times longer than this one in three years. And that Chinese railway cost at least five times less (£21bn) to build.

HS2 has cost us more than it cost the US to fly to the moon.

[Oz Katerji @OzKaterji]

It’s not like there aren’t plenty of cases of hate crimes against Muslims to be justifiably outraged by, but that isn’t the purpose of this. The purpose is to blur the lines over what took place in Golders Green to protect the British left from scrutiny. No matter the cost.

[Oz Katerji @OzKaterji]

Nobody, least of all the police, is covering up that a Muslim man was also stabbed. But he wasn’t stabbed because of his religion or ethnicity. You’re being gaslit by bigots.

[Oz Katerji @OzKaterji]

The simple truth is that Zack Polanski’s supporters are bending over backwards to lessen the explicitly antisemitic nature of this attack.

They are doubling and tripling down just to avoid acknowledging that Jews are being targeted, and it is shameful.