Imagine a breakfast wrap.

You know the one, because there really is only one.

Sausage, egg, cheese, bacon and a potato rusty all wrapped together.

Yep, there it is.

I think my work here is done.

Served until 11 a.m.

It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.

You believe that someone out of the past can enter and take possession of a living being?

We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us.

Welcome to The Next Picture Show, a movie of the week podcast dedicated to a classic film

in the way it's shaped our thoughts on a new release. I'm Tasha Robinson, here this week

with Keith Phipps, Scott Tobias, and producer Genevieve Koski, taking the mic from Rachel

Handler. We're all firm believers in the idea that no film exists in a vacuum and that all culture is more interesting in context. So every other week, we get together to talk over a classic film and how it relates to a current release. Keith, you want to give us this week's movie pairing? Absolutely. As we're recording this, the seventh installment in the Star War series, The Force Awakens, has topped a billion dollars in the box office after just two weeks in release.

According to Box Office Mojo, the film has broken 37 different box office records in categories like

biggest ever opening day and opening week, biggest PG-13 opening, biggest single-day take, and so forth.

We haven't seen this kind of widespread anticipation and rush to the box office for a Star Wars movie in more than 15 years. Star Wars excitement last peaked in 1999 over the Phantom Menace. For the old crowd who grew up on George Lucas's original trilogy, Phantom Menace was a disappointment. And it sparked a lot of mockery and bitter complaining over the years, as have the subsequent prequels. So Force Awakens director and co-writer J.J. Abrams consciously designed his film as a corrective for fans. It ignores the prequels, it reaches back to the first Star Wars movie, the 1977 film now commonly known as a New Hope, for inspiration, plot points, and design. Since he was clearly comparing his movie with a new hope, it seemed like a perfect chance for us to do the same thing. Tasha, how are we going to break down the first Star Wars movie in comparison with the most recent one?

In the first half of this week's discussion, we'll look at the Star Wars phenomenon.

What inspired George Lucas, the story of the original film tells, how the legend around it grew into this billion-dollar business,

and how other films have been influenced by what he did back in 1977.

Then in the second half, coming out later this week, we'll compare a new hope and force

awakens in terms of their shared story elements and design and ask ourselves whether Abrams has

really made a sequel, a remake, a reboot, or something else entirely. And in a special

...