Club Jade

Michael Kaminski explores the role of Marcia Lucas – who won an Oscar for the editing of A New Hope – in George’s early career over at the Secret History of Star Wars. This is a fascinating read, and Kaminski makes an interesting parallel to the events of Revenge of the Sith towards the end.

A couple years back, there was Star Wars on Trial, a great collection of essays arguing about whether or not George did right by us.  Now there’s a documentary doing the same thing premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, next month.

The People vs George Lucas strives to figure out whether or not George is the devil disguised in all his evil marketing glory or the Great Flanneled Creator of all things good.

They interview the grand and the not-so-grand, alike.  And just a wee bit of silliness thrown in.  If nothing else, it will serve to stoke the fires of fanboy debate for a while.  And that’s always fun. (via)

The press release has been issued, and Star Wars has claimed the top spots for licensed and boy toys.

Leave it to Japan to make the Holiday Special look tasteful and restrained. (via)

Avatar may have beat Titanic in terms of cold hard cash, but it still has yet to catch up with The Phantom Menace when it comes to the amount of tickets sold, Entertainment Weekly points out. And when the domestic box office numbers are adjusted for inflation, it’s only #26 – all three original trilogy films and TPM are higher, along with Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., The Exorcist and all-time champ Gone With the Wind. (A New Hope is #2.)

Granted, all this stat-pushing is petty and useless, but hey: We’re interested, aren’t we? And on that note, check below the cut for a blast from the past: The ad George Lucas took out in Variety when Titanic took the top spot from Star Wars. (more…)

Access Hollywood caught up with the maker himself at the Golden Globes (he had the Jack Nicholson seat at the show) and – naturally – asked him about the Best Drama winner and getting Star Wars in 3-D:

“We’ve been looking for years and years and years of trying to take ‘Star Wars’ and put it in 3-D,” George explained to Access. “But, [the] technology hasn’t been there. We’ve been struggling with it, but I think this will be a new impetus to make that happen.”

More of the same, basically: But is from George. (via)

Sound waves made by a frozen lake sound remarkably like a (slightly dulled) Star Wars blaster, Kottke notes.

So the Star Wars aidas commercial features Snoop Dogg, David Beckham, Daft Punk, and more hipsters than you can shake a stick at. Celebrating originality! Riiight.

Casey Pugh, the mastermind behind the fan project that’s remaking A New Hope scene-by-scene, met with Lucasfilm folks this week. Exciting!