Club Jade

ILM visual effects supervisor John Knoll will be at a NASA press conference on Thursday. The presser is regarding a discovery made by the Kepler misson.

Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the “habitable zone,” the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist on the surface of the orbiting planet.

What could it be?

While a lot of talk this week has been focusing on the changes coming in the Star Wars Blu-ray release, there’s also been some news and chatter in the world of the Expanded Universe:

Shadow Games: Del Rey has posted two mini-excerpts from Shadow Games on the Star Wars Books account on Facebook. The novel, by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, comes out at the end of November.

Mini-excerpt #1 (from last week):

“Confidence,” Dash retorted, annoyed at being pulled out of his pleasant reverie. “The Outrider is twice the ship the Falcon is.” As far as he was concerned Solo’s boat was a scow compared with Dash’s heavily modified YT-2400.

Mini-excerpt #2:

“Then where am I supposed to come by these steely-eyed, laser-toting…characters?”

A smile curved Kendara Farlion’s lips and her teeth showed, white and even in her face. “I never thought I’d say this, but there are advantages to being from Mos Eisley. I know exactly where to look for that kind of character.”

Comics:

• John Jackson Miller provides production notes and trivia to accompany the first issue of Knight Errant: Deluge, tossing in references to Steinbeck and Saving Private Ryan. Also, check out the review on ComicBookResources.com.
• My review of last week’s comic release: Jedi: The Dark Side #4 over at BigShinyRobot.com. In short, Qui-Gon pulls his face off, and Xanatos does very little but be angry.
• Geekweek takes a tour inside Dark Horse Comics in Milwaukee, Oregon and chats with managing editor Scott Allie and founder and CEO Mike Richardson.

Favorite Scenes: Del Rey asked fans on Facebook to identify favorite scenes from the novels. A lot of deaths pop in: Anakin Solo, Ganner, Chewbacca (I guess fans have mellowed a bit on that) and Thrawn, as well as scenes from the X-Wing (both comedic and action scenes), Republic Commando, and Darth Bane series. Did not see any mentions of Waru or the Black Fleet Crisis, and that makes me sad.

Fact mirrors Star Wars fiction: Discovered: A real life “Crystal Star” (well, a crystallizing former star) – Formerly a white dwarf star, this planet is believed to be turning into one giant diamond. At 4,000 light-years away, it’ll take a while for this rock to be a girl’s best friend. Also, did not see any mentions of Waru, and that makes me sad again.

The LA Times interviews the creative forces behind the Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology exhibition tour, currently at the Montreal Science Centre until September. While no U.S. dates are on the schedule yet, the Indiana Jones exhibition, which features real archaeological artifacts alongside movie props, costumes and artwork, will travel for the next six years. Interviewed are the exhibits manager at Lucasfilm, Kyra Bowling; National Geographic’s archaeology fellow, Fredrik Hiebert; and co-project manager at X3 Productions, Geneviève Angio-Morneau.

Along with the interview, there’s a photo gallery of some of the props and artifacts on display. Some of the iconic props in the exhibition include the Ark of the Covenant, Holy Grail, and Crystal Skull. X3 has been producing a series of video clips related to the show – Fredrik Hiebert talking about the influence of the films on would-be archaeologists, and James Mathieu about the Penn Museum’s contribution to the exhibit’s real archaeological contents.

The exhibition, produced by X3 Productions, is a collaboration of Lucasfilm and the National Geographic Society. Stay in the loop on the exhibition with the Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology Facebook page. One of Dr. Jones’ rivals once told the man in the fedora that he belonged in a museum — and now he’s been proven right.

Those of us with iPhones and iPads will the first to get a closer look at the Star Wars Blu-ray extras. The Star Wars Blu-ray: Early Access app will be up for free in the Apple Store on Wednesday. If you’re lacking an iDevice, you can always check out booth #3528 at San Diego Comic-Con. Or, well, it’ll be all over the internet by Thursday, I’m sure.

UPDATE: The app is live now, but only for iPad users. (via)

Dannu Choo – aka the Tokyo Dance Trooper – got himself cloned! Sort of. On his blog, he documents his visit to the Clone Factory.

Sure, it’s all fun and games now, but arming the robots just seems like a bad idea. Or maybe I’ve just watched too much sci-fi.

Not so fast… Michael Koehler wants to build a life-size, working AT-AT. His project quickly got (l)ink from Cnet and the New York Daily News. A mention on Attack of the Show certainly didn’t hurt his cause… But it looks like it’s not exactly kosher with Lucasfilm. At least Koehler can solace in techies saying the feat is not impossible.

Paint it black? Plants on worlds with double stars – like Tatooine – would probably evolve plants that would look black to us, says National Geographic.

Blast-offs and could-have-beens. Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz writes in The Guardian’s film blog talks about the devotion the film inspired. Elsewhere on the site, Danny Leigh wonders what if Star Wars never existed?

A sandcrawler for Singpore. Remember the sandcrawler building that Lucasfilm was planning for their folks in Singapore? They announced details of the project last week.

Science, defense division. The U.S. Navy has made a significant leap forward in testing offensive lasers. A “solid-state, high-energy laser beam” successfully disabled a small vessel off the coast of California. There’s video!

Darth Vader will be on hand at the Consumer Electronics Show later this week to make a “most impressive announcement.” While my immediate thought was the Blu-Rays or Phantom Menace 3-D, the location – Panasonic’s booth – makes me think it could have something to do with this little tidbit.

UPDATE 01/05: And it’s the Blu-Ray. Oh well!

UPDATE 01/06: The Digital Bits says that the announcement will be an October release date for Star Wars: The Complete Saga – 35th Anniversary Collection. We’ll find out for sure in a few hours. (via)

In the wake of two futile C&Ds, Lucasfilm has filed a $5M trademark lawsuit against Jedi Mind, Inc., a company which “touts a wireless headset that detects brainwaves on both a conscious and non-conscious level.” But apparently they lack the foresight to talk to a lawyer before formally naming their company. (via)

Reed warns us that the schedule isn’t totally complete just yet, but the bulk of the panels are there. A few highlights:

• Pablo’s Behind-The-Scenes Stage will host panels on Fate of the Jedi, Knight Errant (with exclusive,) ’30 Years of Lucasfilm Licensing with Howard Roffman’ and Gary Kurtz, all on Saturday.

• Author panels on writing in the Project Room & Lecture Hall from Troy Denning (Friday at 5:30), Christie Golden (Saturday at 3:30) and Aaron Allston (Saturday at 5:00)
• Get started early on the EU when ‘Star Wars Galaxy with the Essential Guides’ will take over the Behind-The-Scenes Stage on Thursday at 1:30. CJ’s own Helen Keier will be making her first Celebration apperance along with fellow writers Jason Fry, Pablo Hidalgo, Dan Wallace, and Ryder Windham, plus artists Chris Reiff and Chris Trevas and Del Rey editor Erich Schoeneweiss. Could we get an announcement or two?
• EU Cantina is hosting a Friday panel on The Essential Atlas.
• Bryan Young (The Star Wars Examiner, Big Shiny Robot) is moderating “Why We Love the Prequels,” also on Friday.
• And last but by no means least, ‘Fandom in 140 Words or Less: Social Media and Star Wars Fandom,’ hosted by TFN’s Mandy and Eric Sunday at 2:30 in the Project Room & Lecture Hall. Your humble panelists include Bonnie Burton, Meagan Finnerty, Kyle Newman, James Arnold Taylor and…. Moi. WHOO-HOO!

But wait! That’s not all!

• Celebration V apps are now available in the Apple Store and Android Market. I downloaded it on my iPhone and found it rather underwhelming: Hopefully a schedule and map is in the cards.

• The merchandise catalog has also surfaced, so make your game plan.
• Meet the tattoo artists and make appointments…

• More artists! Sign up for speed dating… If you dare!

And I still probably forgot something. You know what to do.