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.

Pixar’s Up took Best Animated Feature last night at the Annie Awards. And while it might not be worth a mention from The Hollywood Reporter, Robot Chicken: Star Wars 2.5 nabbed Best Animated Short Subject. Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder was named Best Home Entertainment Production.

The Clone Wars’ Kevin Kiner was up for Music in a Television Production, but that honor went to The Fairly OddParents

Check out the complete list of winners at annieawards.org

This is the SuperBowl spot for the other Avatar, and the one I am actually kind of legitimately looking forward to now. (Needs more Zuko, but still.) Don’t you dare screw this up, Shyamalan. Watch it in HD and see if you can spot Appa. (via)

(Is that who I think it is on voiceover?)

It’s not a huge surprise that Avatar scored nine nominations – including Best Picture and a Best Director nod for James Cameron – but I can’t say I expected to see District 9 up there with it. Pixar’s Up (Fantasy? Sci-fi? You tell me.) also made the big time, the first animated movie since 1991’s Beauty and the Beast to be nominated for Best Picture.

Avatar and District 9 will also be taking on Star Trek for Visual Effects. Sorry, ILM. Trek might have a chance at Makeup: It’s up against Il Divo and The Young Victoria.

Confirmed and acknowledged: George Lucas has been working on Red Tails, a movie about World War II’s Tuskegee Airmen that’s currently in post-production.

Unconfirmed: Lucasfilm is making a CGI animated musical involving fairies.

And CBC News is a little confused:

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Lucas is working on the movie Red Tails at his Skywalker Ranch in California.

Plot details for the computer-animated film are not being released, but it is known that fairies play a role.

This is an actual, professional news outlet, not one of us fly-by-night, pants-of-our-seat bloggers. Bravo.

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…)

The film is in preproduction at Skywalker Ranch with TMNT director Kevin Munroe and Elf writer David Berenbaum, says The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision blog. Lucasfilm isn’t talking yet. (via)

Here’s hoping (if this is for real/pans out) they don’t go with the Clone Wars/Thunderbirds-style character design, which doesn’t really seem suited to the subject.

Star Trek writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtman appeared at a screening of Star Trek for the Writer’s Guild of America.  Amazingly, most in the room hadn’t seen it.  (Really?  Catch up, people!)

Some interesting analysis of why they chose to go the way they did.  And maybe some insight into how they’ll be tackling the next one. (via)

No. Not that Conan. 

Big congrats to Stargate Atlantis’ Jason Momoa (aka Ronon “Chewie” Dex) for landing the lead in the new Conan the Barbarian movie!

As anyone who has watched SGA can tell you, he’s got the moves, the body and the ability to play the character right.

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)