Club Jade

The New York Times profiles J.J. Abrams – mostly via the folks around him as they enter the home stretch on Star Trek Into Darkness. (via)

What’s May 4th without a couple of Episode VII rumors? Two separate news sources are saying that locations in Iceland and Scotland may be in the mix for Episode VII.

The Sun claims that shooting in in the Highlands and the Isle of Skye is pretty much a done deal, but… It’s The Sun.

Meanwhile, in Iceland, Fréttatíminn (translated) is only claiming that possible locations have been scouted in the south of the country. Maybe. (via)

All I can say is that when it comes to photoshopping, Iceland is the clear winner.

Hero Compex has an interview with Simon Kinberg, the Mr. & Mrs. Smith writer who’s penning one of the first two Star Wars standalone films as well as acting as a consultant on Episode VII.

It’s still too early for him to drop any news bombs on us (and he eludes the obligatory EU question) but he does talk at length about how the characters are what drives the films – and we learn that his favorite character is Han Solo, who has been rumored to be a possible subject for one of the spin-offs.

/Film has an exclusive look at Lawrence Kasdan’s original handwritten first draft of The Empire Strikes Back plus a page from the first printed draft.

We have also been given Lawrence’s original handwritten page for the Leia / Han “I love you” scene, which of course features different dialogue (Harrison Ford famously came up with the classic “I know” on set while they were shooting the scene.)

Go check them out!

For May 4th, Suvudu is giving fans an excerpt of Crucible, the upcoming post-Fate of the Jedi novel by Troy Denning. The book will be out in hardcover on July 9th.

If that’s not quite your thing, they also have 50 pages of Tuesday’s new release Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void by Tim Lebbon.

Have a Kindle? Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire – the book that started the modern Expanded Universe! – is only $1.99 today. Buy it! Buy it like the wind! (Okay, Darth Plagueis, Path of Destruction and Tatooine Ghost are also $1.99 – and a bunch of comics are deeply discounted too – but trust me, it’s Heir to the Empire you should be voting for with your wallet buying.)

Who’s an appropriate choice to be Her Universe’s Fangirl of the Day on May 4th? Lucasfilm’s Mary Franklin is not only Club Jade’s favorite bartending visionary, but she’s been responsible for almost every single Celebration and the Bantha Tracks newsletter. (Which, granted, may be the more impressive feat overall, but hey: We love our bar.)

You’ll want to check out Mary’s blog entries on the StarWars.com blog, particularly her series going behind the scenes at Celebration, which even features a few other Jaders here and there.

And of course you’ve been keeping up with the Fangirls of the Day, right?

io9′s Charlie Jane Anders has a nice piece on Leigh Brackett, who wrote the first draft of the Empire Strikes Back.

She quotes Andrew Liptak’s look at Brackett’s planetary romances in Kirkus, among other tributes.

Due to pregame demand, the Toledo Mud Hens are allowing fans to order replicas of the Chewbacca jerseys they’ll be wearing this weekend for $79.95. You don’t even have to go to Toledo – you can pre-order one online, but there are only so many so act fast.

Game-worn player jerseys will be part of a silent auction over the weekend games. The auction proceeds will go to Read for Literacy and the Spina Bifida Association of Northwest Ohio.

The Force has conspired to have Free Comic Book Day on the same day as the big celebration of Star Wars on May the 4th. So hop on down to your local comic book shop and May the 4th be with you as you get your hands on this year’s free Star Wars comic by Brian Wood, featuring Darth Vader and Boba Fett. Also, Dark Horse Digital has two great super bundles for sale this weekend, with a preview of J. W. Rinzler’s The Star Wars.

At your shops for Free Comic Book Day, Dark Horse has two free comic books, each containing several stories, and the all-ages book has the 2013 Star Wars tale written by Brian Wood with art by Ryan Odagawa. Entitled ‘The Assassination of Darth Vader’, Darth Vader finds himself in the sights of someone who wants him out of the way, and collateral damage is no issue. But what is Boba Fett’s role in this plot? Put both of Dunc’s favorite characters into one story, and she’ll explode with delight! Note that this book has a flip cover: one side has the Star Wars artwork by Doug Wheatley, while the other side has the cover for the Avatar: The Last Airbender story (and in the middle is a preview story for the upcoming Captain Midnight series).
[Read more →]

The Star Wars Books Facebook page held a chat with Pablo Hidalgo today, one of Lucasfilm’s resident continuity experts and author of The Essential Reader’s Companion.

So his most popular answer, naturally, addressed the relationship between the movies and the rest…

I think the EU will always continue to be part of the Star Wars experience, in that there are stories that are best suited for books, comics, games. etc.. The relationship between cinematic content and expanded universe content will continue to be what it is today and has been in the past. What happens on screen is one thing. What happens in the books is another. How they connect and interact is something I’m really eager to see.

More answers below the cut!

[Read more →]