Club Jade

Those crazy list-making folks at the American Film Institute have placed A New Hope in second place on their list of the top 10 science fiction films. Click through to see the original trailer and some clips of James Earl Jones talking about the film.

The top spot goes to 2001, with E.T., A Clockwork Orange, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Blade Runner, Alien, Terminator 2, the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Back to the Future rounding out the choices.

There’s a fantasy list as well, which includes The Wizard of Oz, Fellowship of the Ring, and King Kong.

Sci Fi Wire readers bemoan the lack of The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens and Serenity in the… Wait a minute. AFI’s doing a list of the Best Science Fiction movies? A top ten? Which will air in June? You’d think I’d have noticed that yesterday… Need to stop doing this stuff at 4am, clearly. Let that be a lesson to you all: Don’t blog while drowsy. (She says, posting at 4am. Again.)

Oh well. Whatever the final results, we can at least be sure that Star Wars won’t get beat out by The Godfather.

Trivia masters rejoice: Jeopardy! added a Star Wars category today. It’s already aired here (curses!) so I have to ask: just how obsessed does one have to be to make the $1000 question laughable?

In the News

• Add David Cronenberg to the list of directors who could have made Return of the Jedi. (via)

• TFN reports that Christine Hewett, who played one of the Tonnika sisters in ANH, has past away.
• Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker tops New York Magazine’s list of ten annoying child actors they’d love to send to Kid Nation. I must object – one film, no matter how disapointing, simply isn’t enough to justify putting Lloyd above any prepubescent cast member of Full House. That show terrorized American airwaves for eight years, not counting syndication.
• AFI is sponsering 11 screenings in Hollywood to celebrate its 40th anniversary, including George Lucas presenting A New Hope. Alas, tickets “sold out faster than the Falcon made the Kessel Run,” as Stooge pointed out on Wednesday.
• IGN’s featured Dead Ewok (colloquially known to fandom as Corpsey) as their Obscure Character of the Day for (again) Wednesday.
• The Jedi Assembly celebrates fifth anniversary.

On the TOS

• The runup to Family Guy: Blue Harvest continues with an interview with writer/producer Alec Sulkin and giclée prints on Star Wars Shop.

• Pete Vilmur takes a look at the ‘pointy W’ logo.
• Hyperspace: Bantha Tracks covers Dragon*Con, while the Source Archive explored the insignia of Rogue Squadron and The New Republic as well as two more NewsNet articles: Ralltiir Uprising Quelled and Imperial Senate Suspended.

The American Film Institute is having a poll to decide which of their 100 most thrilling movies will be screened for free at Hollywood’s Arclight on Halloween. Both A New Hope and Raiders of the Lost Ark are on the list.

Great American film, or Greatest American film?
The American Film Institute is revisited their list of the top American movies yesterday. In 1998, Star Wars was #15; this time, it’s moved up to #13! Also making the cut are American Graffiti (#62, up from #77) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (#66, down from #60.) New additions include Fellowship of the Ring (#50) and Blade Runner (#97.) Register on the site to download the list in PDF.

Elsewhere…

• The International Space Station has a familiar silhouette.

• 5.7 million viewers tuned in for Robot Chicken: Star Wars.
• The X-Wing mailbox is pretty neat, but will Rogue Leader fetch your mail? (Thanks, MJS!)
• Australian poll personifies their politicians as Star Wars characters. Next poll: Pulp Fiction.
• The seven deadly sins of kid culture. I’m irrationally amused by the images each being a section off, placing Jar-Jar under ‘princess-ness.’
• Library in suburban Chicago holding Star Wars event.

The Washington Post has a special on-line only Star Wars section

Lots of good stuff here now with more scheduled for the next week, including web chats with Matt Stover and Jeremy Bulloch. There’s also a “Sith Sense” blog with entries about DC area news. The most interesting tidbit there is that the American Film Institute theater in Silver Spring MD will be showing ANH, ESB, RoTJ, TPM and AoTC in early July as part of the AFI’s tribute to George Lucas. Details to come.

Whoohoo!