Club Jade

There was plenty to behold for the 30th anniversary screening of Return of the Jedi at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood as part of Entertainment Weekly’s first CapeTown Film Festival. Held on Star Wars Day, May the Fourth, the set of four screenings of the no-longer-final installment of the Star Wars saga brought out fans and celebs alike. With Jedi being my favorite Star Wars film, I was stoked to see it again on the big screen – twice! While we’ve already covered the news of Mark Hamill’s appearance after the evening screenings, there’s plenty more to share, including a visit from The Clone Wars cast and more! (Also check out my full photo album on Flickr!)

(more…)

StarWars.com has announced that there will be a special screening of Return of the Jedi at Entertainment Weekly’s CapeTown Film Festival in Hollywood on May 4th. The screening, held at the at the Egyptian Theatre where it premiered in 1983, is to celebrate the film’s 30th anniversary.

It’s clear that this is the thing that was teased by EW’s Geoff Boucher on Twitter, but I have to wonder what if there’s a big scoop is coming to the magazine itself to coincide with all this? Bigger than a ‘publishing announcement,’ even?

(Oh yes… and there will be ‘guests.’)

Episodes IV and VI are both celebrating birthdays today; 35 for Star Wars and 29 for Return of the Jedi. Per usual, the Tumblr is locked and loaded and will be flooding your dashboard with plenty of relevant content (mostly pictures, honestly; I’m visual like that.) But the entire internet is getting on the action, so check back here for updates.

Over at the Huffington Post, Jon Favreau, Jon Favreau, Gary Ross and many other filmmakers talk about how Star Wars and George Lucas influenced them.

At Underwire, they profile visual effects guru Phil Tippett, talk to Ben Burtt about sound, and in an opinion piece, y Cade Metz bemoans how digital effects let Star Wars down. Plus, the 35 greatest tributes.

Newsarama looks back with a graphic timeline of 35 years of Star Wars. Is this the cliff note version of Year by Year?

At 2:00 p.m., Mashable will be holding a live blog to celebrate. What will happen? Who will show up? We’ll be there… Or just hear about it later, probably.

Also: A different take on the Slave Leia outfit from author Olivia Waite.

Yes, there’s the Star Wars Holiday Special‘s 30th, but more importantly, it was November 17th, 1998 that The Phantom Menace trailer debuted, ushering us into a new era for the movies and fandom. The Stooge shares his story of seeing it… What’s yours?

I think I just loaded it up on my computer (Dialup plus an overloaded early StarWars.com… Took forever) because even then I couldn’t muster enough interest in the prequels to see Meet Joe Black or that Adam Sandler flick. The more things change…

Thirty-five years ago today the world lost a master storyteller.

Thirty-one years ago today, Star Wars was unleashed upon the masses… And it also happens to be the 25th birthday of Return of the Jedi. (Which is airing on Spike tonight!)

To celebrate the occasion, there’s a huuuuge poll over at the Livejournal Star Wars community.

So the site I like to think of as being full of crazy younger brother types, the Wookieepedia, is turning three years old today. I think in internet years that makes it what? Fifteen? A disturbing age, but we’ll get through it.

But no, we won’t buy you beer.

Star Wars isn’t the only sci-fi classic celebrating a milestone this year – Mythbuster Adam Savage’s appreciation of Blade Runner‘s special effects in Popular Mechanics. The film is getting another DVD rerelease in September (That’s three more times than any Star Wars film so far, fanboys) and the latest version will be in theaters this fall. (via SF Signal)

When I was in college, I had an Imagemaking class where we had to create a new opening sequence for an existing movie. Inexplicably, I chose Blade Runner, which I’d never seen all the way through beforehand. Although my final project wasn’t any good (it was my first time doing anything with motion graphics – I really should have known better,) I did sit down and watch the movie several times in a matter of weeks. We know very well wasn’t the first to deal in a used future setting, but it certainly perfected it. Really, I ought to pick up that DVD…

Wired collects their Star Wars backlog in one place. Interviews! Fandom! Maps! Videos! Games! Humor! Metal Bikinis!

To commemorate the 30th anniversary, he Insider will have three, including a special edition only available at Celebration, and Empire magazine is going all out with a whopping thirty, revealing one a day on their website. Pity the poor collectors!