Club Jade

This new behind-the-scenes video went up today.

Eric Walker, who played Mace Towani in the made-for TV Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, is raising money to release Growing Up on Skywalker Ranch, a book documenting his “adventures in the Star Wars universe” and other behind-the-scenes tidbits. Interested? You can pledge funds at the link.

• The logo on the Celebration 6 teaser site is now gold. What does it mean? Sorry, but fool me once…

• On Etsy: Han and Leia wedding bands.
• Threepio, Chewbacca, Vader and a stormtrooper carved crayons.
• Death Star garbage masher cake and more from the blog Kitchen Fun With My Three Sons.
• The U.S. Army’s “walking truck” concept from the 60′s: a real-life AT-AT?
• On Tumblr? You’ll want to check out Lit and Star Wars and Texts from the Millennium Falcon.

Michael Heilemann takes to the books to explore the origins of our favorite Wookiee.

We’ve already covered a bunch of Empire Strikes Back anniversary stuff, but today is the actual day. Here’s more stuff to check out:

The sequel begins. Leigh Brackett’s first draft of the film surfaced on the internet last week, giving us an intriguing glimpse into the could-have-beens, including a “tender love scene” between Luke and Leia, Lando being a clone, and Darth Vader’s pet gargoyles. (If you just want the highlights, Geeks of Doom has a nice rundown.)

Visuals. Lucasfilm gave Maxim magazine some rare photos, and to save us classy broads from buying Maxim (err, sorry guys) they’re also on StarWars.com.

Disturbance. They also have a look back at the Emperor’s first appearance – including some seriously whacked-out concept art. Baron Harkonnen is totally jealous.

In other news…

• Sci Fi Wire’s Periodic Table of The Empire Strikes Back.

• The Beat calls Empire “the movie that made being a nerd cool.”
• Ars Technica’s Ben Kuchera: ESB is “one of the best science fiction films ever made.”
• LA Weekly was also on hand at Wednesday’s Empire screening, chatting up stars on the red carpet; KABC-TV nabbed video of Harrison Ford and Ewan McGregor, while the Los Angeles Times has Ford.
• It’s “Empire Strikes Back Night” at tonight’s Dodgers game.
• io9′s Marc Bernardin pegs ESB as the film that “introduced an entire generation of moviegoers to the notion of tragedy.”
• Empire is (shocker!) Underwire’s choice as the finest in the trilogy. They’re also giving away one of those new Hasbro At-ATs and counting down 30 reasons Empire still rules.
• There’s another iPhone app coming for me to suck at. ‘The Battle for Hoth’ should show up in the App Store soon – it isn’t there as I type this, but I did find a Christian heavy metal song. (If you’re dying for details, TFN published the press release.)
• Hoth is coming to The Old Republic.

See any more unique tributes to ESB today? Post them in the comments or tell me on Twitter (@clubjade) and I’ll get them in.

An in-depth look by The Secret History of Star Wars’ Michael Kaminski of the processes undergone to restore the films for their 1997 re-releases. (via)

Watch out, Jabba! (This, and many more behind-the-scenes shots from the original trilogy, can be found at the Star Wars Rare Vintage Photos group on Facebook.)

Now we have our first official straight-on look at the cover for The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, due out next year.

A look back at the early days of Industrial Light and Magic from A New Hope crew member David Berry. (via)

Mystery Man on Film devoted yesterday to a repost that I’m pretty sure I linked before… But it’s still worth a second look. The premise, if you will:

Let it be said, my friends, that the early drafts of Star Wars should be a rich source of encouragement to every aspiring screenwriter the world over – because they royally sucked.

And they do. One example: Annikin Starkiller punches the princess in the face. Sure, she’s a hell of a lot more Vespa than Leia at this point, but… In the face. Oh George, no.

Read on for a compare and contrast of the scripts from 1974 and 1977. The difference is nothing short of amazing.

If your trainwreck syndrome is strong, you can find many of the early drafts at the Jedi Bendu Script Site.

First up, nineteen pages of production notes, with lots of pictures and video clips from the belly of the beast. Then we have a look at the ‘One’ advertising campaign, and their ten favorite Phantom Menace posters. (I still say that teaser is one of the best posters for any of the movies.)

Over on Twitter, @starwars is soliciting fan memories.

Meanwhile, don’t forget our own TPM poll!