Club Jade

/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!

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.

In his latest post on Star Wars mysteries, Pablo Hidalgo tracks down the origin of a Luke Skywalker hand prop with palm damage that was originally attributed to The Empire Strikes Back.

Because it’s Monday and Hondo is hung-over, check out this video that’s been going around: It’s all six Star Wars movies – or the first six, for those of you surfing in from the future – all played at once

We continue to march on with the Club Jade Tumblr, gathering 130 followers this week and averaging about 3 posts a day. Here are some highlights since the last time we checked in.

A Death Star II made out of a ping-pong ball. Recycling!

Nick Fury’s flashback; A seamless integration of Revenge of the Sith and The Avengers; A passage from Matt Stover’s Revenge of the Sith novelization gets GIFed.

How one of the most iconic scenes in Empire came from a ‘terrible decision.’

And, of course, lots of Star Wars art: An Artoo and Threepio/Bert and Ernie mashup; Star Wars, 40′s style; The Wizard of Oz reimagined in China.

‘Bubba Feets’ may suck, but this is perfection.

(They’re buddies.)

Empire was first released on May 21, 1980. Do you remember the first time you saw it? Please don’t tell us if you weren’t born yet, it only makes us sad. (I mean, it’s okay if you didn’t see it on first release: I didn’t, either.) Tumblr is being difficult today, but I will have some stuff to celebrate.

This guy decided to watch The Empire Strikes Back 30 times in 30 days. He’s on day 75 and still has plenty to say… An interesting experiment, to say the least. You can start (in order) with Day 1.

I’m writing a Game Of Thrones/Star Wars crossover comic. Tense stand off between Han Stark and Joffrey Vader is ended when Han slaps first.

— Tom Taylor (@TomTaylorMade) April 1, 2012

Essential Reader preview: Prince Isolder uses antlers in all of his decorating. #notreally #SWEU

— infinata (@infinata) April 1, 2012

#SWCVI programming request: @danwall88 and @jasoncfry sing a cover of Johnny Cash’s I’ve Been Everywhere with Atlas names.

— infinata (@infinata) March 30, 2012

Yup, it’s back, and we’re still recovering from April Fools… More serious (okay, mostly snarky) tweets beneath the cut, including J. W. Rinzler on Making of Return of the Jedi, Paul S. Kemp on carbonite, and more on parenting, programing, and Luke’s love life. (more…)

You know, in case you were wondering.