Club Jade

Given the overwhelming focus on merchandising in Star Wars – and fandom’s continuing fascination with it – there’s no surprise that it’s now inspired a documentary. Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys is directed by Brian Stillman and will be on DVD in November. (Yes, despite the teaser saying August.) The film will feature “interviews with former Kenner employees, experts, authors, and collectors” and look at history, influence and the current state of collecting. (via)

Jamie Benning, who created the Star Wars Begins, Building Empire, and Returning to Jedi “filmumentaries,” has posted the finished version of his latest fan documentary, Raiding the Lost Ark on Vimeo. (He’s not so big on YouTube these days.)

Compiling lots of making-of information with original interviews with several cast and crew members (and even an interview with Blade Runner‘s Sean Young, who had auditioned for the role of Marion Ravenwood,) it’s essentially an super vocal commentary of the first Indiana Jones film. Benning guest-blogged on Empire Online about the making of Raiding the Lost Ark, while PBS dives into Benning’s history of filmumentaries, and GeekDad has a Raiding image gallery

Returning to Jedi, a fan documentary by Jamie Benning, was removed from Youtube due to a request from 20th Century Fox this week. Benning’s ‘filmumentaries,’ — Star Wars Begins, Raiding the Lost Ark — have been wildly popular online, gaining more than 3 million hits over the years, according to Screen Jabber.

In the FAQ on his site, Benning says that while he does burn DVDs of his fandocs “for review purposes,” they are not available for sale. “These are non profit making projects and there for discs of them should not be bought or sold by me or by anyone.”

Benning has removed his remaining docs from Youtube and plans to repost them on Vimeo, he said in a comment on the Star Wars Begins Facebook page.

This fan documentary by Jambe Davdar gathers together commentary, alternate takes and behind the scenes footage for a look at The Empire Strikes Back. (via) Head beneath the cut for the rest. (more…)

E! Online reports that Joss Whedon and Morgan Spurlock (director of Super Size Me) are teaming up to create a documentary about diehard fans as they gear up, geek out, and attend Comic-Con. Although if they are looking for fans to follow around, they’d better put out a casting call soon.

A couple years back, there was Star Wars on Trial, a great collection of essays arguing about whether or not George did right by us.  Now there’s a documentary doing the same thing premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, next month.

The People vs George Lucas strives to figure out whether or not George is the devil disguised in all his evil marketing glory or the Great Flanneled Creator of all things good.

They interview the grand and the not-so-grand, alike.  And just a wee bit of silliness thrown in.  If nothing else, it will serve to stoke the fires of fanboy debate for a while.  And that’s always fun. (via)

Continuing adventures in TPM nostalgia. Everyone’s talking about the documentary A Galaxy Far Far Away, which has a 10th anniversary edition out. (Hey, it was news to me!) The reviews are not all so good, though.

And on that note… Somewhere on the internet, someone is always defending the prequels.

Pro art: Colleen Doran shares the original sketch for her Anakin/Padme card from the Galaxy 4 set.

Gathering: A Geekdad spotted a Star Wars event in in London, Ontario a few weeks back.

There must be cake. Perhaps the most amazing AT-AT cake you’ve ever seen.

Fun fact: Darth Vader’s reveal to Luke is the most misquoted phrase in film.

What? I can’t believe GalacticBinder found even one, let alone ten Star Wars surfing crossovers.

I’m not much of a prequel fan, but I still wasn’t all that enthusiastic about this documentary back when we first heard about it. While the basic idea hasn’t gotten any fresher in the last year, maybe it could end up being an interesting look at the love/hate phenomenon. We’ll see.

• Ask Metafilter: How do I do a wookie roar with only my voice? I don’t know… Roar casual?

• 501st: UK Garrison visits children at Southampton General Hospital.
• Fan films: Starwarsy.pl interviews Alexandre O. Philippe, the brains behind The People vs. George Lucas.
• Comic: How to decide which Star Wars character you’re most like. (via)

Rebelscum reports on The People vs. George Lucas ‘the first truly democratic’ fan film. Because the concept wasn’t tired when these folks did it or anything.