Club Jade

El Mayimbe over at Latino Review is reporting that Harrison Ford will indeed be coming back to Star Wars for Episode VII.

Per usual, we’re not calling this a lock until Lucasfilm confirms it… And despite the track record of them announcing these things on Friday evenings, I’m not holding our breath for that to happen today! In fact, Entertainment Weekly’s Geoff Boucher tweeted:

Harrison Ford deal? My source says not yet.”It will not be for weeks and perhaps months.”

— Geoff Boucher (@geoffboucher) February 15, 2013

Still, Latino Review does have a good track record for these sorts of scoops, and it seems pretty likely, no?

With further reports claiming that the deal with Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg is done – though nothing from StarWars.com yet, and I doubt we’ll see anything tomorrow – let’s take a blurry journey back to 1983…

Directors. Hollywood Life talks to Star Trek’s J.J. Abrams and Iron Man’s Jon Favreau about Episode VII. “I am looking forward more then anyone to the next iterations of Star Wars, but I believe I will be going as a paying moviegoer,” Abrams said.

“I am just giddy, first and foremost as a fan, to see what happens with it. I think there is a lot of question marks of how they are going to do it, and who they are going to do it with, and what the story is going to be about; but to say that I am not excited about it is definitely an understatement. We’ll see,” Favreau said. (Lest we forget, Favreau voiced a character on The Clone Wars back in 2010.)

On the other side of the spectrum, Quentin Tarantino said the other day that he couldn’t care less about Star Wars and isn’t interested in the job. But then, did anyone actually expect he would be?

History. Huffpo’s Mike Ryan takes a look at the Making of books and interviews to document Harrison Ford’s history with Han Solo, and all the comments he’s made about the character over the years.

Release date. ComicBook.com’s Scott Johnson and his sources theorize that Disney could make Episode VII the first Star Wars movie not come out in May, since Avengers 2 is currently slated for May 1, 2015. I am beyond skeptical.

Hasbro and Disney. MSN Money takes a detailed look at the rumor that Disney is in talks to buy the toymaker, while CNBC analyst David Faber said that Hasbro is denying it.

On a lark… Entertainment Weekly takes inspiration from other franchises.

Entertainment Weekly’s Geoff Boucher has a ‘highly placed source’ claiming that “Harrison is open to the idea of doing the movie and he’s upbeat about it…” But he also theorizes – on the force of Ford’s history with the role – that he may require a ‘a mandatory death scene’ for the character.

Ford hasn’t been particularly enthusiastic about Solo in recent years (Boucher runs through the quotes) but there are a few things – like Kathleen Kennedy – that might lure Ford back as well. Either way, I’m not sure we can expect to see anything on the record from Ford until he’s promoting his next movie!

From the maker of forty inspirational speeches in 2 minutes, for the mush-lovers

What if Harrison Ford never actually saw the Indiana Jones films until now? That’s the premise of this video, which mashes up a video of Harrison Ford playing the adventure game Uncharted 3 (filmed for a Japanese commercial for the video game).

It was rumored several weeks back that the producers of the Ender’s Game movie were pursuing Harrison Ford to play Colonel Hyram Graff, and today it’s been confirmed that he’s signed on for the role.

The adaption of Orson Scott Card’s well-known novel, which will star Hugo’s Asa Butterfield as Ender, has been in the works for years – soon after The Phantom Menace, Jake Lloyd was being considered for the lead.

While at the 30th anniversary screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Steven Spielberg talked a bit about the early development of Indiana Jones by him and his friend George Lucas, their friendship, about the restoration of Raiders of the Lost Ark (for eventual Blu-ray release), and being hopeful for Indy V.

When Harrison Ford came out, he said he’s up for a fifth time as Indiana Jones, and thinks the key is expanding the audience’s understanding of the character. Also, Harrison Ford in Jurassic Park? Spielberg offered the role of Alan Grant to him.

Rounding out their coverage, the LA Times also did a retrospective on the Raiders of the Lost Ark toys from the 1980s.

EDIT: While Spielberg commented that the newly cleaned up version of Raiders of the Lost Ark that they were screening was going to be eventually used for the Blu-ray and he noted that that Blu-ray release would not have any changes from the 1981 theatrical release, Spielberg later commented that he regrets making changes to E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial for its 20th Anniversary DVD, saying, “I realized what I had done was I had robbed people who loved E.T. of their memories of E.T.”

He went on to say that the E.T. Blu-ray would be the original 1982 theatrical version, and not contain the unpopular 2002 revisions, such as digitally replacing police guns with walkie-talkies.

Billy Dee Williams shared his insight with El Paso’s What’s Up Weekly about Lucas’ modifications to the original trilogy, and his relationship with the character of Lando Calrissian, and with Colt 45 commercials. On parodying Lando in Robot Chicken:

“I make fun of myself, so why shouldn’t I make fun of Lando? It worked, and the fact that I can make fun of it means it worked. And people enjoy it. When I do Seth Green’s Robot Chicken, I enjoy doing that stuff. It’s a lot of fun for me, and it keeps the character alive.”

Meanwhile, Carrie Fisher has mentioned that maybe she’ll don Princess Leia’s metal bikini once again, with one condition:

“I will do it if a whole bunch of women over 40 come to Yankee Stadium. We’ll put everyone in metal bikinis, and we will sit around and laugh and talk about the old days when we ate a lot.”

Harrison Ford revealed that he no longer sees people as fans, but as customers, and that “I don’t see myself as a sex symbol these days.”

Star Wars in sports: We know that one of George Lucas’ daughters, Katie, has followed her father’s footsteps in writing for The Clone Wars, but what of Amanda Lucas? She’s a MMA cage fighter, and gets the win in a recent bout in Japan (complete with Yoda-speak headline).

Star Wars in politics: Part of a headline from Talking Points Memo: Rick Perry’s Star Wars Problem: Apparently, it’s Al Gore. Meanwhile, on The Colbert Report, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice compares September in the United Nations to the Mos Eisley Cantina – do they both have a pesky no-droids-allowed policy?

We’ve got the entertainment, sports, and politics covered. Stay tuned for Star Wars in weather and traffic.

I heart prequels: What makes the prequels so great? International House of Geek picks their top ten great things from the Star Wars prequels, from the Jedi Order to the score to battle scenes to Ewan McGregor. Not quite sharing the love (though sharing a few favorites), one of Tor’s bloggers picks five great things from the prequels, and five classic trilogy fizzles. Over at Big Shiny Robot, Bryan makes the case that Episodes I-III are more liked than is generally thought.

The soft side of the Force: Check out these plush Star Wars characters and these crochet granny square TIE Fighters.

This Artoo unit has a sweet motivator: Two times the R2-D2! Check out this remote controlled LEGO Artoo and place an order for a custom knitted R2-D2 sweater.

The planet that it’s farthest from: A war photojournalist visits some of the Star Wars filming sites in Tunisia this summer, and comes across the Mos Espa set, Owens farm, Jawa rock and more.

Making the lists: General Grievous pops up in io9′s list of computer generated characters that actually look cool, Darth Vader is on Total Film’s list of horrible movie bosses (Hey, if your boss chokes you on the job and you die, there’s no workman’s comp claim!). And of course, Jabba the Hutt makes Andrew Liptak’s list of sci-fi gangsters not to mess with.

Who’s scruffy looking? Ewan McGregor’s facial hair in Revenge of the Sith (along with the beards of Harrison Ford, Samuel L. Jackson and Ian McKellan) gets rated on The Men of Whisker Wars Rate Famous Screen Facial Hair.

Speaking of beards, Sunday is the Star Wars Day at the San Francisco Giants ballgame, where the cool giveaway is a three-sided statue of Brian “Fear the Beard” Wilson in carbonite, a more traditional Han Solo in carbonite and a Giants / Star Wars logo.