Club Jade

Ponders. Christian Blauvelt asks eight Star Wars authors (Drew Karpyshyn, Paul Kemp, Troy Denning, John Jackson Miller, James Luceno, Michael Reaves, Christie Golden and Aaron Allston) what they’d like to see in Episode VII and the other new films. Lots of love for the EU and female characters, naturally, which is more than I can say for most of the other wishlists that have been popping up daily.

Spin-offs. Ewan McGregor continues to voice his willingness to return as Obi-Wan. “I don’t know what he did in the desert,” he tells MTV. “We could make up some stuff.”

Superfans. Kevin Smith is (still) very excited. Though his casting for a young Han Solo is… the worst I’ve seen yet. Hopefully for the LULZ.

Video. J.J. Abrams D.I.C.E keynote speech.

Finally, a surprise!

Director and fanboy extraordinaire Kevin Smith will be heading to Orlando for Celebration, The Orlando Sentinel reports.

“I took my fandom of ‘Star Wars’ and kind of made it one of the cornerstones of what I do,” Smith said Thursday. Mentions of the films were worked into “Clerks” and “Mallrats,” two early Smith films.

“It kind of became expected that anytime I was making a flick there would be some sort of ‘Star Wars’ joke or reference,” said Smith, 41. “I kept it up for a long, long time.”

Smith will be hosting “An Evening with Kevin Smith” on Thursday, August 23rd at the Orange County Convention Center. Tickets (which, yes, will have to be purchased separately) will go on sale to current attendees on Monday. (via)

UPDATED: The Ticketmaster page for the event (Thanks to Justin!) gives it a starting time of 7pm. The TFN/FanForce Party is the same night, at 8pm. Will Kevin Smith speak until midnight? If so, there’s a choice to be made…

Scientists have discovered what appears to be an Earth-like planet in the Epsilon Eridani System.  For those not insanely focused on Star Trek trivia, this would be the system that is home to one Mr. Spock of Vulcan.

In the more geeky movie news, actor Chris Pine is apparently going to spare us the William Shatner imitation in the upcoming film.  (Thank goodness.)

And in other news to help us all sleep easy, uber-geek Kevin Smith has seen the film and is giving it glowing reviews.

IGN lists their top ten cool Star Wars nerds. Honorees include Conan O’Brien, Seth Green, Kevin Smith, Samuel L. Jackson and… Oh, screw it, go read.

In other list news, Princess Leia’s buns top movie hairdo poll, beating out Marge Simpson, Audrey Herburn and John Travolta. That, my friends, is cultural permanence.

Apparently Kevin Smith’s quest to be the busiest man in geekdom has fallen apart.

SyFy Portal reports that the director was unable to make his schedule sync with the show’s production schedule.

Now who’s going to stick up for the contractors in the fleet?

‘Tis the season for fun TV announcements. Is it the fall season yet?

- Ripper has supposedly passed one more small hurdle towards becoming reality
- Kevin Smith attempts to cover all branches of geekdom by directing an episode of Battlestar Galactica, an episode of Heroes: Origins, and the pilot for Reaper. Does the man ever sleep?
- David Tennant is staying with Dr. Who
- Genre actors get some props as scene-stealers
- And “Watch With Kristin” gets a sneak peek at some of the folks passing through the island on Lost

Stardust may not be out yet, but it’s certainly getting its share of hype. It’s currently getting a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes (from only five reviews, granted) but Neil Gaiman is everywhere.

Really, there ought to be a band

• Speaking of the giants of modern geekdom, Entertainment Weekly snagged the Spocks, Chris Carter and Joss Whedon.

• Sam Raimi to helm Clash of the Titans remake? I’m not sure how I feel about that. Aside from the whole ‘how dare they remaked the crap classics of my childhood’ thing. CLAYMATION FOREVER!
• More viral marketing for The Dark Knight: Rent-A-Clown.
• IGN talks to Wall-E director Andrew Stanton.
• Kevin Costner is still defending Water World. Dude, let it go.
• Pirates 3 DVD details.
• Totally random rumour from Hong Kong: Natalie Portman and Jet Li making Snow White action flick?
• In Portman news that might actually have a chance of being real, the supposed poster for The Other Boleyn Girl. Let’s hope Scarlett Johansson’s English accent has improved since The Prestige.

Videos du jour

• Kevin Smith responds to SDCC jackass.

• On a more positive note, the teaser trailer for Back to the Future is surprisingly palatable for its era.

Ryan vs Dorkman 2. Always two there are… an internet phenomenon and a sequel. The first one stood as the crème de la crème of the copious ‘fanboys with lightsabers’ genre, and this new one is pretty good, too. It even has funny, but does get a tad graphic (for Star Wars) towards the end.

• Beagle. Snoopy in the Battle of Yavin? Why not?

• Kevin Smith got made a Friend of the 501st at NYCC.
• Galaxies music video: Ice Ice Baby. Are stormtroopers dancing never not funny? I don’t want to know.
• Lightsaber battle montage.

The highlight of this week’s Youtube adventure was the entire Kevin Smith hosted episode of Party for Five, featuring Jason Lee, Stan Lee, Mark Hamill and JJ Abrams: part I, part II, part III. Part II is where the Star Wars stuff is: Hamill also talks about his Batman voice work in the third. I suggest watching the whole thing, though.

I love Kevin Smith movies, but this scene is the only part of Chasing Amy you’ll ever need to see. And I still haven’t seen Clerks 2, but here’s the Star Wars vs. Lord of the Rings scene (with Marshall from Alias!) And, what the hell – I know you want to see Cocknocker. Or just go for the digest version. If you need me to tell you that none of these clips should be watched in mundane public due to language, please turn in your geek card.

Joel Siegel, the movie critic for Good Morning America, hissyfits himself out of a Clerks II screening. Kevin Smith rips him a new one. Amazingly enough, Siegel apologizes.

For less angry, check out this clip of Smith talking about his Superman Reborn experience.