Club Jade

Yes, Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, is now on Twitter as @HamillHimself. (And yes, it’s been confirmed.) You can’t say he doesn’t have excellent timing!

As soon as I hit the button on this post, I’m off to add him to our Twitter guide, which already includes several Star Wars pros and alumni like Carrie Fisher (@CarrieFFisher) and Anthony Daniels (@ADaniels3PO.)

Santa Maul would be well amiss if he did not pay tribute to the Joker this holiday season. He has it on good authority that Batman does indeed have a tendency to smell worse than a 501st changing room after a warm-weather march.

Santa Maul is also sure that he should be linking to Rebelscum’s holiday gift guide. He assumes most of you will be quite aware of these items already, but would rather not be pestered by that gangly social media elf of theirs.

The con is over, but with so much going on there’s still a lot of coverage coming out from StarWars.com and the fans. (Like the video above.) Here are a few highlights

• The ForceCast did several shows at Celebration, but you don’t want to miss the one where they interview Mark Hamill.

• Ben Burtt talks The Sounds of Star Wars
• Video: Time-lapse of Eric Maruscak’s Clone Wars chalk mural.
• A recap of Bryan Young’s wildly popular ‘Why We Love the Prequels’ panel.
• See all the happy couples who tok the time to get (non-legally) hitched at the Commitment Chapel. (Yes, Lucas Online’s Bonnie Burton does explain why she married R2-D2.)
• Video: A very Disney Last Tour to Endor.
• Miss out on a print? StarWarsShop has some left!
• Were you at the Fandom 140 panel? Did you tweet at the panel? You may be a winner!

Your moment of zen: “I was sitting in the middle of the Force Unleashed 2 panel when I saw you from across the room.”

Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios created a fantastic evening with their Last Tour to Endor party, commemorating the last day of the Star Tours attraction. Fans were treated to their final rides on the Starspeeder 3000 before it closed for a revamp as well as some unique other experiences.

The Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular hosted a one-night-only special mashup show called “Raiders of the Lost Jedi Temple of Doom” where two fan film makers combine Indiana Jones and Star Wars in making the ultimate fan film. Special cameo performances were made in the three shows by such stars as Seth Green, Mark Hamill, Warwick Davis, Anthony Daniels, Jaime King, and Jeremy Bulloch. George Lucas attended the second show, where Seth Green announced that Anthony Daniels would be voice acting in the third Robot Chicken Star Wars special.

Also brought out was some shows from Star Wars weekends: the Jedi Academy training and the Star Wars dance contest. The evening was capped off by a supremely awesome fireworks show set to Star Wars music. “Duel of the Fates” and the assault on the Death Star were my favorites.

The guest list is growing longer: Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) will join Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels and plenty of other original trilogy castmates in Orlando for the convention that celebrates the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back. In the actor’s first U.S. Celebration experience, he’ll appear on the Celebration Stage and sign autographs.

Hamill will be directing an adaption of the 1996 comic he co-wrote with Eric Johnson.

“It’s kind of daunting,” said Hamill, 58, who previously directed a straight-to-video movie but is making his first try at the big screen. “The pendulum swings from great confidence to what did I get myself into? But I want to. This is going to be really a culmination of years and years of wish fulfillment on my part.”

His previous directing effort, the straight-to-DVD Comic Book: The Movie was fairly well-received (at least as I recall) and may even have featured a CJer (or two?) They hope to begin shooting on Black Pearl next year.

George’s zen. George Lucas gave a resounding “whatever” to the whole PT vs. OT matter the other night, and apparently a grown man acting like an adult about the subject is something shocking. Oh, internet. (If only he’d worn that ‘Han Shots First’ shirt!) Also, he was on NPR’s Fresh Air.

Another shocker. PC Zone asked Mark Hamill why he’s never voiced Luke Skywalker in a video game. Turns out? He’s never been asked. But then, hasn’t the quality and cachet of video games grown quite a bit since the last time (ever?) LucasArts did anything that featured Luke as more than a cameo…?

Presented without comment. Christopher Lee is making a symphonic metal concept album.

Just deal with it, boys. I thought April Fools had come early when I heard that Diablo Cody is adapting the Sweet Valley High series for the big screen. (It is indeed for real. There goes one of my jokes for next year.) Of course, the reaction has been mixed. And we can take solace in the fact that Cody is keeping the series in its proper time period – the 80′s. In any case, it’s only Sweet Valley High, and they’ve never exactly been classic anything.

• Mark Hamill is not in Zombieland. Because really, once one has spoofed their most famous role in the form of a character called the Cocknocker, everything else in that vein is just kind of downhill.

• Stephanie Meyer’s other property. Her science fiction novel, The Host, will be adapted by Gattaca’s Andrew Niccol.
• Remakes rearing their ugly heads. Highlander and He-Man not as dead as we thought. DAMN IT. But at least we can be grateful for one thing:
• My eyes! My eyes! io9 unearthed some a test shot of Nicolas Cage from the late 90′s Superman movie that never got made, and it’s every bit as awful as you might expect.

Quality of Vector Prime aside, this was a sad day for Expanded Universe fans… I remember being surprised by it on the Sci-Fi Channel and being terribly embarrassment squicked. (My wariness of book trailers probably dates from that moment. Though things do seem to have improved.)

In any case, better now than later to introduce the Expanded Universe playlist at Youtube ClubJaders. Most of it is much less squicky than this, I promise.

While the theory and reasoning why are intriguing, according to the IMHFC, Mark Hamill is not voicing a Mandalorian leader in season two of ‘The Clone Wars’ or in the trailer for it.