Club Jade

Here’s an official video featuring last weekend’s the Return of the Jedi event… Time to play spot James! Can you find him? Hint: He speaks!

Oh, and I think that pretty much confirms the 30th logo, no?

We enter a month-long celebration of all things Star Wars, but first we had to get the puns out of the way… Last week, we celebrated May the 4th, Revenge of the 5th, #IgerWatch and so much more…

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There was plenty to behold for the 30th anniversary screening of Return of the Jedi at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood as part of Entertainment Weekly’s first CapeTown Film Festival. Held on Star Wars Day, May the Fourth, the set of four screenings of the no-longer-final installment of the Star Wars saga brought out fans and celebs alike. With Jedi being my favorite Star Wars film, I was stoked to see it again on the big screen – twice! While we’ve already covered the news of Mark Hamill’s appearance after the evening screenings, there’s plenty more to share, including a visit from The Clone Wars cast and more! (Also check out my full photo album on Flickr!)

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Mark Hamill was the surprise guest at Entertainment Weekly’s CapeTown Film Festival after the Return of the Jedi screening tonight. And naturally there’s already video of him talking about the droids and doing a Harrison Ford impression.

Here are reports from IGN’s Eric Goldman and AICN’s Eric Vespe. He’s talking about him and Carrie being in Episode VII like it’s a done deal. (He hasn’t talked to Ford recently.) From Goldman’s article:

After the crowd cheered this statement, Hamill added, “That’s what the challenge is, is to try and meet expectations of what you guys want. I think there’s nothing wrong with CGI, but I think you have to have a balance, because the camera perceives the width and the depth and the weight – even if it’s a miniature model, the camera just realizes that. So when you have too much CGI and the clouds are CGI and the trees are CGI and the buildings are CGI, you’re getting to a point where the figure in the shot is like a hybrid of an animated film and live-action. And I want it to have an organic look so that we don’t get into Roger Rabbit territory.” He then added, with a laugh, “But I don’t imagine that the priority is what I want!”

He talked about how he believes to focus of the new films will be the next generation, and that his role will be more Obi-wanesque: “Heavy on the Jedi mind tricks, less on the lightsaber duels.”

Vespe stuck around for the second Q&A, where Hamill got asked about the Expanded Universe:

Hamill has never read any of the books or other extended universe stuff. “People say to me, “Dude, you’re married to Mara Jade! She’s smokin’ hot!” I go, “That would have been nice if they had thought of that when I was actually involved! You know, because it’s the ultimate good news/bad news joke. The good news is there’s an attractive woman in the universe, only one, the bad news is she’s your sister.”

Read both recaps – Hamill says we probably know more than he does about VII at this point, but he does still manage to talk quite a bit. Enjoy it while you can… And hope we get an official announcement soon!

UPDATE: Here’s a full video of one of the talks, thanks to Jason Ward!

We had a minor explosion on Twitter tonight as a few tweets sparked rumors that Bob Iger and George Lucas were on hand at Disney’s Hollywood Studios for a ‘major’ Star Wars announcement. And thus Disney and Star Wars fans began using the hashtag #Igerwatch for their guesses and hopes…

Of course, TFN contacted Lucasfilm, who denied the whole thing. And so it was. The projected time of 9:45 p.m. came and went and the fireworks were strictly localized. Just another fun night on the internet!

Now our only hope for a big event-driven Star Wars announcement today is on the west coast, as the later screenings of Return of the Jedi at Entertainment Weekly’s CapeTown Film Festival commence. StarWars.com has already posted one report from Hollywood…

Or, of course, there may be no announcement at all. Who knows? Not me, clearly. At least we’ll have something more than puns for the next Twitter roundup, though.

Hero Compex has an interview with Simon Kinberg, the Mr. & Mrs. Smith writer who’s penning one of the first two Star Wars standalone films as well as acting as a consultant on Episode VII.

It’s still too early for him to drop any news bombs on us (and he eludes the obligatory EU question) but he does talk at length about how the characters are what drives the films – and we learn that his favorite character is Han Solo, who has been rumored to be a possible subject for one of the spin-offs.

/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!

For May 4th, Suvudu is giving fans an excerpt of Crucible, the upcoming post-Fate of the Jedi novel by Troy Denning. The book will be out in hardcover on July 9th.

If that’s not quite your thing, they also have 50 pages of Tuesday’s new release Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void by Tim Lebbon.

Have a Kindle? Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire – the book that started the modern Expanded Universe! – is only $1.99 today. Buy it! Buy it like the wind! (Okay, Darth Plagueis, Path of Destruction and Tatooine Ghost are also $1.99 – and a bunch of comics are deeply discounted too – but trust me, it’s Heir to the Empire you should be voting for with your wallet buying.)

Due to pregame demand, the Toledo Mud Hens are allowing fans to order replicas of the Chewbacca jerseys they’ll be wearing this weekend for $79.95. You don’t even have to go to Toledo – you can pre-order one online, but there are only so many so act fast.

Game-worn player jerseys will be part of a silent auction over the weekend games. The auction proceeds will go to Read for Literacy and the Spina Bifida Association of Northwest Ohio.

The Force has conspired to have Free Comic Book Day on the same day as the big celebration of Star Wars on May the 4th. So hop on down to your local comic book shop and May the 4th be with you as you get your hands on this year’s free Star Wars comic by Brian Wood, featuring Darth Vader and Boba Fett. Also, Dark Horse Digital has two great super bundles for sale this weekend, with a preview of J. W. Rinzler’s The Star Wars.

At your shops for Free Comic Book Day, Dark Horse has two free comic books, each containing several stories, and the all-ages book has the 2013 Star Wars tale written by Brian Wood with art by Ryan Odagawa. Entitled ‘The Assassination of Darth Vader’, Darth Vader finds himself in the sights of someone who wants him out of the way, and collateral damage is no issue. But what is Boba Fett’s role in this plot? Put both of Dunc’s favorite characters into one story, and she’ll explode with delight! Note that this book has a flip cover: one side has the Star Wars artwork by Doug Wheatley, while the other side has the cover for the Avatar: The Last Airbender story (and in the middle is a preview story for the upcoming Captain Midnight series).
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