Club Jade

Records. The Guinness Book of World Records has named Samuel L. Jackson the world’s highest-grossing actor. His films – which include not only the prequels but other blockbusters like Jurassic Park, The Incredibles and Iron Man 2 – have brought in a staggering $7.42 billion dollars.

Strange saberfellows. Noel Gallagher of the band Oasis was a neighbor of Ewan McGregor when he got the part of Obi-Wan – and he was the first to teach Ewan how to fight with a lightsaber. “I just happened to have two of those lightsaber toys, so I said, ‘Come on – in the back garden.’”

Uh-oh. Peter Serafinowicz – the original voice of Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace – told Digital Spy that he didn’t think the film was very good. “”But it was certainly an extremely exciting thing to be a part of,” he goes on to say.

Technology. Learn a little more about Prime Focus, the company doing The Phantom Menace’s 3-D conversion, from India’s Economic Times

The Clone Wars now holds a Guinness World Record for the “highest rated sci-fi animation currently on television.” Behold the power of franchise! (Cynic alert: I don’t doubt that it’s true, but has that been a Guinness record before? And if so, what show held it last?) But the real thing you want to see is the official Season 3 trailer.

Oh, it’s on now, sparkles. Fandango’s advance ticket sales for New Moon, the second Twilight movie, have surpassed Revenge of the Sith’s record. I am resisting so many choking vs. c-section jokes right now, but mostly just thankful it wasn’t Transformers.

Oh honey, no. Someone decided that yesterday was World Wide Wookiee Life Day. Here concludes my obligatory mention of the Holiday Special for the season. Call me when Santa Maul wakes up, okay? (via)

Phone stuffs. A Trench Run game is now available in the iTunes store priced at $4.99 for those with compatible devices. (The lightsaber app is still free.) Meanwhile, those who possess a lesser device an LG Arena KM900 can get some custom Star Wars stuff, including a ringtone.

List. Star Wars is the indisputable champion of Geekdad’s top ten bad messages from good movies, at least if you don’t count Disney as a single entity.

At random. Yoda in the form of the new Twitter default icon.

The big news is The Force Unleashed demo shattering Xbox Live records with more than a million downloads. Count in the Playstation Network and it comes out to 2.3 million. Not too shabby…

• In the news: Star Wars lives on through games. Among other things… But certainly the games are where the interest is, at least online: The Secret Apprentice (under his spoilerific real name) has been among the most-visited pages on the Wookieepedia for a while now. (He’s currently #4, behind the main page, Anakin Skywalker, and lightsaber.) And those numbers don’t require a console.

• Interview: GalacticBinder talks to Haden Blackman.
• Wishful thinking: The game isn’t even out yet, and IGN is obsessing over a sequel. If that’s a bit far-fetched for you, they also have a look back at the history of Star Wars games.
• Concept art: The Death Star laser tube by Chin Ko, above.

The Dark Knight took in $18.5 million from its midnight release earlier this morning, breaking the $16.9 million record Revenge of the Sith set back in 2005. TDK’s 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. showings were not counted, but it’s sure to make a mint this weekend. Spider-Man 3 better watch his back…

UPDATE: Indeed, it took in $66.4 million Friday, breaking Spider-Man 3′s opening day record of $59.8.

Vader’s finest is the world’s “Largest Star Wars Costume Group” according to the 2008 Guinness Book of World Records.

Last month’s mega-con had more than 35,000 attendees, making it the biggest Celebration ever.

Line for CV starts here!

SpiderMan 3 has blasted the opening-weekend record of Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest and the worldwide record set by Revenge of the Sith.

Paul Ens reports that at least one of Revenge of the Sith’s box office records has survived Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. It still has the best five-day opening, and looks be be safe in a few other categories.

The double-punch of the Revenge of the Sith DVD and Battlefront II have generated $210 million dollars so far.

ETA: Records! Shattered!