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?

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!

USA Today has done a handful of stories celebrating May the 4th and previewing the 30th anniversary of Return of the Jedi on the 25th. They talked to Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Jeremy Bulloch and blogger Whitney Matheson got a visit from Chewbacca. And on that note, they want your best Chewbacca impression.

Back to ROTJ, Jalopnik has a peice on how they filmed the speeder chase.

Need to convert a friend? Amazon has the Original and Prequel trilogy box sets (but not the saga?) slightly more on sale than usual. And hey, you can alleviate at least some of your Episode VII fears with a discount on J.J.’s Star Trek, too!

And you can save 50% on a subscription to the Star Wars Insider tomorrow as well by using the promo code MAY4TW.

Events. In addition to Entertainment Weekly’s ROTJ screening and the Toledo Mud Hens, Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando will be celebrating, and Change.org is hosting a Star Wars screening in San Francisco.

Still not sure what you’re doing? Find a local May the 4th event on StarWars.com.

Entertainment Weekly has revealed the cover for J.W. Rinzler’s The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, along with 5 ‘unseen’ pics that are probably not all that unseen if you’ve been paying any attention throughout the years. (Though I admit the shot with Harrison Ford and George Lucas is not quite as familiar as the others.)

The book’s release date has also moved up a week to October 1!

In more upcoming upcoming releases, Hollywood.com has an excerpt and a look at the cover art process for next week’s novel Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void.

In his latest post on Star Wars mysteries, Pablo Hidalgo tracks down the origin of a Luke Skywalker hand prop with palm damage that was originally attributed to The Empire Strikes Back.

Sure, it’s a little fuzzy, but you get the idea… And there’s a distinct Return of the Jedi vibe, fitting with this year being the movie’s 30th. We’ll get a closer look when the new ornaments go live on Hallmark’s site. And as for the event exclusive for SDCC and NYCC? It’s the rancor!

Thanks to Rach for the picture, and we’ll let you know when Hallmark takes it all up for public viewing.

Because it’s Monday and Hondo is hung-over, check out this video that’s been going around: It’s all six Star Wars movies – or the first six, for those of you surfing in from the future – all played at once

StarWars.com has announced that there will be a special screening of Return of the Jedi at Entertainment Weekly’s CapeTown Film Festival in Hollywood on May 4th. The screening, held at the at the Egyptian Theatre where it premiered in 1983, is to celebrate the film’s 30th anniversary.

It’s clear that this is the thing that was teased by EW’s Geoff Boucher on Twitter, but I have to wonder what if there’s a big scoop is coming to the magazine itself to coincide with all this? Bigger than a ‘publishing announcement,’ even?

(Oh yes… and there will be ‘guests.’)

Star Wars Aficionado has stills of the three pilots – one of whom does appear in the movie, dubbed by a man – who appear on the Blu-rays. (via)