Club Jade

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

I am an admitted non-fan of the prequel trilogy; I’ve never claimed otherwise. I’m not going to now.

But folks: It’s time to get over the prequels.

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StarWars.com has confirmed that the 3-D releases of Episodes II and III have been “postponed.” The entire statement is:

Lucasfilm has decided to postpone this fall’s scheduled release of Star Wars Episodes II and III in 3D. Given the recent development that we are moving forward with a new Star Wars trilogy, we will now focus 100 percent of our efforts on Star Wars: Episode VII in order to ensure the best possible experience for our fans. We will post further information about our 3D release plans at a later date.

While fans saw some of the scenes from Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith in 3D at Celebration VI, so far no work on converting the original trilogy to 3D had been announced. Will the focus on the sequel trilogy mean that plans for their 3D release are also “postponed” or do they factor into the hype for the sequels?

The story was first broken by Nikki Finke at Deadline.

I’d have a hard time getting worked up about this one. Sure, the scenes from AOTC at Celebration were neat, but just as a curiosity. I certainly would have liked to see the Original Trilogy in 3D next year, but perhaps Lucasfilm being cautious about flooding the market – and with a new movie in the pipeline, there’ll be more than enough press and interest in the franchise to go around.

Or, in other words: Congratulations, Spike TV! You enjoy the rights to those movies as long as Lucasfilm (and/or 20th Century Fox?) is contractually obligated to let you have them.

Revenge of the Sith 3D has a new release date, 20th Century Fox announced this week. Attack of the Clones is still set for its original date of September 20, 2013, but Revenge of the Sith has been moved up from October 11 to October 4, putting only two weeks between the rereleases.

AOTC will have some sisterly competition from The Little Mermaid 3D, which comes out only a week before, while ROTS will be facing Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and the Harrison Ford thriller Paranoia.

UPDATE: Lucasfilm has confirmed the date move.

Literally just announced at the Closing Ceremonies here at Celebration VI: Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith in 3D will be released mere weeks apart next year, and the second Celebration Europe will be held in Germany, also next year.

Attack of the Clones 3D will come out on September 20, 2013, followed by Revenge of the Sith 3D on October 11, 2013! Fans in the Closing Ceremonies got to see clips of both films.

Also announced is the second Celebration in Europe: It’ll be July 26-28, 2013 at the Messe Essen in Essen, Germany. I bet the Belgian modelmakers are relieved!

We continue to march on with the Club Jade Tumblr, gathering 130 followers this week and averaging about 3 posts a day. Here are some highlights since the last time we checked in.

A Death Star II made out of a ping-pong ball. Recycling!

Nick Fury’s flashback; A seamless integration of Revenge of the Sith and The Avengers; A passage from Matt Stover’s Revenge of the Sith novelization gets GIFed.

How one of the most iconic scenes in Empire came from a ‘terrible decision.’

And, of course, lots of Star Wars art: An Artoo and Threepio/Bert and Ernie mashup; Star Wars, 40′s style; The Wizard of Oz reimagined in China.

With The Phantom Menace 3D out this weekend, Entertainment Weekly checked in with the man behind Jar Jar Binks, Ahmed Best, who gave his thoughts on the Gungan’s diminished role in Episode III. Best also mentioned a scene cut filmed but cut from the finished version of Revenge of the Sith where Supreme Chancellor Palpatine takes a walk with Representative Binks:

“And Palpatine kind of thanks Jar Jar for putting him in power. It’s a really interesting scene, and it shows the evolution of Jar Jar from this fun-loving kid’s character into this manipulated politician. And it was an interesting arc for the character that I thought could have been explored, because the scene is really dark. But it just didn’t fit in the movie, which I understand. But yeah, George’s take on it is Jar Jar is now just a politician.”

Here’s an interesting tidbit from the Wall Street Journal‘s Deal Journal blog: The Las Vegas Mob Experience, a museum devoted to organized crime, filed for bankruptcy on Monday – and Star Wars seems to be one reason why. A real estate developer used money from the mob museum to fund (no joking) Order 66 Entertainment LLC, which was created to bring the Where Science meets Imagination exhibit to Vegas.

Seriously, how often do you see Revenge of the Sith cited on a non-LFL legal document?

A new extra? On a weekend? Alrighty then.

This new behind-the-scenes video went up today.