Club Jade

Hitfix’s Drew McWeeny has posted the last part of his series about introducing Star Wars to his kids, Return of the Jedi. (Previously.)

Sunday reader. Using the Blu-rays, Hitfix’s Drew McWeeny is showing the Star Wars movies to his two sons for the first time. It’s a great story (they’ve seen Clone Wars but nothing else) and probably one of the best articles (and certainly the most detailed) that I’ve read on kid’s reactions to the saga. In order: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, The Phantom Menace, Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith, with the Return of the Jedi entry coming on Thursday. A great read, whether you’ve shown the movies to kids yet or not.

Occupy Coruscant? Twitter’s favorite minions of evil, Death Star PR, takes time out of their busy planet-blasting schedule to debunk Luke Skywalker’s assertion that he is part of the 99%.

Kids. A Yoda backpack helped one flower girl make it down the aisle. (via)

People. Watch Mark Hamill in the opening of Friday’s Chuck premiere.

Spoofs. The Jedi Church. Literally. Well, spoofily.

The official Youtube account now has scenes from each movie in HD. I’m not embedding them because you have to go directly to Youtube to select the HD version (Example in the screenshout above.) Check them out: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

There’s a new extra posted as well: A feature on the Acklay creature from Attack of the Clones. That’s available in HD as well, but there’s an embed under the cut. (more…)

The teaser gives some glimpses at cut scenes and other extras. Teases!

Publisher John Wiley & Sons is compliling a book that will explore parallels between world history and the movies, the New York Times reports.

“George Lucas is a history buff, and his fascination with history greatly influenced the plot and themes explored in the Star Wars universe,” Connie Santisteban, associate editor for general interest books at Wiley, wrote in an e-mail. “Being able to work closely with Mr. Lucas on this and other books will give fans an inside look at the real science, history and political science that informed ‘Star Wars’ while also providing readers with an educational tool.”

The book is being compiled by history professors Nancy Reagin and Janice Liedl, who have done books in the same vein about Harry Potter and Twilight. (I wonder if it goes anything like this. Minus the snark and animated GIFs, naturally.) The book even has Lucasfilm’s blessing, says a spokewoman, including Lucas’ “notes and input.”

Wiley will also produce additional books focusing on “science and politics within the Star Wars saga.”

Image: Parque sulfúrico by Jozelui. Used under the Creative Commons license BY-NC 2.0.

Jackson Crawford is ‘translating’ the Star Wars saga from Old Norse. Here’s a sample from the introduction:

Víga-Óbívan waits for Lúkr to attain manhood, and by now is himself an old man. When young Lúkr follows some lost sheep onto Víga-Óbívan’s property and is attacked by his retainers, Víga-Óbívan defends him and later tells Lúkr (who in a dream has been given his father’s byname, “himingangari,” by a dís, but is unaware that his father also bore it), that Lúkr’s father Anakinn was slain by Veiðari, the great captain of King Falfaðinn of Kóruskantborg.

It seems seems to be ongoing, and currently up to Chapter 6.

“Contrary to what you’ve just seen, war is neither glamorous nor fun. There are no winners; only losers. There are no good wars, with the following exceptions: the American Revolution, World War II, and the Star Wars Trilogy. If you’d like to learn more about war, there’s lots of books in your local library, many of them with cool gory pictures.”

I doubt this Bart Simpson quote is what they had in mind, but Spike TV is celebrating the ultimate result of the first with an airing of the third next weekend. Which is to say, look for a Star Wars movie to air each night leading up to July 4 – beginning tonight at 6pm with The Phantom Menace.

In their ongoing quest to air anything but actual music, MTV will be showing all six Star Wars movies throughout the holiday weekend. (Hey, at least it’s not The Hills!) According to StarWars.com, it will go thusly:

• Saturday, May 23: The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.

• Sunday, May 24: Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
• Memorial Day, Monday, May 25: The Empires Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Check MTV’s schedule (in EST) or your local listings for times.

Our pal the Stooge gets his parenting meta hat on to explore the Good and Bad Fathers and Good and Bad Mothers of Star Wars… with a bookend surprise! (It’s also his birthday!)

Slashfilm came across a fan-made poster that spans the entire saga. I’m usually not a huge fan of the collage aesthetic, but I gotta admit this one is pretty nifty.

NEWS

• This week saw the release of Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga – and yesterday the game’s developer, TT Games, was purchased by Warner Brothers. Guess all that hard Wiisaber work paid off.

• The Discovery returned safely to Earth on Wednesday – presumably with lightsaber intact.
• Fan compiles relevant screenshots from The Clone Wars videos on StarWars.com.
• BBC interviews ANH prop hauler.

FANDOM

• Humor site Aniboom casts U.S. primary candidates and assorted other political types in Star Wars roles. It’s… about what you’d expect. Meh.

• Know A Legion: Neon City Garrison.

BOOKS

• TOS interviews Dick DeBartolo, who penned (all? some of? most?) Mad’s Star Wars film spoofs.

• McClatchy review of The Star Wars Vault.

HYPERSPACE

• On Hyperspace, the Insider #96 online supplement.

• You can now add a StarWars.com app to your Facebook account.