Roundup: Filoni talks Maul, Savage, Ahsoka and The Clone Wars S5

TCW: The Wrong JediCartoons. StarWars.com has continues their Dave Filoni interview. It focuses on The Clone Wars S5. (Part 1 dropped a few weeks ago.)

One year on. Here are a few more flashbacks to the big announcement last year: I spent that evening talking it over the buyout/Episode VII announcement with Tosche Station’s Bryan and Nanci. (Please don’t tell me if I said anything dumb.) And here’s the special edition tweet roundup.

Retro. Alas, the lawyers caught up with the Star Wars blooper reel, but check out these two other great behind-the-scenes pics that (I suspect) originate from the enhanced Making of eBooks: A different angle on Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford during the medal ceremony and Mark Hamill gets meditative (or just bored) during the filming of Return of the Jedi.

Also on Tumblr. Artist Jeff Bennett improves the sentimental schlock of Thomas Kincade by adding Star Wars; The Stooge tackles the top ten soon-to-be-confirmed Star Wars rumors and a great pair of homemade Artoo and Threepio costumes.

Out this week: The Clone Wars S5 and complete series box set, Star Wars Art: Concept

The Clone Wars S5 box setThe Clone Wars fans are having a good couple days – we got some Rebels details Saturday, Friday Dave Filoni announced that The Clone Wars’ remaining episodes will be seen early next year, and tomorrow sees the release of season 5 and a complete series box set on Blu-ray and DVD.

If the cartoon isn’t your thing, Pacific Rim..! Wait, no, Star Wars Art: Concept is also dropping. There’s a deluxe version for the collectors.

Our next Star Wars release is something something bounty hunters from Daniel Wallace, Ryder Windham and Jason Fry on October 27th (a Sunday?) followed by a ‘reasonably priced’ version of Frames on the 29th.

(But seriously, Pacific Rim, guyspacific-rim500)

The Clone Wars S5, complete series box set coming to Blu-ray/DVD Oct. 15

The Clone Wars S5 box setAs predicted, The Clone Wars season 5 DVD and Blu-rays and a full-series box set were announced at Celebration Europe today. The S5 sets will have all 20 episodes, plus two as director’s cuts. Suggested retail is $59.97 for Blu-ray and $49.98 for DVD.

The complete S1-5 box set, dubbed a ‘Collector’s Edition,’ has a suggested retail of $149.99 for Blu-ray and $119.98 for DVD.

Both sets will be out October 15.

And for further details from the panel at Celebration, head to Star Wars Underworld.

Rumor: No Clone Wars bonus content on upcoming DVD/Blu-rays, annoucement coming Friday

Hondo and Obi-wan

Rebelforce Radio says they’ve heard that neither of The Clone Wars DVD and Blu-ray sets that were spotted on French Amazon earlier this month will not contain the much-anticipated ‘bonus content.’ The sets, expected out in mid-October, include both S5 and a complete series box set. RFR also says that the complete series set comes with a book, Obi-wan will be featured on the cover of S5, and that we’ll be getting a formal announcement on Friday.

But RFR goes on to say that there won’t be an announcement regarding the bonus content anytime soon. One can hope this means that the stuff will eventually get a much more significant play than as mere special features. But given that near-rabid interest in it from some corners of fandom, the state of the bonus content is sure to come up sometime this weekend at one of Celebration Europe’s Clone Wars panels… I’d be very surprised if hint or two isn’t dropped at some point.

Or maybe I’m just sick of typing ‘bonus content.’

Report: Last season of The Clone Wars out on Blu-ray/DVD in October?

Jedi News spotted a post by French fansite Hoth Bricks, who noticed that preorders for The Clone Wars Season 5 Blu-ray and DVD sets are currently live on Amazon France with a release date of October 16. It seems likely that they would be out that same week here in the U.S… I’d say the chances of us getting a release date announcement at Celebration Europe – along with any other The Clone Wars information – is more likely than ever.

There’s also a complete series set (Blu-ray/DVD) scheduled for the same date.

Celebration Europe to screen director’s cut of The Clone Wars S5’s Darth Maul arc

Fans at Celebration Europe will have the chance to see a special directors cut of the Darth Maul arc from season five of The Clone Wars, Reed annouced today. There’ll be Friday and Saturday screenings of the recut arc, which features the episodes “Revival,” “Eminence,” “Shades of Reason,” and “The Lawless.”

There will also be a ‘Secrets of Star Wars: The Clone Wars‘ panel with Dave Filoni held Friday on Pablo Hidalgo’s Behind-The-Scenes Stage.

The Clone Wars wins Daytime Emmys for Best Animated Show and David Tennant’s guest spot

The 40th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards - Press Room

The Clone Wars brought home the gold at the Daytime Emmys, presented over this past weekend, taking home two awards: Outstanding Special Class Animated Program, and Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for David Tennant as the voice of Huyang, the droid who mentors Jedi younglings in constructing lightsabers.

At the main Daytime Emmy presentation on Sunday, Carrie Fisher presented the Animated Program award to George Lucas, Dave Filoni, Cary Silver and Athena Portillo for the Animated Program win. Fisher did slip in reference to dropping acid, while George had his own slip of the tongue.

David Tennant’s award was given out on Friday at the Creative Arts presentation and Dave Filoni remarked on Tennant’s tenure on Doctor Who as a reason to cast him as the droid: “I absolutely loved what David Tenant was doing on Doctor Who. There was such a quizzical nature to his character, a sense of whimsy, but he could still get very powerful emotion out of the character — a lot of intensity, a lot of anger — just an incredible display of range.”

After switching to Saturday mornings for its final season, The Clone Wars was eligible for Daytime Emmys and earned seven nominations after the show’s cancellation.

The Clone Wars earns seven daytime Emmy nominations

Hondo and Obi-wan

Despite being cancelled, Star Wars: The Clone Wars has earned seven Emmy nominations for daytime entertainment. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences released the list of daytime Emmy nominations today, and The Clone Wars picked up nominations in several categories, giving Cartoon Network 7 out of its 11 nominations:

  • Outstanding Special Class Animated Program for George Lucas, Executive Producer; Cary Silver, Producer; and Athena Portillo, Line Producer (alongside Dan Vs. and The Legend of Korra)
  • Three nominations for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program: Jim Cummings (for voicing Hondo Ohnaka), David Tennant (for voicing Huyang), and Sam Witwer (for voicing Darth Maul) – taking up half the nominations in this category!
  • Outstanding Directing in an Animated Program for Supervising Director Dave Filoni and Directors Kyle Dunlevy, Brian Kalin O’Connell, Steward Lee, & Bosco Ng (against Dan Vs., The Legend of Korra, The Penguins of Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness
  • Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for Composer Kevin Kiner
  • Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing – Animation for David Acord, Re-Recording Mixer & Cameron Davis, Dialogue Recordist

Just putting it all into perspective: The top nominated show was The Young and the Restless with 23 nominations, and Sesame Street picked up 17 nominations, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show earned 10. But when compared to other animated shows, The Clone Wars is tied at the top with Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness with seven each. And a shout out to Cash Cab for its two nominations – woohoo!

Let’s hope that The Clone Wars takes home some Emmy gold in June, when the winners are announced.

Confirmed: Lucasfilm Animation to ‘wind down’ The Clone Wars, postpone Detours, planning new series

TCW

StarWars.com has confirmed yesterday’s report, more or less. Lucasfilm Animation is going to “pursue a new direction in animated programming.” This is intriguing:

We are exploring a whole new Star Wars series set in a time period previously untouched in Star Wars films or television programming. You can expect more details in the months to come.

As for The Clone Wars, they’re going to “wind down the series,” and continue production on “new Clone Wars story arcs.” So sounds like we haven’t seen the last of the series, even as it’s ending.

TCW-dave-filoni-6announceLooking at the announcement closely, they don’t call the “wind down” season six, but instead call it “bonus content” which means that probably we may not see the entire season’s worth of episodes, but simply several story arcs that are either the best material or the ones already furthest in the pipeline.

In the announcement, there’s a video with Dave Filoni discussing the future of the show, saying “the best is yet to come”, and brings out a long video clip of an upcoming story arc that focuses on clone programming, Order 66, and the return of the spidery Admiral Trench.

TCW-6-trench-66

As for Detours:

Detours was conceived and produced before we decided to move forward with the new Star Wars trilogy, and in the wake of that decision, Lucasfilm has reconsidered whether launching an animated comedy prior to the launch of Episode VII makes sense. As a result, we’ve decided to postpone the release of Detours until a later date.

Well, not going to cry over that one, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see whatever’s been completed pop up as specials somewhere.