Club Jade

Bleeding Cool has what they claim may be a casting breakdown for Episode VII. They’re pretty generic, no names:

Late-teen female, independent, good sense of humour, fit.

Young twenty-something male, witty and smart, fit but not traditionally good looking.

A late twentysomething male, fit, handsome and confident.

Seventy-something male, with strong opinions and tough demeanour. Also doesn’t need to be particularly fit.

A second young female, also late teens, tough, smart and fit.

Forty something male, fit, military type.

Thirtysomething male, intellectual. Apparently doesn’t need to be fit.

It apparently comes via casting site breakdownservices.com, per Schmoes Know, home of last week’s much-doubted Jacen and Jaina ‘scoop’. You know the drill, so let’s not take this at face value just quite yet.

At the Daytime Emmys the other day, George Lucas told Access Hollywood that he hasn’t spoken to J.J. Abrams about Episode VII yet.

I have not spoken to J.J. He’s been busy with Star Trek, and I’m sure that he’ll let me know when he’s got some questions. So, you know, that’s all going well. Kathy tells me it’s working out great.

He does seem mostly relieved about it, but I’m sure there will be some sort of discussion as production ramps up. (via)

Following up last week’s initial report that an expanded Star Wars area at Disney World’s Hollywood Studios is in the works, Comic Book Movie is claiming to have some details… And they’re a bit underwhelming, though certainly happy news to those of you with kids. CBM’s source says that they’ll be moving the Jedi Training Academy indoors and adding a ride for younger children.

No restaurant, no museum, no older-skewing ride aside from the existing Star Tours… At least not yet. Maybe these are simply the only plans that have been approved so far? It’s early yet, and this is only a rumor, so I wouldn’t put much stock in it just yet. Hopefully we will see more of a spread if/when any of this is ever announced officially.

Episode VII. There have been a few reports that J.J. Abrams told a French newspaper that Episode VII would feature a central love story, mostly based on a write-up from Contact Music. But I’ve found what I believe to be the original article from Metro News and – per the translated version – there’s nothing above there being a love story in the film, though he does indeed speak highly of Michael Arndt. While it’s certainly not out of the question that there’ll be a major love story in the new trilogy, I don’t think that’s something you can safely quote Abrams on yet – unless there’s a longer version of this interview out there somewhere.

Podcasts. Composer Kevin Kiner talked to the folks at Full of Sith last week, and he told them that they’re working on about ten episodes of The Clone Wars for the bonus material. Meanwhile, this week Mike and Bryan chat with Corey Dee Williams (yes, Billy’s son) about working on Return of the Jedi.

Also… Heartwarming story of how a Jedi Master saved the day for an autistic boy at Disney World | Pixar vet Gary Rydstrom is directing an animated features at Lucasfilm | George Lucas plays Cassandra for the current entertainment landscape

Lots of stuff coming to the comic stores this week – well, three, which is ‘lots’ for our purposes. First off there’s Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin #3 and a new Clone Wars digest, The Smuggler’s Code, starring Obi-wan. And for the trade paperback aficionados, there’s the collected Lost Tribe of the Sith: Spiral.

And finally, book fans, next week brings Aaron Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill in paperback to match up with the rest of the series.

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.

Well, here’s a shocker: Robert Niles of Theme Park Insider reports that plans for the nigh-inevitable Star Wars Land is in the works at Disney World’s Hollywood Studios.

Niles says it looks like a five-year project, which means we could see an actual Star Wars area alongside Star Tours by 2018 or maybe even 2017.

(Don’t let the image above get you too excited – it’s an old concept.)

Since this is perhaps the least shocking (possible) development in the whole Disney-is-our-master-now saga, what type of Star Wars attractions would you like to see?

At a recent event, George Lucas told Access Hollywood that J.J. Abrams “understands” Star Wars and “how it works.” And if not… Kathleen Kennedy will “keep it straight.” He also addressed his own role in this as being more or less on call, and the inevitable critics:

“No matter how you do it, it’s a complicated cultural icon. Therefore you’re always going to be in trouble no matter what you do,” he said. “So, the best thing you can do is just plow forward and try to do the best story you can.”

Prequel concept artists Doug Chiang and Iain McCaig are working on the ‘exciting new future for Star Wars,’ StarWars.com announced earlier this week. It’s not clear if they’ll be working on Episode VII, standalone films, neither or both.

They’ll be attending Celebration Europe next month.

Chiang was design director for The Phantom Menace and concept design supervisor for Attack of the Clones. McCaig, who designed Darth Maul, was one of the principal designers throughout the prequels.

Chiang and McCaig are the first major behind-the-scenes Star Wars veterans to be announced as returning for future films, aside from screenwriter Laurence Kasdan (doing a spinoff) and George Lucas as creative consultant on Episode VII.

James, Paula and I are all in Columbus at Origins for Club Jade’s annual JadeCon gathering, and blogging will be spotty for the rest of the week. Or at least until my laptop power cord arrives. (D’oh!) There will be tweeting, but that’s about it unless something absolutely earth-shattering comes down the pipe. (Did I just guarantee that something absolutely earth-shattering will break? If so, you’re welcome.) We’ll catch up on Monday. Mondayish.