Star Wars Blu-ray report: Cropping, sound, extras and… The Holiday Special?

The HDRoom’s Dan Bradley was another tech-oriented journalist invited to Lucasfilm’s Blu-ray junket. The first part of his report covers a few basics we’ve heard about from the other sites and Lucasfilm themselves. Part two focuses on Matthew Wood and sound mixing. And part 3 takes on, of course, the deleted scenes, special features and Dennis Muren.

Here’s one interesting bit:

In response to my question, Kayleen answered “You’ll have to wait and see! The Holiday Special is a challenge, but look for some Easter Eggs. What’s a Star Wars release without a couple of Easter Eggs?” I read into that as something pertaining to, if not the entire Holiday Special is hidden on these discs. These Easter Eggs are also what LucasFilm is referring to when stating the leaked bonus features are “incomplete.”

An additional Blu-ray inner sleeve depicts a scene from Droids, the animated cartoon revolving around the further adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO. Does that mean an episode of Droids or maybe something from the Ewoks television show is hidden as an Easter Egg? We’ll have to wait and find out on September 16, 2011.

I’ve always thought that the Holiday Special – or the less tedious bits of it, anyway – would make an excellent Easter Egg.

The fandom minute: Dispatches from the forests of Endor

Eric Walker, who played Mace Towani in the made-for TV Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, is raising money to release Growing Up on Skywalker Ranch, a book documenting his “adventures in the Star Wars universe” and other behind-the-scenes tidbits. Interested? You can pledge funds at the link.

The Empire Strikes Back turns 30, officially

We’ve already covered a bunch of Empire Strikes Back anniversary stuff, but today is the actual day. Here’s more stuff to check out:

The sequel begins. Leigh Brackett’s first draft of the film surfaced on the internet last week, giving us an intriguing glimpse into the could-have-beens, including a “tender love scene” between Luke and Leia, Lando being a clone, and Darth Vader’s pet gargoyles. (If you just want the highlights, Geeks of Doom has a nice rundown.)

Visuals. Lucasfilm gave Maxim magazine some rare photos, and to save us classy broads from buying Maxim (err, sorry guys) they’re also on StarWars.com.

Disturbance. They also have a look back at the Emperor’s first appearance – including some seriously whacked-out concept art. Baron Harkonnen is totally jealous.

In other news…

See any more unique tributes to ESB today? Post them in the comments or tell me on Twitter (@clubjade) and I’ll get them in.