Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
He’ll be in Smallville, of all places, for “a number of episodes” playing professor Milton Fine, aka Brainiac. Also showing up this season will be Aquaman, the Fortress of Solitude, and Tom Wopat of the original Dukes of Hazard.
In other Buffy/Angel alumni casting news, Charisma Carpenter will be joining the cast of ‘Veronica Mars’ for at least six episodes.
V for Vendetta – a movie from the folks who brought us the Matrix, starring Hugo Weaving and (an almost-bald, British) Natalie Portman.
Mirrormask, a film directed by Dave McKean, written by Neil Gaiman, and involving the Jim Henson company. Could do without the more-annoying-than-usual Voiceover Guy…
And I can’t remember if I linked this before, but what the hell – The Brothers Grimm. Terry Gillam! Matt Damon! Heath Ledger! Some girl who looks kinda like Keira Knightly!
Liam Neeson is indeed voicing Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Disney confirmed it at Comic Con.
The official site reveals The Swarm War cover and blurb for those without Hyperspace.
Likewise of interest to EU fans is the current featured blog: Abel G. Peña’s Only Sith Deal in Absolutes.
ETA: Random House has posted an excerpt from Dark Nest I: The Joiner King.
Matthew Wood, Supervising Sound Editor of Episode III and voice of General Grievous, came on stage at Steve Sansweet’s Star Wars Spectacular and provided a demonstration of how he created the General’s voice, complete with sound equiptment. Fan reports have him actually have him singing a song – Hyperspace members can find out for themselves by listening to the audiocast of the event.
Steve also hinted at some of the content on the Revenge of the Sith DVD, and showed one of the deleted scenes dealing with the founding of the Rebellion. Certainly I’m not the only one hoping for an Extended Edition, ala Peter Jackson?
Hyperspace members can see the cover of Dark Nest 3: The Swarm War and a sketch for the third Last of the Jedi, cover now. Both are part of the Future Star Wars Publishing slideshow, which contains sketches from Visionaries and previews of a lot of the Del Rey’s upcoming nonfiction offerings, including some fantastic artwork from the upcoming New Essential Chronology. Hyperspace members can also listen to audiocasts of the Star Wars Spectacular, Dark Horse Comics, and Publishing panels from Comic Con.
The big EU news out of Comic-Con is all about Dark Horse – ongoing series Republic and Empire are wrapping up, to be replaced by a Knights of the Old Republic (based on the game of the same name) and a “a new ongoing series of five mini-series” starting with Rebellion. There’s also a short overview of SW coffee-table and nonfiction books.
The TV show gets a brief mention, focusing on preproduction and tech stuff, during the Star Wars Spectacular.
The second season of the best sci-fi on TV*, Battlestar Galactica premieres in just a matter of hours on the Sci-Fi Channel. There’s also a couple of Stargates (now with Farscape‘s Ben Browder!) beforehand, if you’re into that kind of thing. For those who prefer to spend Friday night away from the TV (or at a Harry Potter release party) the shows will rerun Tuesday night.
* Individual opinions may vary.
SyFy Portal has the list of genre nods. Although the spread is pretty good for geeks, with Lost, Deadwood, and Alias up for multiple awards, in most catagories it’s same crap as always. Three of five Desperate Housewives up for Best Comedy Actress? Fifteen nominations for Will & Grace, a show that jumped the shark years ago? Nothing for Gilmore Girls? Give me break.