In an interview with In Focus Magazine last year, Joss Whedon talks about what he would have done with Revenge of the Jedi. Drool. (via Binary Bonsai)
From the Blogside
Today is George Lucas’ birthday!
David Louis Edelman follows up the ESB post I linked last week with his tale of going to see Return of the Jedi.
Pandarus writes in defence of fan fiction. Meanwhile, Hal Duncan has some thoughts on how creators and fanfic writers see the phenomenon.
Stella Belli asks who (or what) is Mary Sue?
The Dark Moose considers the curious workings of the Lucas Edit Machine and the OOT release.
Meanwhile, in the realm of VIPs…
Abel G. Pena on the art of naming Darths.
Don Bies meets Tom Cruise.
One day left in the fan club race
Tom ‘Uscwannabe’ Costabile still in the lead, with 227 bounties to Dustin Roberts’ 156. Tomorrow is the last day in the promotion, and it’s come to my attention that both candidates have done podcast interviews with the Star Wars En Direct. Costabile’s is available in their archives, and TFN has the direct link to a short talk with Roberts.
Sometimes you rescue the princess. Sometimes she rescues you.
Plenty of familiar faces on Revolution SF’s Top 75 Heroines of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror. Padme comes in at #67, and Leia at #6. (via eldritchhobbit)
The Leia entry also points to an interesting essay on The Star Wars Generation.
It’s rough, and it gets everywhere…
TFN reports on a very impressive Star Wars themed sand sculpture. I hope they can bring these guys to C4. (Assuming there is a C4.)
Del Rey moving into graphic novels
Del Rey’s new territory: original graphic novels. First up, a new Shannara story by Terry Brooks.
I doubt there’s anything Star Wars in the pipeline, since obviously Dark Horse holds the rights to publish SW comics, but I wonder if there’s wiggle room in the contracts that would allow Del Rey to do adaptions. Dark Horse certainly isn’t interested, (Their last attempt was way back in 1998) and the graphic novel treatment sure would make certain parts of the NJO a lot more digestible.
First Betrayal review
The Publishers Weekly review of Aaron Allston’s Betrayal is up at Amazon.com. It’s quite favorable but does contain a bit of new information.
Get drunk on the Ranch
Skywalker Ranch 2004 Chardonnay goes on sale Monday, and TFN has a discount code.
Rick, redux
iF Magazine’s interview with Rick McCallum at the Saturn Awards, way back on May 2nd. So it’s mostly stuff we’ve heard already, about 3-D, box sets, and the TV shows. Some interesting stuff about George’s perception of the audience for the prequels, though.
I see your Schwartz is as big as mine
MTV caught up with George Lucas at a dinner for Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people.
On Indy 4, he said that the film will be different, won’t be louder or bigger, and will be more about dialogue than stuff blowing up really good, and will probably start shooting next year:
“We’re working on it, we’re working on it,” Lucas said. “We’ve been working on it for 10 years. I think it’ll be a great film, but it’s completely different. It’s still got a lot of action, and it’s still very funny. I think it works like crazy.”
He was vague on Star Wars 3-D, but I know what you really want to know. Here’s what he said about the rerelease of the OOT:
He says he’s curious to see what the reception will be for the upcoming limited-edition DVD release of the three original “Star Wars” films. “It’s just the original versions, as they were,” Lucas said. “We didn’t do anything to it at all. But we’re not sure how many people want that.”
You might say quite a few, considering how many fans were angered by the digitized, expanded updates of episodes IV, V and VI. Lucas claims he’s not re-releasing the originals to appease fans, but rather to bate them. “Now we’ll find out whether they really wanted the original or whether they wanted the improved versions,” he said. “It’ll all come out in the end.”
So it’s a challenge then. Right-o, Big G.