Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
After the Random House Audiobooks panel, I had the opportunity to chat with voice actor Marc Thompson about his work as the narrator of the audio versions of the Star Wars novels. Plus he gives us a little sample of one of his favorite characters, Cilghal.
And for the last day of Celebration VI – more photos! The Sunday edition of photos from Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando. We’ve got some of the Rancho Obi-Wan Experience, Sunday’s Bounty Hunt, me in the Random House Audio booth, and hanging out after the close, and of course, random costumes and coolness.
And if you missed them:
So yesterday I reported on the kids-focused screening of Young Jedi at Star Wars Celebration VI. Today I checked in with a few sources about what Young Jedi is all about. My first assumption about Young Jedi while viewing it was that it was going to be a story arc on The Clone Wars this season, but one thing I immediately noticed was the lack of a The Clone Wars title card – merely the Young Jedi logo. The screening definitely felt like it could be broken apart into several episodes of the show in terms of the storyline.
Afterwards, I heard about George Lucas’ mention of a younger-audience series during another panel, and thought that Young Jedi would fit the bill as a spinoff of The Clone Wars for younger audiences, and Lucas’ presence in the audience was his way to gauge audience reaction. Did the kids and parents in the audience get a sneak peek at an early version of the pilot? I got a chance to talk to someone with an in on the project. Continue reading “Celebration VI: More details on Young Jedi“
So while a lot of focus was on George Lucas at The Clone Wars panel this morning at Star Wars Celebration VI, and the Friday night premiere of the season five opener, fans got another peek at something upcoming in The Clone Wars with Young Jedi. In the Calling All Kids panel, (where all adults had to be accompanied by a child under 11), Dave Filoni introduced Young Jedi, an eighty-four minute screening that is likely to be a four-part story arc on Star Wars: The Clone Wars this season. (Or at least it appears that it could be easily separated into several episodes) With fans getting popcorn and George Lucas sitting in the crowd watching the reactions of the kids and adults in the audience, we were taken on a thrill ride aimed at the children who are the core audience
of the show.
Continue reading “Celebration VI: The Clone Wars: Young Jedi“
Over one billion photos from Saturday have been uploaded to the Saturday album by the insomniac Jawa. Lots of exhibition floor photos, a few random celebrity sightings, 501st Photo Shoot, Dave Filoni at the Calling All Kids! screening, the Random House Audio panel, the Party Rock Cantina Shuffle flash mob group, and more. OK, not quite a billion. Video will come later, like of the flash mob. Like after Celebration.
Dunc has covered all the news, and I’m just the guy who takes the pictures. and organizes the Bounty Hunt puzzle hunt event at Celebration. So anyway, here’s some of the best of the photos. If you want to see the full set, I have a photo album just of Friday at Celebration VI (170 shots of the Del Rey panel, cupcakes, Friday Bounty Hunt, random costumes) on flickr. Continue reading “Jawajames’ recap in photos of Star Wars Celebration VI Friday”
The official store at Star Wars Celebration VI opened up for a sneak preview sale tonight. I was on hand to film the merchandise, and also got some good shots of the Jabba’s Throne Room diorama that’s really only visible from the store. They did start selling the Thursday Mara Jade busts in advance. Slipping through the shopping madness were Seth Green and Matthew Seinrich. Also, check out my photos of the convention so far – I’ll be adding to them every night, so stay tuned!
EDIT: Mara Jade statues are still in stock for Thursday!
Fantasy Flight Games, which picked up the license for Star Wars role-playing, card, and miniatures games last year has introduced a beta version of their upcoming Star Wars Role Playing Game at this weekend’s Gen Con in Indianapolis. They’ve also finally released their X-Wing Miniatures Game.
The role-playing game will be beta tested in three installments, and the first, entitled Edge of the Empire, is available (the 224 page rulebook is $30) at GenCon, online, and some select retailers. The game introduces the use of unique, custom dice as part of the gameplay, and includes sticker sheets to customize your own dice. Edge of the Empire focuses on characters at the fringes of society: those in the Outer Rim, and assorted scum and villainy. An Obligation game mechanic will help provide narrative for why the characters are out on the Rim, and what are they running from.
The upcoming beta installments, Age of Rebellion, will focus on being part of the Rebel Alliance, and bringing the fight to the Empire, while Force and Destiny introduces the powers of the Jedi… and being wanted by the Empire. Ben at Word of the Nerd has been gathering some of the buzz at Gen Con about the game, and wonders if it can top the popularity of the last RPG. 30 bucks to beta test a role playing game? I can understand the printing costs…. but… if you end up testing all 3 installments, you might be out close to a Benjamin, for something that is not the final version of the game. (Who they will make their money on: Wookiepedians!)
At Gen Con 2011, Fantasy Flight Games demoed versions of their co-op card game and X-Wing minis game. This year, the X-Wing Miniatures Game has launched, and is available at Gen Con (until it sells out), and Fantasy Flight has put the core rules up online and held a tournament for the game on Friday.
FFG will be at Celebration VI (booth 739) and has announced they will be selling (and demoing) X-Wing. I’m sure that they will also be pushing the Edge of the Empire RPG installment.
Will we also see the card game at some point? It was supposed to come out in the spring, but it was pushed back as they kept tweaking it to make it more epic (and perhaps less akin to their existing Living Card Games).
The original Indiana Jones adventure is coming back to the big screen — a very big screen, actually: IMAX. Screencrush reports that Raiders of the Lost Ark will be released in IMAX (and fake IMAX) formats for a limited run (Sept 7 to Sept 13) to promote the upcoming Blu-ray box set. That boulder’s gonna be huge!
As reported earlier, The Complete Adventures of Indiana Jones Blu-ray box set (containing all four Indy films) comes out on September 18. For a movie that came out 31 years ago, the enduring classic adventure of Raiders shows that it’s not the years or the mileage… it’s the awesome.
Also, to help promote the Blu-ray, Lucasfilm has been updating Indiana Jones’ timeline on Facebook with actual dates for his epic adventures. So far, 1957 is full of Crystal Skull events, while they’ve just started on his quest of Temple of Doom in 1935.
Rancho Obi-Wan has announced more details on what will be on display and for sale at the Rancho Obi-Wan Experience, a mini-museum of rare Star Wars items on the Exhibition Floor at Star Wars Celebration VI. They’ve increased their floor space, and will have such unique items as a prototype 1978 Boba Fett blaster, a piñata of Luke riding a tauntaun, and more – about 300 pieces of Steve Sansweet’s collection will be shown at Celebration.
When asked if something with a Club Jade connection will be coming to Orlando, Steve responded:
“We’re going to take my “Amidala and Handmaidens Go Vegas” dolls to C VI for the Rancho Obi-Wan Experience—made by Club Jade members and auctioned off for a Kids Reading cause. I was in a fierce bidding contest with Lisa Stevens, onetime owner of the company that ran the Official Fan Club and Insider!”
In addition to selling memberships to the non-profit organization (with exclusive Celebration membership swag, like the Yoda patch, above), members will have a chance to win a bronze bust of Darth Vader, while everyone can share in giveaways of postcards, bookplates, and stickers. Additionally, Rancho Obi-Wan souvenirs will be available for purchase, including shirts, caps, patches, and of course, copies of Steve’s books. Also, The ROW Experience will serve as headquarters for the Curto Burns Collectors’ Cast, a monthly podcast about Star Wars collecting.