“Seek what they sought:” Site breaks down the origins and influences of Star Wars

You MUST check this out: Star Wars Origins. The amount of work and research put into this site is simply amazing. There’s nothing really groundbreaking, but it’s a far more complete look at the origins of the saga than any other article or site I’ve ever seen – including the Magic of Myth book.

In depth looks at many of the things that influenced (or may have influenced) Lucas: Campbell, Flash Gordon, Kurosawa, 2001, Ben Hur, Lord of the Rings… And more. Brilliant, wonderful site. Why have I never heard of it before???

With George as my witness…

Once again, there will be no sequel trilogy. So sayth George.

“This was never planned as a nine-episode work,” Lucas said. “The media [pounced when] I made an offhand comment, ‘It might be fun to come back when everyone’s 80 and do another one of these.’ But I never had any intention of doing that.”

Retconning? Don’t know. Don’t really care. Am just happy that they’re keeping the line on this.

Also: DVD Reviews from Coming Soon, IGN, and The Digital Bits.

Star Wars Bookstore Roundup

Well, DragonCon pretty much killed any bookstore shopping, last week. But I did manage to get a book there. And there was a little movement in the bookstores this week.

Books
Flying Solo – by Jeremy Bulloch – I picked up a copy of Jeremy’s book at DragonCon. Just finished reading it and I have to give it a solid review. He not only includes stories about his stint as Boba Fett, but you get a lot of insight into the life of a working actor, as well as some great stories from the con circuit. There’s a great slip cover and it’s a lot of fun. But it’s limited to 2,000 copies, so you might want to pick one up, now.

New Jedi Order – Various – With the new films coming out and all the re-releases of Classic Trilogy books, it appears that Del Rey has tried to latch on to any new momentum. The first three books of New Jedi Order, Vector Prime, Dark Tide I and Dark Tide II, have been reissued for $4.99, instead of the usual $6.99 price. It doesn’t appear that Amazon has benefitted from this pricing drop, so you’ll probably have to venture to a physical book store to take advantage of the sale.

Magazines
SFX Magazine – September, 2004 – While we wait for next month’s issues with two collector covers (Rebel and Imperial) to hit US shores, we can content ourselves with the 69 sexiest aliens. Darth Maul, Princess Leia and Han Solo all made the list. But T’Pol from Star Trek is number one? Hmm….

Until next week, super geeks.

Hamill talks sequels

TFN posted this early in the morning and fandom went wild, as it is wont to do. Of course, they failed to clarify that Mark was talking about things George said back on the ANH set. They did edit the item this afternoon. IESB has quotes.

And for those who didn’t watch the Charlie Rose show last night, George DID say that after ROTS the story is over. Really. Over.

Of course, at the same press conference, LFL did confirm that they have a TV series in the pipeline. So who knows?

A Plethora at the Book Store

Ooo…happy day for this Star Wars book collector. The “re-release” of classic trilogy Star Wars books has begun with the release of the “kids” books. (So glad I have credit cards!)

Books
Step-Up Movie Adventures – You’ve seen this before in softcover, unless you were insane like me and got the library binding. Great for about the 2nd or 3rd grader. Big pictures, too!

Star Wars (Step-Up Movie Adventures)
The Empire Strikes Back (Step-Up Movie Adventures)
Return of the Jedi (Step-Up Movie Adventures)

The Junior Novelizations – These books are probably suitable for about the 5th or 6th grade. They’re a fairly decent length with great photo inserts. New covers, a new logo, and, lest you be surprised, the supposed changes made to the films for the DVD release? I spotted at least one change in the junior novelization. Hmm…. But Ryder Windham has done a good job with these. It’s kinda fun to read the Trilogy story in a different way.

Star Wars Trilogy: A New Hope
Star Wars Trilogy: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Trilogy: Return of the Jedi

The Complete Star Wars Trilogy Scrapbook – Mark Cotta Vaz – Besides the addition of the new “Star Wars Trilogy” logo, there are some Ep2 pictures thrown in to change the entries of some of the main characters. It’s all starting to come together….

Magazines
Dreamwatch Magazine – October, 2004 – This issue is hard to miss with Vader on the cover. It looks at the DVD release, has 101 things you must know about the original Star Wars trilogy (that most die-hard fans already know), and has new interviews with Mark Hamill and David Prowse. And, as with all Dreamwatch issues, they have a bit about most of the major genre franchises out there, right now.

Movie Magic Magazine – This magazine comes out a few times a year and this one is devoted to Star Wars. There are some great publicity shots that I haven’t come across before that make this worth picking up. There are also tributes to Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket and Star Trek.

Total Film Magazine – August, 2004 – A bonus for the guys, this one has Keira Knightley on the cover (and inside are some nice pics of the men of King Arthur for the ladies). For the Star Wars fan, we get part 2 of their series on the making of the Classic Trilogy. This one looks at Empire.

Have fun shopping!