Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Fans at Celebration Europe will have the chance to see a special directors cut of the Darth Maul arc from season five of The Clone Wars, Reed annouced today. There’ll be Friday and Saturday screenings of the recut arc, which features the episodes “Revival,” “Eminence,” “Shades of Reason,” and “The Lawless.”
There will also be a ‘Secrets of Star Wars: The Clone Wars‘ panel with Dave Filoni held Friday on Pablo Hidalgo’s Behind-The-Scenes Stage.
Episode VII. There have been a few reports that J.J. Abrams told a French newspaper that Episode VII would feature a central love story, mostly based on a write-up from Contact Music. But I’ve found what I believe to be the original article from Metro News and – per the translated version – there’s nothing above there being a love story in the film, though he does indeed speak highly of Michael Arndt. While it’s certainly not out of the question that there’ll be a major love story in the new trilogy, I don’t think that’s something you can safely quote Abrams on yet – unless there’s a longer version of this interview out there somewhere.
Podcasts. Composer Kevin Kiner talked to the folks at Full of Sith last week, and he told them that they’re working on about ten episodes of The Clone Wars for the bonus material. Meanwhile, this week Mike and Bryan chat with Corey Dee Williams (yes, Billy’s son) about working on Return of the Jedi.
Also… Heartwarming story of how a Jedi Master saved the day for an autistic boy at Disney World | Pixar vet Gary Rydstrom is directing an animated features at Lucasfilm | George Lucas plays Cassandra for the current entertainment landscape
The Clone Wars brought home the gold at the Daytime Emmys, presented over this past weekend, taking home two awards: Outstanding Special Class Animated Program, and Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for David Tennant as the voice of Huyang, the droid who mentors Jedi younglings in constructing lightsabers.
At the main Daytime Emmy presentation on Sunday, Carrie Fisher presented the Animated Program award to George Lucas, Dave Filoni, Cary Silver and Athena Portillo for the Animated Program win. Fisher did slip in reference to dropping acid, while George had his own slip of the tongue.
David Tennant’s award was given out on Friday at the Creative Arts presentation and Dave Filoni remarked on Tennant’s tenure on Doctor Who as a reason to cast him as the droid: “I absolutely loved what David Tenant was doing on Doctor Who. There was such a quizzical nature to his character, a sense of whimsy, but he could still get very powerful emotion out of the character — a lot of intensity, a lot of anger — just an incredible display of range.”
After switching to Saturday mornings for its final season, The Clone Wars was eligible for Daytime Emmys and earned seven nominations after the show’s cancellation.
Out today from DK is The Clone Wars Episode Guide by Jason Fry, detailing all 108 episodes of the show. Fry gave us a few details on his Tumblr, as well as in a Twitter chat earlier this afternoon.
Meanwhile, in the comic shop on Wednesday Dark Times wraps up the latest arc with Fire Carrier #5.
Later this month we’ll see the paperback of Aaron Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill, while July brings William Shakespeare’s Star Wars by Ian Doescher and Troy Denning’s Crucible.
Well, here’s your new animated series: Star Wars: Rebels, set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope just as heavily speculated. It’s helmed by Dave Filoni, Greg Weisman and Simon Kinberg and will be coming in Fall 2014.
The action-filled series is set between the events of Episode III and IV — an era spanning almost two decades never-before explored on-screen. Star Wars Rebels takes place in a time where the Empire is securing its grip on the galaxy and hunting down the last of the Jedi Knights as a fledgling rebellion against the Empire is taking shape. Details about the show are a closely guarded secret at this point.
The show will debut with an hour-long special on the Disney Channel before moving to Disney XD for the duration.
Fans will get a first look at the show at Celebration Europe.
Bootleg time! Yoda and Anakin have a chat in this clip from the forthcoming bonus content from what would have been season 6 of The Clone Wars, as shown at Star Wars Weekends down in Orlando.
In this very short video clip posted by @StarWars, Dave Filoni shows off a vintage TIE fighter toy. It’s for research! We do know he’s been playing with TIEs lately..
Yakface offers up a theory:
@starwars Hmmm… What if the new @dave_filoni animated series was based of off the vintage toy sculpts/molds #headexplodes
— Yakface.com (@yak_face) May 15, 2013
Well, it’s better than Thunderbirds, anyway!
Other than that he’s simply drawing TIE fighters, that is?
It’s hard to believe that I have worked at Lucasfilm almost eight years, and this is the first time I have ever gotten to draw a TIE fighter.
Just doodling, or a hint at this nebulous new show?
EDIT: Filoni also released a different sketch of a TIE on Twitter:
Note that this TIE (though incomplete) has its wing struts at a slightly different angle (which, if using the regular hexagonal wing shape, would have the wing panels touch the ground at a point rather than a bottom edge). Did he realize his goof on the original TIE design and stop with the sketch… or is this a new TIE design?
There was plenty to behold for the 30th anniversary screening of Return of the Jedi at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood as part of Entertainment Weekly’s first CapeTown Film Festival. Held on Star Wars Day, May the Fourth, the set of four screenings of the no-longer-final installment of the Star Wars saga brought out fans and celebs alike. With Jedi being my favorite Star Wars film, I was stoked to see it again on the big screen – twice! While we’ve already covered the news of Mark Hamill’s appearance after the evening screenings, there’s plenty more to share, including a visit from The Clone Wars cast and more! (Also check out my full photo album on Flickr!)
Continue reading “Highlights from EW’s Return of the Jedi 30th Anniversary Screening”
The Star Wars Books Facebook page held a chat with Pablo Hidalgo today, one of Lucasfilm’s resident continuity experts and author of The Essential Reader’s Companion.
So his most popular answer, naturally, addressed the relationship between the movies and the rest…
I think the EU will always continue to be part of the Star Wars experience, in that there are stories that are best suited for books, comics, games. etc.. The relationship between cinematic content and expanded universe content will continue to be what it is today and has been in the past. What happens on screen is one thing. What happens in the books is another. How they connect and interact is something I’m really eager to see.
More answers below the cut!