This Week in SW

The preview for Star Wars Insider #84 is up, and it’s all about the clones… And coming up in the issue after that (#85) will be a Vader short story from Karen Traviss.

StarWarsShop.com has an exclusive Christmas Vader action figure that’s… um.. festive. Because nothing says ‘Happy Holidays’ like a blood-colored figure of everyone’s favorite Sith Lord

And LFL is finally moving into the Presidio this week, so updates on starwars.com will be slim.

Long Way Round Keeps Plugging Along

An extended edition DVD of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s round the world motorcycle adventure will be released to viewers in the UK on November 7.

Meanwhile, no version of the show has yet been released in North America. You can go here and register for notification from Amazon in the event it ever is. Your indication of interest apparently will be passed on to the studio.

If you get tired of holding your breath, both sets of DVDs from the UK are “Region 0” meaning they’ll play on some DVD players and almost all computers.

Canadian viewers will get to see LWR starting November 1 on the Outdoor Life Network.

And, finally, the print version of their adventure is topping the travel book charts in the UK.

Thanks to Ewan News for the great coverage.

Movie news: It’s a bird…

20th Century Fox is #1 in the summer box office race, in no small part due to the success of Revenge of the Sith. Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Fantastic Four were their other big earners.

Pics from Bryan Singer’s Superman film. Mostly old stuff if you’ve been keeping up, but there’s a few I haven’t spotted before, most noteably Kevin Spacey as Lex Luther. Oh yes, and the film is supposedly going to cost $250 million. For some perspective, ROTS had a $113 million production budget, and Batman Begins was made for $150 million, at least according to Box Office Mojo.

Get ready for more superhero films – Marvel is dealing left and right with their properties. Having already cleared out most of the biggies, that means Captain America, the Avengers, Nick Fury, Black Panther, Ant-Man, Cloak & Dagger, Dr. Strange, Hawkeye, Power Pack and Shang-Chi are headed to the screen. If you’ve heard of more than half of these guys, I commend you. Sort of.

Harry Potter – erm, Daniel Radcliffe – as a young James Bond? Certainly I’m not the only person who remembers the short-lived 90’s cartoon about Bond’s ‘nephew,’ James Bond Jr., and is now having flashbacks?

Nevermind that Radcliffe has (hopefully) three more Potter movies to do… Speaking of, how’d you like to see some pictures from Goblet of Fire? I thought you would.

Hurricane Katrina

On eBay, a fan is auctioning off a crocheted R2-D2 hat for charity. All money from the auction will go the Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. The high bid is currently $305.

As for CJrs caught in Katrina… We’ve heard from both James and Bobbi, and they and their families are all right. We’re still waiting to hear from Dave R., but we’re hoping and praying he’s safe.

I urge you to donate to to the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Humane Society, Noah’s Wish or any other disaster charity you trust, if you haven’t already. On Livejournal, Oulangi has been posting links and advice for the fandom community, and Limyaael has a list of writers and artists doing things for charity. There’s also a community devoted to such efforts – Fandom Charity.

ETA: We’ve heard from Dave and family, and they’re safe.