Opening Day* Fun Stuff

NPR has been doing a series on Star Wars and George Lucas all week. (Via Carbongeek.)

Literary fantasy and sci-fi talk show the Dragon Page has a cover-to-cover podcast with Matthew Stover. (Via Sci-Fi Ranter Girl.)

Droids, droids, everywhere: R2 builders on the cover of Make magazine; Italian bot that recognizes, runs away from lightsabers and humans with lightsabers.

Hilarious Star Wars photoshop contest.

For more hilarity, SF Signal reproduces the Top 10 Star Wars Spoofs list from an old edition of SFX magazine. Mmm… parody.

* Technically may have nothing to do with opening day.

Brief Moments of Calm

Let’s get in a few news items from our other fandom interests before the worldwide ROTSgasm takes over, shall we?

Kelsey Grammer will play Beast in X-Men 3. Is this a joke? Is it a late April Fool’s Day joke? Is the man even capable of playing anyone but an upright snob after being Frasier Crane for 20 years?

Onto less distressing pastures, Joss Whedon has written a comic boom prequel to Serenity.

Bunch of Batman Begins trailers and commercials over at TheMovieBox.net.

Many of us will be seeing the Fantastic Four trailer tonight.

And lastly, there will be a Sin City 2, and Frank Miller is writing it now. I still haven’t seen the first one. That’s why I have to go see ROTS at midnight – I have a serious demerit on my Geek Card.

“Don’t get cocky.”

Nice long article exploring the character of Anakin Skywalker (and, by extension, Luke) by the AP.

As a prodigy with skills beyond his years, Anakin became seduced by the thought that he was destined for greater things than the average Jedi, said Lucas pal Steven Spielberg.

“I think it was simple ambition that turned him to the dark side,” Spielberg said. “The trilogy says to me it’s the dangers of that ambition. Look, he was in pod races at too young of an age. In this case, it was sort of the evil result of ambitions, being too ambitious for his own good.”

Usually you have to depend on fringe fan sites or delve into scary fanboy message boards for character analysis like this – nice to see it mainstreamed.

What we’ll be watching… maybe.

Networks are announcing schedules for next year. Since I’m only bothering with the genre stuff, a full sked is available here.

ABC
Lost moves up the the 9p.m. slot on Wednesday; Alias to Thursdays at 8p.m, verses Survivor. Following Alias is a remake of Kolchak: Night Stalker from Frank Spotnitz, former executive producer of The X-Files, starring Stuart “Almost Aragorn” Townsend.

NBC
New drama Fathom “revolves around the search for mysterious creatures of the ocean.”

CBS
Would Joan of Arcadia be considered genre? Hmm. Reportedly, it’s on the bubble; CBS announces their new schedule tomorrow, but may be adding several genre shows. However, one of them stars Jennifer Love Hewitt, so chances are it’s doomed one way or another.

Fox
Genre be damned, Arrested Development is renewed! They’ll be announcing the schedule on Thursday, but here are a few pilots that may get the green light: David Boreanaz (Angel) stars in Bones, a crime investigations drama; also Briar & Graves, a “drama about religious phenomena”.

The WB
Charmed remains on Sunday; Smallville moves to Thursday. A new show, Supernatural, debuts Tuesday at 9p.m., capitalizing on star Jared Padalecki’s stance as former Gilmore Girls good boy. Also starring is Jensen Ackles, who may be recognized by fans of Smallville, Dark Angel, and Days of our Lives.

UPN
More Veronica Mars next year… That’s about it. Unless you’re a big
Shannen Doherty fan.