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The Clone Wars wins Daytime Emmys for Best Animated Show and David Tennant’s guest spot

The 40th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards - Press Room

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.

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Rumor: Star Wars park is coming to Disney World

Well, here’s a shocker: Robert Niles of Theme Park Insider reports that plans for the nigh-inevitable Star Wars Land is in the works at Disney World’s Hollywood Studios.

Niles says it looks like a five-year project, which means we could see an actual Star Wars area alongside Star Tours by 2018 or maybe even 2017.

(Don’t let the image above get you too excited – it’s an old concept.)

Since this is perhaps the least shocking (possible) development in the whole Disney-is-our-master-now saga, what type of Star Wars attractions would you like to see?

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George Lucas: Abrams gets Star Wars

At a recent event, George Lucas told Access Hollywood that J.J. Abrams “understands” Star Wars and “how it works.” And if not… Kathleen Kennedy will “keep it straight.” He also addressed his own role in this as being more or less on call, and the inevitable critics:

“No matter how you do it, it’s a complicated cultural icon. Therefore you’re always going to be in trouble no matter what you do,” he said. “So, the best thing you can do is just plow forward and try to do the best story you can.”

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Concept artists Doug Chiang and Iain McCaig returning for ‘future of Star Wars’

Doug Chiang - Episode I concept

Prequel concept artists Doug Chiang and Iain McCaig are working on the ‘exciting new future for Star Wars,’ StarWars.com announced earlier this week. It’s not clear if they’ll be working on Episode VII, standalone films, neither or both.

McCraig's PadmeThey’ll be attending Celebration Europe next month.

Chiang was design director for The Phantom Menace and concept design supervisor for Attack of the Clones. McCaig, who designed Darth Maul, was one of the principal designers throughout the prequels.

Chiang and McCaig are the first major behind-the-scenes Star Wars veterans to be announced as returning for future films, aside from screenwriter Laurence Kasdan (doing a spinoff) and George Lucas as creative consultant on Episode VII.

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Jadecon is on, we’re busy

James, Paula and I are all in Columbus at Origins for Club Jade’s annual JadeCon gathering, and blogging will be spotty for the rest of the week. Or at least until my laptop power cord arrives. (D’oh!) There will be tweeting, but that’s about it unless something absolutely earth-shattering comes down the pipe. (Did I just guarantee that something absolutely earth-shattering will break? If so, you’re welcome.) We’ll catch up on Monday. Mondayish.

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Rumor: Episode VII to feature Jaina, Jacen Solo?

FRYSQUINT: SEQUEL TRILOGY RUMORS: Take seriously at your own risk.Schmoes Know claims to have a source who’s seen the casting breakdown from J.J. Abrams. They claim the storyline involves the training of Jaina and Jacen Solo by Luke Skywalker – and that the below is directly cut and pasted from the casting breakdown:

Storyline: Two 17 year old twins, a girl and a boy, are trained by their uncle Luke to be the greatest Jedi’s in the galaxy. Problems arise when the male twin turns to the dark side.

Jaina Solo – Female, 17 years old, lead. – Jacen’s twin sister, one of the greatest Jedi’s in the galaxy, trained by her uncle Luke Skywalker

Jacen Solo – Male, 17 years old, lead – Jaina’s twin brother, one of the greatest Jedi’s in the world. A loner who is constantly struggling with the idea of what’s right and what’s wrong. Starts to turn to the dark side. Full of conviction that what he is doing is the “right thing”. Will eventually become Darth Caedus.

Of course, I’m deeply skeptical, and not just because this supposed ‘breakdown’ uses the term ‘Jedi’s.’ (Though that helps, it’s not out of the question – I doubt Pablo and co are personally copy-editing every production document, and we’ve seen Lucas do as he wills with in-universe grammar and pronunciation for years.)

But this is pretty straight from the novels, right down to Caedus, and that gives me pause. It’s far too easy to believe that someone who spent an hour or two at Wookieepedia threw this together. It could be their source messing around, it could be the Bad Robot folks testing for leaks – and, yeah, it could be true. But I wouldn’t start betting just yetJaina, Jacen, and Luke

UPDATE #1: Bryan over at Big Shiny Robot has more reasons why this is probably false.

UPDATE #2: Collider has heard, independently of the first report, that Episode VII is looking to cast a son of Han Solo, though they’re also doubtful of the full Schmoes Know ‘scoop.’

UPDATE #3: HitFix’s Drew McWeeny is pretty adamant that this is fabricated as well, and that the chances of any EU making it to the screen are extremely slim. He does say that ILM has already begun work on what may be “the most elaborate physical build they’ve done for the effects team since Return Of The Jedi.”

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Abrams: Episode VII to start production next year, past Star Wars should be ‘honored’ but not ‘revered’

AbramsAt a Producer’s Guild event Saturday, J.J. Abrams said that things will start moving on the Episode VII production “at the end of the year,” Variety reports. Producer Bryan Burke said much the same – though a little more tentatively – in May.

Overall Star Wars talk continues to be vague, but Abrams said:

“It is so massive and so important to people,” he said. “I think the key to moving forward on something like this is honoring but not revering what came before.”

Variety said that quote was related to the novels; The Hollywood Reporter says it was about the existing movies. Unless video comes out from this, I give up guessing if it refers to any specifics.

He also said he’s not a fan of going overseas to shoot, but apparently the U.K. thing was in the works before he was on board.

Abrams also talked about his affection for the medium of film – covered in more detail by The Hollywood Reporter – which opens up some questions. Did committing to Episode VII mean committing to shooting digitally?