Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Bonnie Burton is no longer with Lucasfilm and StarWars.com. The company has laid her off, she announced today on Twitter.
Bonnie wrote content for the website and handled social media. She was hired in 2003, during the run-up to Revenge of the Sith, and has been an outspoken force for women in the fandom ever since.
We’re a little puzzled by this move on the part of Lucasfilm, but no one is doubting that Bonnie will land on her feet somewhere!
Well, something is on the horizon, but I’m not even going to begin to guess. Lucasfilm has filed for a trademark application for Star Wars: 1313, and registered various domains utilizing various permutations of Star Wars and the number.
Blastr theorizes it may have something to do with Boba Fett, who uses ‘CT-1313’ as an alias in a 2003 YA novel, but I’m not sold. Or, it could be a video game. (Play me once…)
In fact, all that comes to mind for me is Cleopatra 2525, a silly-awful ’01 syndicated series from the makers of Xena: Warrior Princess that starred a pre-Firefly Gina Torres. And clearly has nothing to do with this outside of a brain full of random pop culture dribblings.
Whatever! It’ll come out soon enough.
This is not the post I set out to write when I asked the other day which Star Wars ladies should be headlining novels. After all, Nanci already quite eloquently laid out why we need more women in the Expanded Universe. But on Friday, EUC posted a rebuttal to her post, titled Let’s Stop Thinking About Gender and it seems there’s still more work to do on the ground level. I know, I was shocked, too. Though I probably shouldn’t be.
Clearly we’ve forgotten that Star Wars is aimed at boys! And that by asking for something as minor as a female characters whose functions include something other than being Big Bad Lady Cthulu or Confused Teenage Girlfriend makes us the sexist ones! For shame, ladies. For shame. Because we’ve never heard anything like this before.
Continue reading “Why do we want more women highlighted in the Expanded Universe?”
I’ve been on Tumblr for a while now, but somehow Friday’s stirring GIF party disappointment ended up with me creating a Club Jade Tumblr. I know! This is madness!
Fear not – most of the stuff I’ve been posting so far aren’t really things that would make it all the way to the blog in a timely fashion, and more stuff from the blog will make it out there throughout the week.
But, of course, I blame Stooge.
The cumulation of Marvel’s multi-film strategy is proving to be the most successful yet: The Avengers‘ $200.3M opening weekend has soared it past Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 for the biggest opening weekend of all time. (Potter still holds the record for biggest opening day.)
Word-of-mouth is playing a big part – the film only dropped 13% from Friday to Saturday, and it’s getting a rare A+ rating from CinemaScore participants. And:
“It’s not playing like just a superhero film,” says Dave Hollis, Disney’s executive vice president of distribution. “It’s playing like a huge, accessible-to-everyone, all-quadrant picture.” To prove Hollis’ point, Disney is reporting that the PG-13 superhero flick was split 50-50 between moviegoers under the age of 25 and those over 25. And while men outnumbered women, it wasn’t to an extreme extent; men made up 60 percent of the film’s audience.
Everyone loves a superhero movie! Or maybe just Joss Whedon, who will certainly have his pick of offers now.
May 4th stuff was a busy Friday, Saturday wasn’t much better, and a whole bunch of stuff got lost in the shuffle. As we nurse our Avengers hangover, here it is.
MTV has wondered why Luke Skywalker got no love from the famous folks, asking our pal Bryan Young why not.
Geekmom is throwing a Star Wars week. So far, they’ve highlighted a video on the 501st and the Rebel Legion, are giving away a GPS and interviewed the Wampug.
The Hollywood Reporter looked at where the stars of Star Wars are now. You probably know that already.
There was a couple at Kotaku: A look at Masters of Teräs Käsi, which they call ‘possibly the worst Star Wars video game ever made,’ as well as great moments of Star Wars gaming. And, finally, why Battlefront III was cancelled.
Entertainment Weekly highlight ten things ‘worth celebrating,’ mostly EU stuff.
And finally, Chris Hardwick pimped Course of the Force on Today. He also revealed that they’ve build a sail barge that we’ll see at Celebration VI.
Wicked Lasers (remember them?) has found a way to turn their questionably legal laser into a ‘Lasersaber.’ Do Not Taunt LaserSaber. (via)
May the Fifth be with you! May the Thors be with you? Or something.. But get out to your local comics book shop to get your free comics for this annual celebration of sequential art. As previously mentioned, Dark Horse has a few different offerings, including a Han Solo and Chewbacca Star Wars story, ‘The Art of the Bad Deal’, in a flip-cover comic that also has a Zack Whedon-penned Serenity comic. Both stories have a common theme – a man and his ship. Dark Horse’s second freebie is a flip cover for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Guild. Combine both free comics together, and you will also have a two part story of Caitlin R. Kiernan’s Alabaster.
From other publishers for Free Comic Book Day: The Avengers, The New 52, Yo Gabba Gabba!, Simpsons, Mouse Guard, Transformers, Peanuts, and a whole lot more!
To find a comic shop near you, call 1-888-comicbook or visit ComicShopLocator.com.
Well, they promised us Celebration announcements, are here they are: Carrie Fisher will be back for her third appearance at the con. Also confirmed: Jeremy Bulloch and Daniel Logan, along with the news that this year’s art helmet will be Fett’s. And another Clone Wars guest, CG Supervisor Joel Aron, who will teach “master class sessions” in the lecture hall.
And, of course, to bring us the ‘no duh’ component, the family room will return.
Of a bit more interest is the fan table lineup. I’m not surprised by the amount of costume clubs, but I am a little sad that Wookieepedia is the only straight-up fansite. But then again, all us fansite folks are going to way too busy covering stuff to sit around manning tables..
Nick McKaig says this recording is “is 100% vocals and 100% my own voice, including over 90 tracks and more than 300 hours of production time.” It’s pretty neat!