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EUbits: Defunct Mara fansite brings back interviews with authors and artists

Namesake corner. The Mara fan site Jade Crusades folded a few years back, but creator Mazzic has resurrected the site’s interviews with several authors and artists who shaped Mara, including Tim Zahn, Mike Stackpole and Drew Struzan.

The Jedi Path. With the standalone edition out now, Daniel Wallace reveals five steps to becoming a Jedi Knight. Meanwhile, here’s a review.

Knight Errant. Dave Marshall gives fans a glimpse of the series’ ships. I like how the giant hyperspace rings are an obvious precursor to to the smaller versions we saw in the prequels.

History. This is old news for many of us, but io9 has a nice post on how Star Wars saved comics.

Reviews. James is at it again over at Big Shiny Robot, giving his take on Invasion: Revelations #3, and The Old Republic: The Lost Suns #4.

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It’s September 16. Do you know where your Star Wars Blu-rays are?

With the Blu-rays out today, the Star Wars publicity machine has been out in full force this week, the shamelessness cumulating (…perhaps) with letting three Jawas and a Stormtrooper loose in New York City. Do they double as a sitcom pitch? (Can we get Humpy in on that?) Meanwhile, London got a giant lightsaber.

We’re hearing reports that some stores are not stocking huge amounts of the discs, so if you’re picking it up today, plan accordingly. (If not, Amazon’s still pricing the set at $79.99.)

But it’s really all about the Blu-rays themselves… And as they’ve made their way into more hands, the more reports we have of the inevitable tweaks that have been made to the movies. Screenrant hits the (so-far) major notes, while DVD Active takes a more detailed look at the original trilogy changes, comparing frames from several different releases.

We’ll likely see more reviews throughout the day (check back!) but Entertainment Weekly and The Toronto Sun got a jump on things Thursday evening. Today, we have reviews from Big Shiny Robot, IGN, and GeekDad.

But of course, we all know the best way to deal with George and co. tweaking the movies yet again: Make funnies. The most popular spoof making the rounds is probably George Lucas re-edits classic movies, and maybe it’s the hour, but I couldn’t help but crack up at Conan’s take. And, of course, no controversy is complete without a ridiculous video by Taiwan’s NMA World Edition.

But of course, eventually your rage will cool, and you just have to make your peace with the fact that George doesn’t care, George doesn’t give a shit, and make your peace with it. If not, well, there’s a t-shirt for that.

But enough of that emo bullshit. Got your copy yet?

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What I want to see in The Clone Wars, Season Four

Less than twenty-four hours to go before Friday’s premiere episodes of Season Four of The Clone Wars! As we count down for two-parter, ‘Water War’ and ‘Gungan Attack’, here’s a look at Newsarama’s coverage of the star-studded premiere event , held at the Long Beach Aquarium. Meanwhile, Big Shiny Robot scored an video interview with Dee Bradley Baker at the opening, as well as brings out some interviews taken at Comic-Con, with director Dave Filoni, and CG Supervisor Joel Aron.

So, knowing what we saw in promo clips online and at Comic-Con and from all these interviews, here’s what I am looking forward to seeing this season on The Clone Wars:
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It’s Tatooine! NASA finds planet orbiting two stars

Why was John Knoll at a NASA press conference? Because the space agency has discovered a real-life Tatooine: A planet that orbits two stars at once. The New York Times writes:

The official name of the new planet is Kepler 16b, but astronomers are already referring to it informally as Tatooine, after the home planet of Luke and Anakin Skywalker in the George Lucas “Star Wars” movies, which also had two suns. Indeed, a representative from Mr. Lucas’s production company, Lucasfilm, expected to participate in a news conference at NASA’s Ames Research Laboratory in California, Kepler’s home office.

So, not a moon. Or a space station. I’m so relieved.

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Indiana Jones news: Spielberg and Ford at the 30th anniversary of Raiders

While at the 30th anniversary screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Steven Spielberg talked a bit about the early development of Indiana Jones by him and his friend George Lucas, their friendship, about the restoration of Raiders of the Lost Ark (for eventual Blu-ray release), and being hopeful for Indy V.

When Harrison Ford came out, he said he’s up for a fifth time as Indiana Jones, and thinks the key is expanding the audience’s understanding of the character. Also, Harrison Ford in Jurassic Park? Spielberg offered the role of Alan Grant to him.

Rounding out their coverage, the LA Times also did a retrospective on the Raiders of the Lost Ark toys from the 1980s.

EDIT: While Spielberg commented that the newly cleaned up version of Raiders of the Lost Ark that they were screening was going to be eventually used for the Blu-ray and he noted that that Blu-ray release would not have any changes from the 1981 theatrical release, Spielberg later commented that he regrets making changes to E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial for its 20th Anniversary DVD, saying, “I realized what I had done was I had robbed people who loved E.T. of their memories of E.T.”

He went on to say that the E.T. Blu-ray would be the original 1982 theatrical version, and not contain the unpopular 2002 revisions, such as digitally replacing police guns with walkie-talkies.

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Gearing up for the fourth season of The Clone Wars

Season four of The Clone Wars begins this Friday night on Cartoon Network with an hour-long two-episode special: ‘Water War’ and ‘Gungan Attack’. The Mon Calamari homeworld is engaged in a civil war that becomes part of the larger wars with the involvement of a new Separatist villain, Riff Tamsen, siding with the Quarren. As with many of the episodes from the latter half of season three, these episodes will be forming a larger story arc, with the third course of Mon Calamari being served up on September 23. Amy Ratcliffe has a spoilery review from the premiere showing. With this season’s theme of “Battle Lines,” you can certainly see from this story arc that season four is bringing more of the wars to Star Wars.

As we count down the final days to season four, I decided to get ready by re-watching the finale from season three: ‘Padawan Lost’ and ‘Wookiee Hunt’ and was amazed again at how fantastic the show is. Here are a few of my favorite things from season three:

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Same-sex romances will be “post-launch feature” in The Old Republic

Remember the message board kerfuffle in ’09 about gay and lesbian relationships in The Old Republic MMO? Well, it looks like they will be an option – eventually – in The Old Republic after all. Here’s the official statement:

Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options.

Given Bioware’s track record, this isn’t a huge surprise, but it’s good to know it is a consideration.