Steve has posted a note on Facebook thanking the fans as he begins his final week at Lucasfilm. Meanwhile, still a little boggled at the concept of LFL without Steve…
Craft-athlon: “What a piece of junk!”
The second event, Recycled Designs, from the Club Jade Craft-athlon got participants to build a starship, vehicle or creature by digging through their trash compactors and recycling bins for parts. Like a gang of industrious Jawas or kitbashing ILM modelmakers, our competitors assembled some pretty amazing recycled designs.
Our top crafter in this round is Michelle Brzozowski for her Red Leader X-Wing fighter, made out of items including empty paper towel and toilet paper rolls, chopsticks, empty glue stick tubes, and a plastic Easter egg.
Rounding out the finalists are Dajuan & Doug Kinney for their Paploo on a speeder bike, and Kitty Lewis for her Java Squadron X-wing fighter. The Kinneys used the entire recycling bin for the Fast and the Furball-ous, incorporating 8 glass and plastic bottles, several empty Lego boxes, plastic lunch meat tubs, and empty paper towel rolls. Lewis’ caffeinated starfighter uses some cannibalized coffee cups and lids, and straws. Watch out for the dark side of the roast, Luke!
While we are judging the third event, Food for Thought, there’s still time to get your entries in for the last two competitions: Star Wars Roll Model (toilet paper roll turned into a Star Wars character), and Vader’s Custom Tee (repurpose a Star Wars t-shirt or other apparel item into a new creation). Get the full details here on how to enter and be eligible to win cool prizes from Del Rey, including copies of Bonnie Burton’s The Star Wars Craft Book, coming out March 29!
Other worlds: New attempt at Dune movie collapses
New Dune adaption dead. The latest attempt to film Frank Herbert’s Dune has officially thrown in the towel as Paramount’s rights lapsed. The novel has been filmed twice before – By David Lynch in 1984 and the Sci-Fi Channel in 2000. Neither version could quite capture the classic sci-fi novel… Is it simply not a book that translates well to screen, or has the right team just not attempted it yet? I’m sure we’ll see it adapted again either way.
That said, I must admit I am quite fond of Sci-Fi’s 2003 attempt at the second and third books in the series, Children of Dune. And it only has a little to do with James McAvoy spending half the thing running around with no shirt on.
The Hunger Games. They have their Katniss, but what about the rest of the cast? Television Without Pity, of all places, has a nice set of suggestions for casting everyone else. With the exception of Christopher Lee (he’s played that role a million times over) I wholeheartedly applaud their selections. Major props for a non-sexy Haymitch!
Chronicles of Narnia. Walden is skipping right over The Silver Chair to make prequel The Magician’s Nephew the next film in the series. Yay for having an actual reason to bring back their best character Tilda Swinton this time.
Inheritance Cycle. Knopf has released the cover for the final book in Christopher Paolini’s Star Wars meets Pern in Middle-earth series. It’s always nice to see John Jude Palencar getting work, I guess.
Lists. Topless Robot’s has 14 great but lesser-known sci-fi novels for lil’ nerds. I find it quite distressing that Paula Danzinger’s This Place Has No Atmosphere is considered a lesser known sci-fi novel. Danzinger is a YA goddess, people. RESPECT.
Craft-athlon: The puppetmasters!
The Club Jade Craft-athlon judges had some tough decisions with the entries received in the first crafting event – the Paper Bag Puppets. All the submissions were great and when the judges combined their scores, we ended up with a tie for the top Star Wars paper bag puppet!
Congrats to Kitty Lewis for her Jedi Master Kit Fisto paper bag puppet and Tommy Garcia for his Boba Fett puppet complete with jet pack. Rounding out the top five, we had an impressive Boba Fett, a detailed Jabba the Hutt and a cute Salacious Crumb.
But the contest is still any crafter’s game – we’re now judging the second event: Recycled Designs for starships, vehicles, and creatures, but everyone still has time to submit in the final three categories: Food for Thought (food items as art media), Roll Model (toilet paper roll turned into a Star Wars character), and Vader’s Custom Tee (repurpose a Star Wars t-shirt or other apparel item into a new creation). Even if you haven’t submitted yet, you can still enter into any category for a chance to win one of our fabulous prize sets from Del Rey. Get the full details here!
Heir to the Empire annotation #2: Talon Karrde
In our second early peek at Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire annotations, he shares the origins of Karrde:
In some ways, Karrde is my vision of how Han might have ended up if he hadn’t dropped into the Mos Eisley cantina that afternoon for a quiet drink. Both men have a code of honor, especially toward their friends, and both are willing to be part of a larger group, though Han admittedly dragged …his feet a long time before getting to that place.
I’ve heard this one before, but honestly… I’m not sure I can see Han ever running – however reluctantly – something the size of Karrde’s operation. Thoughts?
Luceno’s Plagueis manuscript in the hands of Del Rey
Erich Schoeneweiss is super-excited about receiving James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis manuscript… So much so that he shared a brief snippet from the front page:
“Darth Bane would appreciate our efforts,” the Sith Master was telling his apprentice…
If things continue shaping up well, Darth Plagueis (the tentative title) will be out in January… And yes, I will cling to that icon until the last hope is gone.
The end of an era: Ewan McGregor says he won’t be naked in films anymore
Well, the headline says that, anyway. But the focus in the article is more on Ewan wanting to avoid the Hollywood cliche of macking on ladies significantly younger than himself:
“I’m getting older and the actresses stay younger,” he acknowledges. “I don’t want to become Clint Eastwood, where his love interests seem 50 years younger than him. You never want female co-stars to feel like you’re taking advantage of the situation. Anyhow, sex scenes are terribly exposing and rarely of any use in learning about character.”
So will we be seeing naked Ewan on film again? And since when have any of his characters needed ladies to get naked? (Via Rach)
EUbits: A quick peek inside Shadow Games
Two smugglers walk into a bar… Today on the official forums, editor Sue Rostoni shared a brief excerpt from the proof of Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff’s Shadow Games. Black-barred for the paranoid spoilerphobics:
“In case you haven’t noticed, Captain, there are Imperials all over the place. It would be in our customer’s interests to be discreet.”
The Wookiee said something, to which Han replied, “Of course I’m discreet. I’m always discreet.” To Dash he said, “What’d you have in mind?”
The proof, for those of you keeping track, is 338 pages. Shadow Games will be out in paperback in the fall.
Interview. Lightsaber Rattling talks to Paul Kemp about his just-released Old Republic tie-in, Deceived.
Blurbs. In other Kemp-related news, there’s a summary out there now for his September paperback, Riptide. (via)
Comics. The Crimson Empire story that will be in Dark Horse Presents #1 will feature Kir Kanos in a standalone tale that will both recap some of the earlier CE and set things up for CEIII, according to Randy Stradley.
First look. The next in the Lost Tribe of the Sith series, ‘Pantheon,’ will hit July 18th.
Craft-athlon update: Send us your ship!
All wings report in! We’ve received a handful of entries for Paper Bag Puppet event in the Club Jade Craft-athlon and while we are judging your fine lunch bag creations, we’d like to remind you that tomorrow, March 23, is the deadline for Event #2: ‘Recycled Designs.’ Who can build the best hunk of junk in the galaxy… out of household junk – or recyclable materials? You can! Send us photos of your starship, vehicle or creature craft creation.
Friday is the deadline for Event #3: ‘Food for Thought’, where food items form the main ingredient in this artistic challenge.
Get the full rules and submission guidelines and check out the prizes from Del Rey at our contest page.
Out this week: Kemp’s Deceived
Tuesday sees the release of Paul S. Kemp’s The Old Republic: Deceived, which has been getting a fair amount of hype. (Say it with me: Gamers!)
But seriously, the early buzz has been good, so give it a try if you’re into the era.