A big celebrity shindig at the opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, last night. JK Rowling herself attended.
A good chunk of the cast attended. But did they fly down on the Harry Potter plane?
EUbits: Al Williamson, Heir to the Empire, and September comics
RIP. Artist Al Williamson, who illustrated the Star Wars comic strip and adaptions of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, passed away this weekend. He’s remembered by editor Dave Land at DarkHorse.com
We read it uphill, in the snow, with no boots. Suvudu salutes Heir to the Empire — with a little help from Tim Zahn, editor Tom Dupree and art director Jamie S. Warren — as part of their 25 years of Spectra features.
Solicitations. Look ahead to September comics from Dark Horse, with new issues of Invasion, The Old Republic: Threat of Peace, that Fett thing, and a $1 reprint of Legacy #1.
Blogside. Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on mistakes.
For the nitpickians. A new Essential Atlas appendix – in PDF form. Prime your hole-punchers!
Thanks, Leonard…You live long and prosper, as well
Leonard Nimoy (do I need to remind you he played Spock in Star Trek?) recently announced his retirement. The LA Times is posting video from one of his last appearances over the next few days.
Having heard him speak at Dragon*Con, I’m sure it’ll be… fascinating. (Sorry. I had to go there.)
Here’s hoping he’ll still get a kick out of going to cons….
Out this week: Nothing but trades
Heading to comic stores on Wednesday are two trades: The final Knights of the Old Republic collection, ‘Demon,’ and a reprint of The Clone Wars: In Service of the Republic. Reprints! Oh boy!
Dark Horse is promising ‘big news’ for Celebration V, so maybe these posts will get more exciting for the back end of 2010. (Or, maybe it’s just some Knight Errant thing.) Here’s hoping.
Video: HBO teases A Game of Thrones
The first teaser for the upcoming Game of Thrones aired tonight, targeting the True Blood faithful. The video is very blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, but you can head over to the official page (or the fanblog Winter is Coming) for a good look at Sean Bean in costume.
Since we last checked in, a few roles have been recast: Michelle Fairley has stepped in as Catelyn, and Emilia Clarke as Daenerys. Filming is due to start in July.
Fate of the Jedi #8 is Ascension
Sue Rostoni announced the title for the penultimate volume of the series on the StarWars.com boards. Meanwhile, author Christie Golden talks Allies over at the EU Review.
Is Gary Kurtz coming to Celebration? (Very likely.)
An item appeared briefly on Reed’s blog yesterday saying that Gary Kurtz, producer of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, will be at Celebration V. The post was removed (though it may linger in some RSS feeds) because the contract signing had to be postponed, but it is for real..
In other CV news, Charlie Ross is bringing his One Man Star Wars Trilogy to the con
Roundup: All the Celebration V news you can shake your broken droid leg at
Guest list. Anthony Daniels is coming to the autograph hall and on stage. (WTF moment: “He was the voice of Legolas in the 1978 animation, Lord Of The Rings.” The awful one that turned me off Tolkien for decades? What what?)
Panels. And the collecting track just keeps on coming. Don’t fret, folks: I’m sure there’ll be something for the rest of us. (Right?)
Costumes. Register your fabulous duds for the Costume Pageants. If you don’t, they might send the 501st after you.
Book now! There’s no time to waste!
Guide. The folks at Reed have put together Orlando 101.
Indy not headed to Bermuda Triangle for fifth film
Slashfilm reports that Lucasfilm has killed the unsubstantiated speculation on the fifth Indiana Jones film focusing its story on the Bermuda Triangle, with Harrison Ford and Shia LeBeouf teaming up for the main action. (Frank Marshall has also weighed in.)
My best guess is that after Indy’s experience with oil in the Venetian catacombs in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, he now doesn’t want to go anywhere near that BP oil spill.
Seth Green: Star Wars comedy series CG, not post-ROTJ
“Star Wars in a way you’ve never seen it,” he told MTV. “There are some recognizable characters but it’s a huge universe, so we’re really going where all the comedy is.”
That’s all pretty vague, but we now can put at least one question to death: It won’t be set after Return of the Jedi. But it will be CG animation: Which is fine with me, as long as they go in a different direction with it than Clone Wars!