The monster mash continues!
Harrison Ford appears at Star Wars event!
Hurry up, LA fans! There will be a digital screening of Empire at the Arclight.
And Harrison Ford will be interviewed at the same event! How often does that happen.
This is all to benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, so the prices are up there. But if you can afford it and you can get there, this is a rare opportunity. Hurry!
(There are more events scheduled. For those outside of LA, don’t despair!)
Video: Yes, we are that obsessed
Presenter Dustin Diehl uses his five minutes at Ignite Phoenix to enlighten the masses on little-known (to mundanes) Expanded Universe lore.
Much detail is included. Mundanes are amused. Hundreds go home and dust off their copy of ANH.
The fandom minute: Of parties and fan tributes
Woe be unto you, Club Jade fans. Dunc is having a real life this week and has left me to round up the news for you. So, sorry. She’ll be back soon! So let’s round up some bits and bobs in the world of Star Wars, shall we?
- That awesome fan project, Star Wars: Uncut, is now cut. And we have a trailer!
- Speaking of fans, the University of Georgia paper profiles a member of the 501st Georgia Garrison. Yes, Athens fans, there are others near you!
- And they’ll need all the help they can get. Star Wars Weekends is cranking up again.
- The 501st even helped Lando, um, I mean Billy Dee Williams, arrive in style to the Sunscreen Film Festival. I bet he’d love to have Colt 45 can greet him, just once.
- We’ll move from that The Empire Strikes Back actor to StarWars.com’s review of Empire cast and crew swag. (I’ve always wanted one of those passports.)
- And finally, from the film that inspired it all, Kurosawa Hidden Fortress action figures. Awesome!
Dunc will be back soon. Promise!
Video: Empire Strikes Back Sabotage
SyFy shuffles schedule, fans gnash teeth
The SyFy ::giggle:: Channel is changing its schedule to accommodate a new deal for WWE’s Smackdown.
Yes, science fiction fans, you can now restart that RPG night you’d blown off on Friday nights to watch your favorite original science fiction programming. The SyFy Friday slate of shows are apparently moving to Tuesdays, come this fall.
The Twitter-verse (and I’m sure many other online sites) are already in an uproar. But Airlock Alpha seems to think this will give them the profit margin they’ll need to pay for their less-viewed original programming.
But if schedules stay the same on the main networks, that will put them up against the ratings stalwarts NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, American Idol and Glee. Not entirely sure how that will help the situation.
Legacy comic ending with #50?
So sayth the July 2010 comics solicitations. Here’s the summary for the finale:
The galaxy is teetering on the edge of a new future, with everyone fighting for a foothold — not to mention their lives! The galaxy that emerges from this chaotic battle could even end up without a Skywalker to carry the legacy that so many have come to depend on… The final issue! Sith versus Sith! Jedi versus Sith! Imperials versus Sith! Cade Skywalker versus Sith! It’s all-out war!
I’m neither surprised nor particularly heartbroken. Legacy started out strong, and it’s still likely to be the only Dark Horse ongoing series that I actually have enough interest in to read completely, but it feels like it (or rather, one Cade Skywalker) has been stuck in a rut for a good long while. Maybe a big, booming wrap up is just what the comic needs to live up to its early promise.
It does seem odd that the first we hear of this is via the solicitations, though… Particularly considering that writer John Ostrander said in October that Legacy would not be ending with #50.
UPDATE: Ostrander says on the Dark Horse boards: “It was true when I said it. And might still be. . .from a certain point of view.” So hold to this, Legacy fans: The series ending doesn’t necessarily mean that the story will.
Out this week: Dark Times
It’s a lonely week, with just one Star Wars comic coming to stores on Wednesday: Dark Times #16.
The Clone Wars: Watch ‘The Zillo beast’ now
Get your giant monster fix on StarWars.com now, or tune in for Filoni’s commentary. I hear he has some choice words about Dugs…
Celebration tips: The business of panel lines
This post has been completely updated for Celebration Anaheim.
There will be lines for panels. There is no avoiding the lines: There’ll even be a line to get in in the morning. There will be lines to get into the exhibit hall when it first opens. Lines are a Star Wars tradition; Realize that they will happen, and that you will have to stand in them. (There are Medical Badges available to those who need them.)
The good news is that rooms are cleared between panels, so don’t plan to spend the entire day in one place ala San Diego Comic-Con.
Some of the lines will be long; It entirely depends on the popularity of the panel. There is no doubt that the longest line at Celebration Anaheim will be the one for J.J. Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy on Thursday morning, and we already have all the details on that. Expect something similar, if lower key, for things like Gareth Edwards and Josh Trank on Sunday.
The next longest lines will likely be for celebrity panels and screenings; Plan to queue up at least an hour ahead of time for those, and be aware they will close off the queue if it gets full. Be sure to pick backups for the big events, just in case.
Most smaller panels for things like books will have much smaller queues; Give yourself time, but historically you can show up as early as 10 minutes beforehand and still get in the room.
However, Anaheim is looking like it could be the biggest Celebration yet, so it’s hard to say exactly how things will shape up. Many of the rooms, particularly the theater, are bigger than what we’ve seen in the past, though. Whatever the case, keep your eyes open, plan to be early, and have something on hand to amuse yourself and your friends if you need to wait.
(Autograph lines are a whole different ball game. Luckily, we have a post on them, too.)