Okay, so Grievous and the clonetrooper aren’t so bad, but Anakin and Obi-Wan are freaking me the hell out. If you disagree, or simply want to sent me the head of one in a box, they’re only $9.99 today at Kids.Woot.
Movie news: Tolkien heirs settle with New Line
Tolkien lawsuit settled. The trustees of J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate have settled their lawsuit with New Line over the profits from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings adaptations. Terms were not disclosed, but that’s certainly one less roadblock to The Hobbit adaption.
- Industry. Warner Bros. is reorganizing DC Comics, relaunching it as DC Entertainment. Diane Nelson, who has overseen the Harry Potter movies, will run it.
- Disney. There’s a new full-length trailer for The Princess and the Frog, awakening more than a bit of controversy. Meanwhile, the documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty, about Disney’s last return to traditional animation, sounds very interesting.
- More, uh, Disney. Pixar folks deny that the Marvel project they’re “excited about” is not, as Entertainment Weekly reported, Ant-Man. I say Pixar is the only studio who could make me consider seeing an Ant-Man movie, and that barely.
- He-Man. At least one property of my childhood is safe (for now:) Warner Brothers is dropping their option on Masters of the Universe. My embarrassment squick thanks them.
- The Road. This years’ Viggo Mortensen genre fix has been pushed back to Thanksgiving.
Video: Star Wars thriller
There’s at least one Jader in this video… And I hope someone, somewhere, is doing a Death Troopers version. (via)
Gate Geek: io9 has seen Universe and it is good….
And lo, io9 got to see the first three hours of Stargate Universe. And it was good. They even managed to write a spoiler-free review about it.
In a nutshell, it’s not your regular Stargate, but it still has it as its core. And they ask you to give it at least until the end of the third hour until you decide for yourself. Plenty of stuff for “Gaters” to get riled about; which “Gaters” love to do. (Can I be not a fan of the whole “Gaters” designation, though?)
At Dragon*Con, I got the chance to speak briefly with Gary Jones (aka Walter “Chevron Counting Guy” Harriman) who has been there during production and even saw some preliminary cuts. He thinks we’re going to love it if we give it a chance.
The Star Wars costumes of Dragon*Con
If the reports are anything to go on, there was no missing the many steampunk-themed costumes at Dragon*Con this weekend; No surprise that there were several Star Wars variations. Not surprisingly there were a lot of stormtroopers, bounty hunters and your other standards, but Cardinal Vader may be a new one. (Though one must admit it isn’t much of a logical leap.) Or we can just go straight for the crossdressers. Or the ever-popular Spaceballs. (Photo at right by Ryan James.)
And this adorable no-frills two-person AT-AT costume was a big hit with the #dragoncon tweeters. How about them boxes? But for sheer ‘ah, screw it’ daring, my vote goes to these guys.
And in conclusion, baby.
Out this week: Insider (plus December comic solicitations)
No books, no comics, just the Obi-centric Star Wars Insider #112. In more forward-looking news (or at least stuff you didn’t read last month,) the official site has December 2009 comic solicitations.
Details on the Celebration V announcement delay
We’re all getting a bit antsy on the CV front – Where? When? Ever? – but Steve Sansweet gave the lowdown to Examiner.com’s Bryan Young. Basically? We’re waiting on a organizational deal to be signed (in the past, that was GenCon) and that it could happen as late as six months out from the event. Eek!
The first review of Death Troopers is here
Naturally, it’s at Fangoria. Allan Dart shares some details (possible spoilers) and gives the much-hyped book a mixed review. (“…A prosaically imitative zombie tale that doesn’t take enough advantage of the STAR WARS Universe.”) What that means for those of us not knee-deep in horror conventions on a regular basis is anyone’s guess. But it certainly sounds bloody.
The fandom minute: Star Wars religious icons, Disney & LFL, CV, McVader, spaceships
When the stormies come marching in. io9 goes for the cheap and easy with a roundup of Star Wars fan art inspired by religious art. Half of it is photoshoppery and such that we’ve seen before, but the icons by Patrick King are pretty cool.
Theories. Some day George will want to buy a tropical island and sit around drinking mai tais all day, and then I’ll consider Disney buying Lucasfilm an actual possibility. For one thing, I don’t think the FCC would be too thrilled about it…
Facebook. There’s an unofficial Celebration V fan page you can join, if so inclined. Meanwhile, the latest tidbit on the con? You can win a free trip to it. Does that mean we’ll get a date before Halloween? We can but dream…
McAdvertising. Vader is shilling for McDonalds in Europe.
Lists. The Falcon and a couple of other Star Wars ships on Den of Geek’s top 75 spaceships.
Video: Chad Vader’s Miserable Labor Day
Poor Chad.