Roundup: Filoni talks Maul, Savage, Ahsoka and The Clone Wars S5

TCW: The Wrong JediCartoons. StarWars.com has continues their Dave Filoni interview. It focuses on The Clone Wars S5. (Part 1 dropped a few weeks ago.)

One year on. Here are a few more flashbacks to the big announcement last year: I spent that evening talking it over the buyout/Episode VII announcement with Tosche Station’s Bryan and Nanci. (Please don’t tell me if I said anything dumb.) And here’s the special edition tweet roundup.

Retro. Alas, the lawyers caught up with the Star Wars blooper reel, but check out these two other great behind-the-scenes pics that (I suspect) originate from the enhanced Making of eBooks: A different angle on Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford during the medal ceremony and Mark Hamill gets meditative (or just bored) during the filming of Return of the Jedi.

Also on Tumblr. Artist Jeff Bennett improves the sentimental schlock of Thomas Kincade by adding Star Wars; The Stooge tackles the top ten soon-to-be-confirmed Star Wars rumors and a great pair of homemade Artoo and Threepio costumes.

EUbits: Fan artist takes on Rebels-era Mara Jade

ENGELHA5T's Mara Jade and Palpatine (crop)Fan art. Lucasfilm may not have revealed what (most) of the Rebels character design will look like yet, ENGELHA5T on DeviantArt has created several OT-era characters in the style of The Clone Wars. Of particular interest to us would be Mara Jade, but there’s also Han and Chewie, Thrawn and Pellaeon, a teen Leia and even a Luke, may of them with cardbacks as well. You can check out his full gallery, but be warned it does contain some more adult works, though they do seem to be hidden if you’re not logged in to DA.

Del Rey. We actually heard about it way back at Celebration, but now Del Rey has officially announced their Star Wars Action Team. It’s not quite up and running yet, but the general gist is that you “spread the word” and get points. Please don’t break down any doors. On that note, here’s some of the swag they’ll have at SDCC.

Comics. Newsarama has a first look at the next arc of Dark Times, A Spark Remains.

The blogside. At the official blog, Dan Brooks praises Matthew Stover’s Revenge of the Sith adaptation, while Jennifer Heddle talks about why Leia is awesome.

Reviews. Over at Big Shiny Robot, James reads Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin #3,The Clone Wars: The Smuggler’s Code and Legacy #4, where Ania Solo learns sometimes shooting first isn’t the best solution.

J.J Abrams talks Episode VII, plus a great fan poster

Fan art: Episode VII poster by Adam Schickling Empire talked to director J.J. Abrams about Episode VII and Star Trek. No real revelations, but some intersting comments for fans of the franchises.

“I don’t know because we’re just getting started. So it’s a great question that I hope I’ll have a good answer to when I know what the answer is. There are infinitely more questions than answers right now, but to me, they’re not that dissimilar. Though I came at these both from very different places, where they both meet is a place of ‘Ooh, that’s really exciting.’ And even though I was never a Star Trek fan, I felt like there was a version of it that would make me excited, that I would think ‘that’s cool, that feels right, I actually would want to see that.

“How we were going to get there, what the choices were going to be, who was going to be in it – all of those things I knew would have to be figured out, but it was all based on a foundation of this indescribable, guttural passion for something that could be. It’s a similar feeling that I have with Star Wars. I feel like I can identify a hunger for what I would want to see again and that is an incredibly exciting place to begin a project. The movies, the worlds could not be more different but that feeling that there’s something amazing here is the thing that they share.”

He also talks about how Kathleen Kennedy was able to change his mind, and about talking to Steven Spielberg.

And above is a fantastic fan poster by artist Adam Schickling!

Tosche Station wants you, fan artists and costumers, to help them replace Mara Jade’s catsuit

Many of us Mara Jade fans have never really been big fans of character’s ‘default’ outfit, the leather catsuit. And Tosche Station has finally has it:

By the Gods of Kobol, we hate the catsuit. It’s objectifying, it’s demeaning. Mara’s a character whose innate personality makes her engaging. She doesn’t need to wear a skintight outfit that’s woefully ill-suited to combat to get fans to like her.

So, they’re having a contest! Come up with a more appropriate outfit for Mara and you could win some books. And/or the gratitude of Mara fans!

Here are a few existing fanworks that just may fit the criteria: Mara in robes, in a jacket, in a turtleneck, (!!) steampunk (well, at least it’s different,) in a flight suit and inspired by one of the Japanese covers. Be inspired, but don’t copy!

The fandom minute: Lucasfilm gives, Lucasfilm takes

Photographer Cédric Delsaux apparently has Lucas blessing to publish Dark Lens, a book featuring his Star Wars in Dubai photographs. George Lucas himself wrote the book’s introduction. (Yet… it’s unlicensed? So confusing.)

The fandom minute is working for the weekend

This is Relevant to Our Interests: Allison Bamford's 'Ewok Sundae'Art strikes back. Boston fans can head to Art Asylum Boston for an exhibit of Star Wars art. The rest of us will just have to settle for checking out the blog. I’m rather fond of Allison Bamford’s ‘Ewok Sundae’ (right,) ‘Robotsicle’ and ‘Death Star-e-o.’ (via)

Spotlight on the fans. StarWars.com has our first look at Generation Star Wars, the book by LFL’s Bonnie Burton, Mary Franklin and Pete Vilmur that shines the spotlight on the fandom. On that note, Bonnie talks Rebel Legion with Indiana’s Matthew Hofmann.

Crossover fail. There was an awful lot of Wars/Trek confusion in the popular blogosphere this week: Both Cake Wrecks and Failblog discovered some.

The more you know. Thanks to an auto-friending of @clubjade on Twitter, I discovered that LFL can mean Lingerie Football League as well as Lucasfilm. This is a good example of why auto-friending people based on search terms is a bad idea.

The fandom minute: New Moon takes Sith to its knees

Oh, it’s on now, sparkles. Fandango’s advance ticket sales for New Moon, the second Twilight movie, have surpassed Revenge of the Sith’s record. I am resisting so many choking vs. c-section jokes right now, but mostly just thankful it wasn’t Transformers.

Oh honey, no. Someone decided that yesterday was World Wide Wookiee Life Day. Here concludes my obligatory mention of the Holiday Special for the season. Call me when Santa Maul wakes up, okay? (via)

Phone stuffs. A Trench Run game is now available in the iTunes store priced at $4.99 for those with compatible devices. (The lightsaber app is still free.) Meanwhile, those who possess a lesser device an LG Arena KM900 can get some custom Star Wars stuff, including a ringtone.

List. Star Wars is the indisputable champion of Geekdad’s top ten bad messages from good movies, at least if you don’t count Disney as a single entity.

At random. Yoda in the form of the new Twitter default icon.

The fandom minute: Star Wars religious icons, Disney & LFL, CV, McVader, spaceships

Imperial Saints by Patrick King 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.