Out this week: Inside ILM, Fisher’s Shockaholic

Here’s one to put on your holiday wishlist: Industrial Light and Magic: The Art of Innovation should be appearing in stores Tuesday. (It sounds like a companion piece to 1987’s Industrial Light & Magic: The Art of Special Effects, which I recall thumbing through in Waldenbook’s as a kid.) Also keep an eye out for Carrie Fisher’s latest book, Shockaholic, which should find its way into stores this week.

Our next book release is Drew Karpyshyn’s The Old Republic: Revan on November 15th. I spotted a few minor date changes for 2012 books on Random House’s online catalogue – see them in our book release schedule.

EUbits: Richardson on CEIII, inside The Complete Vader

Crimson Empire III. With Empire Lost #1 in stores, Dark Horse founder and co-writer Mike Richardson talks to Comic Book Resources about getting the Star Wars license and getting re-acquainted with Kir Kanos and crew.

The Complete Vader. Undecided on whether to get the book or not? Take a peek at some of the contents courtesy of Wired. For those who already have it, the Star Wars Books Facebook page is hosting a chat with authors Ryder Windham and Pete Vilmur on Tuesday.

Nonfiction. Also coming on Tuesday is the release of Industrial Light & Magic: The Art of Innovation, a nice coffee-table book for the effect nerds.

Video. Author J.W. Rinzler & Art Director Leslie Dilley talk about the massive Blueprints book at NYCC.

Excerpts. A tiny bit of The Old Republic: Revan, and a bigger one for Shadow Games.

Poll At Suvudu, Eric Geller asks which Star Wars books you’d like to see adapted for the screen. Alas, there’s not option for ‘none of them.’

I hope it’s just a (forest) moon: ILM rep to be at NASA press conference Thursday

ILM visual effects supervisor John Knoll will be at a NASA press conference on Thursday. The presser is regarding a discovery made by the Kepler misson.

Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the “habitable zone,” the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist on the surface of the orbiting planet.

What could it be?

In the news: Fans love the Yoda statue, ILM may establish Canadian outpost


Emily Lewis, right, and her pal Jason at the Yoda Fountain. (Photo by Emily Lewis.

A dispatch from the mainstream. The Yoda statue at the Presidio is a landmark for Star Wars fans, an Associated Press article says this week. No, really? Other key Star Wars locales, like Tunisia and Lake Como, are also mentioned.

ILM looking north? The Hollywood Reporter says that Industrial Light + Magic is looking into opening a facility in Vancouver.

Your daily dose of stormtroopers. The Illinois 501st get profiled in the Chicago Tribune.

Baseball. The San Francisco Giants are freezing pitcher Brian Wilson (not the Beach Boy) in carbonite for the Star Wars day on September 4th. Wouldn’t it make more sense to freeze the visiting team’s pitcher?

Science! Spoilers are good for you, says a study by UC San Diego. Okay then!

Teaser: The Last Airbender

This is the SuperBowl spot for the other Avatar, and the one I am actually kind of legitimately looking forward to now. (Needs more Zuko, but still.) Don’t you dare screw this up, Shyamalan. Watch it in HD and see if you can spot Appa. (via)

(Is that who I think it is on voiceover?)

No big surprises in Oscar noms

Per usual, not too much for genre fans to get excited about. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which I suppose could classify as fantasy, sort of, had the most nods this year, including Best Picture and Actor. Heath Ledger is up for Best Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight, but the movie failed to get any other major nominations. It is up for the usual throw-them-a-bone categories of Cinematography, Film Editing, Makeup, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing.

Wall-E did pretty good – it failed to get a Best Picture nod as many were hoping for, but it is up for Animated Film (duh,) Original Screenplay, Original Song, and several technical awards.

The Visual Effects category puts Benjamin Button up against The Dark Knight and ILM’s Iron Man.

UPDATE: StarWars.com has a full listing of all ILM and Skywalker Sound Oscar nominations, as well as BAFTA and VES nods.