Sci-Fi Storm

Star Wars Weekends starts a week from tomorrow at Walt Disney World, but some of the stars and characters are around a bit early…actress Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka Tano, founder of Her Universe (awesome Star Wars and Syfy apparel and items for the female fans) and co-host of Star Wars Weekends, was around this past weekend signing pictures and selling merchandise. And it seems she found a rather persistent admirer…
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I am hearing the sad news from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars cast: Actor Ian Ambercrombie, who was the voice of Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious, passed away yesterday at the age of 77.

Abercrombie was also most recently a recurring character in Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place as Professor Crumbs, and appeared in the final episode aired a couple of weeks ago. An accomplished stage actor, SF fans may also remember him for his role of Alfred in the short-lived Birds of Prey series, guesting as Correlilmurzon in some memorable comedy moments in the Babylon 5 episode “Acts of Sacrifice”, and the role of Wiseman in Army of Darkness, among other guest spots and smaller roles.

With the [sfs=1098]Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray[/sfs] out on Friday, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 4 beginning on the same day, how about some Star Wars awesomeness? Check out this LEGO monstrosity, weighing in at 180 pounds, 43,000 pieces, and 8 feet long – it’s the Venator-class Star Destroyer.

Some belated Sci-Fi TV Store updates:

• Fringe: The Complete Third Season was released on [sfs=1154]Blu-Ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1153]DVD[/sfs] last week
• Sanctuary: The Complete Third Season is out today on [sfs=1151]Blu-Ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1152]DVD[/sfs], and also gets its own section
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars also gets its own section, with The Complete Season Three out on [sfs=1159]Blu-Ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1160]DVD[/sfs] on October 18th – and Season 4 starts on Cartoon Network Friday!
• The second half of the sixth series of Doctor Who, currently airing, will be released on [sfs=1145]Blu-Ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1146]DVD[/sfs] on November 8th, followed by the complete sixth series on [sfs=1147]Blu-Ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1148]DVD[/sfs] on November 22nd.

And the following classic episodes of Doctor Who are scheduled:

• [sfs=334]The Talons of Weng-Chiang[/sfs] – October 11th
• [sfs=1144]Colony in Space[/sfs] – November 8th
• [sfs=1149]Invasion of the Dinosaurs[/sfs] – January 10th
• [sfs=1150]The Android Invasion[/sfs] – January 10th

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Entertainment Weekly had an interview with Star Wars: The Clone Wars supervising director Dave Filoni, and he gave look forward to what might be expected in the 4th season – and also said that Battlestar Galactica‘s Katee Sackhoff will be voicing a “memorable” character! “Everybody here loved Battlestar Galactica. It was such a great, inspirational series, and I think fans will be very pleased with the character she portrays,” Filoni said. “Let me say this, it will be a memorable character, that is for sure.” BSG fans may have noticed some classic BSG references in the show already.

Some of the other things he mentioned: More three-episode story arcs, multiple Oscar winning sound editor Walter Murch will work on an episode, and bigger epic battles. And we may not have seen the last of Chewbacca either…

With his upcoming appearance on the upcoming one hour season finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Friday, April 1st, 8pm ET), Chewbacca stopped off at Skywalker Ranch to answer some emails…

And from what I’ve been hearing, if you were hoping to see a young Han Solo make an appearance at some point…don’t plan on it.

The Cartoon Network announced at its upfront presentations today that they have renewed Star Wars: The Clone Wars for a fourth season, along with forming a new partnership with DC Comics and Warner Brothers to create a programming block to be titled DC Nation. In addition Jeffrey Katzenberg, Co-founder and CEO of DreamWorks Animation, appeared to announce that CN and DreamWorks will develop a half-hour cartoon based on the hugely successful How To Train Your Dragon feature.

DC Nation will begin in 2012 as a multi-platform franchise, and the exclusive home for DC properties. Although no specific programming is mentioned, it will include an on-air and online programming block populated with event programming, interstitials, exclusive behind-the-scenes of theatrical production and an insider look into the world of all things DC. “DC Nation on Cartoon Network will be the first-ever dedicated broadcast destination to showcase the depth and breadth of the DC Universe,” said Diane Nelson, President of DC Entertainment. “We and our partners at WBTV are thrilled that fans will be able to immerse themselves in DC’s phenomenal stories, experience a wide spectrum of amazing characters and stay up-to-date on the latest happenings of the world’s greatest superheroes and their creators, both on-air and online.”

“DreamWorks Animation recognizes the importance of building brands around great franchises, so you can imagine how thrilled we are to be joining forces with Cartoon Network to bring our newest franchise – How to Train Your Dragon – to television audiences around the world,” said Katzenberg. Dragon has grossed over $500 million worldwide so far.

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Just a quick recap of any remotely genre related awards gained at last night’s Oscar festivities, beyond the periodic Hugh Jackman/Wolverine references: Inception was the big genre winner, taking Cinematography, Visual Effects, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing; Queen Amidala – or more accurately, Natalie Portman – took home the Best Actress award for her role in Black Swan; Toy Story 3 won Best Animated Feature, as well as Randy Newman taking the Best Original Music, for the TS3 song, “We Belong Together” (and gave on of the best acceptance speeches of the night); Alice In Wonderland won for Art Direction and Costume Design; and Wolfman won for Makeup (it didn’t have much competition). Tron: Legacy went home with nothing, having only had one nomination in Sound Editing – inexplicably not nominated for at least Visual Effects. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 also received none, but was the subject of an interesting musical montage thanks to AutoTune…

Side note: Star Wars: The Clone Wars fans may have heard a familiar voice. Tom Kane, who narrates the beginning of each episode, was the announcer.

As a followup to a story we tweeted about a couple weeks ago, about Katie Goldman and how she was teased at school because she was a girl with a Star Wars backpack and bottle and loved Star Wars, and afterwards the whole geek community stepped up. Katie got support – and gifts – from all over. Ashley Eckstein (the voice of Ahsoka Tano on Star Wars: Clone Wars, founder of geek girl site Her Universe and all around super-cool geek gal – nice CNN article here) sent her a care package and she and her mom wore the t-shirts to the Chicago screening of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. And Think Geek sent a light saber. And the 501st Squadron and others took pictures with her dressed a Princess Leia.

The geeks win again…we do rule the world!

Star Wars – The Clone Wars: A Galaxy Divided was released on DVD this past week, and I’ve got a review here. It consists of the first 4 episodes of the series, which follows after the events of the theatrical release (also on DVD as well as Blu-ray).

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