Sci-Fi Storm

[The following is a submitted article]

On the weekend of August 13 and 14, a new science-fiction event will be splashing down in London, and it will be presided over by Claudia Christian, who starred in “Babylon 5.”

The event will allow fans unrivaled access to all the genre stars that will be attending, many of whom are some of Claudia’s personal friends.

Proceeds from ClaudiaCon will go towards helping out BlESMA, that provides war veterans with prosthetic limbs and Guide Dogs, which provide seeing-eye dogs for the blind. Both of these are UK-based charities.
(continue reading…)

It’s been going on for five years and two continents, and we last reported on it two years ago, but the long-running legal battle between Lucasfilm and prop designer Andrew Ainsworth appears to have reached an end. The U.K. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Ainsworth, saying that the Stormtrooper design was not protected as art and therefore the rights on it expired.

Ainsworth began selling replicas after he sold a helmet and other pieces he still had at auction for £60,000 in 2002. In 2004, Lucasfilm sued him for $20 million – and won in the U.S., but couldn’t collect since Ainsworth was in the U.K., so the lawsuit began over there. Although there was no formal contract signed between Lucasfilm and Ainsworth, it was ruled that there was an implied contract – but the court had to decide if the design was a “work of art” or simply industrial props – with the judgement being the latter.

If you were at Comic-Con today, you may have seen this already. If you are like me and stuck at work, here is a sneak peek at some of the deleted scenes that have been included in the upcoming [sfs=1099]Star Wars: The Original Trilogy[/sfs] Blu-ray release, which will come out on September 16th. (Also available is the [sfs=1100]Prequel trilogy[/sfs] and the [sfs=1098]Complete Saga[/sfs] – pre-order now and have the Force with you on the release date!)

A bit of the “I Toldja!” – in an interview with producer Rick McCallum for czechposition.com, he confirmed that there only have 50 “third draft” scripts for the live action Star Wars series, not 50 hours “in the can” as was so widely reported, but we seriously doubted…but he also gave a lot more information about the show than we’ve gotten so far.

The article primarily dealt with how the Czech Republic may for into plans to produce the series – the country is a developing hotbed for TV and movie productions due to costs and locations available. And some of the Lucas and McCallum produced “Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” was shot in the capital of Prague, as was most of Red Tails, a Lucasfilm production about the Tuskegee Airmen that will be released next January. And it looks like this Star Wars series may got shot there as well – but don’t go buying your airline tickets yet.

“The TV series is on hold, but that has nothing to do with the Czech Republic; it has to do with [the episodes being] so ambitious,” McCallum told Czech Position. “We have 50 hours of third-draft scripts, but the problem we have is there is a lot of digital animation; we don’t have the technology yet to be able to do them at a price that is safe for television. Since we would be financing them, it would be suicide for us to do this [now]. So we are going to wait three or four years.” And perhaps even more distressing is that even then, he thinks it might be impossible. “Network television and cable television as we know it are completely imploding, so we’re not really sure that in five years’ time we can release a dramatic one-hour episode because it is all reality TV now,” he added.

But we get a hint of the plot. “Basically, it is like The Godfather; it’s the Empire slowly building up its power base around the galaxy, what happens in Coruscant, which is the major capital, and it’s [about] a group of underground bosses who live there and control drugs, prostitution,” McCallum said.

Well, at least we have an idea of what we may never see…

OK, this may only be for a game…but this looks awesome! Check out the cinematic introduction for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO game from BioWare and LucasArts below! No release date has yet been set.
(continue reading…)

So, I got a kick today, as a week ago I posted an article pointing out that Lucas never said he had 50 episodes “in the can” (i.e. completed and ready to air) like a lot of the news outlets seemed to think. Yet late yesterday the New York Post posted an article still saying the episodes were in the can, that was reiterated by The Hollywood Reporter today – both articles were later corrected. Deadline also followed the Post’s article, but I only saw it after the corrections to the other two so I don’t know if they had likewise made the same error. Anyways, I get to feel smug for a few minutes about my being correct a week before some of the major industry rags. 🙂

But in the meantime, E! Online has a fun article about “Five Ways to Keep New Star Wars TV Series From Sucking”. Although honestly, “No Jar Jar” should be higher up on the list. And we could easily expand it to 10 ways…or 20 I’m sure.

So, remember that live action Star Wars series that George Lucas announced many moons ago, where he was planning 100 episodes but planned to have 50 or 60 in the can before bringing it to air? And then the project got shelved due to it being too expensive? Well, there has been lots of reports based on an interview George did for Attack Of The Show as part of the Star Tours re-opening and Star Wars 3D announcements that he said they have 50 hours already filmed – but it seemed very odd to me that they could have 50 hours filmed and then say that they need to figure out a way to make it cheaper. So I watched the interview, and he never actually says that it has been filmed – only that they “have 50 hours,” and that they are trying to figure out a way to make it “economically feasible to shoot the show.” That sounds to me like they’ve got scripts and perhaps some pre-production work done, but no actual filming.

Watch and decide for yourself:
(continue reading…)

This past weekend was not only the opening of Star Wars Weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but also the grand re-opening of the Star Tours attraction, which now takes guests to 6 different planets and offers 54 variations of the ride. So there were all sort of extra things going on, including a dedication ceremony featuring the Master Jedi himself, George Lucas along with Anthony Daniels.

If you want to check out photos, videos, etc. of the event, I recommend heading over to Inside the Magic’s Star Tours coverage page, which has excellent videos and even an exclusive interview with Anthony Daniels, and then check out the video of this year’s Hyperspace Hoopla (unless you are going to an upcoming weekend, which in that case I don’t want to spoil the surprises…)

As part of the “Star Wars Day” festivities (“May the fourth be with you…” – check the date if you didn’t get it…) Lucasfilm has released the details on what would be included in the [sfs=1098]upcoming Blu-ray release[/sfs] of Star Wars: The Complete Saga, due out September 16th in the U.S. and September 12th internationally. This is the most complete release to date, with deleted and alternate scenes, new and old documentaries, a 91 minute special just of Star Wars spoofs (including Weird Al’s “The Saga Begins” video), and more – 3 extra discs worth! Read on for the complete details.

(continue reading…)

If you’ve been to Disneyland or Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in the past few years, you may have seen the Jedi Training Academy – your younglings may have even taken part in it (both of mine have – alas, no adults are allowed), where they get to dress up and be trained by a Jedi Master, and ultimately have a quick fight with Darth Vader while a couple of Stormtroopers look on. It’s a lot of fun for the kids, especially if the love Star Wars, and it can be fun to watch too.

Well, in Disneyland a youngling by the name of Sariah Gallego managed to surprise the Jedi Master, Darth Vader, and the Stormtroopers, as she pledged allegiance to Vader and joined the Sith…

I’m sure her parents had something to do with it…the Jedi Master did recover pretty quickly though…