News

In our continuing series to tell you what’s going to be at Comic-Con for those attending in relation to Star Wars, we present Friday’s (July 21st) schedule for all things Lucas related…

10am – 11am Lego Star Wars
Ever wanted to find out what it takes to bring Star Wars and Lego together? Well now you can with the team from the game company, where you will be able to ask questions and hear the answers from some of the coolest developers around. The panel will also feature Emmy award winning writer Michael Price. There will also be the revealing of a new Lego Star Wars event.

11am – 12n Hasbro Star Wars
Of course, everyone knows that Hasbro makes a ton of Star Wars toys, fun props and action figures. In this panel, guests from the marketing and design teams will be on hand to talk about what is in store for the franchise with a sneak peek at next year’s offerings.

12n – 1:00pm Star Wars Books
Publisher Del Rey and LucasBooks will discuss the 20th anniversary...

San Diego Comic-Con International is one of the biggest comic book, and now pop culture events in the country. It’s where movie companies, comic book publishers, authors, artists, game developers, and even toy manufacturers, not to mention fans come together, 130,000 in all for the four day event. And Star Wars is right in the middle of it, with actually a lot of different events going on despite not having much in the way of new content except for Clone Wars’ new season coming soon.

Thursday:
10:00am – 11:00am Star Wars Kinect
The title that has been much awaited for the Xbox 360 and Kinect controller will have a panel in which participants will get to hear from lead producer Craig Derrick from LucasArts and studio head Jorg Nuemann from Kinect Publishing. Participants will get a free poster for attending.

3:30pm – 4:30pm Star Wars: The Old Republic
We’ve talked about the new massive multiplayer online world before here and Bioware will be on hand, along...

George Lucas, who usually is pretty good about fan based events and such, actually put a stop to a Star Wars Movie Marathon at a bar in Brooklyn that was to feature specialty drinks and costume contests during the showings. The Wicked Monk had planned to present all six movies for a night of fun and frolic, but the head Jedi was having none of it. He sent his squadron of lawyers descending down on the place like Darth on Leia’s ship and in the end, the establishment was forced to cancel. Actually he just sent a cease and desist letter. According to the communication, it was because they were charging, even though it was clear that entry was free and only the drinks would be charged for. Our guess it was probably because he wasn’t getting the licensing fees from it like theaters do. The bad PR he’ll get internationally was really not worth it for a local event.

The television special Lego Star Wars: The Padawan Adventure will make its debut on the Cartoon...

In the continuing saga of the Star Wars Galaxies shutdown that we spoke of yesterday, it seems that some players have turned to the Supreme Council, known in some circles as the US legal system, to file a class action suit against Sony Online Entertainment to block the closing. The suit mentions the tactics that the company has taken in response to the petition that was being circulated in an effort to keep the service from shutting down. They have blocked access to forums, singled out a ring leader who they threatened to sue as well as ban permanently and other practices that while designed to silence the opposition to their plan, is doing them more harm than good. The suit is not very likely to succeed due to the fine print in the EULA, which gives Sony the right to basically run their service as they see fit, but you can’t blame them for trying. Best case is that it shows the lengths that Sony is willing to go to shut up their members. The bad PR alone...

As you can imagine, there is nothing like a game player scorned. The surprise announcement that Star Wars Galaxies is shutting down in December has rocked the gaming world and message boards across the internet. The game’s Facebook page has been aflame with new postings referring to the petition to keep the game going, as well as their discontent at the plan.

At last count, around 2100 had signed the petition to Sony Online to request that the game stays open, but rather than business as usual, their request is for Sony to go to a free to play model making their revenue by selling virtual goods and reducing the number of servers. This move is not unprecedented. Other companies have kept their MMO’s based on popular franchises such as Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings open for free, while still gaining users and revenue, sometimes even five fold. But unlike those other games, they didn’t have a major competitor for the same market breathing down...

Today we are looking at some cool new Star Wars R2-D2 toys that will be coming out this fall.

Our first item is an old favorite that has been converted to the world of George Lucas. Yes, it’s Operation. You remember that game as a kid. You took a pair of tweezers and tried to remove things like the funny bone and heart from the patient without touching the sides. Otherwise his nose lit up and a sharp annoying buzzing sound would indicate to you that the patient had suffered. I always thought after ten of those he would have been flatlined, but that might have been too much for kids. Well now instead of Cavity Sam (which apparently was the unfortunately unhealthy man’s name), Star Wars Operation features R2-D2 under the tweezers, or in this case, perhaps spanners. But it’s still the same game, only you will be taking out R2-D2’s electronic parts and if you don’t do it correctly, he will beep at you and flash an evil red light. The game is to be released...

There has actually been a bit of Star Wars news this week. Lego is releasing a new set, Rick McCallum talks about live action TV show and the future of the 3D conversions, among other fun stuff. Let’s get to it.

Lego has recreated many of the Star Wars ships in various sets. There is the Millenium Falcon, the Death Star, The Imperial Shuttle and Palpatine’s personal shuttle, among others. But if you wanted a Super Star Destroyer, you had to try to build your own out of previously created parts or hope that they would come out with a set. And now the wait for a Lego set is over. They are bringing Darth Vader’s Executor ship to life with 3100 bricks, including specialty pieces. The model will be 50 inches long and will be a fairly accurate recreation of the memorable vessel. It will even has a removable area where you can place various Lego characters in like the Dark Lord himself and perhaps a Storm Trooper or two. You can buy the model starting in...

Star Wars: Celebration V was a big fan convention that was held last year in Orlando, FL and featured everything you’d expect from such an event, including celebrity guests and panels, costumes, screenings and more. The four day gathering was attended by tens of thousands of fans, so popular that organizers are planning on holding the event again at the same location, the Orange County Convention Center. Tickets are now available for Celebration VI, even though the event is not until August 23-26 of next year (2012). Daily passes will run from $55 (Thursday, Friday, and Sunday) and $65 (Saturday) for adults or $27 for children for each and all days, but the best value is the $135 for a four day adult pass, or $54 for child. You can go here to purchase tickets. There is not much information yet about anything that is scheduled, but we will say that Celebration...

A couple of updates for news we posted about previously...

It seems that those kids at Westfield High School who simulated a Star Wars light saber duel in the cafeteria that ended in a standing ovation and everyone’s arms still attached to their bodies, will not be banned from their graduation after all. Principal Raymond K. Broderick not only agreed to let them walk down the aisle, but let them out of their suspensions as well. He also let two other boys that had put Vaseline on office doors off the hook too, saying that they are good kids and deserve a chance to graduate and have a future, despite a moment of bad judgment. Even though he took the wrath of the online community, the principal did have support from his higher ups like the Superintendant of Schools and the Mayor, and could have easily kept the ban active. We applaud his good sense to see the humor and not the bad in this one.

The Star Wars fan base was on fire as George Lucas said something...

George Lucas, who appeared on G4 as part of the promotion of the Star Tours II ride, talked about the live action Star Wars TV Show and it’s not good news for the fans.

The Star Wars creator says that they have 50 hours of script written for the show, but the pages play out just like a regular feature film. And this means that in order to create the effects and stage the production of such a show, it would require a huge budget, and it’s not something television networks can afford at this point. The only way, Lucas reckons, is to figure out a way to make movies cheaper and thus bring the cost level down to something practical. He says that once that process is figured out, that it will change how movies are made and then it will be time for the TV show to get a second look.

Hopefully now with Star Tours out of the way and the process finalized for 3D conversion of the films that Industrial Light and Magic can get to the task of where to cut enough corners...

Let’s start by wishing Star Wars: A New Hope a happy birthday. It was this day back in 1977 that the movie premiered to audiences everywhere. A space western at its core, few had dreamed that it would be the success it has been to this date, and would bring George Lucas to incredible fame, along with his band of characters. I remember being 12 when I first saw the movie. It was one of my first actually going to a theater by myself and I loved every minute of the adventure. Seeing the ships disappear in light speed on a full screen really was memorable for me. And after that, I had bought or gotten for Christmas, a whole lot of Star Wars games that I wanted. And even to this day, with all the other movies and TV shows out, I’m still fascinated. And I do think Lucas has earned his place among the greats like Walt Disney and Jim Henson as one of the most creative minds in the Universe.

Speaking of Disney, George Lucas was there to do the proverbial ribbon...

George Lucas, who was present when Star Tours first opened back in 1987, will be returning to Walt Disney World’s Disney Hollywood Studios for the ceremony to open Star Tours II: The Adventures Continue. The opening of the new version of the attraction is scheduled for May 20, 2011, which is the first of the Star Wars Weekends at the park. At 10am, there will be an opening ceremony which will include many different characters, dignitaries, actors such as Anthony Daniels who reprises his role as C3PO in the ride, and now Lucas.

The ride is being created for Disneyland and Walt Disney World at the same time, and while Lucas has not had a preview of the Florida version, he did get to ride the clone in California in February of this year and liked what he saw. No word on whether he’ll go on the Florida one or not while he is there.

The opening date for the Disneyland version is June 3, 2011, which is two weeks later. The reason for the delay is no doubt so...