News

Look at This: Star Tours II "Commercial"

Latino Review recently found this video, which was first screened at Star Wars Celebration, for the upcoming revamped version of Disney's Star Tours ride. The video doesn't actually contain footage of the ride itself but is instead the faux Star Tours travel agency commercial that is played while you stand in line.

Sci-fi DVD/Blu-ray Releases, 8/31/2010

Prepare yourself for some movie called Brainjacked.

Sci-fi DVD/Blu-ray Releases 8/24/2010

Lost finds its way home.

Look at This: Silent 'Star Wars'

There's been a lot of Star Wars hubbub lately with Star Wars Celebration V just having wrapped. Something The Sci-Fi Block missed while preparing for the convention was this silent version of the Luke/Vader duel in The Empire Strikes Back (found first by Seen All Over).

'Star Wars Uncut' is Complete, Assembled, and Available to Watch

Late last year I interviewed Casey Pugh about his project Star Wars Uncut. SW: Uncut is a half-ironic title of a crowdsourced remake of the original Star Wars film. Casey had volunteers submit their own remakes of fifteen-second clips from the movie (473 total), to be strung together to recreate the original experience in a completely wild and often chaotic way. Now that project is finished. Star Wars Uncut is online in its assembled entirety for all to view.

Massive Clone Wars Season 3 Updates from Star Wars Celebration

With The Clone Wars being Lucasfilm’s only currently running Star Wars series and with season 3 of that show just about a month away, series director Dave Filoni, CG Supervisor Joel Aron, and George Lucas teased the new season like crazy at Star Wars Celebration V. The extent of the teasing and previewing was not uncalled-for, however. From the introduction of specific character types to the quality of the animation itself, virtually everything Clone Wars-related they showed us over the weekend looked genuinely awesome. Here are the key things we saw and the most important things Filoni, Aron, and Lucas had to say about the show.

Sci-fi DVD/Blu-ray Releases, 8/17/2010

Animated Wolverine. And nothing else at all.

George Lucas Answers Fan Questions, Talks Blu-ray, and Reveals Lost ROTJ Opening Scene

The Jon Stewart/George Lucas interview was the big event at Star Wars Celebration V. With the doors opening at 6:00 a.m. and practically every non-celebration-stage room being devoted to a simulcast of the event, the line was already over a thousand-long at 3:00 a.m. (the first person in line, I am told, arrived at 5:00 p.m. the evening before). And while perhaps nothing is truly worth the combination of three hours of sleep and eight hours sitting, standing, and napping in Florida humidity, the interview did not disappoint. There were no Earth-shattering announcements, but there was one big one, and we got to listen to the very George we know from all the interviews he's given in the past. Occasionally humorous and always insightful, the man behind the greatest modern day mythology of them all answered questions ranging from story and continuity concerns to his personal feelings about the movies themselves, and he ended things in style -- with the announcement of Star Wars on Blu-ray and, along with it, the release of a particularly stunning deleted scene from Return of the Jedi.

What Do Bathtub Raccoons and John Wayne Have in Common? They’re Both in Star Wars, Says Ben Burtt

Ben Burtt, the sound designer of the Star Wars saga (and plenty of other great films), has not been reclusive or secretive about his work, but he hasn’t had the chance to fully open up about his complete experience creating the sounds for the franchise’s universe. With the upcoming Burtt-focused book by Star Wars historian J.W. Rinzler coming out soon, this year’s Star Wars Celebration was the perfect chance for him to talk about some of the more fun and surprising aspects of the franchise’s sound effects. Burtt revealed himself to be willing to delve into the bizarre but also of being confident enough to use sounds from more mundane sources in order to achieve the perfect effect.

Mark Hamill Returns for Pure Fun at Star Wars Celebration

When fans gather at a convention to celebrate something like Star Wars, we are there to have fun, but we take our fandom and our franchise seriously. No foolin’ around. This occurred to me personally when I became embarrassed at not remembering when Shadow Troopers first appeared in the Expanded Universe when talking to a fan in line. For this reason, it was refreshing to hear Mark Hamill discuss his experience making the Star Wars film’s at this years Star Wars Celebration. Hamill was as energetic and joyful as ever, but most importantly, nearly every story he told about working on Star Wars was centered one common theme: fun.