tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27154879736530818562024-03-13T19:52:58.174-07:00NEWSEOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-76417387154094989332009-02-24T08:33:00.001-08:002009-02-24T08:34:15.082-08:00The 7 best Star Wars parodies...<span style="color:#999999;">The 7 very best Star Wars parodies ever!</span><br /><span style="color:#999999;">Everyone on Earth has parodied, quoted, or otherwise referenced Star Wars at some point in their lives. Rob rounds up the best parodies out there in other media...<br /><strong><em>Rob Mclaughlin</em></strong></span><br /><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"><br />Star Wars is one of the most parodied movies of all time. How could it not be? - it's totally iconic and completely changed the face of sci-fi forever. Here's a definitive list of the best Star Wars parodies ever:</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"><br /></span><span style="color:#990000;"><strong>The Adam and Joe Show</strong></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;">Back in the mid-1990s, before the onslaught of Star Wars nostalgia, before YouTube and before George Lucas did something unmentionable to most people's childhoods by creating episodes 1-3, Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish were still messing about in their toy box.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"><br />Dusting off and setting up their old Kenner Star Wars figures, Adam and Joe produced numerous parodies, routinely casting R2D2 and C3P0 as a gay couple and Obi-Wan as a drunken Geordie. The most unmissable episode contained a classic Crystal Maze parody that had the cast of toys trying their very hardest to beat the Crystal Dome and win the pony trekking holiday in Wales.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"><br /><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Robot Chicken</span></strong> </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;">Ever wondered what was in the hatch Luke opens in the bottom of the At-At in Empire? Well, Seth Green and co. revealed that and so much more in a special episode of Robot Chicken from last year. A bone of contention with the makers of Family Guy (taken in good humour - check out Peter and Chris' chat in Blue Harvest) that Green got out his special before Seth McFarlane, this is a cheap and cheerful take on all six Star Wars films.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"><br /></span><span style="color:#990000;"><strong>Blue Harvest - Family Guy</strong></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;">Airing a few weeks later than the aforementioned Robot Chicken special, the producers of Family Guy went to town with this fantastic take on Star Wars. Having Chris as Luke and Horace ( the creepy old guy) as Obi-Wan was fantastic, if disturbing, but casting Peter and Brian as Han and Chewie was a stoke of genius. I'd be hard pushed to pick the best moment of the episode - Peter singing along to the John Williams score ("Mr John Williams, everybody") while tackling tie-fighters? Orr trying to get a discarded sofa on the Millennium Falcon on their escape? Regardless, this double act is what makes this one of the best planned and funny parodies of the first Star Wars. Roll on their take on Empire!</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"><br /></span><span style="color:#990000;"><strong>Spaceballs</strong></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;">While not Mel Brooks' best work, there are still some great jokes in Spaceballs. While some of the gags are obvious and puerile, for every miss there are a hundred and one hits to make you smile - like Ludicrous Speed, Dark Helmet playing with his figures or the insane Spaceballs The Movie being filmed live and watched on the video by the guys making the film (you know the bit). Plus there's John Candy as Barf the Dog and an unexpected capture of stunt doubles all wrapp up in the usual Mel Brooks insanity.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"><br /></span><span style="color:#990000;"><strong>Star Wars Holiday Special</strong></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;">Okay, it's not a parody. But the Star Wars Holiday Special was really just a beer-fuelled cash-in on the insane popularity of Star Wars - surely no-one did this for any reason beyond the paycheck? For those of you who've tried to watch it, I salute you. Really, this is for hardcore fans only - watch with care (and through your fingers!).</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"><br /></span><span style="color:#990000;"><strong>Cops</strong></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;">One of the earliest pieces of online viral marketing, this great Star Wars parody replaces the cops from, um, Cops with Stormtroopers. With superb special effects and a great script the ten minute show takes a look at Jawa society, and finds out what really happened to Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen with the help of a handy thermal detonator. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"></span></div><div align="justify"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Tag & Bink Are Dead</span></strong></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;">This Dark Horse comic features two inept rebels who unwittingly are part of each and every main turning point in the Star Wars movies. Whether it's telling Anakin how to woo Padme with bad poetry and professions of love, or taking a tie-fighter for a joyride (in the ‘that’s no moon’ speech in episode 4), Tag and Bink are, according to the comics anyway, responsible for the fall of the Empire every bit as much as the rebels from the movie. So if you ever wondered who nicked Chewbacca’s medal at the end of Star Wars or who was really under the cool-looking Red Imperial Guard uniforms in Jedi then this mini series will keep you informed.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#999999;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#990000;">Source : Den of Geek</span></div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-75775560911946934842008-10-07T09:00:00.000-07:002008-10-07T09:04:38.054-07:00SAG To Honor James Earl Jones<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHuIh3gB-uKFlQGiu_diMpvAlKiN6HKT_L9EiaMGd-cK0jfZnZV9Nbhv3jTvTPGsJn0EkjFUxfhvk2zNu7dUrzGFg9PXHzQtXjnG7shDQP7fgZTbae5uIFXDyxCzL5wIbSXEcEYtYcZef6/s1600-h/17606550.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5254442975646411842" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHuIh3gB-uKFlQGiu_diMpvAlKiN6HKT_L9EiaMGd-cK0jfZnZV9Nbhv3jTvTPGsJn0EkjFUxfhvk2zNu7dUrzGFg9PXHzQtXjnG7shDQP7fgZTbae5uIFXDyxCzL5wIbSXEcEYtYcZef6/s200/17606550.jpg" border="0" /></a> <div align="justify"><strong><span style="color:#ff6600;">Famed Actor To Receive Life Achievement Award</span></strong></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Legendary actor James Earl Jones will be honored with the Screen Actors Guild's Life Achievement Award for his career achievements and humanitarian accomplishments, the organization announced Thursday.<br /><br />A veteran of stage, film and television, Jones is known to movie fans worldwide as the voice of Darth Vader in the "Star Wars" films and the voice of Mufasa in "The Lion King." His other big screen roles include "The Hunt for Red October," "Patriot Games," "Field of Dreams" and "The Great White Hope" -- which earned him an Oscar nomination.<br /><br />Jones' television credits include his Emmy-winning turns in the series "Gabriel's Fire" and television movie "Heatwave." He also played author Alex Haley in the groundbreaking miniseries "Roots: The Next Generations." He has also provided his voice to the cable news slogan, "This is CNN."<br /><br />"James Earl Jones' distinguished career on stage, in film, on television, in commercials and as a vocal presence without peer commands our admiration and respect," SAG President Alan Rosenberg said in a statement. "His long and quiet devotion to advancing literacy, the arts and humanities on a national and local scale deserves our appreciation. It is our honor to bestow the Guild’s highest tribute on this extraordinary actor."<br /><br />Jones' previous honors also include a National Medal of Arts in 1992, and a Kennedy Center honor in 2002. SAG previously honored Jones in 1995 with an Best Actor nomination for his portrayal of South African priest Stephen Kumalo in the film "Cry, the Beloved Country."<br /><br />In Thursday's announcement, SAG noted Jones' advocacy for literacy. SAG said Jones has long been a spokesman for Verizon and an integral part of the Verizon Foundation’s Literacy Initiative, which gave him the opportunity to travel the country reading to children while talking to them about the importance of reading in their lives.<br /><br />"In my family, we say the love of reading and book learning is in our bone memory," Jones said in a SAG statement, referring to the significance reading has had in his life. "We would never think of not learning to read and getting an education. My great-great grandparents secretly learned to read when they were slaves and indentured servants. They passed on their love of reading to my great-grandfather who, as a free man, amassed a modest library and encouraged his family to read his books and revere them."<br /><br />Jones, 77, will receive his SAG honor at the organization's 15th annual ceremony on Jan. 25 in Los Angeles. </div><br /><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">Source : www.thepittsburghchannel.com </span>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-27542480173290576682008-09-16T02:59:00.000-07:002008-09-18T07:05:13.009-07:00Bring Back Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi Reunion<div align="justify">Channel 4 is getting ready to reunite the cast of the 80s hit Sci-Fi movie, return Of The Jedi.<br /><br />Bring Back Star Wars will see comic Justin Lee Collins race around the US trying to get them to attend a reunion bash.<br /><br />Top targets include Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker).<br /><br /><br /><embed name="flashObj" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=" src="http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1156034640" width="486" height="412" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="videoId=1775128043&playerId=1156034640&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://console.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&domain=embed&autoStart=false&" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" seamlesstabbing="false" swliveconnect="true"></embed><br /><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">Mark Hamill Snubs Channel 4 Star Wars Reunion</span><br /><br />Actor Mark Hamill has refused to take part in a Star Wars reunion show, because Channel 4 refused to pay him £25,000.<br /><br />It was hoped that Hamill, who played the infamous Luke Skywalker in the original three Star Wars movies would agree to participate in the ‘Bring Back Star Wars’ show that is being fronted by comedian, Justin Lee Collins.<br /><br />However, he wanted too much money, more than Channel 4 wanted to (or could afford to) pay. An insider told The Sun:<br /><br />“There’s no way we’d pay Mark so much money. Fortunately Carrie [Princess Leia] is with us and is brilliant.”<br /><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">Bring Back Star Wars: Carrie Fisher Opens Up About Harrison Ford Affair</span><br /><br /></div><p><span style="color:#cc0000;"></span></p><p></p><div align="justify">Whilst filming for the Channel 4 special, Bring Back Star Wars, Carrie Fisher has opened up about her affair with Harrison Ford.<br /><br />The pair had a fling whilst recording the first Star Wars movie and the actress, who played Princess Leia said: “I went on the film saying, ‘I’m going to have an affair’, like it was a kiwi, an exotic fruit - because I had never had one.<br /><br />“I had a crush on Harrison for sure. Harrison is great fun when he’s had a few drinks.”<br /><br />The 51-year-old added: “I’m going to get in so much trouble”, before revealing: “Once I left the room and came back and he was in the closet not wearing a lot of clothes.” </div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-15657818354269405152008-09-16T02:50:00.000-07:002008-09-16T02:51:40.887-07:00Defending George Lucas and His Critically Trashed 'Wars'<div align="justify">Last month, George Lucas gave the world a new Star Wars movie, and for the first time in the 31-year history of the franchise, the Empire struck out. The Clone Wars — a computer-animated action flick designed to launch a new series for Cartoon Network that premieres Oct. 3 — has grossed only $33 million in three weeks despite an impressive show of marketing force. More withering were the reviews, which blasted the movie into tiny chunks of Alderaan. This magazine gave it an F. Roger Ebert gave it a star and a half and groaned: ''Has it come to this?'' And supergeek Harry Knowles said it reeked like so much bantha poodoo, it nearly stopped him from buying Hasbro's new $150 Millennium Falcon toy.<br /><br />But the haters got it wrong — about The Clone Wars, about Lucas (''Sellout''? What does that even mean these days?), and about the current state of Star Wars in general. Missing from much of the overheated bashing of The Clone Wars was the crucial point that it was made for kids, not the grown-ups for whom the original trilogy remains (ridiculously) sacred. Several reviews simply revisited and rehashed the bitter disdain many adult Star Wars fans have for the prequel trilogy. I get that bitterness. But my young Star Wars-loving children don't, nor do the kids who were raised on the prequels and (heresy!) actually liked them.<br /><br />The Clone Wars is simply too well produced to justify virulent disdain and too insignificant to prosecute the Lucas-legacy argument. The movie is a small pleasure, which is only a problem when you expect huge things from a Star Wars film. Today's kids have no such expectations. For them, Star Wars is a stream of content — books, comic books, toys, micro-cartoons, videogames, DVDs, and, soon, a TV series. This new generation sees no distinction between movies and their merchandise, and that's just fine with them. Expect to see more of it. After all, the biggest movie franchise (Harry Potter) and the most-talked-about youth TV show (Gossip Girl) are literary franchise accessories. In Hollywood, the buzz phrase is ''transmedia properties,'' where movies are but one of many separate conduits for a story. It's a tricky, in-process idea, one that, if executed creatively and with integrity, portends an inventive new form of storytelling in its own right — and Star Wars is leading the way. The Clone Wars will not be remembered as a great animated movie — or an awful one, for that matter. But it might be remembered as part of a larger pop moment that is wiring the future of entertainment. </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#cc0000;">Source : </span><a href="http://www.ew.com/"><span style="color:#cc0000;">www.ew.com</span></a><br /></div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-42663580820247006632008-09-16T02:47:00.000-07:002008-09-16T02:48:33.309-07:00Tokyo's dancing Stormtrooper<iframe src="http://edition.cnn.com/video/savp/evp/?loc=int&vid=/video/world/2008/09/14/lah.jimmy.storm.trooper.cnn" height="393" width="406" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-70877609475376647242008-07-26T00:36:00.000-07:002008-07-26T00:38:42.628-07:00G4 TV invades the Sideshow Booth!<div align="justify">Scott Klauder of Sideshow Collectibles gives us(G4) a tour of their workshop and some of the highly-sought after works of art that they produce, including Hellboy, General Grievous, and Snake Eyes.<br /><br /><object id="VideoPlayer" height="418" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/27322"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/27322" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="VideoPlayer" width="480" height="418" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-10342979409610988472008-07-16T13:27:00.000-07:002008-07-16T13:41:19.029-07:00Pitt and DiCaprio Are A Couple of Bastards<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ_vnWnzdbdzUxWYTxJOPvM0mINeYkAV9PEgxrwTHjk_wkd6Q7V3iDZy6Me6v4vjzxt5_1z-naPiyC8urhmYcHRNVX1dxHytvdhkWANBQ1AC19HgIXmnZIhwYw4ZnZ0F-xqhoB-7I29Gms/s1600-h/newspic5009.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223712280764892738" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ_vnWnzdbdzUxWYTxJOPvM0mINeYkAV9PEgxrwTHjk_wkd6Q7V3iDZy6Me6v4vjzxt5_1z-naPiyC8urhmYcHRNVX1dxHytvdhkWANBQ1AC19HgIXmnZIhwYw4ZnZ0F-xqhoB-7I29Gms/s200/newspic5009.jpg" border="0" /></a>Rumors abound of Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio starring in Quentin Tarantino's upcoming Inglorious Bastards. Quentin already met with Pitt in France on Tuesday just days after Brad's significant other gave birth to twins, helping to overpopulate the world she's trying to desperately save from hunger.Tarantino will meet with DiCaprio on Thursday, allegedly to pitch him a role in the movie shooting this fall in Germany and France. Tarantino wants DiCaprio for the role of Hans Landa.<br /><p align="justify">Quentin Tarantino has just gone out with his long-anticipated script Inglorious Bastards about World War II.<br /><br />I scored the awesome script and took a look. ALSO PLEASE NOTE THAT TARANTINO spells Bastards with an E as in Basterds.<br /><br />Here is a preview of Tarnatino’s kickassery!<br /><br />My name is Lt. Aldo Raine, and I’m putting together a special team. And I need me eight soldiers. Eight – Jewish – American – Soldiers. Now y’all might have heard rumors about the armada happening soon. Well, we’ll be leavin a little earlier. We’re gonna be dropped into France, dressed as civilians. And once we’re in enemy territory, as a bushwackin’ guerilla army, we’re gonna be doin one thing, and thing only, Killin Nazi’s. The members of the Nationalist Socialist Party, have conquered Europe through murder, torture, intimidation, and terror. And that’s exactly what we’re gonna do to them. Now I don’t know about y’all. But I sure as hell, didn’t come down from the goddamn smoky mountains, cross five thousand miles of water, fight my way through half Sicily, and then jump out of a fuckin air-o-plane, to teach the Nazi’s lessons in humanity. Nazi ain’t got no humanity. There the foot soldiers of a Jew hatin, mass murderin manic, and they need to be destroyed. That’s why any and every son-of-a-bitch we find wearin a Nazi uniform, there gonna die. We will be cruel to the Germans, and through our cruelty, they will know who we are. They will find the evidence of our cruelty, in the disemboweled, dismembered, and disfigured bodies of their brothers we leave behind us. And the German will not be able to help themselves from imagining the cruelty their brothers endured at our hands, and our boot heals, and the edge of our knives. And the Germans, will be sickened by us. And the Germans, will talk about us. And the Germans, will fear us. And when the Germans close their eyes at night, and their subconscious tortures them for the evil they’ve done, it will be with thoughts of us, that it tortures them with. But I got a word of warning to all would be warriors. When you join my command, you take on debit. A debit you owe me, personally. Every man under my command, owes me, one hundred Nazi scalps. And I want my scalps. And all y’all will git me, one hundred Nazi scalps, taken from the heads of one hundred Nazi’s or you will die trying.<br /><br />-Lt. Aldo Raine aka Aldo the Apache<br /><br />That folks is pretty much the jist of what Tarantino's masterpiece is about. Per Seth Rogen, Jews got laid because of Eric Bana in Munich. If that is the case, then Jews are going to be having 70’s era Hugh Hefner style orgies because of the eight badasses of Tarantino’s INGLORIOUS BASTERDS! The Basterds are not in the prisoner takin business. The Basterds are in the killin Nazi business. And cousin business is boomin according to Lt. Aldo. The role of Lt. Aldo has been offered to Brad Pitt who would be on some serious crack if he passes on this.<br /><br />The above monologue was taken from the opening of the 2nd chapter of 5 titled: Inglorious Basterds – my favorite chapter. Don’t get me wrong, Chapter One: Once Upon a Time … Nazi Occupied France , Chapter Three: German Night in Paris, Chapter Four: Operation Kino, Chapter Five: Revenge of the Giant Face are very solidly written. Chapter 5 is a nailbiter.<br /><br />If you took the bad guy swagger of RESERVOIR DOGS, the uber coolness and structure of PULP FICTION, throw in the revenge angle of KILL BILL, set it in World War II – you get INGLORIOUS BASTERDS.<br /><br />My favorite basterd? SGT. Donny Donowitz aka THE BEAR JEW. He bashes in German soldier’s skulls with a baseball bat. According to the German legend, The Bear Jew is a Golem. An avenging Jew angel, conjured up by a vengeful rabbi, to smite the Aryans!<br /><br />Where there are good guys, there are bad guys and the main bad guy of this 165 page epic is COL. HANS LANDA aka THE JEW HUNTER. An evil fucker and a delicious role for someone like Tim Roth.<br /><br />Plot-wise, what is INGLORIOUS BASTERDS about?<br /><br />The bastards have to take part in OPERATION KINO, go behind enemy lines and bomb a movie theater in Nazi occupied France which is premiering Goebble’s (Hitler’s right hand man) latest German propaganda war film. A French Jewish teenager named SHOSANNA (her family is massacred by Col Landa in Chapter 1), flees to Paris, where she winds up running the movie theater that the bastards have to bomb.<br /><br />Shosanna has her own plans for the German hierarchy on premiere night.<br /><br />Hands down, the script was the most enjoyable read of the year for me so far. Again, a masterpiece.<br /><br />Killer dialogue, excellent execution, and master craftsmanship by Tarantino.<br /><br />The script is supposed to go into production this October to premiere in Cannes next May.</p><p align="justify">Source <a href="http://www.latinoreview.com/"><span style="color:#ff0000;">www.latinoreview.com</span></a><span style="color:#ff0000;"> </span></p>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-35919216925108909432008-07-16T13:13:00.000-07:002008-07-16T13:15:48.112-07:00Star Wars: The Force Unleashed<div align="left"><embed name="MyFlashFetish.com" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" align="middle" src="http://www.myflashfetish.com/mp3assets/widgets/countdown.swf" width="300" height="200" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" menu="false" flashvars="mycolor=000000&mycolor2=000000&mycolor3=FFFFFF&e=0&msg=The Force Unleashed&yr=2008&m=8&d=16" quality="best" scale="noscale" bgcolor="#000000" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain"></embed></div><center><br /><a href="http://www.myflashfetish.com/"></a><a href="http://www.myflashfetish.com/"></a></center><br /><img style="VISIBILITY: hidden; WIDTH: 0px; HEIGHT: 0px" height="0" src="http://counters.gigya.com/wildfire/CIMP/Jmx*PTEyMDc4Njc*MzYzNTkmcHQ9MTIwNzg2NzYyNDk2OCZwPTE4MDMxJmQ9Jm49.jpg" width="0" border="0" /><br /><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><p><p>Story : <p><p></p></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="justify">The next chapter in the Star Wars saga, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed , tells the story of Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice, a mysterious figure trained by the menacing Sith Lord, to hunt down the last of the Jedi.</div><div align="left"></div><div align="justify"><br />Set in the dark times between Episodes III and IV, the story is both a continuation of the prequel trilogy – exploring the aftermath of Order 66, which called for the immediate execution of all Jedi, and focusing on the continued rise of Darth Vader – and a direct bridge to the Original Trilogy. The Force Unleashed will forever change the fate of the Galaxy and explain key plot points that directly lead into events in Star Wars: A New Hope.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />The Secret Apprentice’s journey takes him across the Galaxy—from the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk to the junkyard planet Raxus Prime and the mushroom-covered planet, Felucia.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />He is aided in his dangerous missions by a loyal sidekick PROXY - a prototype holodroid with amazing abilities, and an alluring Imperial pilot named Juno Eclipse.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />The Apprentice will clash with powerful enemies, including the spirited Zabrak warrior Maris Brood, Jedi Master Shaak Ti, and General Rahm Kota, a hard-boiled Jedi soldier who senses that the Apprentice is destined to become something far greater than just Darth Vader’s servant.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><p><p><div align="justify">Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be released on September 16, 2008 in the United States, September 17 in Southeast Asia and Australia, and September 19 in Europe.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><center><br /></center><a href="http://www.myflashfetish.com/"></a><a href="http://www.myflashfetish.com/"></a><p align="justify"><br /><img style="VISIBILITY: hidden; WIDTH: 0px; HEIGHT: 0px" height="0" src="http://counters.gigya.com/wildfire/CIMP/Jmx*PTEyMDc4NjI3Nzc2NDAmcHQ9MTIwNzg2Mjc4ODEwOSZwPTE4MDMxJmQ9Jm49.jpg" width="0" border="0" /><br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/N0L_AV217os&hl=en"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/N0L_AV217os&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hJ4XF9YIsTQ&hl=en"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hJ4XF9YIsTQ&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/t7x3G_LFlT4&hl=en"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/t7x3G_LFlT4&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">JULY 16 ***UPDATE***</span></p><p align="justify">LucasArts Producer Hayden Blackman visited our E3 stage and offered Morgan Webb an incredible hands on demo with the highly-anticipated action title, 'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed'.<br /><br />'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed' will be out September 16th on Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and DS, Sony PS3, PS2 and PSP platforms.<br /><br /><object id="VideoPlayer" height="418" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/27023"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/27023" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="VideoPlayer" width="480" height="418" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></p>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-12675035827796835882008-07-16T12:53:00.000-07:002008-07-16T13:06:12.086-07:00Hollywood memorabilia auction<div align="justify"><strong>Hollywood memorabilia from Indiana Jones, Star Wars and Back To The Future at auction...</strong><br /><br />They are among items of classic Hollywood movie memorabilia going under the hammer later this month.<br /><br />The Holy Grail is from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, the third instalment in the hit Harrison Ford franchise. Made of gold-painted fibreglass, it could be yours for £12,500.<br /><br />The two tablets held aloft by Charlton Heston in 1956 film The Ten Commandments carry an estimate of £25,000.<br /><br />Most expensive lot of all is a model TIE fighter from the original Star Wars movie of 1977, which featured in the climactic trench dogfight against the Death Star. Despite measuring just 18 inches high by 14 inches wide, it is expected to fetch up to £100,000.<br /><br />The Profiles In History auction <a href="http://www.profilesinhistory.com/"><span style="color:#ff0000;">www.profilesinhistory.com</span></a> runs from July 31 to August 1 in California and features more than 1,000 lots.<br /><br />Jack Nicholson's axe from The Shining, Clint Eastwood's Colt Walker pistol from The Outlaw Josey Wales and C-3PO's rubber shoes from Star Wars are all up for grabs.<br /><br />The sale features a substantial collection of superhero costumes, including the red and blue outfit worn by Christopher Reeve in Superman and Superman II,<br /><br />Michael J Fox's hoverboard from Back To The Future is set to fetch around £25,000.<br /><br />Fans of the late Heath Ledger, currently drawing rave reviews in The Dark Knight, have the chance to buy one of his costumes. A coat he wore in The Patriot has a starting price of just £500.<br /><br />Star Trek fans are spoilt for choice - among the lots are 74 original scripts from the 1960s TV series and a pair of Vulcan ears from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.<br /><br />Bidders can also snap up Sir Ian McKellen's Magneto outfit from X-Men, an original ray gun from sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet, Lou Ferrigno's prosthetic nose from The Incredible Hulk and a set of matching silver space suits worn by Mike Myers and Verne Troyer - aka Dr Evil and Mini-Me - in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.<br /><br />Profiles in History president Joseph Maddelena said: "This sale features over 1,000 unique pieces of Hollywood history, from the silent era to modern sci-fi classics and everything in between. This incredible collection represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire some of the most important visual effects pieces ever created for modern cinema."</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP-Hx33zpwxUkEOwEdcP7cEngvVhAxd-uQQeG4DvXp8Uv52C2qLVGnht9LWp2bJyhyphenhyphenwZ5XAJktTYuo7XEBMiJBTQvcpmhqCUwTR7yKFMBrDoCTslBEIwCoUnly7Oxzs9Dr-CSVwtZSEn8V/s1600-h/tie-fighter_690820n.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223705027602900242" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP-Hx33zpwxUkEOwEdcP7cEngvVhAxd-uQQeG4DvXp8Uv52C2qLVGnht9LWp2bJyhyphenhyphenwZ5XAJktTYuo7XEBMiJBTQvcpmhqCUwTR7yKFMBrDoCTslBEIwCoUnly7Oxzs9Dr-CSVwtZSEn8V/s200/tie-fighter_690820n.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a 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src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiCccDwldmJSF_wNIgqRUs3xYplFTcm0FqXxyrJO162A90qgxLHG6rCVdSodY_Fx9WJNieXHTwnvLTsExBP6zfXwWLHAbmoMui4g4L-dSnDqXhBiMAflAvplusENJLV6cK8X788BW8CXgU/s200/spider-mask_690827n.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCbIusxE7mKEpR2yBkXUfeToSBf-QTMNn2yHTYirCirg04zRUBEnQ1zFxFKTXvi36Noh4DqfdNzQfLakqqbD6WAjBj7TZgNs7nH2ytMXbh5KmfrvAjiIVUIhlB7DAe0ErOtMe5rLEQjFpn/s1600-h/ten-commandments_690822n.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223703572618577602" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCbIusxE7mKEpR2yBkXUfeToSBf-QTMNn2yHTYirCirg04zRUBEnQ1zFxFKTXvi36Noh4DqfdNzQfLakqqbD6WAjBj7TZgNs7nH2ytMXbh5KmfrvAjiIVUIhlB7DAe0ErOtMe5rLEQjFpn/s200/ten-commandments_690822n.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitcx3VI3NE2gzw_ZPvAMt7BDcyGTtmvXCCtdgN8ydHQfDuKWtC-88aE1vcxpQbEOpimBu6dHKuz_g2LORBVp3U4ireAthmTtK2vJ_U-htht8ZXT29tsruqE7BPcTFdLbAXx-6hj4wYRUTn/s1600-h/vulcan-ears_690819n.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223703459372621650" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitcx3VI3NE2gzw_ZPvAMt7BDcyGTtmvXCCtdgN8ydHQfDuKWtC-88aE1vcxpQbEOpimBu6dHKuz_g2LORBVp3U4ireAthmTtK2vJ_U-htht8ZXT29tsruqE7BPcTFdLbAXx-6hj4wYRUTn/s200/vulcan-ears_690819n.jpg" border="0" /></a> </div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-65807279327018142072008-07-14T10:03:00.001-07:002008-07-14T10:26:33.862-07:00Death Star II by FX<div align="justify">“Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed…”<br /><br />Yeah, yeah, compared to the power of the Force it’s a tinker toy, we know. But, when it comes to replicas, the second Death Star (which is an order of magnitude more complex a model than the original), is the ultimate power in the galaxy.<br /><br />The DS2 is the Mount Everest of models to create – there is no filming miniature that demands more of it’s creator, requires a stronger set of master-class skills to craft, and to have successfully completed one puts you in an small and elite club, indeed.<br /><br />And The FX Company built one – from scratch.<br /><br />Remember how I said we’d make good on last week’s lack of an FX Friday? Well, I hope you’ll agree this covers the tab, with interest:<br /><br />The FX Company Death Star II is one of the only 1/20,000 scale, screen-accurate replicas around (see the little, tiny arrowhead-shaped spaceship in the gallery? That’s a Super Star Destroyer.) The FX DS2 is 34 inches in diameter, weighs over 100 pounds, contains some 600 soft white LEDs, uses over 2,000 linear feet of architectural styrene, has thousands of windows, and is constructed of acryllis, styrene, pine, brass and polyurethane resin. And, for those aching to blow away Aldaraan (or the cat), the Super Laser is remote-controlled!<br /><br />In every possible way, this replica is over the top, including the price – <span style="color:#ff0000;">$50,000</span> commission to own the terror of the Rebellion.<br /><br />Now, the pictures:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFyAaJe6sacuaRK7UDuThtJ1plEob8b6YW335ENW7KAvJ-NY6TF56lZ_KmYVAc1DP6GBvocoPDras6WzogUOzHuAoMaiD7En1O9WgDmHETucO4KYXx3uO8QtmdzZ5Y0kpRRcPPEodAWUB/s1600-h/deathstar-39.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222920702133069266" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFyAaJe6sacuaRK7UDuThtJ1plEob8b6YW335ENW7KAvJ-NY6TF56lZ_KmYVAc1DP6GBvocoPDras6WzogUOzHuAoMaiD7En1O9WgDmHETucO4KYXx3uO8QtmdzZ5Y0kpRRcPPEodAWUB/s200/deathstar-39.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a 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href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlC7epOEpIDy6cXJqnYP313ZVeNd4EYSTDLRl4bnSOn4CJHaRXA8ym2xOR4UULciqeBxzN0ujDnvjsFk1gbr-daFesW6TCBuJ_OvcCqs-AQAiV7A-jKVu7b7Tb-n4tAFiU9p1CnGBd8FfC/s1600-h/deathstar-3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222916630239252722" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlC7epOEpIDy6cXJqnYP313ZVeNd4EYSTDLRl4bnSOn4CJHaRXA8ym2xOR4UULciqeBxzN0ujDnvjsFk1gbr-daFesW6TCBuJ_OvcCqs-AQAiV7A-jKVu7b7Tb-n4tAFiU9p1CnGBd8FfC/s200/deathstar-3.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxnoRze6u5CdQsYqM8UyABuvJ2RPrEqcGMv8YBiDCxTJJ6BFg4QpPW88-StGLvGjEg7pke31AkZQc4fXOrU73wIy_9_xRgDFmvDE23tMSRLjFrcGoN_NsSdNglBto9twpaoZ4m_RwMJgel/s1600-h/deathstar-2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222916570777313202" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxnoRze6u5CdQsYqM8UyABuvJ2RPrEqcGMv8YBiDCxTJJ6BFg4QpPW88-StGLvGjEg7pke31AkZQc4fXOrU73wIy_9_xRgDFmvDE23tMSRLjFrcGoN_NsSdNglBto9twpaoZ4m_RwMJgel/s200/deathstar-2.jpg" border="0" /></a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-48379067713676078872008-06-29T12:46:00.000-07:002008-06-29T12:57:29.814-07:00Free to Follow His Heart Right Back to ‘Star Wars’<div><div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPsXOzcd8it-c6sBQSbyYK3p8SL_JRQSWymNCZexm1J6IgMCS7_69gczX0vIk_hc9wGcO0R-PL-__t96XKk-sS6WbcxIpckRfkSPHaKPLhSw2qufkbyeb1eJzHf4DjjpsEWG5zCc99uIna/s1600-h/29itzk_large2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5217393871273822098" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPsXOzcd8it-c6sBQSbyYK3p8SL_JRQSWymNCZexm1J6IgMCS7_69gczX0vIk_hc9wGcO0R-PL-__t96XKk-sS6WbcxIpckRfkSPHaKPLhSw2qufkbyeb1eJzHf4DjjpsEWG5zCc99uIna/s200/29itzk_large2.jpg" border="0" /></a>FUTURE generations will never need to establish a George Lucas museum, because George Lucas has already built one for himself. On either side of the Golden Gate Bridge he has constructed himself two temples where “Star Wars” is made and worshiped: at his Skywalker Ranch in Marin County and his newer office complex, the Letterman Digital Arts Center at the Presidio, he has gathered all manner of relics honoring his six-film saga, from the imposing (life-size replicas of the villains Darth Vader and Boba Fett) to the self-congratulatory (a Yoda fountain) to the self-deprecating (a carbonite block encasing the much loathed Jar Jar Binks).<br /><br />Like religious shrines, these buildings both consecrate and confine the man for whom they were built.<br /><br />Using the freedom and the fortune he has amassed largely on the astronomical success of “Star Wars,” Mr. Lucas has accumulated unparalleled creative resources; his next film could be anything from a sweeping epic to one of the intimate personal narratives he has often said he would like to make. Instead his next two ventures will be “Star Wars” projects, no less ambitious than his previous films yet potentially less commercial. And they come at a time when even the “Star Wars” faithful wonder if Mr. Lucas’s continued mining of this fantasy world has anything more to yield.<br /><br />A few weeks ago Mr. Lucas, who is 64 with a full white beard, was visiting his Presidio offices somewhat reluctantly, on a layover between the European and Japanese premieres of his latest “Indiana Jones” movie. “I love making movies; I’m not the biggest fan of selling them,” he said, seated in the librarylike Lucasfilm boardroom, stocked with books about real-world military history and novels like “Quo Vadis.” “But since I’m in the selling mood, that’s what you’re here for. I’m doing all my selling for two more weeks. Then I’m sold out.”</div><div><br /></div><div align="justify"><br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5217394362666219122" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0jEU3F0MI8uasQsjwVSozVFecNJIvG2Ou9FXBS8o-idqpJpIJ6uo-k4JdbQfc15XoKs_cMXDMFQ2GmwrTAJwjYsTlnweLPPozIXZig-D9OdBl4IkTd-kIicaTVCSepn7CpQFJ68cTBImY/s400/29itzk_xlarge1.jpg" border="0" /><br />He was pitching a computer-generated animated movie called “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” which Warner Brothers will release on Aug. 15 and which will introduce an animated television series with the same title that will have its debut on the Cartoon Network this fall.<br /><br />Despite his vows to the contrary Mr. Lucas did not conclude his “Star Wars” epic with his 2005 film “Revenge of the Sith,” the third in a trilogy of prequel movies that grossed more than $1 billion in the United States alone. As far back as 2002 he was contemplating an animated series that would take place between Episodes II and III of his prequels, fleshing out the adventures of the Jedi knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker (who is doomed to become the evil Darth Vader), and explore heroes, villains and planets glossed over in the prequel films.<br /><br />For Mr. Lucas this was an opportunity to revisit imaginary turf that gives him great personal satisfaction. “Star Wars,” he said, is “a sandbox I love to play in.”<br /><br />“It’s not a matter of trying to prove anything to anybody,” he added. “I don’t have to.”<br /><br />But his enduring interest in “Star Wars” hints at a lesson that his filmmaking peers have already learned: that it is sometimes easier for them to make big movies than small ones. As his longtime friend and collaborator Steven Spielberg wrote in an e-mail message: “All of us would like to make these little personal films that sneak into theaters under the radar. Sadly, for George and myself, and others who have enjoyed and endured great success — ‘under the radar’ has become a no-fly zone.”<br /><br />Mr. Lucas began pursuing his “Clone Wars” projects about three years ago when he summoned the technological might of his company’s research and development division to start building Lucasfilm Animation, now a pair of studios at Big Rock Ranch — part of Skywalker — and in Singapore. (Lucasfilm declined to discuss budgets, but Mr. Lucas said that building a similar operation in the 1980s — the era when he sold a start-up computer-animation business called Pixar to Steven P. Jobs — would have cost him $60 million to $100 million.)<br /><br />Next he hired a team of young “Star Wars”-obsessed artists who revere Mr. Lucas as if he were Yoda himself.<br /><br />“He’s the guy,” said Dave Filoni, director of the “Clone Wars” show and movie. “Chewbacca exists because he named him, thought him up, put him in the cockpit.”<br /><br />The two men worked closely together (Mr. Filoni is a former director of the Nickelodeon action cartoon “Avatar: The Last Airbender”) to hone the anime-inspired look of “The Clone Wars” and develop scripts, often drawing upon unused ideas Mr. Lucas had been stockpiling since the original “Star Wars” was released in 1977.<br /><br />Then Mr. Lucas took the unusual step of waiting until the first 22-episode season of “The Clone Wars” was nearly finished before pitching it to television networks in late 2007. There were no immediate takers. Fox Broadcasting, the sister company of 20th Century Fox, which released the live-action “Star Wars” movies, passed. And the Cartoon Network, which had broadcast a series of traditional 2-D animated shorts called “Star Wars: Clone Wars” from 2003 to 2005, was lukewarm about the project.<br /><br />That tepidness may have stemmed from some viewers’ dissatisfaction with the “Star Wars” prequels, with their stilted dialogue and baffling politics. Or it may have indicated that “Clone Wars” wasn’t compatible with a prime-time network schedule. “It didn’t fit any of the molds that everybody had,” Mr. Lucas said. “It’s not ‘SpongeBob SquarePants,’ but at the same time it’s also not ‘Family Guy.’ ”</div><div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5217394607280262178" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHzgwXseYTc1oBaM3xAmjva2ae4PDoSKBqyx0xrIVGh1-dcCrYgxBuXwecof6BysKUDbYh06tYBdyZWNQlhlodRNFx73LlmWy9fS9kFzOG3pt9ugHPTC2lYRFWIp8P4-6NHELUewSymRAS/s400/29itzk_large3.jpg" border="0" /><br />Mr. Lucas said that Warner Brothers became interested only after he decided to produce a theatrical “Clone Wars” film (having been encouraged by the animation results he saw), and the film studio convinced its corporate siblings at the Cartoon Network to give the television series another look. (Executives at Warner Brothers and the Cartoon Network, both divisions of Time Warner, gave slightly different chronologies but did not dispute this element of Mr. Lucas’s account.)<br /><br />For Time Warner the “Clone Wars” collaboration is more than a one-time opportunity to share in the money-minting “Star Wars” franchise. “It’s the relationship with Lucasfilm that we’re very excited about,” said Dan Fellman, president for domestic distribution of Warner Brothers Pictures. “Not just on the Cartoon Network but possibly for live-action television down the road.”<br /><br />Sure enough, Mr. Lucas is already developing a live-action “Star Wars” television series, and Time Warner would love to demonstrate that one of its cable channels (like TBS, TNT or HBO) could give it a good home.<br /><br />But the question remains: Just because new “Star Wars” can be made, should new “Star Wars” be made?<br /><br />Some “Star Wars” aficionados — even those who have worked with Mr. Lucas on “Star Wars” projects — are ambivalent about his continued plundering of a science-fiction property that has already spawned numerous comic books, video games and novels, not to mention six movies.<br /><br />“I think it’s the easiest thing to do, because he doesn’t need to come up with a whole new thing; everything’s established,” said Genndy Tartakovsky, the animator who directed Mr. Lucas’s previous “Clone Wars” shorts for the Cartoon Network. Speaking as a fan, Mr. Tartakovsky said, “I appreciate that, but there’s so much more that he could explore.”<br /><br />Mr. Lucas said he had no urgent or compelling reasons for returning to his most popular characters and mythologies, except that he can and enjoys doing so. As an illustration he pointed to his work with Mr. Spielberg on “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”<br /><br />“I mean, why do we have to make another ‘Indiana Jones’?” Mr. Lucas said. “There was no point to it, other than, gee, this might be fun.”<br /><br />But to the extent that “Star Wars” had kept him from fulfilling his promise to return to making more personal, smaller-scale films, Mr. Lucas lamented this distraction. “You get sidetracked easily,” he said with a chuckle. “I do, anyway.”<br /><br />And he was deeply pessimistic about the marketplace he will face when he someday releases a movie that is not set in a galaxy far, far away. “Maybe it ends up in a festival somewhere,” he said. “Maybe it ends up in half a dozen theaters around the country for a couple weeks.”<br /><br />As he so often does, Mr. Lucas took a lesson from the experience of his friend and mentor Francis Ford Coppola, whose most recent film, “Youth Without Youth,” received a small independent release that was hardly on the scale of his “Godfather” movies. (In the United States the film played in just 18 theaters and grossed less than $250,000.)<br /><br />“Did you see it?” Mr. Lucas asked rhetorically. “Uh, no. Did you even know it came out?”<br /><br />Responding to questions sent via e-mail Mr. Coppola agreed that the films he now makes, and that Mr. Lucas says he intends to make, had little chance at achieving blockbuster status. “We make films for ourselves,” he wrote. “If no one wants to see them, what can we do?” (With a parenthetical shrug, Mr. Coppola added: “Emotion does much better at the box office than philosophy.”)<br /><br />Other former colleagues of Mr. Lucas argued that new “Star Wars” projects have provided technological boons for the entire film business, yielding Industrial Light and Magic, Mr. Lucas’s pioneering special-effects company, and EditDroid, the digital film-editing hardware that was a forerunner to the Avid editing system.<br /><br />“He does it in a way that might begin as self-serving and then of course is a bonanza for the whole industry,” said Sid Ganis, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who was a Lucasfilm executive during the 1980s.<br /><br />Mr. Ganis added that Mr. Lucas possessed “an intuition that he stubbornly sticks by.”<br /><br />“There’s something in him, when you’re told, ‘No, it’ll never work,’ it’s motivation to keep it going,” he added.<br /><br />And as Mr. Lucas would be the first to remind you, he has proved his detractors wrong many times in his career, from the film executives who thought “American Graffiti” would work better as a television movie to the industry colleagues who warned him not to finance “The Empire Strikes Back” with his profits from “Star Wars.”<br /><br />When he works on the “Star Wars” properties he owns outright, Mr. Lucas has the freedom to ignore the input of others. In the case of “The Clone Wars” he is financing the series himself and charging Time Warner licensing fees to distribute the film and broadcast the show. (A person with knowledge of the company’s animation operations, speaking anonymously to avoid offending Mr. Lucas, said that the earliest episodes of “The Clone Wars” probably cost $750,000 to $1.5 million each.)<br /><br />“It’s much easier for me to just do the show I want, say, ‘Here it is, do you wish to license it or not?’ ” Mr. Lucas said. “That’s it. There’s no notes, no comments. I don’t care what your opinion is. You either put it on the air or you don’t.”<br /><br />But Mr. Lucas’s creative independence cannot shield him from the larger realities of the film business. He is not planning, at least right away, to go head to head with more established animation studios like DreamWorks, Disney and Pixar. The mid-August release of the “Clone Wars” movie — an unusually late date for a new “Star Wars” film — was scheduled in part to avoid competition with recent offerings from these studios.<br /><br />It is also exceedingly likely that “The Clone Wars” will be the lowest-grossing “Star Wars” movie ever; Mr. Lucas said he would be satisfied if the film made $100 million domestically. (“Revenge of the Sith,” by comparison, grossed $380 million.)<br /><br />When he is not, say, testifying before a House subcommittee about classroom technology or appearing at Cannes with his frequent companion, Mellody Hobson, the president of the investment firm Ariel Capital Management, on his arm, Mr. Lucas has plenty of new projects to keep him busy.<br /><br />He is already working on the second and third seasons of “The Clone Wars” and forging ahead on his live-action “Star Wars” television show. Then, he said, he would seek other films and television series for his animation studio and continue to develop “Red Tails,” a long-in-the-works feature film about the Tuskegee Airmen that he is producing.<br /><br />And after that, who knows?<br /><br />Mr. Lucas pointed back to his very first feature film, “THX 1138,” a dystopian work of science fiction released in 1971, one that at the time he believed would be his one and only shot at directing a movie exactly as he envisioned it. (The movie’s critical and commercial reception very nearly proved him right.)<br /><br />All that his wealth has bought him, Mr. Lucas said, is the opportunity to make more films the way he wants to. “I’ve got more shots,” he said. “I can go and make half a dozen ‘THXes.’ I’ll lose everything I put into them, guaranteed. But I can have a lot of fun doing it.”<br /><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">Source : The New York Times June 29 2008</span></div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-77839324119284313782008-06-29T10:33:00.000-07:002008-06-29T10:35:52.669-07:00Michael Turner Passes Away at 37<div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNWnFhugT6jfWOqq_bb6ELGlCR5OgUApfPxU3_I0M9ZQjQkpPiym3PxwUY4C30TNs6ivZNMJ-sWH0Z6deteh-IdQ3-NF9UAOxByCHjIffj1_CHTZhUJnTKtvBLAJhVSsLMOJpbh_WaBy7r/s1600-h/TURNER-mike1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5217358476754976002" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNWnFhugT6jfWOqq_bb6ELGlCR5OgUApfPxU3_I0M9ZQjQkpPiym3PxwUY4C30TNs6ivZNMJ-sWH0Z6deteh-IdQ3-NF9UAOxByCHjIffj1_CHTZhUJnTKtvBLAJhVSsLMOJpbh_WaBy7r/s200/TURNER-mike1.jpg" border="0" /></a>We here at Comic Book Resources are very sad to report that artist Michael Turner has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 37. Aspen Comics’ Vince Hernandez told CBR News Saturday morning that Turner passed away Friday night at 10:42 Pacific Time at Santa Monica Hospital in Calfiornia. The news spread quickly at Wizard World Chicago, during what would have otherwise been a riotous night at the hotel bar, the mood suddenly turned somber with remembrances of Turner from friends and acquaintances. A minute of silence will be observed during Wizard World Chicago Saturday afternoon.<br /><br />Turner is an artist best known for his work on books like “Witchblade,” where he got his start in comics, moving on to titles such as “Black Panther,” “Superman/Batman” and his very own creator owned series “Fathom” and “Soulfire” through his publishing company Aspen Comics. A prolific artist, he’s done work for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and has provided covers to some of the best-known comics published in the last ten years, including Brad Meltzer’s “Identity Crisis.”<br /><br />In 2000, Turner was diagnosed with cancer -- chondrosarcoma in the right pelvis, which resulted in his loosing his hip, 40% of his pelvis and three pounds of bone. What followed was 9 months of radiation. The cancer has gone into remission and returned multiple times since he was first diagnosed.<br /><br />For anyone who’s met Turner, they’re likely to tell you what a genuinely nice guy he was and how his spirit for life was higher than anyone else they had ever met. Oddly, my path crossed with Turner’s numerous times. We both live in Los Angeles, and on at least five different occasions we would run into each other at clubs or special events around the city. He seemed like the kind of guy who was up for anything and had a great sense of adventure, especially as evidenced by his love and excellence at water-skiing and martial arts.<br /><br />Last year during Comic-Con International in San Diego, I invited Michael Turner out to the CBR Yacht for an interview. He was happy to come out to the boat. His colleague and friend, Vince Hernandez, called me the Saturday afternoon the interview was scheduled to say they were running late, but were on their way. I went to the end of the dock to greet them and there, off in the distance, was Michael, Vince and a friend of theirs walking slowly towards our slip. They were walking slowly because Michael was on crutches, recovering from the latest round of surgeries and treatment. It was a hot day, but there was Michael, making his way to the boat with a smile on his face. His strength of will was truly inspirational.<br /><br />The resulting interview was a wonderfully sweet one. I remember talking with him about his comics, his covers, his health and much more. After the interview he and his crew hung out on the boat for a while, enjoying the calm moment away from the convention with a soda and good conversation.<br /><br />Sadly, that video interview never made it on to the site (not for anything to do with Michael or the content of the interview), but we’ll make sure that video is encoded this week and published in his memory and so that all of you can see what sort of man Turner was.<br /><br />Turner’s fight with cancer was truly inspirational. He fought it with dignity and grace.<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><br /><br /><div align="justify">Rest in peace Michael...</div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-67628999726963402232008-06-28T10:54:00.000-07:002008-06-28T13:57:19.095-07:00Diablo III<span style="color:#ff0000;">Diablo III - Cinematic Trailer #1</span><br /><br /><embed pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/1439612/diablo_iii_cinematic_1.swf" width="400" height="345" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent"></embed><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1439612/diablo_iii_cinematic_1/"></a><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/"></a></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">Diablo III - Artwork Trailer #1<br /></span><br /><embed pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/1439974/diablo_iii_artwork_trailer_1.swf" width="400" height="345" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent"></embed><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1439974/diablo_iii_artwork_trailer_1/"></a><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/"></a></span>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-61635277949590637412008-06-23T00:59:00.000-07:002008-06-23T01:09:05.138-07:00eFX Collectibles Newsletter<span style="color:#ff0000;">Click on image to see it in full size.</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1XmN46rlxdkekjRGPJHn8jwDw8yirTlyJ0_KKb8XtWgjhtQYRlVCKSKhb90CubSvqLjYn0UZ2GvxloXXWD_32dSFqaCZ5eF5GepBpVkQuyD3FspCFJhyphenhyphenuROysGlzPTDZG26-It42tfqZE/s1600-h/eFX.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5214984402534706850" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1XmN46rlxdkekjRGPJHn8jwDw8yirTlyJ0_KKb8XtWgjhtQYRlVCKSKhb90CubSvqLjYn0UZ2GvxloXXWD_32dSFqaCZ5eF5GepBpVkQuyD3FspCFJhyphenhyphenuROysGlzPTDZG26-It42tfqZE/s400/eFX.bmp" border="0" /></a>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-5418842288032995412008-06-19T23:29:00.000-07:002008-06-19T23:35:20.826-07:00McKellen Reprising Gandalf In Hobbit<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRWQhDiYl48Zdr4NlyBdQ2zURB_Tnvipvs7ELnipyrqded-wFtyeyAjniIHn5O7_62rusYGBmdTRcQeDjirIzB2Aa-S7_KLWS9HwrwKFWFO3Y9rW_AejXV-G9jqYaJMzSKkPAvYd3Iwjsq/s1600-h/425_mckellen_lotr_121807.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213848483053576994" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRWQhDiYl48Zdr4NlyBdQ2zURB_Tnvipvs7ELnipyrqded-wFtyeyAjniIHn5O7_62rusYGBmdTRcQeDjirIzB2Aa-S7_KLWS9HwrwKFWFO3Y9rW_AejXV-G9jqYaJMzSKkPAvYd3Iwjsq/s200/425_mckellen_lotr_121807.jpg" border="0" /></a>British actor Ian McKellen told Empire magazine that he will reprise the role of the wizard Gandalf in Guillermo del Toro's upcoming movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, the Reuters news service reported.<br /><div></div><br /><div>The 68-year-old star played the part in the hugely successful Lord of the Rings trilogy directed by Peter Jackson. Mexican filmmaker del Toro has been named to direct two films based on The Hobbit, which Jackson will produce and co-write. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div>"Yes, it's true," McKellen told Empire. "I spoke to Guillermo in the very room that Peter Jackson offered me the part, and he confirmed that I would be reprising the role. Obviously, it's not a part that you turn down; I loved playing Gandalf." </div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Del Toro, whose credits include Pan's Labyrinth, will move to New Zealand for the next four years to work on both Hobbit films with executive producer Jackson, according to New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div>The studios have said that filming will begin in 2009, with tentative release dates set in 2010 for the first film and 2011 for the sequel.</div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-83097143853970832102008-06-17T07:04:00.000-07:002008-06-17T07:05:52.313-07:00The Colbert Report "George Lucas" Pt. 1-2<embed FlashVars='videoId=76546' src='http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/video_player/view/default/swf.jhtml' quality='high' bgcolor='#cccccc' width='332' height='316' name='comedy_central_player' align='middle' allowScriptAccess='always' allownetworking='external' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer'></embed><br /><br /><embed FlashVars='videoId=76545' src='http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/video_player/view/default/swf.jhtml' quality='high' bgcolor='#cccccc' width='332' height='316' name='comedy_central_player' align='middle' allowScriptAccess='always' allownetworking='external' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer'></embed>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-33021037428090239442008-06-16T14:16:00.000-07:002008-06-16T14:36:46.590-07:00Effects master Stan Winston passed away<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0vMI9U2gLdCT1luzPjTs0pPE62Akl6bG9hxnKqX-XNReFGuN7lfdswytTCLb8aTN_LhWmKllawWuHl2xxkpCqRwFsPqae-iVKfajdchj-Na7D_phUT9l7qPVgkbdnkdCQxcS0sE62AEoh/s1600-h/15575.bmp"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCplv4_XlVc6D0gEoWAeeQN3pomqgkFfMrz32FFmzkJTAu2Pb1bXrqVMdSXdrBfZLUFDQAsqx3CprFsAe9TOnUESq5kNkTaWi7uf0jGw9LSWEZ2rIQoBvA3EM8hyphenhyphen23yXoOY08PSXFQMUuK/s1600-h/15570.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212595092816020834" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCplv4_XlVc6D0gEoWAeeQN3pomqgkFfMrz32FFmzkJTAu2Pb1bXrqVMdSXdrBfZLUFDQAsqx3CprFsAe9TOnUESq5kNkTaWi7uf0jGw9LSWEZ2rIQoBvA3EM8hyphenhyphen23yXoOY08PSXFQMUuK/s200/15570.bmp" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik1_rMosatwd_Qfgtm_wjxb95q8HsC6WYvAXpqQmCL0XwDPIee-0X91CQT3xH7ArUqF9BmSK_Ae5_K_WNZ1UI2n4xJUGwhJNEzMOp5rLFBRh6FiFdEBdeGpxdWmFXeePesyf0N3X60b-0V/s1600-h/15567.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212594996351900258" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik1_rMosatwd_Qfgtm_wjxb95q8HsC6WYvAXpqQmCL0XwDPIee-0X91CQT3xH7ArUqF9BmSK_Ae5_K_WNZ1UI2n4xJUGwhJNEzMOp5rLFBRh6FiFdEBdeGpxdWmFXeePesyf0N3X60b-0V/s200/15567.bmp" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivxqvCp1_TTnUw4cCzn535hyphenhyphenuB_Rgon9G1XqLAY7FU_s9FBa7ugixEIeJmTlv8GDI5BIhy7s0PaNfXmmFfHkzIf0XHIbqMsOXWzfJDPALALxVDphE626M0MW-up24HTB1hY5ZGFkI2vneQ/s1600-h/15571.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212595165178938914" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivxqvCp1_TTnUw4cCzn535hyphenhyphenuB_Rgon9G1XqLAY7FU_s9FBa7ugixEIeJmTlv8GDI5BIhy7s0PaNfXmmFfHkzIf0XHIbqMsOXWzfJDPALALxVDphE626M0MW-up24HTB1hY5ZGFkI2vneQ/s200/15571.bmp" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div><div><div><span style="color:#990000;">Work included 'Jurassic Park,' 'Terminator'</span><br /><br /><div align="justify">Stan Winston, one of the great names in special effects, has died at age 62.<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">The Oscar-winning visual effects artist died at his home Sunday evening surrounded by family after a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma, according to a representative from Stan Winston Studio.<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">Winston won visual effects Oscars for 1986's "Aliens, "1992's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and 1993's "Jurassic Park,” for which he created animatronic dinosaurs that complimented the film’s digitally-animated creatures.<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">For decades, Winston’s robotic/animatronic creatures were the best in the industry and his prosthetic makeup was among the best available. “Iron Man” visual effects supervisor John Nelson “Stan was the man when it came to making those kind of prosthetic effects, he was the guy. If you look at the litany of other good people in the business, they tend to be people who worked for Stan.”<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">Stan Winston Studios did the practical Iron Man suit for this year’s Marvel/Paramount blockbuster but Winston himself was not actively involved with the shoot.<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">Steven Spielberg, who worked with Winston on several films, said in a statement “Stan was a fearless and courageous artist/inventor and for many projects, I rode his cutting edge from teddy bears to aliens to dinosaurs. My world would not have been the same without Stan. What I will miss most is his easy laugh every time he said to me, ‘Nothing is impossible.’”<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">“It was a perfect compliment to the stuff that we were doing,” said Dennis Muren, who supervised the digital effects on “Jurassic Park.”<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">“His creatures would work with the actors and when you put the two together the audience was confused, and sometimes we were too, about who had done what.”<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">But Stan had always said it shouldn’t be all one or all the other, it should be a combination of the two.”<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">Eric Roth, executive director of the Visual Effects Society said “It’s a big loss. Our industry has lost one of its giants, someone who has had a tremendous impact on helping tell stories with the use of effects.”<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">Producer Gale Anne Hurd, who worked with Winston on the “Terminator” franchise and on “The Relic,” exprssed shock at the news, as Winston had refused to discuss his illness outside his intimate circle.<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">Hurt recalled that she and helmer James Cameron first approached makeup artist Dick Smith to do the prosthetic effects on “The Terminator.” Smith declined but recommended Winston, saying “One day you’ll thank me.”<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">Hurd said of Winston. “He never looked at anything as a problem, it was always an opportunity. I never saw him defeatist, regardless of what may have happened. And he had an incredible childlike passion for films and for makeup effects and animatronics. Having him on set, regardless of whether you were going into your 19th hour or your first, he always gave 100 % and inspired everyone around him.”<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">The conference room at Winston’s Van Nuys studio was long one of the most effective sales tools any effects company could hope for, with life-sized creatures including the queen alien from “Aliens,” the lunging out of the walls toward the conference table on all sides.<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">Winston is survived by his wife, Karen; a son, daughter, brother and four grandchildren.</div></div></div></div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-91561727399100162092008-06-16T04:31:00.000-07:002008-06-16T15:20:57.526-07:00Volitan "Flying Fish" is half ship, half X-WingThe Volitan, or the "Flying Fish," is a concept design for a boat that would run green over the great big blue. It harnesses both the power of the wind and the Sun, using solid sails and an array of panels along its wings to trap solar energy and keep the ship's battery charged. The Volitan's wings are controlled by an onboard computer, which tracks light and wind direction to maximize the boat's performance by turning the wings appropriately. The computer can also perform actions such as folding the wings up against the hull when weather conditions get rough.<br /><br /><br />The Volitan solar ship is designed by two Turks, Dr. Hakan Gürsu and Sözüm Doğan of the Designnobis Studio, and it won first place in the Transportation category and the Nautical/Boats sub-category at the IDA 2007 Design Competition. Check out the video and pictures below for renders, detailed pictures and sketches of this environmentally-friendly vessel. <div><div><br /></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLb5YRXwp8MbfEDJ_UaCH0Y_imM4gIGtBc9a9H3JcnZctn9s7LL_IBJiVYA6yk04W9EQrU6A5sUqeBSVe7oLOizvOx4ejYkZxAhy5CmcfoRBtwy0VxydUOld4GbyHgzYkg3XA9WGNNKvBl/s1600-h/volitan-4.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212465904864922962" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLb5YRXwp8MbfEDJ_UaCH0Y_imM4gIGtBc9a9H3JcnZctn9s7LL_IBJiVYA6yk04W9EQrU6A5sUqeBSVe7oLOizvOx4ejYkZxAhy5CmcfoRBtwy0VxydUOld4GbyHgzYkg3XA9WGNNKvBl/s200/volitan-4.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyv0mQHacpmmNf5a6QymaErrpxgv5mGlAGBUx8yvwsCqRhPz92B3A-z-neKKjhyrG-y48EbjOOezeRAKI9yHN9AdEbTpDSnDgSs759GJHpQk-u-PHQGCJX8owWWKqKAVEGU1mB61KRnpTN/s1600-h/volitan-3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212466124772536834" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyv0mQHacpmmNf5a6QymaErrpxgv5mGlAGBUx8yvwsCqRhPz92B3A-z-neKKjhyrG-y48EbjOOezeRAKI9yHN9AdEbTpDSnDgSs759GJHpQk-u-PHQGCJX8owWWKqKAVEGU1mB61KRnpTN/s200/volitan-3.jpg" border="0" /></a> <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212466546693595762" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyKZXLDsZgXwRW9wNunU4smABKcTr3BIOArUVw9rqIERS4i2j6MMUt1Pmwxx6gude7rNO7pq89e9eCwCON7PC6_mFcwpWfcFHLZXDqxBip8OOgLb-pJ2HdAxwv_NhZx0S34ivL_4Mbkjj2/s200/volitan-1.jpg" border="0" /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgivX5uVXvQEh80IFdavCVQ-SthAZDUQLV52_Y4Gk4yzYBOaLWu7nfbXcqCw6acCS30vTXOzd_D6EHbRI7F2EaFnv2d5ShlUTVCb_fzqTWAIbF0wwcb9byylXSHBXG1FaYt5iz8LKvEIVg7/s1600-h/volitan-2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212466414174542514" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgivX5uVXvQEh80IFdavCVQ-SthAZDUQLV52_Y4Gk4yzYBOaLWu7nfbXcqCw6acCS30vTXOzd_D6EHbRI7F2EaFnv2d5ShlUTVCb_fzqTWAIbF0wwcb9byylXSHBXG1FaYt5iz8LKvEIVg7/s200/volitan-2.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiav2rIfn1tbhmp7vHzPkF9Fi2ZcaYTazy3dnSWOQ3ei_A8icXfRsjGAyQTz1kR64J-eqQLP8P-tyXFZKrAosNaN-yq712tgF_udevhWRIgzOB9ode7_v6hK7C-EOEI0j0TWe2xEXpZyQNN/s1600-h/volitan-7.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212464919832462226" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiav2rIfn1tbhmp7vHzPkF9Fi2ZcaYTazy3dnSWOQ3ei_A8icXfRsjGAyQTz1kR64J-eqQLP8P-tyXFZKrAosNaN-yq712tgF_udevhWRIgzOB9ode7_v6hK7C-EOEI0j0TWe2xEXpZyQNN/s200/volitan-7.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQy0OyqkN9dD_X-VBOaxOWRz-mg95Q1hcbd66TOOqyE6C56gIbbFwHp0hS06Rh9CQJhmitYeot5fObNRpn8QYEtGDFMHmsb-5GEbVYk6cS4umTHpFxQQYEmq-n7rBZHjf9DDfaVwy-Dt1W/s1600-h/volitan-6.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212465049404455490" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQy0OyqkN9dD_X-VBOaxOWRz-mg95Q1hcbd66TOOqyE6C56gIbbFwHp0hS06Rh9CQJhmitYeot5fObNRpn8QYEtGDFMHmsb-5GEbVYk6cS4umTHpFxQQYEmq-n7rBZHjf9DDfaVwy-Dt1W/s200/volitan-6.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhugx0WMgkj4f11mZuBNBy1uxRX9Re1z63XRXASrmfupgltE5PD5A7iCkCCy0KLLan0J0fu1Bc46F75SqZrYx-9xXBNJHUDDpYwuzbnFeTAluZci7-XwCeUSm4Q1UhUU9OfKH6BXrBas7ms/s1600-h/Hakan+Gursu.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212467208579508578" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhugx0WMgkj4f11mZuBNBy1uxRX9Re1z63XRXASrmfupgltE5PD5A7iCkCCy0KLLan0J0fu1Bc46F75SqZrYx-9xXBNJHUDDpYwuzbnFeTAluZci7-XwCeUSm4Q1UhUU9OfKH6BXrBas7ms/s200/Hakan+Gursu.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK6gzVzYI_Ddx5FDiXXxVzKZ5jFWXzWP6pgJEE_vag1Etk4OAbwPjoEGbtQJDOFW5UbYOYjAO9j2XNcG8T2xZ5oXrbV6xDEpuTQVZAu3uP__qoFvwWEZaUEAFZm7ZGOzUxRzrBpRHgiQYa/s1600-h/Sozum+Dogan.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212467341904241570" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK6gzVzYI_Ddx5FDiXXxVzKZ5jFWXzWP6pgJEE_vag1Etk4OAbwPjoEGbtQJDOFW5UbYOYjAO9j2XNcG8T2xZ5oXrbV6xDEpuTQVZAu3uP__qoFvwWEZaUEAFZm7ZGOzUxRzrBpRHgiQYa/s200/Sozum+Dogan.jpg" border="0" /></a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/1394247/volitan.swf" width="400" height="345" wmode="transparent" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> </embed><br><font size = 1><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1394247/volitan/">Volitan</a> - <a href="http://www.metacafe.com/">A funny movie is a click away</a></font>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-46218783288417594032008-06-16T02:31:00.000-07:002008-06-16T03:07:18.850-07:00Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination<div align="justify"><span style="color:#cc0000;">A tour with C-3PO<br /></span><br /><span style="color:#666666;">Anthony Daniels (better known as C-3PO) hosts a tour (</span><a href="http://www.startribune.com/video/19850459.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:#990000;">motiontween1easy.swf</span></a><span style="color:#666666;">) of the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul.</span></div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-22125050848615211152008-05-24T01:09:00.000-07:002008-06-16T11:10:34.758-07:00Star Wars: The Clone Wars In Theaters and on Television in 2008<div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;">A new era of Star Wars entertainment begins in 2008 when Star Wars: The Clone Wars, from creator </span><a href="http://www.starwars.com/bio/georgelucas.html"><span style="color:#666666;">George Lucas</span></a><span style="color:#666666;">, premieres as an all-new feature film in August, followed by the television series debut in the fall, in a partnership announced today between Lucasfilm Ltd., Warner Bros. Pictures and Turner Broadcasting System Inc.</span></div><span style="color:#666666;"></span><br /><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;">Produced by Lucasfilm Animation, Star Wars: The Clone Wars takes audiences on incredible new Star Wars adventures, combining the legendary storytelling of Lucasfilm with an eye-popping, signature animation style. Star Wars: The Clone Wars will open in North American theaters Friday, August 15. International release dates will be announced soon.</span></div><span style="color:#666666;"></span><br /><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;">"I felt there were a lot more Star Wars stories left to tell," said George Lucas, executive producer of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. "I was eager to start telling some of them through animation and, at the same time, push the art of animation forward."</span></div><span style="color:#666666;"></span><br /><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;">The theatrical debut of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is only the beginning of all-new Star Wars adventures that continue in the fall when the long-awaited television series premieres on Cartoon Network, followed by airings on TNT. Details regarding international broadcasts will be announced shortly. Star Wars: The Clone Wars showcases an entirely new look and feel to the galaxy far, far away -- combining the expansive scope of the Star Wars Saga with state-of-the-art computer-generated animation. Each week, viewers will see a thrilling, 30-minute "mini-movie" created by the talented artists at Lucasfilm Animation.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"></span></div><p><p><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;">On the front lines of an intergalactic struggle between good and evil, fans young and old will join such favorite characters as </span><a href="http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/anakinskywalker/"><span style="color:#666666;">Anakin Skywalker</span></a><span style="color:#666666;">, </span><a href="http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/obiwankenobi/"><span style="color:#666666;">Obi-Wan Kenobi</span></a><span style="color:#666666;"> and </span><a href="http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/amidala/"><span style="color:#666666;">Padmé Amidala</span></a><span style="color:#666666;">, along with brand-new heroes like Anakin's padawan learner, Ahsoka. Sinister villains -- led by </span><a href="http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/darthsidious/"><span style="color:#666666;">Darth Sidious</span></a><span style="color:#666666;">, </span><a href="http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/countdooku/"><span style="color:#666666;">Count Dooku</span></a><span style="color:#666666;"> and </span><a href="http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/generalgrievous/"><span style="color:#666666;">General Grievous</span></a><span style="color:#666666;"> -- are poised to rule the galaxy. Stakes are high, and the fate of the Star Wars universe rests in the hands of the daring </span><a href="http://www.starwars.com/databank/organization/thejediorder/"><span style="color:#666666;">Jedi Knight</span></a><span style="color:#666666;">s. Their exploits lead to the action-packed battles and astonishing new revelations that fill Star Wars: The Clone Wars.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"></span></div><p><p><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;">"Warner Bros. and Turner are uniquely positioned to deliver on the enormous potential of The Clone Wars because together they offer a world-class opportunity: the theatrical and home-video distribution of Warner Bros. and the broad reach of the Turner Networks," said Micheline Chau, President and Chief Operating Officer of Lucasfilm Ltd. "This terrific combination hits the key demographic groups, ranging from kids to adults, that make up the Star Wars audience."</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"></span></div><p><p><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;">Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. Pictures President of Domestic Distribution, added, "This is a breakthrough project -- returning Star Wars to the big screen in a completely new way while beginning an exciting new chapter in George Lucas' legendary saga. We immediately felt that it would be a fantastic theatrical event and are thrilled to be bringing it to moviegoers." <p><p><br />"Nothing like this has ever been produced for television," said Stuart Snyder, President/COO Turner Animation,Young Adults & Kids Media. "For 30 years, Star Wars has shown that it appeals to a huge breadth of fans. The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network will be appointment television for everyone in the family. We're thrilled to be working with Lucasfilm again and very excited to be playing a role in bringing this remarkable adventure to viewers."With a new story each week, Star Wars: The Clone Wars continues the tradition of thrilling stories, astonishing visuals and extraordinary music that have always been the hallmarks of the Star Wars Saga. <p><p><br />Lucasfilm Animation, which is based in Marin County, Calif., with a studio in Singapore, has produced more than 30 all-new episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and production continues on even more exciting episodes.</p><p><span style="color:#990000;">Star Wars: The Clone Wars Theatrical Trailer</span></p><p></span><span style="color:#990000;"><a href="http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/starwarstheclonewars/trailer1/">http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/starwarstheclonewars/trailer1/target="_blank</a></span></p><p><span style="color:#990000;"></span> </p><p><span style="color:#990000;">Source www.starwars.com</span></p></div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-82213114227953158402008-05-03T18:02:00.000-07:002008-05-03T18:08:46.091-07:00eFX e-mail Teasers<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrue4Asb4mv0n1txDY5QGt141JXPZ_JmOrx1fDHHPIYMOEKmkMahiSH_kCxKEegcy8K5cHN5xFalXLEaWsrTQdQx0fI0rsUpqmwkeXaO1nExik0wFayagooxcKh9ox_tlJ3gxDfUV9VJ9V/s1600-h/Xwing.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196322381369163474" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrue4Asb4mv0n1txDY5QGt141JXPZ_JmOrx1fDHHPIYMOEKmkMahiSH_kCxKEegcy8K5cHN5xFalXLEaWsrTQdQx0fI0rsUpqmwkeXaO1nExik0wFayagooxcKh9ox_tlJ3gxDfUV9VJ9V/s200/Xwing.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXxT2Yyt3R8qcLkneuygRQmJWtJtLljj_4WeqqCebWCzyF9aScJC-ICvw6OsHuRJJKWP9rFo3EwpmjwI1bEBSMBYx6sF4DKsjzQr3z-Wd0UcRGDFTqL1Yzs66muz6KrrPwWYLJUlMiiL5g/s1600-h/vader_concept.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196322175210733250" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXxT2Yyt3R8qcLkneuygRQmJWtJtLljj_4WeqqCebWCzyF9aScJC-ICvw6OsHuRJJKWP9rFo3EwpmjwI1bEBSMBYx6sF4DKsjzQr3z-Wd0UcRGDFTqL1Yzs66muz6KrrPwWYLJUlMiiL5g/s200/vader_concept.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkmzbm59zl8lrSVRc_XUJRyNsiUxekbB0MNNRJE0TxxCdSmTzo3IGl9D_pJPVG1VMGDnorz4h7I7fjljB76sxQjIvBrhomM8mU_Us2-_4TpKOUDVFOo1Ov395ChZc0rmcuZ5IJ1O9clZb9/s1600-h/clone.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196322033476812466" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkmzbm59zl8lrSVRc_XUJRyNsiUxekbB0MNNRJE0TxxCdSmTzo3IGl9D_pJPVG1VMGDnorz4h7I7fjljB76sxQjIvBrhomM8mU_Us2-_4TpKOUDVFOo1Ov395ChZc0rmcuZ5IJ1O9clZb9/s200/clone.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKK3vnAtN2to0BB5DDBKSicZ6b16OzfliVj1iqNtOD9LJQT6z3L14rqCO0tXqHJ4KN5VI7OunBtoMZo6CWWjb1DS2K9LJJWQMNK6GYWOOvro0HhNGmRhCi1qafqg2iQgtXSaMNJbI1GUbt/s1600-h/benqs7.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196321956167401122" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKK3vnAtN2to0BB5DDBKSicZ6b16OzfliVj1iqNtOD9LJQT6z3L14rqCO0tXqHJ4KN5VI7OunBtoMZo6CWWjb1DS2K9LJJWQMNK6GYWOOvro0HhNGmRhCi1qafqg2iQgtXSaMNJbI1GUbt/s200/benqs7.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div></div><div align="justify"><p><p>Besides having some teaser images of their upcoming Attack of the Clones Clone Trooper helmet, and Ralph Mcquarrie Darth Vader concept helmet, eFX announced that their original pre-order date for the 500 piece Stormtrooper helmet run has been canceled. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Here's what eFX has to say : </div><p><p><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">As many of you know, we had originally announced that the pre-order day for our very first product, the Stormtrooper Helmet, was to be on May 5, 2008. However, since eFX is a brand new company, we are going to initiate many new groundbreaking ideas that some many even consider "sacrilege" since they will break some old "traditions". We have decided to scratch the whole pre-order process and establish a WORLDWIDE on-sale date when the product will be available the same day whether you are on Los Angeles, Tokyo or London! We will try to announce the availability date at least 30 days in advance. We think that our collectors will appreciate and like this new process.</div><div align="justify"><br />Be able to see images of the actual product before you purchase allows you to better plan your finances since you will know exactly when your credit card will be charged. This eliminates the frustration of waiting an uncertain amount of time before you actually receive your product.</div><div align="justify"></div><p><p><div align="justify">It seems the email newsletters going out have random images showing new eFX products. Known so far are :</div><div align="justify"><br />Ralph McQuarrie Concept Darth Vader helmet<br />Episode 2 Clone Trooper helmet<br />Episode 4 Obi-Wan Kenobi Lightsaber<br />Red 5 X-Wing Fighter<br />Stormtrooper helmet</div></div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-43496697904209617252008-05-03T17:37:00.000-07:002008-05-03T17:39:55.267-07:00WB's 'Terminator' to open May 2009<div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr4CBFdaMWA22LVNbsuccIIh_eUZOxUhH5L8aJJBQPTFAkuJCE4pX66O81G-yg56v09nwnw-h7aiiAFKxKeqc9MsEdBsmRClo_MhtfmTrMOAyKyN2zrH8WzwlGMd6_wxQiNIlV8acrfxCI/s1600-h/bale_christian_02.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196315453586914962" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr4CBFdaMWA22LVNbsuccIIh_eUZOxUhH5L8aJJBQPTFAkuJCE4pX66O81G-yg56v09nwnw-h7aiiAFKxKeqc9MsEdBsmRClo_MhtfmTrMOAyKyN2zrH8WzwlGMd6_wxQiNIlV8acrfxCI/s200/bale_christian_02.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#cc0000;">McG film stars Christian Bale, Sam Worthington</span></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;">Warner Bros. will open McG's Christian Bale starrer "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins" on May 22, 2009, the start of Memorial Day weekend.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"><br />That puts two tentpoles on the same date, even though the release calendar for summer 2009 is still relatively open.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"><br />Twentieth Century Fox had already staked out May 22 for the bow of the Ben Stiller sequel "Night at the Museum II: Escape From the Smithsonian." First film grossed $250.9 million domestically.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"><br />Warner will distribute the pic in North America through a deal with Halcyon Co., which owns all franchise rights to the "Terminator" series.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"><br />The last film in the franchise, "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," bowed in 2003 and grossed $150.4 million domestically.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"><br />"T4" begins lensing in New Mexico for two months on May 5. The state has become a favorite locale for producers because of its production tax incentives.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"><br />Storyline is being kept under tight wraps, but plot is part of a planned three-picture arc that begins after Skynet has destroyed much of humanity in a nuclear holocaust. A group of survivors led by John Connor (Bale) struggles to stop the machines. Sam Worthington ("Avatar") is in talks to star as well.</span></div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-42485131226727605552008-04-24T17:57:00.000-07:002008-04-24T18:01:01.847-07:00Guillermo del Toro to direct 'Hobbit'<div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;">In a major step forward on “The Hobbit,” </span><a class="infusionLink" href="http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/30905/Guillermo%20del%20Toro.html?dataSet=1" alt="Guillermo del Toro" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionJS&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.variety.com%2Fprofiles%2Fpeople%2Fmain%2F30905%2FGuillermo%2520del%2520Toro.html%3FdataSet%3D1&gsid=4331709&entitytypeid=16&lid=30905&title=Guillermo%20del%20Toro&zodid=134')"><span style="color:#666666;">Guillermo del Toro</span></a><span style="color:#666666;"> has signed on to direct the New Line-MGM tentpole and its sequel.</span></div><span style="color:#666666;"></span><br /><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"><br />The widely expected announcement -- which had been rumored for several weeks -- came Thursday afternoon jointly from exec producers </span><a class="infusionLink" id="a_Peter Jackson" onclick="javascript:zodInfuser.FillDescriptions('Peter Jackson');return false;" href="javascript:zodInfuser.FillDescriptions(" alt="Please click for options" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionDisambiguation&title=Peter%20Jackson&zodid=134')"><span style="color:#666666;">Peter Jackson</span></a><span style="color:#666666;"> and </span><a class="infusionLink" href="http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/32512/Fran%20Walsh.html?dataSet=1" alt="Fran Walsh" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionJS&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.variety.com%2Fprofiles%2Fpeople%2Fmain%2F32512%2FFran%2520Walsh.html%3FdataSet%3D1&gsid=4333068&entitytypeid=16&lid=32512&title=Fran%20Walsh&zodid=134')"><span style="color:#666666;">Fran Walsh</span></a><span style="color:#666666;">, New Line president </span><a class="infusionLink" href="http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/32524/Toby%20Emmerich.html?dataSet=1" alt="Toby Emmerich" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionJS&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.variety.com%2Fprofiles%2Fpeople%2Fmain%2F32524%2FToby%2520Emmerich.html%3FdataSet%3D1&gsid=4333080&entitytypeid=16&lid=32524&title=Toby%20Emmerich&zodid=134')"><span style="color:#666666;">Toby Emmerich</span></a><span style="color:#666666;">, and </span><a class="infusionLink" href="http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/35288/Mary%20Parent.html?dataSet=1" alt="Mary Parent" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionJS&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.variety.com%2Fprofiles%2Fpeople%2Fmain%2F35288%2FMary%2520Parent.html%3FdataSet%3D1&gsid=4335247&entitytypeid=16&lid=35288&title=Mary%20Parent&zodid=134')"><span style="color:#666666;">Mary Parent</span></a><span style="color:#666666;">, newly named chief of MGM’s Worldwide </span><a class="infusionLink" id="a_Motion Picture Group" onclick="javascript:zodInfuser.FillDescriptions('Motion Picture Group');return false;" href="javascript:zodInfuser.FillDescriptions(" alt="Please click for options" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionDisambiguation&title=Motion%20Picture%20Group&zodid=134')"><span style="color:#666666;">Motion Picture Group</span></a><span style="color:#666666;">.</span></div><span style="color:#666666;"></span><br /><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"><br />Del Toro’s moving to New Zealand for the next four years to work with Jackson and his Wingnut and Weta production teams. He’ll direct the two films back to back, with the sequel dealing with the 60-year period between “The Hobbit” and “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.</span></div><span style="color:#666666;"></span><br /><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"><br />New Line is overseeing development and will manage production. Both pics are being co-produced and co-financed by </span><a class="infusionLink" href="http://www.variety.com/profiles/Company/main/2134218/New%20Line%20Cinema.html?dataSet=1" alt="New Line Cinema" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionJS&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.variety.com%2Fprofiles%2FCompany%2Fmain%2F2134218%2FNew%2520Line%2520Cinema.html%3FdataSet%3D1&gsid=4267793&entitytypeid=11&lid=2134218&title=New%20Line%20Cinema&zodid=134')"><span style="color:#666666;">New Line Cinema</span></a><span style="color:#666666;"> and MGM, with Warner Bros. distributing domestically and MGM handling international.</span></div><span style="color:#666666;"></span><br /><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"><br />Del Toro won’t leave for New Zealand immediately as he’s still in post-production on U’s “Hellboy 2,” due out in July. His previous pic, “Pan’s Labyrinth,” was released through New Line’s </span><a class="infusionLink" href="http://www.variety.com/profiles/Company/main/2158544/Picturehouse.html?dataSet=1" alt="Picturehouse" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionJS&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.variety.com%2Fprofiles%2FCompany%2Fmain%2F2158544%2FPicturehouse.html%3FdataSet%3D1&gsid=4268763&entitytypeid=11&lid=2158544&title=Picturehouse&zodid=134')"><span style="color:#666666;">Picturehouse</span></a><span style="color:#666666;"> and set a record as the highest grossing Spanish language film in U.S. box office history.</span></div><span style="color:#666666;"></span><br /><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"><br />The official signing of Del Toro comes four months after New Line settled a lawsuit with Jackson over “The Lord of the Rings” and announced that it had agreed with MGM to turn J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Hobbit” into two live-action films. </span><a class="infusionLink" href="http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/29914/Sam%20Raimi.html?dataSet=1" alt="Sam Raimi" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionJS&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.variety.com%2Fprofiles%2Fpeople%2Fmain%2F29914%2FSam%2520Raimi.html%3FdataSet%3D1&gsid=4330842&entitytypeid=16&lid=29914&title=Sam%20Raimi&zodid=134')"><span style="color:#666666;">Sam Raimi</span></a><span style="color:#666666;"> had been preceived as the initial front-runner as director but Del Toro had emerged in recent months as the likely candidate.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"><br />The studios didn’t give a start date on production and don’t yet have a script. Though no screenplay deal’s been set, it’s expected that the “LOTR” scripting team of Jackson, Walsh and </span><a class="infusionLink" href="http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/36225/Philippa%20Boyens.html?dataSet=1" alt="Philippa Boyens" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionJS&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.variety.com%2Fprofiles%2Fpeople%2Fmain%2F36225%2FPhilippa%2520Boyens.html%3FdataSet%3D1&gsid=4335948&entitytypeid=16&lid=36225&title=Philippa%20Boyens&zodid=134')"><span style="color:#666666;">Philippa Boyens</span></a><span style="color:#666666;"> will collaborate with Del Toro.</span></div><span style="color:#666666;"></span><br /><div align="justify"><span style="color:#666666;"><br />With Del Toro blocking out four years for the project, it’s likely that the studios are aiming at starting shooting next year and releasing the films in late 2011 and 2012.</span></div><span style="color:#666666;"></span><br /><span style="color:#666666;"><div align="justify"><br />Jackson’s WETA stages, post-production and visual effects facilities -- built for “The Lord of the Rings” -- will be used for both films. And New Zealand will again be the site of Middle-earth, with the story centering on Bilbo Baggins taking the Ring of Power from Gollum.</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#990000;">Article taken from </span><a href="http://www.variety.com/"><span style="color:#990000;">www.variety.com</span></a> </span></div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-34191504872076295212008-04-22T07:49:00.000-07:002008-04-22T08:14:10.500-07:00Q&A with Robin Chaudhuri of Atlanta Cutlery/Museum Replicas Ltd. & Windless Studios, regarding their newly acquired Star Wars license.<span style="color:#999999;">My name is Christopher Plummer, Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Rockland Shakespeare Company and the Pen & Sword Theatre Troupe in New York. I am also a lifelong Star Wars fan (An incredible 30 years and counting!), a (pending) member of the wonderful Star Wars costuming enthusiast group, The Fighting 501st and a proud member of Philip Wise’s Rebelscum forum community! (Where else can you be referred to as a ‘Scummer’ and be proud if it?!) I have known and worked with Robin Chaudhuri, a really wonderful person who works for a great company called Atlanta Cutlery/Museum Replicas Ltd. (Yes, another MR in our licensed Star Wars company fleet!), for a number of years. He was gracious enough to take time out of his busy schedule to allow me to interview him regarding his company’s thrilling new Star Wars licensing agreement with LucasFilm Ltd. People have been waiting a long time for this particular license. So, without further ado, here is my interview with Mr. Chaudhuri. Strap yourselves in. This is going to be fun! </span><br /><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ffff00;">CP:</span> Hi Robin, great to speak with you again, today! A lot of people have been waiting for this announcement, so let’s get right to it!!! </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ffff00;">CP:</span> What is your name and title at Atlanta Cutlery/Museum Replicas Ltd.? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> Name, rank and serial number? This is going to be fun… Robin Chaudhuri, Sales & Distribution Manager for Atlanta Cutlery Corp, Museum Replicas Ltd & Windlass Studios, although my hat can change from day to day. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ffff00;">CP:</span> How long have Atlanta Cutlery/Museum Replicas Ltd. been in business? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> Proudly we’ve been around and growing steadily since 1971. And since 1996 we’ve been under the guidance of Windlass Steelcrafts which started way back in 1943 doing work for the British Dept of Defence (which the family still does today). They’ve given us manufacturing capabilities we never dreamed of and opened the door for worldwide distribution. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ffff00;">CP:</span> How many licenses does Atlanta Cutlery/Museum Replicas Ltd. currently hold?</span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> Oh, let me count the ways…currently our licenses include, GI Joe, Forgotten Realms, The Phantom, The Wheel of Time, Marvel (Thor, Captain America, Submariner, Blade, X-Men, Iron Man, Dr. Doom, Thanos), Showtime’s The Tudor’s, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed, World of Warcraft and of course (drum roll) Star Wars! -Which includes all six feature films and Star Wars: Clone Wars coming to theaters this August and TV this fall. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ffff00;">CP:</span> What are some of the major licenses that are held? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> Definitely Star Wars & Marvel jump to mind. I’m not sure you could do better than Jedi Knights and Iron Man right now followed by World of Warcraft. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ffff00;">CP:</span> How did this new and exciting partnership with Lucas Film Limited come about? (How did you acquire this coveted license?) </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> I’d like to say it was my electric personality that swayed them, but since you know me that won’t fly. It didn’t happen overnight that’s for sure. We’ve been manufacturing collectibles and movie props on sets since 1996, most collectors own or have seen our products for years without even knowing it. What frustrated us the most during this time was that many companies we made collectibles for weren’t fans, but business men. We kept seeing opportunities lost and the fan community not being listened to and so finally stepped from the shadows to acquire these great properties ourselves. The blend we have of business sense and enthusiasm is really rare. Anyway, it was being known as a manufacturer and presenting that extensive resume that keeps the door open. As you know we manufactured for Master Replicas and were sad like most fans when they couldn’t continue, so we stepped in and things went from there. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ffff00;">CP:</span> What kind of product does your particular license include specifically? (are there any gray areas?) </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> It includes all six feature films plus the newest installment Star Wars: Clone Wars coming in August. It includes all characters and I do mean all, for high-end, screen worthy clothing ensembles with accessories plus full sets of armor. We will be working very closely with Lucasfilm archival personnel, physical samples from the archives, swatches, 3-D files, cut patterns, etc. to bring out the most screen accurate clothing ensembles ever offered. So our license is for all the characters from iconic Han, Luke, Leia, Anakin and Obi to auxiliary characters like Boba Fett, Imperial Officers, Rebel fighters, Biker Scouts you name it. If it’s in the films we’ve got the character. Oh and for the first time ever, fully licensed and endorsed, complete sets of armor! Yes, Storm Troopers, Sand Troopers, Clone Troopers, Biker Scouts, Boba, Jango and more. I’ll geek out here; I’ve always wanted a suit of armor direct from the archives so I’ll be in line for one too! </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ffff00;">CP:</span> From which films/shows are you licensed to produce product? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> I’m happy to say all of them. The galaxy is far too cool to miss anyone. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ffff00;">CP:</span> Does this conflict or work in concert with eFX and what they plan on producing? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> We don’t feel there is any conflict and are glad to see eFX still producing high end LE props. We do not have a prop specific license, but clothing and armor license. We can produce any accessory needed to complete a look, but will not be producing individual props per se. We’ve seen some amazing fan made outfits that may be lacking just a piece or two like a screen accurate robe or boots and we feel they should have access to these without breaking the bank, that’s why clothing will be accessible individually as well as sets. So we see eFX as a partner and when possible we will be working with them to come out with replicas that compliment each other. We just don’t see how more great Star Wars collectibles is a bad thing. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ffff00;">CP:</span> What will your initial product plan consist of? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> Great question, where do you start when a galaxy opens up to you? Our 2008 line up will consist of Luke, Han & Leia plus Imperial Officers (both colors and multiple ranks) from episode 4: A New Hope. We wanted the hero outfits to be true to the character, but also exciting and unique so we chose the ones seen in the ceremony at the end. Plus the classic Storm Troopers (with some variants, I’ll tease that out there). We won’t stop there though, Anakin and Obi will be given the royal treatment from Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. Our goal is to offer balance, something from each trilogy that makes sense and compliment each other. We also feel it very important to give men AND women something to get excited about. For instance the ladies can look forward to the screen worn jewelry, belts, shoes, even hair extensions to complete a look! Our lines will go well into 2010 and beyond so don’t fret if you don’t see your persona yet. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ffff00;">CP:</span> Will the costumes be replicas of pieces that were used in filming or will they be idealized versions of what people 'thought' they saw on-screen? (This is always a bone of contention among collectors) </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> They will be as close as is humanly possible to the screen worn versions. …Again with all the bells & whistles. Keep in mind that in the 70’s, there wasn’t the thought to keep wardrobes around for posterity or an after market of collectors like today. Throw in that some garments were true one-offs like Padme’s gowns (we’re doing some of those too) or the past decades may have seen a particular textile go extinct so that’s why we say as close as humanly possible. A few things just don’t exist any longer in any way for reference. What is extremely rare and very cool in our opinion is that we also plan to make all layers of an outfit, even the ones you don’t see on screen. In addition most fans don’t realize all the little unseen details that were done to the various outfits to get the garments to look right or sit perfectly depending on the scene. These little details will be there also. Some of the material is still being made from the original outfits, but most isn’t which means we need to custom make many of these garments from scratch. The research we are doing with Lucasfilm makes incredible accuracy still possible though. Naturally as the films evolved and interest grew more and more of this valuable reference was kept safe and these incredible outfits have been made available to us. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ffff00;">CP:</span> Will there perhaps be room for a duel offering of actual replicas and idealized versions? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> Not at first. But there is no better feedback than the loyal fans and you never know… </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ffff00;">CP:</span> Will pieces or certain components of these costumes and armor be available separately (like was available with your superb Lord of the Rings line of costumes and armor) or will people have to purchase them altogether? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> We feel both ways will be very important. All our clothing ensembles will be offered as complete outfits or you can purchase pieces separately. As I said, many fans have had a great deal of time to create outfits on their own and may only need a few items to push them over the top. You should feel part of the Star Wars galaxy and be proud to own this piece of movie making history. The more access to them the better. That said, our armor outfits will be offered as complete sets only, at least at first. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ffff00;">CP:</span> Costuming, specifically 'Trooping' with The Fighting 501st, has become a very popular pastime for Star Wars enthusiasts, will people be able to 'Troop' in these costumes, specifically the armor? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> What’s the use of being a Clone Trooper or any other if you can’t troop, fight, frolic (OK, maybe not frolic). No cheap plastic here. We want to be able to move and enjoy a good blaster fight just like you, so you’ll have that aspect to the armor. We’re paying particular attention to the material and will do our best to come up with a material that looks, feels and plays the part without breaking, denting and have minimal scratching. Of course we realize some of you will do this on your own for a battle damaged look. Steve Sansweet has told us how important these specific aspects are to the fan base and we need to make sure that’s incorporated into the design. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;">CP: Will any of these pieces be strictly limited (as in numbered editions) or will enough be made to satisfy the hunger for individual pieces/sets? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> Yes and no. Many of the clothing ensembles will be available for a limited time- for instance we may offer Luke’s ceremony jacket for a year giving us the chance to offer another outfit or piece, so you’ll have a series of garments that can be offered for each character. We feel the armor sets may be limited however to an edition size, but no final decision has been made on it yet. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;">CP: Will all pieces come with a COA and product description? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> Absolutely. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;">CP: What, if anything will accompany a full set of armor or a costume? Is there a certain display option? For instance, a mannequin of appropriate height for certain characters male and female? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> Packaging and the experience of unveiling beautiful pieces will be very important to us. The Star Wars experience should be felt every step of the way. The clothing for instance will come in full length, custom made garment bags and boxed for protection. We liken the care to a wedding dress, which we hope some of these will become. Yes, height will be very important for a mannequin. Display is a very personal thing, but we’ll have a few display options available as separate sku’s, starting with male & female height specific static mannequins that would come with a plaque. Our “deluxe” option will be a height specific mannequin you can pose so screen shots and iconic poses can be reenacted. Then there is a third option which will blow you away, but that’s for a later discussion. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;">CP: What is the planned timeframe/release schedule that collectors and other potential buyers can expect for most of the pieces? How many will be released per year and at what frequency? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> You’re members are ahead of the game here. I’m happy to say you have the scoop. This is our first public discussion about any of this. We hope to have some prototypes available to view at the International Costume Show in March, and some outfits may start shipping by August, but we’ll really show the line off in July at Comic Con at the Lucasfilm Pavilion. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;">CP: What price points can we expect for the various pieces (What price range)? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> Full ensembles could easily range from $350 for a gown to over $1500 for a full outfit. Remember you’re getting archival quality with detail never offered before plus the important accessories. We should have movie memorabilia and Star Wars fans drooling all over the place. Hmmmm, maybe, we should provide bibs with each outfit? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;">CP: Will a payment plan be available? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> I’ll be honest; we hadn’t thought that far ahead. Possibly for the Trooper armor, but since the other ensembles are available as pieces it’s pretty easy to create your own payment plan. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;">CP: Who has the final say on which characters costumes will be available for all the rabid fans to get their hands on and display in their collections? I think collectors are often unaware as to how certain products are put forth for production. For instance, is it all coming from within your company or a combination of AC/MR and LFL? Does fan input bear any fruit? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> I do! No actually you the fan does. We work hand-in-hand with as many fans as possible, attend shows and consult groups like the 501st plus we receive continual feedback from the great folks at Lucasfilm. Nobody knows better than them after 30+ years. This is what steers us. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;">CP: Does the costume that Anthony Daniels wore constitute a costume in terms of coming under your license umbrella or is that a 'No-No' this time around due to Sideshow having a 1:1 scale C-3PO forthcoming? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> Sideshow does amazing work and we’re happy to say we’ll be working directly with them. Not only will they distribute many of our items, but their creative team’s input is helpful. They have a license for 1:1, full scale statues in essence and we have the license for moveable working/wearable replicas. This is a bit more of a gray area for us though and if we head into the direction of droids we’ll get everyone on the same page before we act. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;">CP: Is this strictly a Star Wars license or a broader LFL license? *cough* INDY *cough* </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> There’s no doubt Lucas Licensing has many great properties and we have discussed some with them. Keep in mind though a license usually covers a single movie, game or book and that’s enough to keep a company busy for a while. I know it seems like we may only have one license with them and it’s worded that way, but in reality we have eight to contend with at one time when you consider the six feature films, Clone Wars the animated series, Star Wars: Clone Wars movie and the TV series. And don’t forget the live-action series in the works. We’d like to be everywhere at once, but had to take a hard look at our focus and honestly don’t feel we could ever give Star Wars the justice it properly deserves if we were attempting other things as well that were equally iconic. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;">CP: Are you going to have various sizes (S/M, L/XL, etc.) for all the costumes or are they going to be actual replicas of the pieces worn and tailored for each actor? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> We plan sizes, because these should not only look good on display, but as good on you as possible too. Probably two sizes for each outfit except the gowns which require a more tailored fit and these would be in 4 sizes. There will be minimal adjustability for each also to fit a range of body types. Nothing extreme though, we need to preserve the look and integrity of each ensemble. Armor is undecided at this point, but we are leaning toward the general screen size with straps that allow some adjustability. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;">CP: What can we expect in the future from this new and exciting line? What is planned past the initial offering? </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> Geeze, I don’t know where to begin or end. For us the Star Wars Galaxy is a real, living world that continues to change and grow. Rest assured you can expect about 4-6 new clothing ensembles per year (to include men & women, sorry no Wookies) and a new set of Trooper and/or other armor each year as well. Save those pennies, I know I will. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#999999;">CP: Thanks for taking the time to answer some burning questions about your company’s thrilling new line, Robin! </span><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><span style="color:#999999;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">RC:</span> Thank you, Chris and all the dedicated fans out there. Without you, none of this is possible. </span><br /><span style="color:#999999;"></span><br /><span style="color:#990000;">Interview taken from </span><a href="http://www.rebelscum.com/"><span style="color:#990000;">www.rebelscum.com</span></a>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2715487973653081856.post-71531544181848663312008-04-16T15:46:00.000-07:002008-06-16T02:57:31.431-07:00eFX announces first product!<span style="color:#666666;">Stormtrooper helmet coming soon from </span><a href="http://www.efxcollectibles.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#990000;">eFX Collectibles</span></a><span style="color:#666666;">. Check out their website and then be sure to sign up for their new mailing list so you'll be kept up to date with this sure to be exciting new Star Wars prop licensee!</span><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="http://www.efxcollectibles.com/">http://www.efxcollectibles.com/</a><br /><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ZhMKMOvRwC689POi1-F42NpdFZKn-AWUfaUTV7exDjqBaaal8WaDQC9nOVZi6shsuKuwoV00K9q-0k8tA03pWNaCBOQKuQPJaiK24hBCwxDPeRb1Qfj0TkHWh8BvhRgCbfWN_ql879Bj/s1600-h/Stormtrooper+Helmet+by+eFX.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5189978866864537538" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ZhMKMOvRwC689POi1-F42NpdFZKn-AWUfaUTV7exDjqBaaal8WaDQC9nOVZi6shsuKuwoV00K9q-0k8tA03pWNaCBOQKuQPJaiK24hBCwxDPeRb1Qfj0TkHWh8BvhRgCbfWN_ql879Bj/s200/Stormtrooper+Helmet+by+eFX.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4vm1ghk4XTzlqARqvnW1uQjvjwTWX5dtgVuAoQy0AuJDHfQ-ft-oEF8JcLpknkyNMjRvUPIf3CTzGMgJCSo3cpfOppzYQRp-NtCJgwBPqASuknfq601wHnK0sDJGv4CNtLJn60YmxxxVx/s1600-h/efxsthelmetfront3vp3jd1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5190737431103455218" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4vm1ghk4XTzlqARqvnW1uQjvjwTWX5dtgVuAoQy0AuJDHfQ-ft-oEF8JcLpknkyNMjRvUPIf3CTzGMgJCSo3cpfOppzYQRp-NtCJgwBPqASuknfq601wHnK0sDJGv4CNtLJn60YmxxxVx/s200/efxsthelmetfront3vp3jd1.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAi2QxCVKm5EWhbIrVKOZX5EwpbIolf9fjMwmL4eDcLAWXU6hlaws5bZgg7HDylUECW6PY3tYgJMr_JPlgsyBcsPpQ40CzxYocZEKIJGgKrMAH3AcvAqJm5LysB2tKEExncj_n_pPDca7G/s1600-h/stormtrooperblackluciteym6.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5190737289369534434" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAi2QxCVKm5EWhbIrVKOZX5EwpbIolf9fjMwmL4eDcLAWXU6hlaws5bZgg7HDylUECW6PY3tYgJMr_JPlgsyBcsPpQ40CzxYocZEKIJGgKrMAH3AcvAqJm5LysB2tKEExncj_n_pPDca7G/s200/stormtrooperblackluciteym6.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div></div><div><span style="color:#ff0000;">Update :</span><br /><br /></div><div></div><div>From eFX Collectibles:</div><div></div><div align="justify">eFX ANNOUNCES JULY 8, 2008 AS THE ON-SALE DATE FOR THE STORMTROOPER(tm) HELMET</div><div align="justify"></div><div></div><div align="justify"><br />We are very excited to announce that our very first product, the Episode IV: A New Hope(tm) Stormtrooper(tm) Helmet will go on sale Tuesday, July 8, 2008. In the U.S. it will be available on our website, <a href="http://www.efxcollectibles.com/" target="_blank">http://www.efxcollectibles.com/</a>, and Star Wars Shop will have a very limited quantity, as well.</div><div align="justify"></div><br /><br /><div align="justify">- Full size Stormtrooper(tm) Helmet </div><div align="justify">- Asymmetrical, hero version </div><div align="justify">- Worldwide Edition: 500 </div><div align="justify">- Digitally scanned and cast of an original screen used helmet </div><div align="justify">- Fiberglass construction with fully padded interior </div><div align="justify">- 2 sets of “bubble” lenses, grey and green </div><div align="justify">- Display Stand </div><div align="justify">- Numbered Plaque and Plaque Stand </div><div align="justify">- Certificate of Authenticity</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><strong><br /><br />ORDERING INFORMATION AND RULES</strong> </div><div align="justify">- Order date and time is July 8, 2008 at 9AM Pacific Daylight Savings Time. </div><div align="justify">- THIS IS NOT A PRE-ORDER. Product will be ready to ship in 3-5 business days. </div><div align="justify">- The limit is 1 (one) per person on the first day. If any remain after the first day, you can order a second one. Any order with more than 1 (one) helmet or duplicate orders on the first day will result in the cancellation of BOTH orders. </div><div align="justify">- Ordering will be via <a href="http://www.efxcollectibles.com/" target="_blank">http://www.efxcollectibles.com/</a> ONLY, no phone or mail orders. </div><div align="justify">- Payment by VISA, MasterCard and American Express ONLY. </div><div align="justify">- Please review our Return Policy on our website before purchasing. </div><div align="justify">- International customers can purchase either through an authorized retailer in their country or on our website. However, if you order directly from us, you will be responsible for all shipping costs, duties, taxes and other fees.</div><div align="justify"></div><br /><br /><div align="justify">As we had announced previously, if you ordered a Stormtrooper(tm) Helmet DIRECT from Master Replicas and your order was cancelled, you will have priority ordering for this helmet. And now It is even easier since Master Replicas has graciously agreed to verify anyone whose order was cancelled, so you can stop trying to hunt down your cancellation e-mail. So, if your order was cancelled and you are interested in purchasing one of these helmets, please e-mail Amy your contact information with the best time to contact you during business hours, at <a href="mailto:customerservice@efxcollectibles.com">customerservice@efxcollectibles.com</a> and she will contact you to give you the ordering instructions. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">You must contact Amy by July 1, 2008 to reserve your helmet.If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Amy at <a href="mailto:customerservice@efxcollectibles.com">customerservice@efxcollectibles.com</a></div>EOTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475760619223838465noreply@blogger.com0