Showbits

Though this is slightly older news, I recently encountered a geek who hadn't heard, so for those who still don't know about it, here's a PSA:

Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich are channeling their inner geeks with Robot Chicken: Star Wars, a special for Adult Swim.

The 30-minute stop-motion animation special, directed by Green, spoofs key scenes and favorite characters from the Star Wars universe, including the sci-fi saga's creator, George Lucas. It was done in collaboration with Lucasfilm, and Lucas is on board to voice the animated version of himself.

Additionally, Robot Chicken: Star Wars will feature Mark Hamill as the voice of Luke Skywalker in one sketch and a voice cast that includes Conan O'Brien, Seth MacFarlane, Robert Smigel, Malcolm McDowell, Hulk Hogan, James Van Der Beek, Donald Faison, Abraham Benrubi, Breckin Meyer and Joey Fatone.

The special… will premiere at 10 p.m. June 17 on Adult Swim, kicking off a best-of Robot Chicken marathon that will feature reruns of the Star Wars special at the top of every hour.

Story continues at the Hollywood Reporter. Watch the trailer at StarWars.com. And for those of you attending Celebration IV, the Star Wars convention occurring May 24 – 28 in Los Angeles, see Seth Green on a writers' panel.

I don't watch Dancing with the Stars, but thanks to TheForce.net, I got to see Joey Fantone and Princess Leia dance the tango to the Star Wars theme:

In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the release of Star Wars: A New Hope, the United States Postal Service will be releasing 15 Star Wars postage stamps. You can vote for your favorite stamp and play a Star Wars/USPS trivia game to win a trip to Celebration IV Star Wars convention.

This is all in addition to the R2-D2 mailboxes that were rolled out two weeks ago. There are only 320 such droids throughout the country:

There's a new trailer for Heart of an Empire, a documentary about the Fighting 501st, an international club whose only membership requirement is that you have a Star Wars film-quality Imperial costume, from stormtrooper to Darth Vader. As far as I can tell, these costumes are not sold anywhere, nor are instructions for their manufacture provided by the group; you need to be both a hardcore Star Wars fan AND a talented costumer. The movie looks like a lot of fun, showing the group's diverse aspects. I was especially touched to see stormtroopers participating in one of my favorite charity events.

But I was surprised and angered by what this documentary reveals of the public's perception to such dedicated fans: televised newscasters openly mocking the 501st as single, lonely geeks and nerds. I thought such juvenile behavior was the province of schoolyard bullies. Of course these stormtroopers are single, if such vapid, condescending ignorami are the only available bounties. But we can do better, as exemplified in this recent Vegas Popular article (which is actually meant to delineate why Star Trek is better than Star Wars, but I see little distinction between the two fan groups):

The devotion of Trekkers is an easy target for derision, but I would argue that you'll find a much higher average IQ level among Star Trek fans… And if they take the series' philosophy to heart, they're probably treating each other with kindness and tolerance and making the world a better place.

If you're going to be dedicated, might as well indulge: Heart of the Empire isn't the only Star Wars documentary. There's 5/25/77, which celebrates the release of A New Hope, the 30th anniversary of which looms. There's also The Force Among Us, which recently released a trailer (if a ten-minute video can be called such) featuring a montage of interviews with assorted Warsies. All these films seem to be this universe's take on the Trekkies documentary.

And not a documentary, but no less cool: Star Wars USB drives. Represent!

Today, March 14th, marks the tenth anniversary of the theatrical release of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Special Edition, the last in a series of re-releases that cleaned up the presentation of the twenty-year-old trilogy. The Special Edition did more than just modernize the three films' special effects, though (and I don't mean making Greedo shoot first). Before 1997, an entire generation had experienced Star Wars the only way it'd been possible: on the TV screen. Reinstating the story to the medium in which it was meant to be delivered — the big screen — gave millions of fans the opportunity to be reminded why they were drawn to this saga in the first place.

Read the rest of this entry at Computerworld.com »

There's nothing like a good spoof — and most of the parodies I see are nothing like a good spoof.

Originality is a key factor. Star Wars parodies abound, and wading through the morass takes some effort. (Just look at the search results in YouTube.) But be it in Star Wars or elsewhere, there are two rarely-exploited formats of spoof that, when done well, realize great potential.

One approach is to portray a film as a genre other than its own. George Lucas' universe is effectively seen from the perspective of a Cops television show in the legendary fan film TROOPS. This same concept can turn the cult classic Office Space (imagine a live-action Dilbert) into a horror film:

The other parody format is a mash-up of two films that have no rights being amalgamated, which Star Wars accomplishes with Tie-Tanic. Elsewhere, this technique combines two Ben Affleck films into one continuous reality. Though it was funnier and more relevant five years ago when its source material was fresh, Pearlmageddon is still exemplary of such humorous fusions:

There are plenty of other examples of these methods out there; look for The Shining as a romantic comedy, or a sequel to Titanic that takes elements from Awakenings and The Fugitive.

What are some of your favorite spoofs, either fan-made or official? (And did you find the Easter Egg [and yes, that's a hint!] in the links above?)

Up until ten years ago today, I, along with my friends Peter, Pelun, and our entire generation, had experienced Star Wars the only way it'd been possible: on the TV screen.

But if we'd only seen it that way, we hadn't seen it at all — not until Friday, January 31st, 1997, at 10:20 PM EST, when we witnessed the premiere of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope: Special Edition.

Despite the original trilogy being constantly rerun on TV, I'd seen it in its entirety only once. It was one night when the house was empty that I rented them on VHS, determined to complete this gap in my cultural education. Even that isolated viewing was many years before their cinematic re-release, so seeing them on the silver screen was all the more energizing. Not just because it was a new experience, but because it was a common, shared experience. Fans wrapped around the block waiting for tickets. Jedi Knights (or padawans) numbered among the throngs. Lightsabers and blasters were wielded throughout the lobby. The seats were packed for a film that would excite in both its familiarity and originality. And we all collectively mocked the petulant Skywalker when he bemoaned his unfulfilled intention to visit Toshi Station.

You don't create a memory like that from popping a DVD into your home entertainment system. It's true that movie theaters are expensive, as are their concessions, and that the theaters are often populated with babies, cell phones, and other noisy inconsiderations. But films themselves are a vehicle of social interaction. Each year that I taught a film studies course, I opened the first day of class by explaining to my students that the movies they were about to watch were a venue through which people of diverse eras and geographies could relate by sharing common experiences. Nowhere is that goal better achieved than in the communal consumption of film.

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