Live Action Star Wars TV Show Closer To Reality

A live action Star Wars television series has been talked about since 2005 when George Lucas first mentioned the show and the Clone War animated series while doing promotion for Star Wars Episode III Revenge of The Sith.

Lucas and a group of writers started writing scripts for the 100 episode series way back in 2007, but now comes the first news that casting for the series is underway.

MTV spoke with Star Wars bit part actress Rose Byrne at the Knowing press junket and she said:

“A lot of my friends have been auditioning for it”

While it’s not an awful lot to go on it does look that Lucas will once again unleash the force once more.

As a huge Star Wars fan (I have no idea how many DVDs and VHS copies I own) I have to admit that I haven’t watched the last animated movie or it’s television counterpart. It’s animation – I just don’t get animation.

However, I may just get excited by a live action series – if it’s done right. Television is a new frontier for narrative story telling and I feel that if Lucas has developed the series correctly then it could be a good show.

I know that there an awful lot of Lucas haters out there who feel that he has milked the Star Wars cash cow for all it’s worth, but I believe that we have to give this series a chance – lets see some previews before we bash it.

Don’t expect to see any familiar faces in the show – it’s due to be set in the 20 years between Episode III and Episode IV but with no major character making an appearance.

If Lucas is only casting at the moment I’d say that the show is probably another two or three years away due to the technical effects and because I’d imagine that they’d want a few episodes in the can before they premiere on television.

Screen Rant will have more news on the live action Star Wars series when we get it.

Star Wars Force Trainer Brainwave Toy unveiled at the Toy Fair 2009

Most likely the hottest toy trend for Christmas 2009 will be brainwave toys. At the Toy Fair 2009 several of these new toys were already revealed. We already reported about the Mattel Mindflex. Uncle Milton offers with the Star Wars Force Trainer a toy based on the same technological concept.
The Force trainer uses a headset that measures brainwave that get translated into a airstream produced by a fan inside the Force Trainer base.
Gizmodo has been at the Toy Fair 2009 in New York and tested the Force Trainer. You can see a video of the Force Trainer in action on Gizmodo. The Uncle Milton Force Trainer is supposed to sell for around $100 later this year.

The Star Wars franchise is still strong and so it makes sense to still market Star Wars toys even to the younger generation. Uncle Milton Industries will actually unleash a whole line of cool new Star Wars tech toys including Star Wars Optical Command Unit, Star Wars Darth Vader Robotic Arm, Star Wars Jedi Telescope and Star Wars Jedi Projector. More details on the Star Wars site.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – “Trespass” Preview

Anthony Daniels and his alter ego C-3PO play a pivotal role in “Trespass,” an all-new episode of the hit animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, premiering at 9 p.m. ET/PT Friday, Jan. 30, on Cartoon Network.

While investigating the disappearance of a clone security force on a fiercely inhospitable ice world, Anakin and Obi-Wan are caught in the middle of a conflict between the planet’s natives and the greedy representatives of a nearby moon. In an effort to broker a tentative peace, Anakin turns to C-3PO for help – and finds his fluency in more than 6 million forms of communication to be most useful.

Daniels has played C-3PO on screen in all six Star Wars movies, and has continued in the role since the inception of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. With the animated series, Daniels becomes the only actor to play the same role in every on-screen incarnation of the Saga. He has also become a spokesman and host for the popular Art and Science of Star Wars exhibition around the world, and has written extensively about his experiences as a part of the Star Wars phenomenon.

“I’ve never left the character or, rather, he’s never left me,” says Daniels. “I put him in the cupboard for a while, but people call and I take him out again. There was a time many years ago when I thought I should move on to other things, but then I thought that was stupid. I’m very fond of Threepio.”

Daniels says the voiceover performance of Threepio is a welcome respite from the rigors of bringing Threepio to the screen in live-action productions. He finds the animation process offers “quite a lot of freedom.”

“When you’re reading lines by yourself, it’s not always as easy to ad-lib,” Daniels says. “But what Dave (Filoni) and I do is to go over my lines before we start because, sadly, I am the world’s greatest expert. And I say that with a kind of wry fun, because Threepio is kind of like my best friend, and you know your best friend better than anyone.”

Filoni says, “It was important to have Anthony as Threepio because I wanted to learn as much from him as I could. Anthony has incredible insight into every word and phrase that he says. There’s rarely a line that he won’t adapt to Threepio’s cadence, so we’ve developed a good vocabulary. We’re both excited to do new things with Threepio, and hopefully in the future, viewers will see us expand our view of the character. After all, Threepio is as much an icon of Star Wars as Darth Vader.”

Filoni says, “It was important to have Anthony as Threepio because I wanted to learn as much from him as I could. Anthony has incredible insight into every word and phrase that he says. There’s rarely a line that he won’t adapt to Threepio’s cadence, so we’ve developed a good vocabulary. We’re both excited to do new things with Threepio, and hopefully in the future, viewers will see us expand our view of the character. After all, Threepio is as much an icon of Star Wars as Darth Vader.”

In “Trespass,” Threepio presents his most proper, most effective side – that of translator. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t provide a moment or two of levity, as is usually the case with the protocol droid.

“The thing I always liked about Threepio is that he wasn’t a hero – he was somebody who had no sense of humor and no sense of irony,” Daniels says. “He doesn’t know that he’s funny. We think he’s funny because he’s ridiculous, he’s uptight and a bit critical and it makes us laugh at him. But his saving grace and the reason that we like him is that he’s very thoughtful and very loyal. If he’s on your side, you would have a friend to the end of your existence. Or probably to the end of his existence, because he’s loyal to a fault, to his last nut and his last bolt.”

Daniels has a clear memory of the original reference to the Clone Wars, and the curious impression it had on the cast – though, he admits, nobody had any idea it would grow to the proportions it has achieved within the Star Wars universe.

“I was amused the other day to remember Mark Hamill going through his lines with me one day, and we both kind of looked at each other regarding this casual one-liner about ‘the Clone Wars,’” Daniels recalls. “And then of course, it got picked up in the prequels and now it’s its own TV series. Animation has grown up. It’s become very, very honorable, and I think Clone Wars has taken the next step.”

THE CLONE WARS: MIDSEASON RECAP

“Star Wars: The Clone Wars” is a unique and interesting beast, for many reasons.
For starters, it’s the biggest and most commercial attempt by creator George Lucas to bridge the gap between any two Star Wars films. Sure, there’ve been books and comics and video games written and designed to expand the scope of the series, but they’ve never been able to reach and reclaim that massive audience the films enjoy.
Not like “The Clone Wars.”

And, in some ways, that reach feels just a bit short.
The idea behind “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” was to lift the veil on the legendary war waged between the Galactic Republic and Confederacy of Separatists, chronicling the final days of the Jedi Order. But while each episode represents an unknown chapter in the Star Wars bible, most of the book has already been written and read.
The series focuses around characters like Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, General Grievous, Count Dooku, and other staples of the Prequel Trilogy. The problem is: these characters’ stories have already been told, thus, eliminating almost all tension, drama, or conflict. Almost every character meets their end or destiny in “Revenge of the Sith,” leaving many of the story arcs and battles feeling anticlimactic.
One would be hard pressed to find someone unaware of Anakin Skywalker’s fall from grace or the massacre of the Jedi or the totalitarian regime of the Galactic Empire. The only real question lingers around the fate of Anakin’s young apprentice, Asoka Tano, who never appears in the feature films.
Simply put, the show puts us on a path to a place we’ve already been.
But it’s a hell of a fun ride.
While the Prequel Trilogy only gave us a taste of what the Jedi can do, Master Yoda’s reputation as a great warrior, and the combat skills of the Clone Troopers, “The Clone Wars” makes it the main course. Each episode centers on a different threat, skirmish, or mission undertaken by the clone troops and their Jedi generals, from launching all out space battles against massive battleships to rescuing downed soldiers.
And though the series doesn’t change the course of the franchise, the action keeps you on the edge of your seat with its surprisingly brutal fight scenes and cinematic space battles in line with Lucas’ original vision.
Plus, having the room to take the camera off the main characters and put it on, say, a small group of rookie Clone Troopers trying to defend a strategic base against an invasion of droids not only shows that war wasn’t just a series of epic space battles and lightsaber duels, but gives the often faceless, nameless clones a touch of humanity, and enhances their roles in Star Wars universe.
In the end, “The Clone Wars” might not be redefining the Star Wars legacy, but does a good job of keeping the fun and adventure Star Wars brought to the silver screen going on the small screen.

Source: Sci-Fi

Toy trains ‘Star Wars’ fans to use The Force

Could The Force be with you? A toy due in stores this fall will let you test and hone your Jedi-like abilities.
The Force Trainer (expected to be priced at $90 to $100) comes with a headset that uses brain waves to allow players to manipulate a sphere within a clear 10-inch-tall training tower, analogous to Yoda and Luke Skywalker’s abilities in the Star Wars films.

No, you’re not tapping into some “all-powerful force controlling everything,” as Han Solo said in the movies. But you are reaching out with mind power via one of the first mass-market brain-to-computer products. “It’s been a fantasy everyone has had, using The Force,” says Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing.

Mind-control games may be the coming thing: Mattel plans to demonstrate a Mind Flex game (also due this fall), which uses brain-wave activity to move a ball through a tabletop obstacle course, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Thursday.

In the Force Trainer, a wireless headset reads your brain activity, in a simplified version of EEG medical tests, and the circuitry translates it to physical action. If you focus well enough, the training sphere, which looks like a ping-pong ball, will rise in the tower.

A state of deep concentration is needed to achieve a Force-full effect. “When you concentrate, it activates the training remote,” says Frank Adler of toymaker Uncle Milton Industries, which is creating the Trainer. “There is a flow of air that will move the (ball). You can actually feel like you are in a zone.”

Star Wars sound effects and audio clips emitted from the base unit “cue you in to progress to the next level (from Padawan to Jedi) or when to move the sphere up or down to keep challenging yourself,” Adler says.

“Until today, EEG technology has been designed for rigorous medical and clinical applications with little regard to price (and) ease of use,” says Greg Hyver of NeuroSky, which developed the brain-wave technology for both games. “We are putting this exciting technology into everyone’s living room.”

Source: USA Today

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