YTMND: Obey Hypno Leia

“I don’t know who you are or where you came from, but from now on you do as I tell you. Okay?”

Click here to Obey Hypno Leia.

Jedi Jardin and Steambots

BoingBoing TV vlogger/journalist Xeni Jardin continues her lightsaber training while visiting LA Jedi Bootcamp, and droid maker I-Wei shows off his latest steampunk robots!

VIDEO: BBtv: Jedi Xeni/Steam-Powered Robots

And don’t miss our exclusive interview with I-Wei about his steam-powered R2-D2 here:
Creating R2-S2 (Steampunk R2-D2)

ILM Lands Three Slots in VFX Oscar Finalists

As previously reported here, the winnowing processes for the Best Visual Effects Academy Award category has changed slightly this year, starting with a long long list that gets shortened to a “Bakeoff” of seven contenders from which the final three nominations are selected. ILM dominated the long long list, with fully a third of the productions selected having come out of the effects house. Yesterday, the Academy’s Visual Effects Steering Committee pared down that list to the seven “semi-finalists,” and ILM has a strong showing with three entries among this group: Evan Almighty, Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Congrats to ILM supervisors John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russel Earl, Bill George, Lindy De Quattro and their hard-working teams for this recognition.

Members from the Visual Effects branch will again convene in Los Angeles on January 16 to vote on the final three nominees which will be announced on January 22.

C-3PO On The Catwalk

This story made a splash online over our Holiday break. although this dateline places it in October, 2006. Fashion designer Nicolas Ghesquière’s collection looks to science fiction for inspiration, with sources such as Tron, The Matrix and Terminator serving as inspiration. Star Wars fans may have noted these leggings that resemble C-3PO’s gams.

Check out the collection here. This report comes from SuperPunch, who also provides some additional links and video.

While several blogs ran with this story, we gotta say, Huffington Post surprised us with the most geeky commentary:

Ah, Nicolas Ghesquiere’s Balenciaga “C-3P0″ leggings. The perfect example of fashion being WAY too expensive: they sold for around $159,000. We love Star Wars, but not even Luminara Unduli could rock these.

Name-dropping Luminara? HuffPo, we never knew you had it in you.

Homer Reviews Star Wars (And Carl Channels Lando)

There’s plenty to love about The Simpsons and The Simpsons Movie, and we’re not about to go into the long history of Star Wars-references that have peppered the show for the past 18 years (besides, you can read that list here). But for those who have not yet picked up The Simpsons Movie on DVD, or the inattentive who have, here are a couple of Star Wars gags you may have missed.

First off, the DVD comes with an insert (remember those?) that is a reproduction of an issue of The Springfield Shopper. The always topical Homer, who pens “Critic’s Corner,” finally gets around to reviewing a certain movie from 1977:

“…the movie started, and I was swept off of Earth to Tatooine, a distant planet that looks like New Mexico. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Star Wars, it’s a parody of Spaceballs.”

 

One of the most miss-able Star Wars references is in the film itself, and would have been easily overlooked if not called out in the animators’ audio commentary. At the end of picture, here’s what Rich Moore, sequence director, has to say:

“Carl back there if you notice is doing the Lando Calrissian acting at the end of Return of the Jedi at the Ewok celebration.”

 

 

11-Year Old Padawan to the Rescue

The Sun reports that a would-be Anakin near Norwich came to the rescue of his Shmi in December by hitting some brute with his trusty lightsaber. Or, to quote the article:

AN 11-YEAR-OLD boy demonstrated The Force when he defended his mum by hitting an attacker with a toy light sabre.

The man, in his 30s, fled after being confronted by the youngster outside a bakery in Swardeston, near Norwich.

Read the rest here. (Via FARK).

Personalize Your Stargate Atlantis

Write your own snarky messages embedded into a choice of video clips from “Stargate Atlantis” here.

I chose this opportunity to plug my craft projects on Starwars.com and hint for a raise, but you can write whatever you want — insert inside jokes, post meeting reminders or ask out someone on a date! The choice is yours.

(via ClubJade.net)

Industrial Light & Garage?

Hardcore Star Wars fans and DIY filmmakers who founded Backyard Productions create their own versions of the saga with budgets that would send serious shivers down most directors’ backs. Using household objects, toys, a computer and a garage as the studio, the team remakes the films for under $6,000.

In an interview with BBC, Backyard Productions co-founder Darren Scales described what they had used to recreate the opening scene of Star Wars.

“We have got bubble wrap on the ceiling, we’ve got bottle tops and yogurt pots on the walls along with tubes from the center of rolls of carpets. The blasters are water pistols, we just stuck a few bits of lids on, add a bit of spray paint and then you have a blaster. You take a hard hat, put an Imperial sticker on it and suddenly its an Imperial work helmet for someone building the Death Star - it’s not rocket science. It’s the same with the lightsabers. Up close they look awful but you put a stick in it, you hold it and on screen you can’t tell the difference.”

Read more about their films here:
Star Wars remade in garage studio

George Lucas Q&A at Vanity Fair

The latest issue of Vanity Fair has a cover feature devoted to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, with photography by Annie Leibovitz and interviews with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford. Of interest to Star Wars fans, of course, is the Lucas interview, which touches on the saga several times. Here’s an excerpt:

People who are over 40 love [Episodes] IV, V, and VI and hate I, II, and III. Younger people like I, II, and III and don’t like IV, V, and VI, or they like I, II, and III better and think IV, V, and VI are kind of boring and slow. And of course the older people say, “Oh, I, II, and III—it’s too jittery, too fast, too complicated, it’s too digital,” or whatever they want to say. But definitely one generation has grabbed hold of one of them, and the other generation has grabbed hold of the next one. One of the key characters that helped us realize what was going on was Jar Jar Binks, because the kids that are under 10 years old, he’s one of their favorite characters. For people over 40, they cannot stand him—it’s a hate thing. You know, they’ve always been for 12-year-olds, and that’s never changed. People don’t want to think of it that way. They want to think those films are for grown-ups. Even though they were 10 years old when they saw it, it’s still very important to them, so, for them, it’s a grown-up movie, as opposed to a kids’ movie. The pre–Jar Jar Binks was 3PO. Everybody hated 3PO. I mean, it was like they couldn’t stand him. It really had to do with his character. They don’t like his character, and they don’t like Jar Jar Binks—but they’re not designed to be likeable characters.

For the complete Lucas Q&A, read it online here. The Vanity Fair issue is on newsstands now.

First Baby of 2008 a Star Wars Fan

It’s a standard January 1st news story — report on the first baby born in the New Year — but this story coming out of El Paso caught our eye.

The first daughter of Star Wars fans Susana and Roger Taber, Abigail Leia Taber is expected to join her older brothers Lucas and Anakin at home on Thursday when she and her mom are discharged from Del Sol Medical Center.

Read more here. (Spotted on FARK.)