Category: News

Shadows of the Empire

Shadows of the Empire: The Movie-Without-the-Movie Extravaganza of 1996

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In 2015, I conducted a series of interviews with some of the people who worked on the Shadows of the Empire project concocted by Lucasfilm back in 1996. I loved the project, warts and all, from the moment it was released so it was a joy to conduct these interviews and gain multiple inside perspectives on what it was like to create such an expansive project. The essay was written for the Expanded Universe anthology called A More Civilized Age: Exploring the Star Wars Expanded Universe (2016) from my friends Rich Handley and Joe Berenato. I’ve decided to reprint the essay here on my site because I feel it sheds some more light on the nearly 30-year-old project and ended up revealing a few facts that were previously unknown to me about the inner workings of Lucasfilm at the time.

I’ve slightly edited this essay for the Internet by removing footnotes and changing them to links, and other small things like that. All quotes, unless otherwise indicated, are from my interviews. For more fun, head over to Facebook and like my Shadows of the Empire fan page.

I hope you enjoy the essay.

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Retro-Reviews: The Clone Wars Micro-Series by Nathan Butler (2003-2005)

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Back in 2003, my friend Nathan Butler penned quite a few guest reviews for this site including a complete, episode by episode review of The Clone Wars mirco-series by Genndy Tartakovsky that aired on Cartoon Network. Lucasfilm had ventured into animation before with the likes of Ewoks and Droids, not to mention the Star Wars Holiday Special, but this series of shorts was different. Nathan’s reviews were posted as individual articles dated November 2003 to March 2005, but I’m going to compile them all here into one big retro-review. Here’s Nathan…

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Retro-Interviews!

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As some of you may know, this site has been around since 1996. That’s over 25 years. During that time, I have moved the site over and over again to various servers, switched to hand-coded HTML over to several content management systems, and have lost much of the old content and design along the way for various reasons.

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Bringing “A New Hope” to Star Wars

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Those of us old enough to have seen the original Star Wars film during it’s initial run have a fond memory to cherish. When the Flash Gordon-inspired, yellow text crawled its way up the screen, it began with, “It is a period of civil war,” and then continued on. There was no subtitle to the film since, we assume, no one really knew if it would be a hit or not. If you’ve seen the film since the 1980s, though, then you’ve most likely seen the subtitle Episode IV: A New Hope added above the crawl. (For a GREAT article on May 25, 1977 and all that goes with it, please see May 25, 1977: A Day Long Remembered by Michael Coate.) Read More

Marcia Lucas

Marcia Lucas Speaks

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If you know your  Star Wars history, you’re aware of the importance of Marcia Lucas. If you don’t, go do some research. Though George Lucas was the initiator of the universe we love so much, it would not exist as it does today without the influence of people like his ex-wife Marcia Lucas, Gary Kurtz, Ralph McQuarrie, and so many others who gave George Lucas the direction he needed at times, in order to produce one of the biggest blockbusters of all time. Read More

Interview With Peter Diamond
(Original Posting: December 11, 2000)

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Peter Diamond (1929-2004) was the stunt coordinator for the original Star Wars trilogy, but he was much more than a well-established master at the art of stunt performing. He was also an actor, fencer, and filmmaker. Being a man of many talents, it’s no surprise to learn that he performed many of the minor roles in the Star Wars films like the Tusken Raider who attacked Luke, the cantina patron who squeals to the Stormtroopers, or one of many dedicated Stormtroopers serving the Empire. Peter took a few minutes to talk to me about his long career in the entertainment industry and, of course, his many roles in the Star Wars saga. (Original Posting: December 11, 2000)

 

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A More Civilized Age…Exploring the Star Wars Expanded Universe

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Last year, Sequart published a pair of anthology books discussing Star Wars, starting with A Long Time Ago… Exploring the Star Wars Cinematic Universe and followed by A Galaxy Far, Far Away… Exploring Star Wars Comics. To round out the trilogy, as is often the case with many things Star Wars, Sequart released its third in the series, A More Civilized Age… Exploring the Star Wars Expanded Universe! Read More

A Long Time Ago…Exploring the Star Wars Cinematic Universe

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As some of you know, this site was launched in 1996. That means it’s been alive for 20 years; a pretty big accomplishment. In that time, I’ve written in my bloggy, informal style here on the site, with the occasional magazine article or sidebar here or there. It gives me great pleasure to announce today that the wonderful Sequart organization has released the first in a trilogy of Star Wars books called A Long Time Ago… Exploring the Star Wars Cinematic Universe. Inside, you’ll be treated to some great writing by some well-respected writers, one of them being me! Read More

Star Wars Spoofed As Disney Musical

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Star Wars Musical is a fan film that spoofs Star Wars as a Disney Musical, colliding two of the galaxy’s biggest fandoms. Having completed the first episode which recently won the Best Short Film award at Stan Lee’s Comikaze GeekFest Film Festival, the team behind this mashup is crowdfunding their next episode and are excited to be chosen to be a part of Rockethub and Ovation TV’s Creative Studio, where they compete for a chance to be featured on TV and win $5000 towards funding the project.

You can watch the production here: http://youtu.be/8xzGSSN5FNE or at StarWarsMusical.com Read More

Magazine Mania! (Updated)

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As we get closer to the release of The Force Awakens, the marketing machine will steadily increase its output and you’ll see more and more Star Wars branded everything no matter where you go. Marketing has always been integral since the saga’s inception. No one really knew if the first film would be successful in 1977. Marketing efforts helped familiarize people with the foreign aspects of this new form of science fiction/space fantasy. Read More

Star Cars!

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Picture the scene – it’s 2016, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a smash hit at the box office, and the film’s characters past and present have a bit of cash burning holes in their space pockets. Naturally, they’ve come to Earth with one thing in mind – to source some new cars to take back to their galaxy and show off to their friends.

But what earthly cars would they choose? And what modifications would they make to add their own personal touches? And why didn’t we put Yoda in a Skoda? Read on to find out…

– See more at: https://www.carwow.co.uk/blog/star-wars-character-cars

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