Before you continue bad mouthing George Lucas for what he's done to your childhood, first with the Star Wars prequels and now with the disappointing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, you might want to worry that he'll send his daughter after you. Wait, what? Yeah, that's George's daughter, Amanda "Powerhouse" Lucas, in the image on the right. She's a member of an American all-female MMA (mixed martial arts) fight team, and she's seen here duking it out with a Kiwi kickboxer during a recent Auckland, New Zealand-set event titled Princesses of Pain. And according to Stuff.co.nz, footage of the bout may be featured in a planned reality series about the formation of a women's international fighting league as well as on the news program 20/20.

27-year-old "Powerhouse" Lucas appeared in all three of her father's Star Wars prequels, portraying the dancer "Diva Funquita" in The Phantom Menace, "Adnama, patron of the Outlander Club" in Attack of the Clones and "Senator Terr Taneel" in Revenge of the Sith. She also voiced a separate character in The Phantom Menace, Neimoidian communications officer "Tey How" (she was credited under the pseudonym Tyger). Outside of the Star Wars films, she's worked as a hip-hop teacher and has spent years training in multiple martial arts, including kickboxing, Muay Thai and Brazilian ju-jitsu. According to New Zealand's TV3, Lucas lost her debut bout, but she did win a medal for "gutsiest fighter," and according to the Princesses of Pain website, the whole match ended in a tie between Team America and Team Australasia, each winning 3 bouts.

Is Paramount poised to have the best May imaginable at the box office between Mr. Stark and Dr. Jones? Can you take any movie with a monkey in it seriously? Will Pixar succeed again with WALL-E, or are robots the new Cars? Is a long-awaited sequel 'too little, too late' for X-Files fans? And will Hellboy 2 be the surprise smash of the season? Joining us this week on The Rocchi Review to talk summer's biggest movies is Scott Weinberg of Cinematical and FEARnet, and we try to answer all those questions and more. ... Cinematical's podcast content now has even better sound quality, and is now in iTunes; you can subscribe at this link. Also, you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:



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She isn't too well known in America, but Star Wars fans may recognize Claudia Karvan as the actress who played Padmé's elder sister Sola in Revenge of the Sith. Now the Australian actress, who is a popular television star in her native country, has landed herself another Hollywood role sure to make her more familiar to audiences in the States. She has been cast as the female lead in the futuristic vampire movie Daybreakers, in which she'll co-star with Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and fellow Aussie (slash New Zealander) Sam Neill. The casting of an up-and-coming Australian star makes perfect sense since the movie will be shot Down Under by Australian filmmakers the Spierig twins (Undead), who also wrote the screenplay.

According to Moviehole, Karvan will be playing a human love interest for Hawke's vampire character. The movie is set in 2017 when the world is mostly populated by vampires, a race that may become extinct once the blood-supplying humans are also extinct. Hawke is some sort of good guy vampire who is researching a way for his people to survive with a blood substitute. Dafoe plays his rival. Still no word on who or what Neill will be playing. If Karvan's part is correct, I think we can assume that once Hawke falls for her, he begins to think twice about feeding on humans. Of course, he could just turn her into a vampire and then live happily for eternity with her, but narratively that idea lacks conflict. Daybreakers begins filming soon and is set to release next year, which will be long after we've already seen I Am Legend, 30 Days of Night and Bloodrayne II. Hopefully we'll still be interested in vampires by that point.

Let the record show that I never in my wildest dreams imagined that headline would roll off my fingertips.

But, yes, dear readers, it looks like a controversy has erupted in the ever-contentious Best Makeup category, with the women respectively responsible for sprinkling glitter on Natalie Portman and Darth-ifying Hayden Christenson fighting for a single slot on the Oscar ballot. Apparently, AMPAS named hairdresser Annette Miles as a nominee, alogside Dave Elsey, on their initial press release last week. But then, after learning that Miles left the set before filming of George Lucas' final spurt of geek porn had finished, AMPAS replaced Miles' name with that of makeup artist Nikki Gooley. An AMPAS spokesman now says that the initial release contained an "administrative error", and that Gooley is "more deserving" of the nomination; an up-in-arms Miles insists that she left the set on "the same day [as] Natalie Portman". The Academy says they're going to give Miles a chance to prove them wrong by "submit[ing] further material". Considering that Oscar ballots were reportedly mailed yesterday, I have no idea how that's going to work.

George Lucas recently talked to The New York Post about the upcoming November 1st release of the Episode III: Revenge of the Sith DVD, as well as that whole live-action series rumored to be on its way to a galaxy near you. If you're wondering what kind of added bonus material we'll see on the DVD, well, get ready for some intense non-stop political-packed action. According to Lucas, "Most are Senatorial in nature. Some are about the conspiracy, in terms of starting the rebel alliance. But mostly there's lots of beautiful costumes." Beautiful costumes? Damn, and here I thought we would be able to watch the stuff left off the scene where a young Vader fights a bunch of pint-sized Jedi's.

As far as the live-action show, Lucas admits he hasn't even worked on the script yet, but divulged that "it's all minor, minor characters. It's not the Skywalker story at all - that's going on in another part of the galaxy." Personally, I'm glad he's not touching those characters because it would seem weird if, say, some soap-opera guy (nothing against Superman Returns) started playing Luke since no one will ever be able to repeat the way in which Hamill whined like a teenage girl in that annoying high-pitched voice. No one! Additionally, IGN FilmForce reports that the series is slated to run 50 hours and mix live-action with CGI, while they speculate that the story "will revolve around imperial bounty hunters." The Untitled show is currently seeking scriptwriters, and the always secretive Lucas will put it all together from his secluded Skywalker Ranch.

Thought this was pretty cool: An Indiana farm has partnered with a local TV station to create a corn maze in the image of the teaser poster from Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. I never really cared for the teaser image, thinking it looked - well - terrible, and too comic-booky for what was supposed to be this super-serious dark flick. That being said, I have to admire the work that someone put in to recreating it in a field of corn. Click below to see the whole thing.

[Via TheForce.net]

I've finally seen the last of the Star Wars movies (I hate crowds). Here is my take: I think Senator Palpatine is onto something. Who do these Jedi think they are? They tootle around the galaxy in fancypants robes and hack away at people’s limbs with impunity, and then when called on to justify their tenure, they hide behind fortune cookie aphorisms about emotional restraint and freedom from corrosive attachments. They, like, totally can’t be bothered. (I guess this explains why they haven’t done anything about the slave situation on Tatooine)

If this is supposed to be a democracy, then where does Yoda stand for election? Is there some corner of the galaxy where campaign holograms pop up on the doorsteps of busy moisture farmers to remind them of his policy on droid part recycling? Is there a campaign poster on a wall in some Corellian bar where a smiling Mace Windu is giving a thumbs-up? "Four more years on the Jedi Council!"

The very idea that is put to us in the films - of interplanetary democracies - seems curious. Are planets allowed to secede from this union at their will? Apparently not, since separatists are the subject of great consternation in this latest installment.

Thanks for entering! We'll announce a winner on Monday - wait, Tuesday. We keep forgetting to remember that whole Memorial rigmarole. Definitely Tuesday.

We've been bugging you to enter our new contest, and - nothing against the entries we have recieved, which are great - but we want more. Is it you? Is it us? Are you all crowded in a corner mocking our shitty contest? What's your problem - there's money on the line, people! You've got just over 5 hours left.

By the way, some people were having trouble with  the original link for the script pages - try this one instead [thanks, Thomas]. Full contest details pasted after the jump.

Now that The Sith have gotten their Revenge, is nothing left for the Star Wars universe? TheForce.net reminds us that "the Force will always be with us, always." They have a report entitled "Life After Revenge of the Sith" detailing the future of the Star Wars Universe. Everything from DVD releases, Future celebrations, television shows, the 3D re-releases, books, comics, and lets not forget the toys and video games. So if you're a Star Wars geek, read on. And if you hate Star Wars, too bad, because it's not over yet.