Star Wars

After waiting on a very long line for about an hour, I finally made my way into the IGN Theater for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones panel. The festivities had already gotten underway, and so the theater was packed, dark and hard to navigate. Additionally, I had walked in while they were screening footage for the upcoming video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which hits shelves in September. The footage looked great (from what I could tell), and I'm looking forward to a game that's set in between Episodes III and Episodes IV as there's so much room to play with there. For more on the game, check out StarWars.com.

From there, Steve Sansweet introduced two guys who had just graduated with a doctorate in Star Wars from New York University. It's funny, too, because right before their names were announced the guy next to me leaned over to his girlfriend and said, "Holy crap, I didn't know you could get a doctorate in Star Wars! Why didn't I do that!? Then Sansweet played their senior thesis: a documentary that, in reality, turned out to be the trailer for Robot Chicken's Star Wars episode. Of course, the two guys were Seth Green and Matt Senreich. They, in turn, talked about how that episode is arriving on DVD in July. This will include all sorts of stuff, like the deleted scene they screened featuring George Lucas on a therapist's couch complaining about how other people messed up Star Wars when Lucas let them play in that world (ie: Robot Chicken). Funny stuff.

Steve Sansweet has probably one of the best and worst jobs related to the Star Wars empire (get it? empire?) -- he's the Director of Content Management at Lucasfilm, as well as the Head of Fan Relations. It's that second half of his title that we're a bit more interested in, and presents some of the more fun, and more strenuous parts of the job, I imagine. We caught up with Steve while he was in Los Angeles for something he really enjoys doing; meeting the Star Wars fans in person.

Today marks the 30th anniversary to the day that Stars Wars: A New Hope came out in theaters and sparked the big sci-fi revolution, and not coincidentally, the massive fan pleasing Star Wars Celebration IV is taking place at the Los Angeles Convention center from now through Monday. There's a lot going on, ranging from "An Hour With Carrie Fisher" (she won't be wearing that slave-girl outfit, we'll bet) to a massive amount of material from the Lucasfilm Archives on display, including some things "That haven't been unpacked for 30 years" according to Steve.

Getting to know the man behind / in front of the fans, Steve is the author of ten books about the Star Wars universe (soon to be eleven when his 'Inside the Star Wars Vault' is published) and he is a genuine Star Wars nut. He owns a staggering amount of Star Wars memorabilia (including one of the original Darth Vader costumes from The Empire Strikes Back), knows the films inside and out, and sports a George Lucas-esque salt and pepper beard. I asked him if Lucasfilm had a beard requirement policy, to which he replied, "Of course!"

ComicCon is exploding with information regarding some highly anticipated upcoming projects. Because we love you more than Superman in a wet t-shirt contest (don't ask me where that came from), here's a quick update:

• Those of you lucky enough to be attending ComicCon this weekend in San Diego can drop by the Paramount booth and pick up a mini one-sheet for Star Trek XI. Produced and directed by Lost creator J.J. Abrams, the new Trek will supposedly revolve around a young Kirk and Spock as they begin their Academy training. Oh, and did I mention there's already a teaser poster available online for all to see? Star Trek XI is on course to land at some point in 2008.
• Steve Sansweet, head of Lucasfilm's Fan Relations, spit out some tasty Star Wars tidbits, telling fans they expect the Star Wars animated series to premiere in 2008, with the live-action series to follow sometime before 2010. Currently, the first batch of scripts for the animated series have been completed, and folks are working real hard on those first episodes. The animated series will take place during the Clone Wars, after Anakin Skywalker has achieved Jedi Knight status. Some of the characters expected to appear are: Anakin, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Count Dooku, Palpatine, General Grievous and Asajj Ventress. On Indiana Jones 4, Sansweet noted David Koepp's script will be ready in a couple of months (What else is knew?), with pre-production tentatively starting at the end of 2006, or early 2007.
• Finally, Joel Silver spoke a little bit about why he decided to jump onboard a new Wonder Woman film. According to the producer, the idea popped into his head during initial tests on The Matrix. When Silver realized Trinity was testing the highest out of any character, he figured Wonder Woman might not be such a bad idea. On casting the female superhero, Silver says, "She'll probably be someone you never saw before, because she's very young, but I think we'll have a good time with it." And the guessing games continue ...

[via Coming Soon]