StarWars-related stories
Posted Nov 7th 2009 10:00AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Animation, Reality-Free
Cartoon Network's
Star Wars: The Clone Wars just might be the best action/adventure show on television. Come to think of it, it might be the only true action/adventure show on television.
But, as the show ramps up the action content and significantly sweetens its visuals, its increased intensity might be driving away some younger viewers.
As
The Clone Wars moves through its second season, the war is growing -- both in scope and violence. Viewers are seeing more dead Clonetroopers, more crashed vehicles and more beloved characters in deadly jeopardy.
Its ratings continue to cruise in hyperspace (especially for males), but I wonder if the darker tones of season two could drive younger kids and their parents away from the show.
Continue reading New Clone Wars episodes stunning, but less kid friendly
Posted Oct 30th 2009 6:45PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Site Announcements, Reality-Free
The folks at our sister site
Cinematical are working hard to give you news and reviews of the best -- and worst -- the silver screen has to offer. Here are some of their musings on the latest blockbusters, indies, and everything in between:
Posted Oct 28th 2009 8:02PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Animation, Reality-Free
If you're a fan of
Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and you want to know what happened between Season One and the now-running Season Two, you're going to need a video game system.
The story in the new game,
Star Wars: The Clone Wars - "Republic Heroes" bridges the gap between the show's first two runs, as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and their loyal Clone Trooper comrades take on a new Separatist enemy packing a freshly polished doomsday weapon.
Available for PS3, Nintendo Wii or Xbox 360, "Republic Heroes" lets you play as a Jedi Knight or as a Clone Trooper -- depending on where you are in the game and what choices you make as a player.
Continue reading New Clone Wars game ties into Star Wars series canon
Posted Sep 30th 2009 3:01PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Industry, Reality-Free
While I'll admit that the photo at right is not the most detailed, and Ansel Adams is unlikely to claim it as one of his own due to its lighting and composition, it should prove an important image for
Star Wars fans.
The sign artfully painted on the glass door in this tasteful, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired hallway within the
Skywalker Ranch compound in Marin County, Calif. reads "LucasFilm Television." You'll have to trust me on that. This is as close as I could get with a camera.
You might wonder what the big deal is about that sign -- considering that LucasFilm has a show on the air already with Cartoon Network's
Star Wars: The Clone Wars. But, those 22 episodes originate across the building in LucasFilm Animation -- a separate division.
Continue reading Misplaced steps reveal doorway to Star Wars live action series
Posted Sep 30th 2009 2:00PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Industry, Animation, Reality-Free
Lucasfilm's
Star Wars: The Clone Wars might just be the
beat best action and adventure show on television.
Admittedly, there isn't a ton of competition as action shows are few and far between on TV these days. They're expensive to produce in live action, so reality TV, detective shows and "chick-flick" dramas drive network schedules. Since the
Star Wars universe exists only in the imaginations of George Lucas and his team encamped north of the Golden Gate bridge,
The Clone Wars has more room to play affordably.
The second season of
The Clone Wars launches this Friday on Cartoon Network. To build some force behind the premiere, LucasFilm Animation hosted a press event at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County. Munching on Wookie-Cookies (as all of the catering was
Star-themed) and rubbing elbows with costumed Clone Troopers and bounty hunters, show creators and cast members mingled with reporters in an enthusiastic, nerd-friendly atmosphere.
Continue reading Set Visit: Clone Wars returns with better visuals, darker stories
Posted Aug 28th 2009 2:03PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Animation, Reality-Free
Family Guy's
Star Wars parody,
Blue Harvest, was arguably the most popular and influential event episode in the show's history. So, the bar is set high for Seth MacFarlane's
Empire Strikes Back send-up,
Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Darkside.
According to Fox's news release on the upcoming DVD, the plot sticks to the same lines as
Empire: "Darth Vader (Stewie) is hunting the rebel Luke Skywalker (Chris) and his troops relentlessly across the galaxy."
Continue reading Family Guy's Empire Strikes Back parody arriving for Christmas
Posted Aug 25th 2009 1:06PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Animation, Reality-Free
Lucasfilms told us at Comic-Con that the new season of
Star Wars: The Clone Wars promised more sophisticated storylines and higher stakes. It is war, after all. And they promised us bounty hunters. One of the most popular classes of characters in the franchise was conspicuously absent during the first season.
To drive this point home, they've even added a snazzy subtitle to the title of the show for this season, as well as giving it a premiere date. The action starts
Friday, October 2 with the one-hour premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Rise of the Bounty Hunters.
That follows the pattern of the films, if you think about it. While the first film was technically
Episode IV: A New Hope, it was only branded as
Star Wars. The stakes were raised and things got much better with the next installment, complete with official subtitle.
Rise of the Bounty Hunters even sounds like an episode in the film franchise.
Continue reading Star Wars: The Clone Wars gets a subtitle and a premiere date
Posted Aug 19th 2009 2:02PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Programming, Reality-Free
The long-rumored
Star Wars live action series is reportedly coming together quickly and will begin shooting before 2009 ends.
You can pick any one of many collected
reports, but they all say the show is well past the planning stages and is only waiting on completed scripts before George Lucas begins casting the essential roles.
While news of
Star Wars on TV might have generated a bored groan from viewers after the prequel movies came and went, the critical and ratings success of Cartoon Network's
The Clone Wars shows that a galaxy far, far away can work on TV if the writers, directors and cast remember that this is all supposed to be fun -- not high drama of a deeply spiritual nature.
Continue reading Live action Star Wars begins shooting this year
Posted Jul 27th 2009 10:09AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Reality-Free, Comic-Con
There's still plenty of Comic-Con International coverage en route from me, including exclusive interviews you'll only find here.
But, as the Monday morning after the madness dawns, we'll take a few minutes and review the major impressions left by the four day weekend.
What happened? What were the biggest themes of the convention and what didn't happen that everyone was hoping would. In other words, what was Comic-Con 2009, and where did it fall short?
Continue reading The convention that WAS and WASN'T - Comic-Con Report
Posted Jul 25th 2009 2:00PM by TV Squad blogger
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, TV on DVD, Interviews, Reality-Free, Comic-Con
Recently, the cast of
The Middleman, the comic book-based ABC Family show about a secret agent crime fighter and his female sidekick,
reunited at Comic-Con for a panel and a table reading of the unreleased final episode of the series, which is soon to be a comic.
Middleman creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach talked to
Laura Hudson from our sister site
Comics Alliance before the panel about how comics gave him the freedom to create Stormtroopers riding missile-equipped kangaroos, whether the show could ever come back to TV, and why
Batman: Streets of Gotham writer Paul Dini is the godfather of it all.
We previewed this interview yesterday, but CA has kindly let us reprint the entire interview here. More after the jump.
Continue reading Middleman creator talks about the show's Comic-Con reunion -- and possible revival
Posted Jul 25th 2009 7:02AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Animation, Reality-Free, Comic-Con
Today is
Star Wars Saturday at
Comic-Con International, and
TV Squad has some special exclusives lined up for the event.
The Clone Wars is the big title for Lucasfilm's TV slate currently, but will George Lucas use this big event as the perfect launching pad to announce a live-action
Star Wars series?
Of course, not everything is from a galaxy far, far away today, as other top shows hold their first panels and press events. I'll be running from interview to press conference to panel as fast as my sore feet will carry me.
You can keep tabs on where TV Squad's Comic-Con presence is in and out of the Convention Center by following our Twitter stream,
@tvsquad.
Posted Jul 25th 2009 2:28AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, OpEd, Animation, Reality-Free, Comic-Con
As an old-school
Star Wars fan, I've been a little disenchanted with the many little ways George Lucas has slowly turned his rich tapestry into a children's fable. In the
Star Wars I loved, there were moments of real terror, a sinister menace and true danger. The "Ooh, we can sell toys!" started with the ewoks and hit critical mass with Jar-Jar Binks.
But there were some moves in the right direction.
Episodes II and
III were improvements over
The Phantom Menace, so I held out hope that new projects might keep what I felt was the proper maturity of
Star Wars in perspective. And so, like a good little drone, I tuned into Cartoon Network's
The Clone Wars animated series, and it was ... cute.
For years and years, this was the era we knew so little about. In the novels and comics, which took all of this pretty seriously, thank you very much, we covered from thousands of years before Darth Vader to spans after Han and Leia get married. But not the Clone Wars. That era was special. So we waited. And we got cute.
Continue reading Star Wars: Clone Wars season two promises a more sophisticated galaxy
Posted Jul 7th 2009 12:03PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Celebrities, Reality-Free, Comic-Con
George Lucas will come as close to San Diego's Comic-Con as he could ever dare when he appears via video conference as part of the event's
Star Wars presentation.
It's not top secret news that George Lucas is planning
a live-action Star Wars television series that would fill in the gaps between big screen entries
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV: A New Hope. With talk of the show preparing to roll camera in Australia, the status of the TV production will be first and foremost on most fans' minds.
Speculation has it that Lucas might even shine his Death Star super laser of wisdom down on his followers by answering
fan-submitted questions during the convention appearance.
Continue reading Rumor has Lucas discussing Star Wars TV series at Comic-Con
Posted Jul 3rd 2009 9:03AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Animation, Adult Swim, Comic-Con
Seth Green and the
Robot Chicken: Star Wars team are taking a skate show on the road to promote the release of the sequel on DVD.
Adult Swim's Robot Chicken: Star Wars -- Episode II comes to DVD conveniently in time for San Diego Comic-Con, and Green will kick-off a national bus tour of roller skating rinks for two weeks to hype the disc.
It's a hip choice for
Robot Chicken: Star Wars, as the first DVD in the series included a funny
"Star Wars on Ice" segment.
Continue reading Robot Chicken Star Wars touring on skates across U.S.
Posted Jun 25th 2009 5:00PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Industry, Animation, Children, Reality-Free, Comic-Con
Lionel Lum's awesome
Bumblebee costume was one of the many cool things I saw at last year's San Diego Comic-Con. The giant show floor was packed with sweaty costumed fans, big geek friendly displays, and a few not-so incognito celebs. Folks at home got a small taste of all the corporate sponsored nerdery thanks to G4's daily coverage. This year, G4 will
air the first televised panel in the convention's history.
Attack of the Show hosts Olivia Munn and Kevin Pereira will host "The Star Wars Spectacular." The taped panel will feature special guests, a table read and new footage from Cartoon Network's
Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The panel will take place July 24 and air July 25 at 2 p.m. on G4. After the panel broadcast, G4 will air three live hours (on the East Coast) of Comic-Con coverage with celeb interviews and more.
Continue reading G4 to air Star Wars Comic-Con panel
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