Last night was the final evening of the ‘Elstree Film Festival 3’ which ran from 29th June through to 4th July.  The last film of the festival being shown was ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, to a sold out audience at ‘The Reel’ in Borehamwood.  Before the film started there was a Q&A session with Jedi News friend Jeremy Bulloch who played the iconic Boba Fett in the film.

We caught up with Jeremy before the Q&A and he’d had a busy week filming a part in the new BBC One TV Series called ‘Bonekickers’ starting this Tuesday at 9pm, he plays a character aptly named ‘The Masked Man’ in episode 6 which will broadcast in approximately six weeks time.  He’s off to Celebration Japan in just over a week too.

Read on for some of the Q&A...

The cover for The Clone Wars novelisation has been revealed by publishers Random House and it bears a striking resemblance to Order 66, also by Karen Traviss and due out later this year.

The Clone Wars will be released in hardback on July 26th.

With the release date of The Clone Wars theatrical release just around the corner, StarWars.com has posted a video clip featuring director Dave Filoni, in which he talks about how the clone troopers have been personalised as a result of working closely with the Jedi, by manner of adopting different character traits, hairstyles and the like.

So if you thought that all clones are alike, think again!

And if you really can't wait until the movie's release, TheForce.Net have posted the first part of The Clone Wars complete plot spoilers...don't click on this link unless you've absolutely, positively got to know the storyline.

You have been warned!

The Weston Mercury has reported on a local couple's wedding which had a distinctly Star Wars feel to it...

A WESTON couple enjoyed a 'storming' wedding with a guard of honour from a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars fans Richard Andrews and Caroline White married at Banwell Castle on June 21, in a ceremony attended by four of the movie's iconic Stormtroopers.

Richard, aged 28, told the Mercury that their appearance had been arranged through a group of Star Wars enthusiasts called the 501st who use the costumes in various charity appearances.

He said: "It was Caroline's idea, really. We are both into that sort of thing, and I have liked it since I was young, so it was her way of making the day even more special for me."

Electronics assembler Richard and veterinary nurse Caroline, aged 37, live in Osborne Road and became engaged last Christmas.

Congratulations to the happy couple, but next time we'd like to see the Stormtroopers doing some star-jumps as well!

According to the Baltimore Business Journal, the city is one of the possible locations to host Celebration V, which is set for either next year or the year after that.

Baltimore has a shot of snagging a "Star Wars" fan convention that would rank among the city's largest gatherings, drawing as many as 35,000.

Lucasfilm Ltd., creator of the "Star Wars" series, is eyeing Baltimore for a four-day convention to be held either spring 2009 or spring 2010. Winning the convention would boost Baltimore's tourism business because of its size and media attention surrounding "Star Wars," one of the biggest pop culture phenomenons, local tourism experts said.

"It would be a great coup for Baltimore," said Melissa "Missy" Geppi-Bowersox, executive vice president of Geppi's Entertainment Museum. The Camden Yards pop culture museum houses many "Star Wars" collectibles and is expected to draw attendees from the convention. "We're talking about generations upon generations who loved the movies," Geppi-Bowersox said.

Baltimore is competing with Minneapolis, Chicago, Indianapolis and Orlando, Fla., for the fan gathering to be known as Celebration V, said Steve Sansweet, director of content management and head of fan relations for Lucasfilm.

Sideshow Collectibles have released some teaser images of a couple of forthcoming items, namely the bronze Boba Fett statue, and Ki-Adi Mundi 1/6 scale figure.

Click on the thumbnails above for a closer look....

Site Sponsor Toys R Us has joined forces with Lucas Film ahead of the new highly anticipated CGi animated movie - Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

The partnership begins next weekend with the installation of Countdown Clocks in every Toys R Us store ticking towards the official launch of the latest toy range.  At midnight on the night of July 25th, Toys R Us will open the doors of 12 of its stores (Cribbs Causeway Bristol; Brent Cross, North London; Southampton; Medway; Metro; Oldbury; Warrington; Edinburgh; Croydon; Leeds; Ipswich and Glasgow Helen Street) to a frenzy of midnight madness to launch the largest selection of toys, construction sets, role play accessories and more based on the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie.  Also, Customers will receive a free Star Wars gift when spending £20 or more at the Midnight Event.  [Jedi News will be present at the Brent Cross branch bringing you all of the night's events (hopefully live)].

Mike Coogan, Marketing Director of Toys R Us said “We are thrilled to have been the ultimate Star Wars destination store for over two decades serving generations of fans with the latest Star Wars toys.  With the launch of the new animated movie The Clone Wars, we can continue to offer the largest range of Star Wars products to children and collectors alike”.

“Our partnership with Lucasfilm will bring the latest collection of products to life with our massive displays in all stores and will also give devoted Star Wars fans the first opportunity to purchase toys from the new collection; we are expecting the awesome Millennium Falcon, the updated iconic Star Wars vehicle to be in huge demand at the midnight events”.

We'd like to wish all our American friends a very Happy Independence Day - 4th July - from all the team here at Jedi News.

We'd also like to apologise to all our Canadian friends for forgetting to wish them a very Happy Canada Day (for 1st July).

May the Force be with you!

No sooner had we posted the Millennium Falcon press release when we received another email from Hasbro with details on the Droid Factory...

Hello Star Wars fans!

Hasbro is very excited about its new Star Wars Droid Factory lineup — and from the online buzz the product has been getting since Toy Fair it appears that fans around the galaxy are equally thrilled.  As you may know, being the experienced Jedi consumer that you are, Wal-Mart is currently offering the following Star Wars Droid Factory two-packs as an exclusive at its stores nationwide.  We would love your help getting the word out to fans of this exclusive product offering!

Hasbro have been in touch with the press release for the new Millennium Falcon due out in just a couple of weeks!

Derby's specialist toy shop, Toy Planet, have given us this glimpse at Hasbro's latest Build Your Own Lightsaber - including new pieces, such as Maris Brood-style grips. This product will be available to buy along with other merchandise from The Clone Wars on July 26th.

Forum member dr_bob was interested to know about pricing on the Star Wars Frames set that we reported last week and here's the response he got from the publishers...

Hello,

We are taking pre-orders now and are shipping in February 2009.

Frames pricing is as follows: 

BATCH A (#1 - #250)                $4,000
BATCH B (#251 - #500)            $4,250
BATCH C (#501 - #750)            $4,500
BATCH D (#751 – #1,000)        $4,750
BATCH E (#1,001 – #1,138)      $5,000

So just to clarify, those prices are in thousands, and as dr_bob points out, rather bizarrely, the lower numbers in the run are actually the cheaper ones!

So who's going to be getting one?

Thanks to dr_bob for the heads-up...

We've teamed up with Charles Ross and his management company to give away two free tickets to ANY one of the the 23 locations around the UK!!!

All you have to do to enter is answer this simple question...

What Country is Charles Ross from?

Let us know the answer along with which Venue you'd like tickets for and a daytime telephone number and we'll do the rest.  The competition will close on Friday 4th July 2008 at 14:00 hours UK time.

Read on for a full list of Venues... Tickets are going fast but some are still available...

We're delighted to announce a new team member coming soon here at Jedi News, due on the 17th January 2009.  The new arrival will join Micah in the Jedi Younglings area of the site and we hope in due course, following successful completion of training, they will go on to pen many news items for Jedi News.  Suggestions for names on a 'postcard' please, to the usual e-mail address.

Having recently celebrated five years since the launch of Star Wars Galaxies, LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment announced yesterday the release of an online trading card game.

Now the Galactic Civil War continues on a whole new playing field with the introduction of the Star Wars Galaxies™ Trading Card Game and its first release, Champions of the Force. This first ever online Star Wars® trading card game is available exclusively to Star Wars Galaxies subscribers* as part of their valid subscription to the game.

JediDefender have posted images received from an anonymous source of two forthcoming Comic Packs from The Legacy Collection, Anakin & Durge and Tol Skorr & Asajj Ventress.

Click on the thumbnails above to get a closer look

LEGO have updated their instructions archive with The Clone Wars sets, including new ship The Twilight (above). Just select the 'Star Wars' option from the drop-down list of brands, and scroll down to find the new sets.

The fine folks over at EU Cantina.net have received word from Zee Zee at Star Wars Books that Amazon Canada have listed a new book by Aaron Allston entitled SW Fate of the Jedi 1.

Little else is known other than that it will be 256 pages long and is set to be released in hardback in March of 2009.

Stay tuned for more news!

The official site has had a complete facelift, replacing the previous new-look home page that was launched last year, making it even easier and quicker to find whatever it is you are looking for with the addition of multiple navigation menus on every page.

Take the link below to check it out

The US Toys R Us website has a new Star Wars blog as part of their promotion for The Clone Wars product. The first entry reveals that the LEGO Twilight (7680) and Separatist Spider Droid (7681) will be exclusive to the chain, and should hit on July 26th along with the rest of The Clone Wars LEGO.

Posted over at DVD Times yesterday

Revolver Entertainment have announced the UK Region 2 DVD release of Robot Chicken: Star Wars on 11th August 2008 priced at £12.99. The legendary story of the intergalactic struggle between good vs. evil gets a unique make-over in Robot Chicken: Star Wars with full endorsement from Lucasfilm. The episode combines the satirical touch of the show’s creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich's Robot Chicken, with the unforgettable moments and favourite characters of the Star Wars universe—among them, the creator himself, George Lucas is transformed into a stop-motion animated character which he also voiced. Other noteworthy voice actors include Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Breckin Meyer, Malcolm McDowell, Donald Faison, Hulk Hogan and James Van Der Beek.

Wii Topia have unearthed the US box art for Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels.

Click on the thumbnail above for a larger image

Just before Charles jumped on a plane for his UK tour we caught up with him and asked him a few questions...

JN: What was your inspiration for putting the show together and did you start "from the beginning", or with segments from each movie that you linked
together?
CR: I went with what I could remember off the top of my head. I sat at a computer and tried to write the lines I could remember that told the story in the most expedient fashion.
JN: Alec Guiness wrote in his autobiography that he asked a young boy who had seen 'A New Hope' over a 100 times to promise to stop watching the film. First of all, was that you, and secondly, what do you think is the main reason why people can watch the Star Wars movies over and over without getting bored?
CR: No it wasn't me. I can understand why Alec Guiness said that too. Watching any film over a hundred times is excessive to say the least.
I think that something that we experience during childhood (like Star Wars) can have a lasting affect on us. We reconnect with who we were as children when we re-watch it as adults. There is an unabashed innocent exuberance we have as children that I think we lose in adulthood. I think watching it keeps us young.

Read on for the full Interview...

Charles Ross is on a flight from Canada to the UK as we speak, ready to start his UK tour this Friday night in Norwich at the Playhouse Theatre.  The tour runs for the whole of July and takes in 23 locations around the UK.

We've teamed up with his management company to give two free tickets to ANY one of the the UK tour dates!!!

All you have to do to enter is answer this simple question...

What Country is Charles Ross from?

Let us know the answer along with which Venue you'd like tickets for and a daytime telephone number and we'll do the rest.  The competition will close on Friday 4th July 2008 at 14:00 hours UK time.

Read on for a full list of Venue's... Tickets are going fast but some are still available...

In another article from The New York Times, details have been revealed regarding McDonald's promotion of The Clone Wars

For the first time in the history of the “Star Wars” franchise, McDonald’s is coming along for the ride. Starting Aug. 15, the fast food chain will be offering Clone Wars Happy Meals. Each will come with a specially designed box and one of 18 exclusive toys. Collectors will have to be diligent however, as the promotion lasts only four weeks, and the toys will be available only with the purchase of a Happy Meal.

Also in the report is some further information on Toys R Us' own promotion, which "will last at least through the Christmas shopping season, according to executives at the company".

Follow the link below to read the full article.

The New York Times has an interview with George Lucas - there's little new information on The Clone Wars, but he does talk a bit about his motivation for making the series and how it ended up with Warner Brothers.

Posted over at Gizmodo earlier today:

What are 35,310 Lego Star Wars Clone Troopers mini-figs doing together, apart from planning a planet invasion after breaking out of the giant Lego storage cathedrals? Raising awareness and funds for autism, that's what. So if you wondered where all those helmets at the Lego stormtrooper cloning machine go to, check the gallery for some amazing high resolution shots.

The latest interview is up over at Lightsabre and this week, Mark's been chatting to artist Kevin Graham, whose work has been featured on trading cards from the likes of Topps and Marvel among others.

Follow the link below to read what Kevin had to say about how he works and to get a look at some of his amazing artwork.

Lukasz Mlotkowski of Imperial City Online is next in line for the webmaster interview and coming soon is the first part of their 3-part chat with producer Robert Watts.

The latest update from Nick at ThreeDarthsCollectables has just come in...

Just a quick update on a few new items that are due to arrive in the next week or so. First up is the new 30th Anniversary Collection Large Wing White Tie Fighter. Limited quantities of this great item available. Also the Build a Droid sets will be arriving and these are currently being offered with free postage and packing when ordered.