Star Wars: The Clone Wars
WONDERCON '08: THE LUCASFILM PANEL
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by Peter Svensson
The premiere of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars theatrical trailer was the endcap to Lucasfilm's first panel of the convention season. Head of Fan Relations for Lucasfilms, Steve Sansweet, introduced the company's newest plans and upcoming releases. After first reminding fans that they've been proven wrong about there not being any new Star Wars films twice before, he affirmed the theatrical release of a Star Wars animated feature, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Set between Episodes II and III, the feature and upcoming weekly TV series will flesh out the period previously explored by the traditionally animated cartoon shorts.
A short video about the history of organized Star Wars fandom at conventions followed. The clip started with San Diego Comic Con in 1977 and continued through the series of Star Wars: Celebration conventions that have become an annual event for fans, ending with the announcement of Star Wars: Celebration Japan. The convention will occur on July 19th through 21st in a convention center outside of Tokyo. More information will be announced on the Star Wars website.
https://www.starwars.com/
The upcoming video game, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was the next topic of conversation, as game producer Brett Rector entered the stage. After the trailer for the game was played, Rector explained the basic plot. The Force Unleashed casts the player as Darth Vader's apprentice in the time period between Episodes III and IV, charged with exterminating the Jedi and not leaving any witnesses. He also confirmed that the player really does get to use the force to pull a Star Destroyer out of the sky, as portrayed in the trailer. Responding to comments from Sansweet about the extreme depiction of force powers in the game as opposed to the films, he explained that the Clone Wars cartoon by Genndy Tartakovsky was his main inspiration. “It's not breaking continuity, but a new way of looking at force powers.” said Rector.
George Lucas was involved to some extent with the creation of the videogame, giving guidelines for what they needed to include such as comedy and a love interest. According to Rector, the game is at the Alpha stage, having been completed and free of all major bugs. It's set for release summer 2008. The game was delayed due to the need to create new technologies for the new generation videogame systems that the game will be released for. The Wii version will use the Wii Remote for the lightsaber, and the Nunchuck accessory for the other Force powers.
Familiar faces from the films and the expanded universe are set to appear. Confirming rumors stated in the recent Vanity Fair article, Rector explained that players will be able to play Darth Vader in the first level of the game. Vader is said to play like people would expect, not running but walking briskly. Gameplay footage from the XBOX 360 version was shown, which had the player kill a large number of stormtroopers, then face a Jedi Master on the planet Raxus Prime.
On April 29th, the fourth and final volume of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles comes out on DVD. A short trailer was played, after which it was announced that there would be ten DVDs with seven full length episodes and thirty hours of bonus documentaries.
Indiana Jones returns to movie theaters on May 22 with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The film's trailer was shown, followed by a trailer for Lego Indiana Jones: The Video Game.
A short video from Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich was next, interspersing clips from their recent Star Wars themed special on Adult Swim with their answering questions from fans and apologizing for not attending the con. After explaining that they named the show from a Chinese take-out menu as the reasoning for why they chose Robot Chicken instead of Droid Chicken, and commenting on how George Lucas smells good, they said that they probably will include a new Star Wars parody of some sort in their upcoming fourth season.
Then, a short video about the upcoming Star Wars: Clone Wars animated film and series, set to air on Cartoon Network and TNT as a weekly series after a premiere movie shows in theaters August 15th, aired, featuring supervising director Dave Filoni, who explained that fans have been interested in the Clone Wars since their first mention in Star Wars back in 1977. The series is set to further explore the character of Anakin Skywalker, his relationship with mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi, and introduce new character Ashoka Tano, Anakin's padawan apprentice. The young girl Jedi Knight will be introduced in the animated feature.
Producer of the upcoming Star Wars animated feature film and TV series Catherine Winder with Dave Filoni then took the stage, flanked by stormtroopers. Claiming the union cost was exorbitant, the stormtroopers were then ordered to leave by Sansweet. They discussed the series as being what George Lucas wanted to do now that he wasn't constricted by the need to complete the six film series. Each thirty minute episode will tell a complete story, that will over time form a larger story arc. While the panelists couldn't discuss the plot for the film, they did talk about the production's desire to be faithful the original designs for the 1977 film, as well as the work of every designer who followed. George Lucas, who was originally planning to not be very involved with the production meets with the team every week, approving or disapproving of their work as he sees fit. “George will say, 'Guys, what are you doing? That's not Star Wars!' or 'That's Star Wars.” said Filoni.
The panel ended with the trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie.
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