An interesting article came out earlier this month in the LA Times, it was a sad, yet interesting perspective on the making of the first two films of the Star Wars franchise. Kurtz, who was the Producer for American Graffiti, A New Hope, and Empire Strikes Back spoke to LA Times reporter Geoff Boucher about his involvment in the first two films, and the reasons he left the franchise after Empire. Oh yeah, and he also wanted to kill Han Solo…

“We had an outline and George changed everything in it,” Kurtz said. “Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason.”

Kurtz’s main gripe against Lucas was he felt that toy sales was driving the franchise rather than rich story telling. Whether we agree with Kurtz or not, it is an interesting perspective that this fan is not used to seeing from someone so close to the projects. I leave it up to you, dear reader, to make your own judgment on this one. If Kurtz had his way the entire Star Wars story as we know it would be drastically different, and we might not have had such cool toys growing up…

You can find the entire article here.

Now we all know that fanboys can get carried away sometimes, but those of us who worship Star Wars at least can do it in creative, un-creepy ways. I mean I challenge you to find home brewed Star Trek content this good.

It’s finally here! Our very first video blog!

In this episode we continue our coverage of Star Wars Celebration V. Dancing Vader with sequined glove makes a return! And we have some exclusive, never-before-seen footage that you can’t miss!

A fun collection of Star Wars and Star Trek motivational posters.

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No… that isn’t Photoshopped. That’s for real! Last weekend the world came together in Florida for the Star Wars Celebration V (isn’t “celebration” waaaay better than “convention”?). The event, which happens around big events for the franchise, was being held in this year of 2010 for the 30th anniversary of the classic The Empire Strikes Back. You can only imagine what kinda of awesomeness took place. I had the privilege of following this once in a lifetime event from my “Star Wars Situation Room”. It was really hard to sort through all the epicness. With costume contests, tattoo booth, and lego everything I was overwhelmed and barely came out alive. Sirius Satellite radio even had an entire station devoted to the event for 4 days. 24/7 nerd interviews, cantina remixes, and under-appreciated (or un-interested) radio dj commentaries kept the downtime (my commute to work) manageable.

Even though it wasn’t the main attraction (for most), the event also highlighted the end of one of star wars most prized treasures. Although not contributing to any major part of the rebellion, captain RX-24 (aka Rex) had to turn in his wings. If you don’t know who that is, *sigh* see the video below of his final voyage. What will Rex do now? I don’t know, but we’ll surely be watching for him here at SW-v-ST. I just pray it isn’t a short spot on TMZ.

So there is only one more piece of news coming from the celebration (not convention). But it’s way too megatron for this and deserves its own post. Come back for more later this week as we continually cover Star Wars Celebration V from the PAST!!

Those affable modern Magellans* over at TomTom have released their Star Wars-themed voice packs for all TomTom products (jesusPhone** excluded), further proving that not all who wander are lost, but some who are lost prefer to have their directions read to them by voice impersonations of a puppet, a robot, a robot-man, or of Harrison Ford.

Available packages include, for those who didn’t get my oblique references above***, Yoda, Darth Vader, C-3PO, and Han Solo. Oh, speaking of Han (and I’m looking at you, TomTom), I question the wisdom of getting driving directions from a guy who thinks a parsec is a unit of time…

There’s more after the break, so you should click it (or ticket).**** (continue reading…)

star wars vs. star trek // who will kiss my shiny metal ass?

Welcome back, dear readers! After the first installment of our musical match-up, the force was trailing the Federation, 48.25 to 53. However, then the ruthlessly lovely Julia Sherred of Geeky Pleasures fame dropped some knowledge in the comments section. To bring us up to speed, Miss Jules pointed me in the direction of Fall On Your Sword’s “Shatner of the Mount,” which deserves an embedded video for sure (after the jump): (continue reading…)