Search
Latest News
Images
Features
Multimedia
Comlinks

Ian McDiarmid at Celebration Europe!
Tony Award-winning actor Ian McDiarmid, whose iconic portrayal of Senator Palpatine and the Emperor in the Star Wars Saga raised suave villainy to a new level, will make a rare public appearance at Star Wars Celebration Europe on Friday, July 13 to help commemorate the Saga's 30th anniversary.

McDiarmid will be a special guest of Lucasfilm Ltd. and event organizer Cards Inc. during the Opening Ceremonies at ExCeL London. The Opening Ceremonies will be hosted by Steve Sansweet, head of fan relations for Lucasfilm Ltd., and will include a special one-time-only screening of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.

Admission to the Opening Ceremonies, scheduled for 6:30 pm on the grounds just west of the ExCeL Center, is included in the cost of a three-day or a Friday pass to Star Wars Celebration Europe, the biggest Star Wars party Europe has ever seen, and the first official Star Wars event to be held outside of the U.S.

Auctioning off the Galaxy...For a Great Cause!
From action figures to ceramic money boxes, for 30 years an endless variety of Star Wars branded fun has been available to fans. But vintage items are becoming harder and harder to find.

Through the generosity of the vaunted Lucas Licensing Archives, Celebration Europe will be the site of a live charity auction that will include rare, classic items--many in mint to near-mint condition.

The Live Auction, scheduled for Sunday, July 15 from 2:00 -- 4:00 pm on the Platinum Stage, will offer a rare opportunity to fill in collections--or start new ones--of cool, vintage items. Looking for Power of the Force or Animated Droids & Ewoks figures or vehicles? How about "minty" Radio-Controlled Jawa Sandcrawlers or JC Penney Sonic-Controlled Landspeeders from the original Star Wars era?

Why pay online auction prices? Here's your opportunity to "steal" a rare item at a very low price and benefit a wonderful cause, the Make-A-Wish Foundation®, with which Lucasfilm Ltd. -- and the worldwide 501st Legion -- has had a long relationship.

Star Wars Tattoo Competition
Nothing expresses dedication to the Star Wars universe quite like a beautifully-rendered Star Wars tattoo. Shane Turgeon, host of the Star Wars Tattoos and Toys site, will exhibit fantastic tattoo art on Level Two of the Platinum Suite, where he will also accept registrations for the Star Wars Tattoo competition. The competition is scheduled for 3:30 -- 5:00 pm on the Platinum Stage.

Turgeon, who has some very impressive Star Wars ink himself, is challenging tattooed fans in Europe to make this show even better and more extensive than the outstanding shows from Celebrations III and IV in the U.S.

He will also be overseeing the fantastic Illustrated Trooper, a life-sized set of stormtrooper armor that will be custom tattooed by a selection of artists to create a one-of-a-kind art piece over the course of the weekend.

For more information about Celebration Europe, visit the official website at http://www.celebrationeurope.com.

Star Wars Galaxies-Path to the Force-Episode 192

Be sure to join us next week for the one-hundred and ninety-third episode of Star Wars Galaxies-Path to the Force. Then join us every week as we continue to follow the adventures of the Wookiee E'nac from the Star Wars Galaxies videogame in the form of Gamics!

"During the European Digital Cinema and HDTV conference (TEA07) celebrated this weekend in Zaragoza, Spain, Rick McCallum received the TEA Cinema Community award and gave several talks about the future of Digital Cinema. We, the Spanish Garrison of the 501st Legion were invited there to create a more galactic ambient in the conference.

The biggest event of the weekend was today, Sunday the 1st, when the audience had the opportunity of watching footage of the 3D version of Star Wars!!! They showed the first few minutes of Episode IV: A New Hope, including the initial text crawl and most of the assault on the Tantive. It was followed by a few scenes of the Millennium Falcon and part of the Coruscant speeder chase sequence of Episode II. It was just amazing. It was like being in the corridors of the Tantive, with laser beams flying around you, like watching the movie for the first time
again.

The audience went just crazy, everyone was screaming of joy and clapping constantly with every sequence. If just a few minutes is like this, watching a whole movie can be absolutely awesome. After the projection, Rick McCallum offered a Q&A session where he talked about the process of "dimensioning" a 2D movie, and revealed some very interesting facts. They are trying to refine the process to make it faster and cheaper, so they can convert to 3D all the 6 Star Wars Movies by 2009. He also said that Peter Jackson wants to convert the Lord of the Rings trilogy and James Cameron wants to do the same with the Terminator trilogy and Titanic. They are doing this to promote the introduction of Digital and 3D technologies to the cinema theatre owners, so they upgrade their systems and make possible the creation of new 3D movies designed as such rather than converting existing 2D flicks."

Two weeks ago I saw the making of the International Space station in the new IMAX 3D. It was purely awesome! They did not use the old fashioned red and blue lenses which makes everything look red and blue. The glasses were more like sunglasses which created very clear images, so realistic that my 5 and 3 year olds kept grabbing into the air for objects that were not there. If Star Wars is going to be anything like that, it will be a whole new world for us to explore all over again. I can't wait!

Oh, and if you happen to have a pair of those red-blue 3D glasses lying about, click on the picture above to see a 3-D version of the Darth Vader graphic! Enjoy!

Star Wars Galaxies-Path to the Force-Episode 191

Be sure to check back later this week for the one-hundred and ninety-second episode of Star Wars Galaxies-Path to the Force. Then join us every week as we continue to follow the adventures of the Wookiee E'nac from the Star Wars Galaxies videogame in the form of Gamics!