Watch for that one slowly growing and then gradually fading light in the box.
Star Wars Books Releases ‘Scoundrels’ Tease
If you are like me and are eager to read anything from Timothy Zahn’s upcoming Han Solo novel, you’ll be happy to read this brief excerpt from Scoundrels. Oh Han. You’re always in over your head, you scruffy looking nerf herder, you.
Mike Stackpole On This Week’s Tosche Station Radio
Yes, you read that right. Author Mike Stackpole will be on this week’s podcast! Because of that, we’re looking for your questions for him. Tweet them to us, leave them on our Facebook page, or leave a comment on this post.
We will be recording on Wednesday at 5PM Pacific, so get your questions in before then.
What Attractions Would You Like To See In A Star Wars Theme Park?
Well, Disneyland Paris might be getting a big Star Wars themed expansion. Of course, that’s got us wondering. What kind of rides and attractions would be neat in a Star Wars theme park? We asked on Twitter, and a few people chimed in with some rather fun answers.
If you’ve got an idea, reply to this tweet and we’ll add it to the list. Head to the jump to see what kinds of rides and attractions readers and listeners would love to see at a hypothetical park.
Disneyland Paris to get Star Wars Land?
If true, color me insanely jealous. Disney Paris might not be getting just the Star Tours update, they might be getting a whole Star Wars-themed section put into the park.
The plan is not only to bring Star Tours 2 at DLP Discoveryland but also to transform what is now the Captain EO theatre, the Star Traders shop as well as the Pizza Planet restaurant to create a “Star Wars land” and as you will see on the Google Earth screen capture below they not only have plenty of room backstage to do it but probably will even have enough room in the future to add new rides if necessary. The back of Discoveryland already don’t have the same architecture than the front, so this Star Wars land shouldn’t be a problem, esthetically speaking.
While Nanci is Tosche Station’s resident theme park expert and enthusiast, I know I’d love something like this in the American market. Disney World in Orlando is looking for something to compete against the wildly popular Wizarding World of Harry Potter over at Universal Studios. They’re giving James Cameron’s Avatar a shot at biting into that tie-in market, but I don’t think anyone expects that to be nearly the success Universal’s Hogwarts and Hogsmeade themed area is.
What’s the one thing Disney could throw out there to actually go toe-to-toe with Potter? Star Wars. It certainly would be neat to see Disney’s Hollywood Studios expand a bit to include a larger Galaxy Far, Far Away theme.
Trope Tuesday: Fate Worse than Death
It’s Tuesday! Which means it’s time to dive back into that wonderful time sink full of literary themes and devices, TV Tropes. On the docket this week: Fate Worse than Death
Think death is the cruelest fate? Think again. There are several things much worse: torture, taxes, and tofu, to name but a few. And more often than not, some unlucky soul will experience it. Originally, this phrase meant rape; that’s still one possible meaning. And now there’seven worse than that.
This phrase is usually used in a Just Between You and Me moment by the Evil Overlord as he boasts about the agony-inducing Death Trap that awaits the hero for delaying his plans. It’s also fairly commonly used as a warning to the hero against seeking forbidden power or knowledge, and consequently to foreshadow the particular Karmic Death the villain will suffer because of meddling with the universe’s Cosmic Keystone.
The Galaxy Far, Far Away is practically filled with fates infinitely worse than death. I mean, there’s being digested over the course of a thousand years by a Sarlacc. Forcing to merge and become one with some sort of Eldritch Abomination. Getting frozen alive. Carnal relations with giant bugs. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather take a blaster bolt between the eyes than face down the other horrors the Galaxy seems to have in store for people.
The Avengers Have Finally Assembled!
(In England, anyway.)
The following review, while spoiler-free, has explicit spoilers for Thor as well as potential implied ones for Iron Man 2 and Captain America. That said, if you’re reading this review and haven’t seen those yet, go watch them and then come back here.
The thing about The Avengers—or Avengers Assemble, which only about ten people actually call it—is that it was pretty much guaranteed to be at least decently good. Obviously, until it came out, there was no gauge of exactly how good it was, but like macaroni and cheese or chocolate, for it to actually be bad, something would need to have gone pretty spectacularly wrong.
(And it’s not, strictly speaking, a sequel to anything, so I’m going to avoiding pointing out that, often, things do go spectacularly wrong for sequels.)
RIP, Joel Goldsmith
Joel Goldsmith, son of legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith, died yesterday. Goldsmith was best known for his work as a composer on Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, also composed the music for Call of Duty 3 and collaborated with his father on the score for Star Trek: First Contact. He was 54.
Jason Fry Releases Fifth Batch of ‘EG to Warfare’ Endnotes
Ask any fic writer who has dabbled in Star Wars military fiction and they’ll tell you they have pulled their hair out trying to find out just how the rank system works between various military factions. Thankfully for all of us, Jason Fry and Paul Urquhart managed to answer some of those questions definitively in EG to Warfare.
Paul writes: “This section had to combine the basic four-color rank stripes from Attack of the Clones with the more complex grade system from ‘Guide to the Grand Army of the Republic’ in Star Wars Insider #84, as well as stray references to additional ranks in various novels, and it had to make them all work with the unit structure. I’d have liked to have done something with the unit formations, which real soldiers tell me are unrealistic, but I subtly hinted that the Kaminoans are a bit unrealistic and childlike in their liking for neat, obedient ranks of expendable troops. More on that when we get to the Empire….”
For more information, check out the fifth batch of endnotes on Jason Fry’s Tumblr.
CBS Interviews Joss Whedon
We’re less than a week away from one of the most hotly anticipated films of the year, Marvel’s The Avengers. Ahead of the release, CBS sat down with director and writer Joss Whedon to discuss the film, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Much Ado About Nothing, and his writing career. Oh, and his wife pokes fun at his sheer geek factor.
As superhero movies go, “The Avengers” is super-sized – Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye brought together to save the world.
The cast is filled with big names: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson, to name but a few.
More stars than there are in the firmament, says writer-director Joss Whedon. “It’s the most stars I can remember seeing since, like, one of those ’70s disaster movies.”
So why on Earth did Disney and Marvel Comics put this rumored $220 million movie in the hands of Whedon? He does not, said Blackstone, have a reputation as a “big movie” director.
To watch the interview, head on over to CBS’ Sunday Morning site.