Tag Archives: Star Wars

Tosche Station Radio #15: Writer’s Toolbox with Mike Stackpole

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This week on Tosche Station Radio, we’re excited to feature our first ever interview on the show.

Kicking off the show, we highlight what’s new on the blog. We asked you to tell us what kind of attractions you would like to see at a Star Wars theme park and you delivered some delightful suggestions. New blogger Maggie posted a spoiler-free review of the Avengers, Marvel’s latest entry into their successful film franchise. We’re not jealous that she was in the UK to see it a week early or anything. Meanwhile, we’re holding a contest. We’re sick of Mara’s awful catsuit, so we’re asking costumers and artists to replace it with something more appropriate.

In Fixer’s Flash, Nanci’s been reading a neat young-adult novel called Across the Universe and is looking forward to completing the series. She’s also been rewatching firefly, something Brian ought to do. She also announced that she’s launched a new blog of her own devoted to her writing projects. Go check it out! Brian’s been keeping himself busy with Marvel’s comics and a rewatch of their films leading up to the Avengers. Unfortunately, he’s been too busy with midterms to do much beyond that. Boo midterms.

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Lucasfilm Departure From Lucas Valley Could Hurt For Years To Come

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A few weeks back, Lucasfilm eighty-sixed plans to build a brand new movie studio in Lucas Valley in San Rafael, California. Citing too much pushback from estate homeowners in the region, Lucasfilm abruptly pulled up stakes and shifted their efforts towards finding a new home elsewhere in the state.

The victory for homeowners may ultimately prove to be tragically short-sighted, reports the North Bay Business Journal.

Several professional firms had been contracted to work on Lucas’s Grady Ranch project during its development, providing services such as environmental consulting and architectural planning. Including the indirect economic activity for restaurants and other local businesses, the two-year construction phase was expected to add nearly $134 million per year into the local and regional economy, according to an impact study released last month by the Marin Economic Forum.

That phase was also expected to generate 690 new jobs in Marin County during construction, and nearly $5 million in combined annual state and local tax revenue, according to the study.

Yet with the announcement on April 10 that George Lucas and his real estate company, Skywalker Properties, would no longer proceed with the project, the possibility of direct and indirect economic stimulus for the region’s economy has evaporated.

In efforts to keep a movie studio out of their estate communities, the residents of Lucas Valley may have cost the region countless potential jobs and a staggering influx of hard cash. According to the article, for every 100 employees Lucasfilm brought in, Marin County businesses could have generated as much as $82 million in revenue and $3.8 million in combined state and local taxes.

Via Parker Publicity

Rogue and Wraith Squadron Fanfic-A-Thon

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There hasn’t been an X-Wing novel in thirteen years.

That’s an awful long time for fans of the Rogues and Wraiths who have been wondering what shenanigans they’ve been getting up to while the Jedi have been dealing with the weekly galactic apocalypse of certain doom and terror. While, thankfully, we’re finally getting a new book this August, there’s another way fans have managed to fill the void over the last decade and change: fanfiction.

Over at the Rogue and Wraith Livejournal comm, members have put together a starfighter jockey-themed fanfiction marathon. If you’d like to read some great stories about Wedge, Tycho, Wes, Hobbie, the Rogues, and the Wraiths, head on over and read the entries.

Her Universe Teases New Products

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I hate May the 4th. While I don’t mind puns in general, basing “Star Wars Day” around a lispy pun is lame, IMO. In my personal canon, Star Wars Day will always be May 25, the day the original Star Wars premiered in 1977. (May 14, the Maker’s birthday, is also acceptable.)

However, I will tolerate May the 4th shenanigans for one reason: new products from Her Universe! Ashley Eckstein has been busy teasing several products on Twitter and Facebook, and my wallet is already crying.

Princess Leia hoodie

Day of the Dead t-shirt

Racerback tanks

What Attractions Would You Like To See In A Star Wars Theme Park?

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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.

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Disneyland Paris to get Star Wars Land?

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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.

Via Club Jade

Trope Tuesday: Fate Worse than Death

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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.

Jason Fry Releases Fifth Batch of ‘EG to Warfare’ Endnotes

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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.