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Archived News
December 2003
Week 3
Thursday December 18,
2003
What can be done to
encourage stores... |
This report comes from the Official
Star Wars Site!
Answered by: Steve Sansweet
What
can be done to encourage stores to stock their shelves with new Star
Wars materials? I keep finding the same old stuff every time I
go!
That's a constant
frustration... and, believe it or not, it has been off and on since
1978, when the first action figures hit the shelves! If anything,
the perception seems to have gotten worse because news travels
quicker. That is, if you see photos of figures in the works on the
web or in a toy magazine, you want to rush down to the big-box store
and scoop 'em up. The heck with the fine print that notes
"shipping this fall."
And the key word is
"shipping," because once Star Wars toys and other
products leave the warehouses of Hasbro and other licensees, they
take different kinds of paths to the shelves, determined by
individual retailers. Some are amazingly quick, and don't like items
sitting on their shelves for more than a few weeks; other are
frustratingly slow and have year-old stock clogging the pegs
constantly. Manufacturers try to deal with that sometimes by
changing out old stock, or encouraging sales.
What to do? You can
go to the managers of your favorite stores and tell them you'd be
spending a lot more on Star Wars if they only had the latest
items in their stores, just like their competitors a state away, as
shown by a report on your favorite web site.
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Posted:
by Jedi
Power
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Wednesday December 17,
2003
Battle Surgeons |
The
Official Star Wars Site has provided a look at a
new Clone Wars book that is coming out in July 2004. The Clone Wars
that swept across the galaxy in the twilight years of the Republic
engulfed more than Jedi Knights, clone troopers and droid soldiers.
On the fierce battlefields of Drongar, a tiny med unit tends to
those wounded from the ceaseless combat waged on the jungle world
for control of a priceless native plant.
In the pages of this forthcoming Clone Wars novel, readers will
meet a surgeon that cloaks his despair with sardonic wit; another
who weathers the death and misery of Drongar by making beautiful
music; a compassionate nurse with her heart in her work and her eye
on a doctor; and a Jedi Padawan on a healing mission without her
Master.
I don't know about you, but I think this book will not be very
good. I am not sure how much Star Wars fans are going to want to see
people in a soap opera type of situation as this book seems to
portray. I won't be buying it.
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Posted:
by Jedi
Power
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Tuesday December 16,
2003
Who do you think... |
This report comes from the Official
Star Wars Site!
Answered by: Nick Gillard
Who
do you think has been Hollywood's best swordsman?
I think after Episode III, it will be Hayden
Christensen.
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Posted:
by Jedi
Power
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Monday December 15,
2003
Homing Beacon #100 |
The latest Homing Beacon has arrived, and it is the 100th issue!
Today we get to talk about the Episode III novelization. October 1st
was already was a significant date on author Matthew Stover's
calendar, but this year had an added surprise. "Shelly Shapiro
[from Del Rey Books] actually called me on my anniversary, October
1st, to find out if I was interested in writing the Episode III
book. Which I responded, of course, I'm interested!"
Stover joins the ranks of such bestselling authors as R.A. Salvatore
and Terry Brooks in adapting a Star Wars screenplay into a novel.
What makes the prequel adaptations notably different from the
novelizations of the original trilogy is the opportunity to expand
on the stories. The novels for Episode IV, V, and VI do not tread
far what's seen on screen. The prequel tales, conversely, include
several original scenes created specifically to expand and enrich
the film's story.
As he gears up to write the adaptation, Stover has already read the
Episode III script and has positive words to share. "I've never
done an adaptation before, so I don't know what kind of pitfalls may
be awaiting me, but on this end, so far, it looks like it's going to
be a great experience. From having read the script, it looks to me
like the story is so strong, I don't really anticipate a lot of
difficulty."
Though this is his first adaptation, Stover has already penned two
Star Wars novels. His first was Traitor, a standalone paperback in
the epic New Jedi Order series notable for its unconventional
storytelling techniques and controversial examinations of the Force.
The second book, Shatterpoint, was a hardcover novel focusing on
Mace Windu's return to his homeworld during the Clone Wars. It too
was unique for a Star Wars novel in its gritty depiction of the
horrors of war.
"Shatterpoint gave me an opportunity to do a lot of
research," says Stover. "Doing that novel in particular
made me feel very comfortable in the Star Wars universe. Traitor was
a very specialized piece of work. It was a very, very specific
incident in The New Jedi Order. Pretty much all of the heavy lifting
had been done for me already in the previous books. Traitor was an
extraordinary opportunity to write a book where I didn't have to do
any backstory at all, because that was all done for me."
Both books touch on the dark side of the Force and offer the inner
thoughts and perspectives of prominent Jedi characters. These
qualities are expected in the Episode III adaptation. "I think
that Lucasfilm and Del Rey feel I have a certain insight into the
dark side. That is, after all, what I was writing about in both of
my previous Star Wars books," says Stover. "Also, this is
going to be action packed, and I think they like the way I do my
action scenes."
Early in 2004, Stover will travel to Skywalker Ranch to meet with
George Lucas, who is currently busy overseeing the editing of the
first cut of the film. "The next step for me now is meeting
with Mr. Lucas and finding out the things that he wants to emphasize
about the story, and the tone that he wants it to take," he
says. "I have some ideas of what I would like to do, but of
course, all final decisions are entirely up to him."
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Posted:
by Jedi
Power
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