NEW BLU-RAY DELETED SCENE CLIP: CHASM CLASH!

Another welcome little deleted scene snippet from the upcoming Blu-rays has turned up online: this time its a slightly different version of the chasm battle from STAR WARS (Episode IV), incorporating the famous, for years debated, was it or wasn't it filmed moment in which Luke throws the grappling hook and misses the first time around.

Here it is:  STAR WARS Blu-Ray New Deleted Scene‬‏ - YouTube

We're sure there will be more hotly debated scenes like this to come on those shiny discs!!

UPDATE 2/8/2011: Turns out it was all just a clever hoax from the YOUTUBE poster. But, I'm sure you'll agree a nicely done one at that!

Also, here's an apparent Russian trailer for the Blu-rays. We don't think it's the real deal, though it's well put together: ‪Star Wars Blu Ray HD [Russian]‬‏ - YouTube

SCENES WE WANT ON BLU-RAY 5: REBEL INFILTRATION!

General Han Solo and Princess Leia, with Chewbacca and their Rebel Commando squad, continue their uneasy journey into the dark and dangerous corridors of the Imperial energy shield bunker so as to find and neutralise its command and control area for the incoming "surprise" fighter attack on the Death Star II.

This action sequence, which involves the group accidentally running into a Stormtrooper patrol and getting into a firefight, is probably one of the most desired deleted scenes from RETURN OF THE JEDI, after the infamous Tatooine Sandstorm, that I hope will be included on the Blu-rays. So far, those talented people at ORIGINAL TRILOGY.COM have found a foreign Blu-ray/DVD classifications source (FSK - FSK Suchergebnis) confirming that the deleted/extended scenes for both trilogies will have a running time of up to 45 minutes each, so it looks like we'll get a worthy selection of material to enjoy...

Here's an early look at the box sets from a LUCASFILM STAR WARS MEDIA DAY press event last week: A Destiny Revealed: Star Wars Media Day Brings Blu-ray and More to New York City: BigPictureBigSound

SATURDAY NIGHT LEIA!

As part of their SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE 70's weekend, SKY ARTS Channel One HD in the UK are showing tomorrow night (Sunday) at 9.10pm the famous 1978 Carrie Fisher edition (originally airing in the US, I believe, a week prior to another STAR WARS comedy event: THE HOLIDAY SPECIAL!), which saw her in character as Princess Leia for several classic sequences/sketches (including her opening audience monologue pictured above) with the likes of comedy greats like Bill Murray and the late Gilda Radner.

Though it's been commercially available on Region One DVD as part of an expensive series box set, it will finally be nice to see the programme in the best quality possible on regular TV, and, if anyone out there can correct me on this please get in touch, I don't recall that episode actually being shown by the UK's ITV channel when it had seventies repeats very late at night in the early eighties...

CLASSIC IMAGE: REBEL ESCAPE- STAGE ONE

As the Imperial Death Fleet begins to blockade their Rebel hideaway on the planet Hoth, Princess Leia Organa and General Rieekan, working quickly within their command centre: Echo Base, initiate a daring escape plan for their forces.

A FINE VINTAGE: CARRIE FISHER'S "WISHFUL DRINKING"!

The best and worst of Carrie Fisher. It can only be WISHFUL DRINKING. Image: HBO.

Don't forget, in the UK tonight on SKY ATLANTIC HD at 10.15pm is the first screening of Carrie Fisher's hilarious HBO show of her acclaimed stage tour/book: WISHFUL DRINKING.

Check out the KOOL TV review here: KOOL TV: LIFE WITH LEIA! CARRIE FISHER'S "WISHFUL DRINKING"

CLASSIC IMAGE: HIGH SPIRITED REBELS!

Overjoyed with their first gargantuan success against the Empire: the destruction of the fearsome Death Star, our trio of heroes-Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Prncess Leia, followed close behind by Chewbacca- depart the fighter bay hanger of the Massassi Temple on Yavin IV, and get ready to par-ty!

CARRIE FISHER: MEMOIRS OF A HOLLYWOOD SURVIVOR IN "WISHFUL DRINKING'!

Carrie Fisher's acclaimed one-woman stage show about her life and family, through good times and bad, life affirming and disturbing in equal measure, and often presented with the blissful psychoanalytic raw-ness of a hunters blade: WISHFUL DRINKING, also based on her equally successful, and critically loved book, is coming to the UK's SKY ATLANTIC HD channel on Thursday April 21st 9pm, and will surely prove a real, and very adult, comedic hoot to anyone already within her legion of worldwide fans and to those who haven't yet experienced the wit and darkly absurd wisdom of Carrie's brilliant comedic flair. Oh, and I believe STAR WARS gets a little mention in there as well. She was in that, y'know...

CLASSIC IMAGE: HAMILL, FORD, FISHER - TORONTO JUNE 16TH, 1977

A very rare signing of our Clsssic Trilogy actors for Toronto STAR WARS fans in 1977. All images: Charles McKee. 

Regular AFICIONADO contributor Chris Baker has kindly sent me another great piece of rare Classic Trilogy nostalgia, and it’s an amazing find I wasn’t previously aware of, and one that must be shared…

Here’s what Chris said….

"A friend named AJ just picked this up off of EBay. Here is what he had to say about it (w/ the images he was able to score from the event). Not sure if this store is still in existence but I do know Yonge Street (in Toronto) well .. If I hadn't only been 7 at the time of this little gathering I likely would have been there.

Here is to missed opportunities, can u imagine all three of them at one sitting ..!”

 

“I just scored this off eBay, and I am super psyched. It's a vintage Marvel comic book (Issue #3) signed by Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford... without a doubt the best examples of their vintage signatures in my collection:

Back in June of 1977, 20th Century Fox agreed to have a book signing at a store in Toronto to promote the upcoming release of Star Wars. Bakka books (May 1972 -1982) was Toronto's biggest Sci-Fi bookstore at the time, and Hamill, Ford and Fisher made a fairly rare appearance. This comic was signed that day. I found some great pics from the signing... how cool would it have been to be there!!!!! Check 'em out:”

The collection is from the store's owner, Charles McKee (who we think is the guy wearing the STAR WARS t-shirt in the corner), who has a FACEBOOK page for the life and toimes of his popuar shop: You will have to log in and "like" the pictures, and if you scroll back to June 6th of last year (in the news feed) there are some other 'SW' auto. party related pics

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=20685070776

  

And here is a link to a slideshow of the images:

http://www.charlesmckeebooks.com/bakka/slideshows/catmags/BakkaMagazine-No6-Fall1977.pdf

One guy even posts on the Bakka FB wall ... "I know I was there. I even remember running four blocks to get American cigarettes for Harrison Ford. I guess all the photos were taken while I was off doing that" (lol)

Thanks to Chris, his friend AJ, and, most importantly, Charles McKee, for the info and great images...

CLASSIC IMAGE: THE THREE FACES OF PRINCESS LEIA

Here's a nice composite image that is on and off available from OFFICIALPIX, showing Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia Organa in her acting and character journey across all three films, from captured but resolutely fiesty Princess in A NEW HOPE to lethal Hutt killer, maturing Rebel hero and Jedi-to-be in RETURN OF THE JEDI. Thirty four years on, both Fisher and Leia remain great screen icons for our time...

CANDID CARRIE!

Carrie Fisher. Image: CarrieFisher.com

A good friend/contributor to STAR WARS AFICIONADO, Robin Haggett has kindly sent me a link to a fun Carrie Fisher interview from the UK's CLIVE JAMES ON TV show for the BBC circa 1992 which he's put on YOUTUBE. There's no talk of STAR WARS, bar a mention in the introduction, but the writer/actress looks great and is on fine witty form, and its worth a look.

Cheers, Robin!

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tEQwHVS0ls

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CARRIE FISHER!

Still the greatest as the Stormtrooper blasting, Rebel leading, Scoundrel loving, Wookiee hugging, medal giving, bun wearing, Bikini stunning babe of the Original STAR WARS saga.

With thanks to Chris Baker for the image.

"THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK" - AN IMAGE EXTRAVAGANZA

Left to right: Irvin Kershner watches Ford, Fisher and Billy Dee Williams in a break before filming our heroes infamous dinner with Darth Vader. One of many great rare images in THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK book, out now in the UK from AURUM PRESS.

VANITY FAIR have a lovely picture gallery of rare colour and B/W behind the scenes images from the new THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK book by J. W. Rinzler, which is in bookstores now.

Check out the gallery (which includes the great above image) here:

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/features/2010/10/the-making-of-the-empire-strikes-back-201010?currentPage=10

POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE (OF HOTH)

On the Hoth set at ELSTREE, Carrie Fisher plays with a more normal type of white powder!

Classic Carrie Fisher talks about being "out there" on the 1979 set of EMPIRE:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/3175018/Carrie-Fisher-I-did-cocaine-on-The-Empire-Strikes-Back.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1319676/Carrie-Fishers-drug-shame-I-did-cocaine-set-Empire-Strikes-Back.html

CLASSIC IMAGE: GOODBYE, HAN SOLO!

Here's another great image from EMPIRE-this one showing the terrible time Chewbacca and Princess Leia have whilst watching Han Solo become carbonised. Its an evocative image-and one not always seen in its entirety (often cropped to focus just on Leia and Chewie when used in magazines during the period of EMPIRE's 1980 theatrical release)- and shows what an incredible set the Carbon Freezing chamber was during the filming in the summer of 1979-full of atmosphere, heat and steam, brilliantly lit by the UK lighting team and filmed with strong, but beautifully haunting cinematography by Peter Suschitzky.

CLASSIC IMAGE: DIA - NOGA ATTACK!

Luke almost becomes dinner for a tentacled beastie in this classic scene in the Death Star's trash compactor. Filmed in the UK's long hot summer of 1976 at ELSTREE, all of the principal actors had to wear diving suits under their costumes, whilst Chewbacca's fur began to smell very badly amongst the gunge. Mark Hamill also received a bad eye infection that lasted for a while, where he was unable to film certain close-up shots required in his to follow shooting of his X-wing fighter cockpit scenes. The Dia-noga creature itself was not the original design-which was abandoned for looking terrible (do any still photos exist of it?)- and a solitary tentacle was created instead as a replacement. The creature was later embellished with a stop-motion eye, operated by Phil Tippett, in post-production.

Despite all the problems, though, the scene is still quite rightly regarded as a classic.

CELEBRATION V: STAND OUT MOMENTS OF MIRTH AND MADNESS!

You know you're going to a STAR WARS convention when you travel down a highway named "Goldenrod Road"!

A fan asking Carrie Fisher to marry him during her autograph signing! She politely turned him down.

The shocked looks on the faces of the OFFICIALPIX's coupons booth staff as the sound of a huge STAR WARS sound effects explosion rocked the main hall- I still have no idea exactly where that sound came from!

A young fan trying to get Dave Filoni to reveal more about the new season of THE CLONE WARS and telling him, "Don't hide what's inside!" That line brought the house down and made Filoni a quivering wreck- so much so that he joked that the kids always asked the most difficult questions and that, from now on, like a theme park roller coaster ride, there should be a height requirement for anyone wanting to enter the questions area!

The STAR WARS commitment booth and speed dating areas. And the Slave Leia belly dancing lessons on the Digital Stage. Nuff said!

Mark Hamill returning back to the autograph line and stopping for a photo to be taken by some kids in the VIP line. Instead of just smiling, Hamill pulled a gurney face at them and made the kids laugh, saying "How's that for your profile picture!"

Lucas attending the RAIDERS OF THE LOST TEMPLE OF DOOM show at DISNEY FILM STUDIOS and lightsaber duelling with Mickey Mouse.

Myself getting lost in the empty convention centre at 12.30 at night after a digital film screening, but hearing James Arnold Taylor's soothing pre-recorded words as Obi-Wan over the tannoy system telling me where to go! Very surreal.

Ashley Eckstein being freaked out one late night (after all her hard work on her new clothes range) outside the convention centre car park-not by the sight of me and two other fans by her car wanting to talk and say hello to her, but by a large spider on her car door. She hates spiders!

James Arnold Taylor's brilliant vocal abilities tested to their whirling dervish limit, and to great crowd pleasing success, in THE CLONE WARS VOICE ACTORS PANEL.

Waving hello to Matthew Hood in the hotel lobby one evening and getting a return wave back! Guests there also included Peter Mayhew, Kyle Newman and Jaime King (who looked lovely wearing her silver sequined top at breakfast one morning, but almost blinded me with its brightness at the same time!). And I saw FAMILY GUY's Seth MacFarlane looking very cool and relaxed in the car park, too!

Kudos to the sweet little girl who, despite being totally overwhelmed, was able to ask her heart-throb, Matt Lanter, a question about Anakin Skywalker during the CLONE WARS VOICE ACTORS PANEL. Bless!

A fan in the main hall actually stopping me - this really happened, no lie!- and asking if I was an actor in a STAR WARS film! Believe me, I would have loved to have said, "Yes, I was. I played young Ben Kenobi!"

Above art: one of the jolly posters for Celebration V in Orlando, by Randy Martinez.

CELEBRATION V: THINGS WE LEARNED...

Originally, THE CLONE WARS Supervising Director Dave Filoni had planned that the previous 2003 and 2005 CARTOON NETWORK CLONE WARS animated character of Durge was to have returned and been a major enemy in Season One and Two, but instead George Lucas wanted to have a new and different villain, and introduced the cooler bounty hunter, Cad Bane, instead.

Filoni has prepared a time line for the events of THE CLONE WARS, incorporating events from the previous CARTOON NETWORK animated seasons, which will eventually be released to fans.

THE CLONE WARS voice actors were often very surprised at some of the things they signed for fans at CV. There were limited edition cast and crew pieces handed to them that they had actually never received or knew of, and that they now really wanted to have! Some members of the cast had not even seen the UK theatrical release posters for the one and only (at least so far) animated movie! Additionally, all of the actors love their characters, and some would love to contribute more dialogue and story material for the series, but at the end of the day its Lucas's universe and he decides the ultimate direction of story and characters in the lead up to events in EPISODE III.

Ben Burtt worked on the sound design for the original ALIEN, directed by Ridley Scott. He recalled that he met Scott in a limo one late night in Los Angeles-it was the only time the two could meet then-to discuss the creation of a terrifying and highly disturbing noise for the alien space ships distress call which is picked up by the human crew of the Nostromo. At the end of the day, despite lots of work, the sound effect was not considered successful by either Burtt or Ridley Scott and, by that time of its completion, the scene where the transmission is played would be cut from the film (though the completed sequence is on the deleted scenes of the DVD release, and I personally think its a pretty good sound!).

The "Wilhelm" scream, as far as Ben Burtt can track it down, may have come from an actor from an old-time WARNER BROTHERS adventure film, whose character is attacked and eaten by an Alligator.

As has been previously established, the sound of the Garindan snitch at Mos Eisley for STAR WARS was the voice of John Wayne speeded up. At the time in 1976, Ben Burtt had access to a movie studio sound vault and managed to sneak his voice from one of these films into the first movie.

When Sound Designer Matthew Wood had completed his work on REVENGE OF THE SITH, Lucas and Producer Rick McCallum asked him to stay on with his STAR WARS duties for what was originally planned as eight test episodes of what would become STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS.

Carrie Fisher revealed that her Bounty Hunter characters of Boushh had no name when she was filming JEDI. In all likelihood the name was given for the PALITOY/KENNER toy figure release in 1983.

Apart from the white droid later known as CZ-3, Anthony Daniels did not play any other background droids in the original STAR WARS filming of 1976.

Ben Burtt revealed that the sound of the Talz creature heard in the Mos Eisley cantina for STAR WARS was originally planned for the treadwell droid that breaks down in the first introduction to Luke Skywalker, in the Tatooine desert, for STAR WARS.

At THE MAIN EVENT, Lucas confirmed that Darth Sidious did indeed kill his master Darth Plagueis prior to the events of EPISODE ONE, which the character, as ever brilliantly played by Ian McDiarmid, alluded to Anakin Skywalker during the opera scene of REVENGE OF THE SITH.

The title of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK was thought up by Gary Kurtz during an Italian press conference for STAR WARS. He told the press then that STAR WARS II would have a B-movie esque- title in homage to that genre, and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK simply rolled out of his mind. The title stuck-at the time, Ben Burtt was surprised at the choice.

The most difficult sound design that Ben Burtt ever undertook for any of the STAR WARS films is still Artoo Detoo-due to the worries in providing a unique sound effects voice for the character that audiences would be able to relate to. It was a task that took a long time-over six months-to achieve successfully. He still has many sound effects recorded for the original STAR WARS from 1976/77 that haven't been used, that are in his personal archives and at LUCASFILM, which may one day be used elsewhere.

Presumably due to Anthony Daniels not being available for a short period, Tom Kane was the voice of Threepio for a little bit of one of the episodes of the CARTOON NETWORK animated micro-series in 2003.

John Morton (who played Rebel pilot Dack and, for one scene only, Boba Fett in EMPIRE) no longer acts-instead he works in a position of organisational work linked to US Homeland Security. He still visits the UK from time to time and is a keen sports rowing expert and aficionado. He worked on EMPIRE for several months at ELSTREE (including the scene of the assembled pilots seen with Princess Leia in the hangar bay) and enjoyed it. His filming work was done in between bouts of shooting for SUPERMAN II-where he played the US Astronaut inside the Earth lunar vehicle destroyed by the Kryptonian super villains-of which the first batch was shot by director Richard Donner, and the next, a year later, was by replacement director Richard Lester.

Talking to dealers at the event, it looks like there will be very little merchandise or celebrations for STAR WARS Thirty-fifth anniversary in 2012, with the next Celebration geared for THE CLONE WARS and, most likely, the Thirtieth Anniversary of RETURN OF THE JEDI in 2013.

CELEBRATION V: CHEERS and JEERS!

Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill make guest appearances at George Lucas's THE MAIN EVENT talk. Image: STARWARS.COM

And so the pilgrimage began again, as 40,000 STAR WARS fans across the world travelled to LUCASFILM's version of Mecca in Orlando, Florida, for the biggest, greatest STAR WARS Celebration  convention of them all, honouring the upcoming third season of THE CLONE WARS and the Thirtieth Anniversary of the much beloved THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

The very fine line between severe commercial over-exploitation and creative fulfilment, combined with personal and professional enjoyment delivered to the fans by LUCASFILM (working in tandem with its many affiliates) was just about kept in balance over the four days, thanks primarily to the warmth and camaraderie shown by the actors and creative personnel from THE CLONE WARS, alongside the charm and mighty presences of George Lucas and Original Trilogy veterans Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher (pictured above at THE MAIN EVENT talk).


Overall, the event was great fun. Though despite many STAR WARS related pleasures personally achieved to my great satisfaction at CV, there was still so much to see and do that I was very much aware, as from previous Celebration experiences, that I couldn't possibly see and witness everything, and yet I really wanted to!! With these feelings of need running rampant in my mind, do these Celebrations actually have the power to turn me over to the Dark Side in my quest and power lust for everything convention-related??!!
Will I be the next Anakin Skywalker, and will my next generation be the only chance of redeeming me? "Noooooooo!"

As usual, here are my convention cheers and jeers...

Thats no moon, its a space station balloon! All CV images: Curtis Reynolds.

CHEERS to the ORANGE COUNTY CONVENTION CENTRE-an excellent venue to host Celebration V. And CHEERS to LUCASFILM and REED for a mostly well organised and efficiently run event, far bigger than ever before. But JEERS to LUCASFILM and REED for deliberately placing the event in the middle of the August holiday tourist season, so as to make, in the nicest way possible, maximum profit and exploitation of both the fans and the holiday makers (who would go to the event for a day or two with their families out of interest and curiosity). And JEERS to them for putting it in August in 107 degrees heat every day when most of the fans didn't have cars and had to walk everywhere. So far, I have five painful blisters and am still suffering from heat exhaustion! Next time its in Florida, in the interest of STAR WARS fans health and happiness, please don't put it on in Summer!

JEERS to DISNEY for their greedy and sneakily raised theme park admission prices the week before CV started. They knew we'd all want to see the INDY STUNT SHOW and STAR TOURS one last time, and we had to pay even more for that privilege!

CHEERS to George Lucas and Jon Stewart for THE MAIN EVENT talk. Despite die-hard fans listening to, and being upset, by what they believed was history re-visionism being discussed by the STAR WARS creator, it was nice to see George Lucas look so relaxed and at peace with both the audience and his STAR WARS universe during the one hour talk (which also basically acted as a blatant plug, in a crowd pleasing way, for THE CLONE WARS and the Blu-rays!).

CHEERS to Jon Stewart for proving that he is a knowledgeable STAR WARS fan and knew his stuff! I hope he enjoys his personalised HASBRO Stormtrooper figure, whether it has a bearded face or not!

Republic Commandos at the Endor Bunker recreation!

CHEERS for the incredible digital projection screenings of the six STAR WARS films. Of the films I saw, ATTACK OF THE CLONES was the stand-out visually in its pure digital state, whilst STAR WARS, EMPIRE and JEDI's LOWRY 2004 re-mastered copies looked superb on the big screen. Why, oh why, are these films not being shown on the big screen worldwide more often. The screenings were all pretty busy audience wise, especially EMPIRE, whose anniversary screening was a fitting tribute.

JEERS for the digital projection screening of THE PHANTOM MENACE. The projector/copy screening continually broke down, and numerous times STARWARS.COM's Pablo Hidalgo had to come into the audience and entertain the crowds whilst the faults were being sorted out. Hidalgo did a good job, and the crowds were happy if a little frustrated, but when it broke down one further time, a new copy of the film, which wasn't quite as good-and certainly bit darker in picture quality places- worked fine. One thing's for sure, when released on Blu-ray, the extended DVD release version of THE PHANTOM MENACE, with its new cgi Yoda scenes, will need a lot of re-mastering work picture-wise to get it in line with the digital visual beauty of ATTACK and SITH.

JEERS to the STAR WARS fans who nastily booed the inclusion of Hayden Christensen's face over Sebastian Shaw's body as Anakin at the end of the revised 2004 DVD print of JEDI, which was shown in the Digital Theatre. Poor old Hayden doesn't deserve that. Whether we like it or not, in all likelihood this version of JEDI is the one we're all going to have to live with for the upcoming Blu-ray release!

AFICIONADO contributor Curtis Reynolds mingles with the Slave Leia's. Its a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it!

CHEERS to Anthony Daniels and Jay Laga'aia for coming into the immense fan entry lines and saying hello on Day Two of the event.

JEERS to Anthony Daniels for periods of unpleasantness and superior aloofness he showed to some of the American fans that lined up to meet him inside his autograph tent. Though he was entertaining and informative with/to the fans in his talk and in walking the convention floor, his treatment of some of them in his little signing arena was just plain rude at times, and it upset me as a fellow Brit.

A brilliant General Grievous fan costume.

CHEERS to Dave Filoni for all his work in the talks and panels. I'm totally jealous of his position as Supervising Director of THE CLONE WARS but that doesn't hinder my beliefs that he is the best man for the job-the perfect hybrid of fan and creative talent that helps George Lucas bring the series to life. You couldn't get a better champion for the saga and its viewers and he was terrific to hear and see out and about, full of wit and good humour, and a love of STAR WARS that helps give the behind the scenes of LUCASFILM, often feeling to me as being too cold and shut off in secrecy, a bit more of a human face.

CHEERS to Mark Hamill for signing nearly 3,000 autographs at the event. Yep, his autograph price was very steep at $125 but when you see him and the way he's sooo nice to the fans, especially the younger ones who, like us adults, are in awe of him as Luke Skywalker, then you realize that he's actually worthy of the price tag.

A great recreation of the Rebel's Echo Base command centre.

CHEERS again to Mark Hamill for telling off, in a vocally strong way, the behind the scenes people running his one hour talk (this will probably be his one and only fan Celebration appearance and yet he's on stage for just one hour! C'mon schedulers, it should have been two!) for putting on a lengthy clip, without his foreknowledge or prior permission, from his 1980 appearance of THE MUPPETT SHOW that reduced his time to converse with the fans who were eager to ask him questions. Well done, Mark!

CHEERS, and our best wishes, to Robert Watts, who, as ever, was a superb guest and had lots to say about the making of the STAR WARS and INDY films. Sadly, I was informed that he fell and hurt his head towards the end of the event, resulting in his having to be rushed to hospital. We really hope he's okay and that he's on the mend quickly.

The enjoyable MASTERS OF THE EMPIRE Panel.

CHEERS for the EMPIRE panel talk with Gary Kurtz, Ben Burtt, Lorne Peterson and Jon Berg. A very nice hour of behind the scenes recollections, with Kurtz's behind the scenes memories as invaluable as ever.

More of those Mandalorian troopers hit the dealers room!

CHEERS to the fan costume makers for braving the painful, tiring heat to wear their incredible STAR WARS outfits throughout the event, like the incredible Bossk, Cad Bane, Power Droid, the excellent children dressed as Jawas, and, of particular note, the little girl dressed as a pre-cyborg General Grievous.

CHEERS to Irvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan and John Williams for their heart warming video messages of support and best wishes to the fans during Celebration V.

CHEERS to HASBRO for their great life size Boba Fett action figure card which you could go into the plastic hold section and have your picture taken inside. Their new 12 inch figures line based on the original classic figures, especially the 1978 Fett, are quite superb.

JEERS to Carrie Fisher for cancelling her talk on the last day of the convention but also CHEERS for her in doing this, as it meant that THE MAIN EVENT could be re-screened for all those people, like myself, who weren't able to see it the first time. And DOUBLE CHEERS for Carrie for coming out onto the stage for ten minutes, alongside Jay Laga'aia, for a standing ovation introduction and quick chat with the fans.

Take a little break with Jabba and friends!

CHEERS to Ben Burtt for his excellent talk with Pablo Hidalgo for the SOUNDS OF STAR WARS book, which Burtt has co-written with J.W. Rinzler. The talk had many great sounds heard and Ben, one of STAR WARS best and longest running behind the scenes talents and raconteurs, had lots of stories to tell. He also does a great Sylvester Stallone impression. Why has it taken five Celebration's to get Burtt as a guest!!

Did anyone out there go to the Burtt/Matthew Wood talk on the last day? Can anyone confirm whether Burtt showed his RETURN OF THE JEDI home movies footage from 1983? If anyone saw it can they PLEASE get in touch and describe the footage?

CHEERS to the incredibly talented artists in the Art Gallery-the quality of the work, especially linked to EMPIRE, was incredible this year-I just wish that I'd had some spending money to buy a piece!

JEERS to the organisers of the Art Gallery for their incredible short sightedness and lack of organisational ability on the first day. The lines were horrendous, the fans very unhappy and the artists must surely have lost some of their livelihood sales-wise that day.

Darth Vader - Ralph McQuarrie style!

CHEERS to the 501st for their superb fan costumes and props area, and to the always impressive R2 rooms. And kudos to the German 501st for their incredible TIE Interceptor craft-worthy of anything built for the Classic Trilogy back in the day at ELSTREE. Brilliant stuff!

CHEERS to the people behind the Echo Base Ice Bar- great idea, and I loved that Wampa statue!

JEERS to REED and LUCASFILM for the greedy idea of extra profit making VIP passes. This was unfair-all STAR WARS fans should be treated equally and I didn't like having four people in the VIP line walk in front of me for an autograph after I've waited for an hour. My blood was seething numerous times watching these very opportunistic fans at work, many of whom would have lots of autographs and posters to sign and would hold up the regular line in stopping people from getting autographs. VIP passes are for amusement parks and airplane travel not Celebrations!

The incredible German 501st built TIE Interceptor.

JEERS to the autograph dealer who blocked the Jon Berg line and had the ex-ILMer sign nearly 200 autographs which held up regular STAR WARS fans -y'know those regular fans who wanted an autograph for their own collection and not for profiteering!- for up to an hour and a half! These dealers should do their signing sessions after the show and liaise with the autographer and the exhibition organisers beforehand. In the end, with the added nuisance of the VIPs butting in, I didn't get an autograph when I had to leave the line, and MAJOR JEERS to the steward handling the line who stopped me from coming back into the capped line even though I'd already waited quite a while and had been chatting to him previously. Not fair!

JEERS to OFFICIALPIX for having a lousily organised sales area for their generic photos. No one seemed to know what was in stock, many new and great rare images were in (probably deliberate) too short supply, images that were in the catalogue were not available, and some members of their hired-in staff had clearly not watched a STAR WARS film or knew its characters at all! Not a great situation when you're dealing with hundreds of fans who do know the characters and know what they want to buy! In all four days I never once saw manager Ben Stevens on the floor talking to the people who buy the images, and I was at the OFFICIALPIX area a lot over the four days!

The Empire strikes back at CV!

JEERS to the over-priced food and liquids provided at the event by the convention centre. $2.75 for a packet of crisps!! Really over-priced for maximum profit.

CHEERS to the Celebration Store for its efficient organisation and layout.

He may not be my favourite event host, but CHEERS to Jay Laga'aia- Captain Typho himself!- for being an all round nice guy and great supporter of all things STAR WARS. And it was very cool seeing him as the leader of the 501st Stormtroopers at the start of THE MAIN EVENT!

CHEERS to all the members of THE CLONE WARS voice cast for being so nice and accommodating during every part of the convention. BIG CHEERS to James Arnold Taylor for being such a nice guy, enthusiastic and committed to STAR WARS, and for giving me a couple of lines as Obi-Wan Kenobi during my autograph chat.

Is Curtis the Rebel's New Hope?

CHEERS to all the really nice people I met in and outside of the convention-of all ages and walks of life- whose love of STAR WARS remains undiminished. Special hello to Mike and the gang at the VOICE OF THE REPUBLIC podcast and blog-a fresh and funny new look at STAR WARS that's well worth a look.

CHEERS to the panel of WHY WE LOVE THE PREQUELS, and especially FANBOYS Kyle Newman, alongside James Arnold Taylor and a late arriving Dave Filoni, who gave some very valid and nicely presented reasons and arguments as to why we should like and appreciate these Prequel films more-that they can't just be summarily dismissed because of a few scenes or characters that die-hard fans don't like. It was nice to see so much good reaction from the packed audience, and things being said that were similar to my own comments in the recent STAR WARS AFICIONADO "THE PHANTOM MENACE" TENTH ANNIVERSARY tribute edition (its still available on PDF if you're interested!).

JEERS to George Lucas and LUCASFILM for not allowing Dave Prowse to attend Celebration V. He may not be popular at Camp Lucas, but how could you not have the man who played Darth Vader at an event celebrating THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK-Vader's greatest film! And JEERS to OFFICIALPIX for having so few Vader images from any of the films at their booth. One of the Stewards there told me they had been told not to sell Vader pics by LUCASFILM!

CHEERS to the Belgium STAR WARS fans for their incredible TIE fighter prop and the Millennium Falcon hold, and to all those other great talents behind the numerous terrific fan props situated across the entire event.

CHEERS to all the builders of the Hoth dioramas. Splendid work, people!

CHEERS to LUCASFILM for that surprise showing of the deleted scene RETURN OF THE JEDI clip. Awesome and incredible! The world is anxious for those Blu-rays even more!

And so, the teaser video announcement has now come onto STARWARS.COM revealing that Celebration VI will be happening- date as yet unrevealed. Further vindication, as if proof was ever really necessary, that the Force, STAR WARS fandom, and merchandise profit growth, is stronger than ever!

BEHIND THE SCENES IMAGE: LOVE STORY!

I think Carrie Fisher's always had a thing for big hairy guys, even if they are Wookiees!, as this hilarious 1979 out-take picture shot for EMPIRE publicity at ELSTREE clearly proves.

With thanks to Chris Baker for the image.