One of my biggest surprises on television this year was the Star Wars: Clone Wars show on Cartoon Network. The show has a surprising amount of heart and, at times, depth, that was sadly missing from both the prequel trilogy and the four-episode “movie” that was released last year. I find myself looking forward to it each week more than I ever expected that I would. If your only experience with the series was that initial film and you’re even a casual fan of the saga, I urge you to give it another shot.

When heavy promotion was underway back for Revenge of the Sith back in 2005, George Lucas revealed that he was working on two projects for television…the current Clone Wars animated series, and a live action series set during the two decades and change between the two trilogies, which would focus on the burgeoning Rebel Alliance. Obviously, Lucasfilm’s resources have been focused on the Clone Wars project up until now, but word is now starting to trickle out that casting is underway for the live-action project.

Rose Byrne, who Star Wars fans will (probably not) remember for her role in Attack of the Clones (even I had to look up her character, and I’m a walking Star Wars Wiki myself), revealed that several of her friends had been auditioning for the show, though she had no plans to audition herself.

It’s not huge news, but it’s nice to hear that the gears are turning. Lucas plans to shoot a full year of episodes before even beginning to shop around for a network on which to run the show, so we’re still a long way from seeing a finished product. But if the series is put in capable hands like the Clone Wars series (most of Lucas’ best work has been in other people’s capable hands), hopefully we’ll have something good on our hands.

…somewhere.

Yes, over the weekend, the new trailer for the upcoming Cartoon Network CGI creation Star Wars: The Clone Wars leaked onto YouTube. Unfortunately, I was not around to catch it…and now all I can find are a bunch of sites that have a place where it used to be, before the dreaded Cease and Desist letter from Warner Bros.

So I’ll keep my eye out for it and post it here as soon as a stable version is found. Feel free to post any leads in the comments below.

I’ve come to realize that Star Wars news is cyclical. Information surfaces, it’s all the rage, and then it fades away again. A few months later, the same info resurfaces, and it’s all the rage again. It happened a while back with news about the forthcoming Star Wars live-action show, first discussed here and then readdressed here. Likewise, back in February, it was announced that the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars would be coming to Cartoon Network.

Star Wars-helmer George Lucas took the stage at the Cartoon Network upfronts to reannounce Star Wars: The Clone Wars. He reconfirmed that the animated series would be premiering a 2-hour movie in theaters on August 15, with the series starting on Cartoon Network in October, and reruns airing on TNT later.

CN will be pulling out all the stops when it comes to marketing. Stuart Snyder, president and COO, Turner Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media said, ““Trust me, you will be seeing the target campaign for ‘Star Wars’ everywhere, across every platform. It will be by far the largest effort in Cartoon Network history. We believe this show is a game changer for the network and is going to be event viewing for kids and their entire families.” So be watching for a HUGE media blitz in the coming months.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars will follow the adventures of the heroes and villains from the first three films, as well as Anakin’s new apprentice, Ahsoka (who does not appear in any of the films…not a great sign for her).

Official word comes in today from the Star Wars camp regarding the all-CGI offering in store later this year.

If you thought that Revenge of the Sith would be your last experience with new Star Wars content in the theater, you’d be wrong. August 15 is the day that Star Wars: The Clone Wars will hit screens with a feature-length debut.

Following that in the fall, SW:TCW will air as 30-minute “mini-movies” from Lucas Animation on Cartoon Network, followed by repeat showings on TNT. “I felt there were a lot more Star Wars stories left to tell,” says George Lucas. “I was eager to start telling some of them through animation and, at the same time, push the art of animation forward.” More than 30 installments have already been created for the show.

First and foremost…before Lost or Heroes or whatever…I’m a Star Wars NUT. Ask anybody. And I’m amazingly pumped. Plus, my son will almost be 3 by then, and he is destined to be hooked with me. The day when we go from Wiggles to Star Wars will be a day long remembered…sorry, went a little off there.

You can check out the trailer for the series here. And you can always expect to read the latest here at TV Jab, cause I’m ALL OVER IT.

(Source: StarWars.com)

There’s been a big fuss in the media over the past couple of days about Lucas confirming that there will be a new Star Wars live-action TV show in the next couple of years.  I didn’t say anything about it, because, well, we already new that.  Heck, it was originally announced way back in 2005, when they originally said that it would based between Episodes 3 and 4…that it would not have any of the main characters in it…that it would be “darker” than the films.  I even reported on it way back in April.

I thought it was old news, but apparently it’s new news.  So get excited!

Over the weekend, the Official Star Wars Site posted up a look at the forthcoming Star Wars CGI series, taking place between Episodes 2 and 3.

I’m really digging the feel of the clip, with the dark tones, and a lot of the animation, specifically the battles, look really slick.  I’m still not a huge fan of the look of the characters, though.  They look like plastic.  Hopefully there will be some polish in the coming months.

As a Star Wars geek, I have some concerns about the continuity with the established Clone Wars timeline, too.  But for the sake of not losing readers, I won’t go into that.

For some reason, I’ve suddenly got the Bill Murray lounge singer SNL skit stuck in my head…”Star Wars…nothing but Star Wars”.

Anyway, the Official Star Wars Website has the poster for the big Star Wars Celebration event coming up in LA later this month, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the original film.  The poster gives us our first good look at the new Clone Wars CGI show that is planned.

My knee-jerk reaction is that it’s…okay, I guess.  The characters, and Anakin specifically, look a bit to much like action figures to me.  Granted, this is a small-ish static image.  Hopefully in the next couple of weeks, we’ll get a trailer so we can see them in action, and it’ll be more impressive.  And you can bet that we’ll have it here soon after it debuts.

The Star Wars films are the movies that completely shaped the passion that I have for every form of entertainment media today.  He probably doesn’t remember it, but Michael, from sister sites AppleGazette and ForeverGeek, introduced the far, far away saga to me back in 8th grade, and it radically transformed me.  I could go much deeper into that, but let’s save that for when the TV series gets closer, shall we?

I saw over at ForeverGeek that uber-producer Rick McCallum gave an interview to Star Wars fansite Toche Station, with a few updates about the pre-production of the sci-fi saga’s first entrance into the small-screen, live action genre (ignoring the Holiday Special, of course).

Could you tell us something about the status of the Star Wars television series? Something about the actors maybe?
I can’t tell you anything about actors because we’re not there yet. This is a long process to get it right. First of all: where are we going to shoot? Then: who’s going to write? And finally: who’s going to direct? George has been working for the last seven, eight months on the story arc line of where the series goes. The dream is to do way over one hundred hours of it. If we can get it right, we have some fantastic characters that nobody has ever met before and start a whole other world of Star Wars that comes out every week instead of every three years.
Will any of the older characters appear in the series?
It’s a whole different group of characters.
When do you expect the first episode will be televised?
That’s tough. The TV world is changing a lot. Hopefully we will have finished the first episode by the end of 2008, so that in 2009 it can come out.

2009?!?  *sigh*  It’s a long road ahead.  Next year, though, we can expect a Clone Wars-based, all CG animation cartoon to hit.  I would expect an official announcement on this on or around May 25, as that’s the 30 year anniversary of the original film’s release. 

You can expect us to follow both of these releases closely.