The ninth episode of Brian Daley’s radio drama adaptation of the science fiction blockbuster Star Wars airs on National Public Radio stations in the U.S. Mark Hamill stars as Luke Skywalker and Perry King stars as Han Solo.
The tenth episode of Brian Daley’s radio drama adaptation of the science fiction blockbuster Star Wars airs on National Public Radio stations in the U.S. Mark Hamill stars as Luke Skywalker and Perry King stars as Han Solo.
The 11th episode of Brian Daley’s radio drama adaptation of the science fiction blockbuster Star Wars airs on National Public Radio stations in the U.S. Brock Peters stars as Darth Vader and Bernard “Bunny” Behrens stars as Ben Kenobi.
The 12th episode of Brian Daley’s radio drama adaptation of the science fiction blockbuster Star Wars airs on National Public Radio stations in the U.S. Mark Hamill stars as Luke Skywalker and Perry King stars as Han Solo.
The 13th episode of Brian Daley’s radio drama adaptation of the science fiction blockbuster Star Wars airs on National Public Radio stations in the U.S. Mark Hamill stars as Luke Skywalker and Brock Peters stars as Darth Vader. This episode concludes the radio retelling of the first movie, and has proven to be Public Radio’s most popular (and, during fundraising pledge drives, profitable) radio drama production.
ABC airs the Lucasfilm TV movie The Ewok Adventure, starring Eric Walker, Warwick Davis, Fionnula Flanagan, and Aubree Miller. Written by veteran animation writer Bob Carrau and directed by John Korty (The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman), this is the first live-action TV set in the Star Wars universe since the infamous 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special. The movie will become known by the alternate title Ewoks: Caravan of Courage outside of the United States.
ABC broadcasts the fifth episode of the animated Star Wars spinoff series Droids, featuring the voice of Anthony Daniels as C-3PO.
ABC airs the Lucasfilm TV movie Ewoks: The Battle For Endor, starring Wilford Brimley, Warwick Davis, and Aubree Miller. Written and directed by the Wheat Brothers (The Fly II, Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick), the movie quickly dispenses with all but one of the human family around which the first Ewok TV movie centered and then embarks on an adventure that’s more fantasy than science fiction.
ABC premieres the 26th episode of Star Wars: Ewoks, an animated series based upon George Lucas’ furry primitive (and very marketable) characters from the 1983 film Return Of The Jedi.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 59th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
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A decade after the premiere of the most recent Star Wars theatrical film (and a couple of years into a burgeoning new wave of Star Wars marketing whose most visible components are new original novels, a new action figure line, and popular role playing and computer games), George Lucas quietly announces in Daily Variety that he plans to produce – but not direct – a trilogy of prequel movies set prior to Star Wars. Though the announcement excites the Star Wars fan base, it’s one of many such announcements in the pages of Variety, many of which concern projects that never make it to the screen.
After dropping his kids off at school, Star Wars creator George Lucas sits down with a box of pencils and a blank legal pad, and begins writing, in longhand, the script of what will become Star Wars Episode I (though at this point, the script draft is titled Star Wars: The Beginning). Having already amassed continuity notes on the original trilogy as well as story notes dating back to the early 1970s from the early “Journal of the Whills” drafts of the Star Wars storyline, Lucas knows only that the story will involve the early days of Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.
George Lucas films the first footage for the hotly-anticipated Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace at England’s Leavesden Film Studios, a facility that Lucasfilm has rented out for the duration of the movie’s expected long production period. By this point, even details of minor cast members have been leaked to the public, possibly making the production of Episode I the beginning of the modern age of internet spoilers. The cast includes Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Nataline Portman and Jake Lloyd, with veteran cast members such as Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker and Ian McDiarmid reprising their roles from the original trilogy. Cameras are expected to roll through September, with a 1999 release date already set.
Receiving more fanfare than any movie preview in the history of cinema, the first teaser trailer for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace premieres nationwide, appearing before the Pixar computer-animated family film A Bug’s Life. So eager are Star Wars fans to catch their first glimpse of the new prequel that many reportedly pay full ticket price to simply watch the preview and leave before the movie with which it’s packaged. Lucasfilm’s official Star Wars web site posts the trailer on the web – though the size of the file and the still-mostly-dial-up shape of the internet at the time makes watching it online a challenge.
Weeks ahead of the movie’s premiere, stores across America open at midnight as the first merchandise from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace goes on sale, ranging from action figures to the movie’s soundtrack (whose track titles offer major spoilers for the film’s storyline). Heavily featured in advance promotion, any items with the face of Darth Maul sell faster than nearly anything else.
Before Episode I‘s theatrical premiere, the pre-production phase of Star Wars Episode II has already begun, with principal photography to commence toward the end of 1999. Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Ian McDiamid, Ahmed Best, and Anthony Daniels are all slated to reprise their roles, though it will be necessary to recast Anakin Skywalker, since the second film will take place at least a decade after the events of The Phantom Menace.
Sir Alec Guinness, best known to SF fans as Obi-Wan Kenobi, dies at the age of 86. He was a working actor for over six decades, though directors had to beg him into participating in his two best-known outings – Star Wars and The Bridge Over The River Kwai; indeed, in recent years, he has made his disdain for the former project very well known to any fans who dared to ask. Reports around the time of his death indicated that Sir Alec Guinness has been suffering from liver cancer. He is survived by his wife and son.
The first four inductees – two real and two fictional – are inducted into the Robot Hall Of Fame created by Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science.
The panel of judges in future years will pare down the number of nominations awarded to fictional creations. R2-D2 actor Kenny Baker and Douglas Rains, the voice actor behind HAL, are in attendance.
Carnie Mellon University inducts five new members to its Robot Hall Of Fame at a press event promoting the movie adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot. The 2004 inductees, again split almost evenly between fictional and real robots, are:
Judges for the 2004 Hall include SimCity creator Wil Wright, roboticist Ruzena Bajcsy and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Ralph McQuarrie, the artist who envisioned key scenes and settings of the Star Wars universe, before sets or models were built and before filming began, dies at the age of 82. As the production artist for Star Wars, McQuarrie got his licks in early on how the “universe” should look, from costumes to spacecraft to weaponry. George Lucas credited McQuarrie’s artwork with keeping the movies’ “look” on track, as well as selling 20th Century Fox on the idea of financing the first movie in the absence of any kind of test footage. McQuarrie also provided concepts for a redesigned U.S.S. Enterprise for an early ‘70s Star Trek movie project, Star Trek: Planet Of The Titans, that ultimately went unfilmed. He also contributed early concept art to Battlestar Galactica, E.T., Cocoon, Batteries Not Included, and many others, and had also worked on the animated artists’ conceptions of the Apollo moon missions played during CBS’ coverage of those flights.
Disney announces the purchase of Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4,000,000,000, simultaneously announcing that work will commence on Star Wars Episode VII for a 2015 release. George Lucas, having already stepped down as Lucasfilm chairman earlier in the year, is suddenly even more of a billionaire than he already was, and Disney gets the keys to the Star Wars franchise with plans for new movies “every 2-3 years.”
Word breaks across Hollywood that Disney has secured the services of J.J. Abrams, co-creator of Lost and director of the 2009 and 2013 movies set in a re-imagined Star Trek universe, to direct the much-anticipated Star Wars Episode VII, the first new movie in the series since Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm at the end of 2012. With a locked-in release date in 2015, Abrams is expected to start work on Episode VII as soon as post-production and promotion for Star Trek Into Darkness are complete for that movie’s May 2013 release.
Disney announces that it has an entire empire of Star Wars movies in mind, including two movies built around the early days of specific fan-favorite characters, with Han Solo and Boba Fett being the first two characters to have movies centered around them. The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders Of The Lost Ark screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan – obviously no stranger to the exploits of Han Solo – is among those developing the storylines for these spinoff movies.
Cable channel Disney XD premieres the first full episode of the series Star Wars: Rebels, a CGI animated storyline falling between the original and prequel trilogies of the Star Wars saga, featuring a cell of rogue Rebels fighting the totalitarian Empire. Though technically in the same continuity as its predecessor, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Rebels is the first Disney-produced Star Wars project following the studio’s acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012. The first episode is roughly 43 minutes in length, a typical length for hour-long US television drama, but most future episodes (except for select “event” stories) will run 22 minutes long.
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Cable channel Disney XD premieres the second episode of the series Star Wars: Rebels, a CGI animated storyline falling between the original and prequel trilogies of the Star Wars saga. Anthony Daniels (Star Wars) and Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure) guest star.
More about Star Wars: Rebels in the LogBook
Star Wars: Rebels now streaming on Amazon Prime
Cable channel Disney XD premieres the third episode of the series Star Wars: Rebels, a CGI animated storyline falling between the original and prequel trilogies of the Star Wars saga.
More about Star Wars: Rebels in the LogBook
Star Wars: Rebels now streaming on Amazon Prime
Cable channel Disney XD premieres the fourth episode of the series Star Wars: Rebels, a CGI animated storyline falling between the original and prequel trilogies of the Star Wars saga. Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation) guest stars.
More about Star Wars: Rebels in the LogBook
Star Wars: Rebels now streaming on Amazon Prime
Cable channel Disney XD premieres the fifth episode of the series Star Wars: Rebels, a CGI animated storyline falling between the original and prequel trilogies of the Star Wars saga.
More about Star Wars: Rebels in the LogBook
Star Wars: Rebels now streaming on Amazon Prime
Cable channel Disney XD premieres the sixth episode of the series Star Wars: Rebels, a CGI animated storyline falling between the original and prequel trilogies of the Star Wars saga.
More about Star Wars: Rebels in the LogBook
Star Wars: Rebels now streaming on Amazon Prime
Cable channel Disney XD premieres the seventh episode of the series Star Wars: Rebels, a CGI animated storyline falling between the original and prequel trilogies of the Star Wars saga. Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Peter MacNicol (Ghostbusters II) guest star.
More about Star Wars: Rebels in the LogBook
Star Wars: Rebels now streaming on Amazon Prime
