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‘Star Wars’ Blu-Ray Release Date Announced. Also, May the 4th be With You!
Yup, it is Star Wars Day. The one day a year when all Star Wars fans prove how truly nerdy they are.
Be sure to say ‘May the Fourth be with you’ to a non-nerd today and be amused at the pitying head shake you will no doubt receive.
I have already gotten several.
And oh yes, Fox has chosen this most holy of holy days to announce that the Star Wars Saga will be released on Blu-Ray in September 2011.
What does this mean for Star Wars fans? It means we will all soon own the original Star Wars trilogy in 3 different video formats. Go us!
Star Wars Books Are Going in An Odd Direction…
I took this myself. And no, you are not allowed to ask me why I was in the Erotica section!
Special Oscar Edition!
What on earth does a science/skeptical blog have to write about around Oscar time? With all the hype that surrounds the Academy Awards, which air tonight at 8:30 EST, it’s not surprising that coverage spills into areas of science, pseudoscience, technology and awesome. For example:
- Filling the gap left by the death of Paul the psychic octopus, Heidi the cross-eyed opossum, who lives at a zoo in Leipzig, Germany, made her prediction for Best Actress on the Jimmy Kimmel show. She chose Natalie Portman for her role in ‘Black Swan’. This gave me great pleasure since I’ve had a crush on Natalie Portman ever since she was the only good thing about the Star Wars prequels.
- The Economist wrote a short article on the science behind some speech impediments in honour of the success of ‘The King’s Speech’
- 2 of the 5 nominated movies for Best Documentary deal with the environment. One of those films, called ‘Gasland‘, deals with hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” and prompted Scientific American to write a feature article about it.
- By monitoring social media chatter from sites like Twitter and Facebook, the Meltwater Group has made their prediction of Oscar winners based on the number of mentions of a certain movie or actor/actress. Based on this data, the favourites are ‘The King’s Speech’ for Best Picture, James Franco for Best Actor, and Natalie Portman for Best Actress.
- And finally, the Best Picture nominees in LEGO form. You can see them all on Gawker, but here are my favourites:
127 Hours
Inception
The Fighter
Some Nerd News For You Today
Three pieces of sci-fi news in my Google Reader grabbed my attention this morning.
The first is that John Williams is turning 79 today. Don’t know who John Williams is? Well you’ve heard his music, even if you don’t realize it. He has worked on the soundtracks for Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark and even Harry Potter!
The second is that Jeri Ryan has confirmed that she will reprise her roll as Sonya Blade in the upcoming Mortal Kombat webseries and movie.
And finally, as you have probably seen from the Google homepage, today is Jules Verne’s birthday.
Google Doodle February 8th, 2011. Depicting 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
He is perhaps the most famous science fiction author of all time and deserves all the attention he is getting.
A Star Wars Christmas Special That’s Actually Good!
“Obi-Wan already has a brown Snuggie!”
Kurt Russell Auditions For ‘Star Wars’
Although he is a decent actor, Kurt Russell was not meant to be Han Solo.
I read about this on Moviefone, which recently put together a bunch of interesting screen tests. You can see Dustin Hoffman practice being Tootsie, and Tobey Maguire working out the kinks being Spiderman.
Princess Leia’s Gold Bikini: Hotness of an Epically Nerdy Magnitude
So I’m not sure how I read about or ran across this website, but the awesomeness was just too much. I simply HAD to share it with all of you.
Now, recently I named the Star Wars Trilogy as #2 on my top 10 favourite sci-fi movies. And what I didn’t put in my explanation (I assumed it was understood) was that one of the reasons I loved Return of the Jedi was *drumroll* Princess Leia’s gold bikini.
Now I saw Return of the Jedi when I was just a young lad. It is quite possible that seeing this scene was the turning point in my thinking girls have cooties, to thinking they are beautiful.
Thanks Star Wars!
And it seems there is a website entirely dedicated to the gold bikini, and they even sell replicas.
Now, the full costume will run you over $450, but if you have a girlfriend willing to wear it, seems it could be a small price to pay :)
Oh, and in less important news,the Star Wars trilogies will be released on Blu-Ray next year. Sweeeet.
My Top 10 Sci-Fi Movies: #2 – The Star Wars Trilogy
#2 – The Star Wars Trilogy (1977 – 1983)
So this one is a no brainer. Does it even require an explanation? Probably not, but I’m gonna tell you anyway!
So I first saw Star Wars back when you actually had to go to the movie store to rent the VHS tapes. Scary.
I rented the first one, loved it. The next weekend I rented Empire Strikes Back. Of course, I immediately needed to see Return of the Jedi. But when I went back to the store, it was checked out!
Never have I been so distraught at the absence of a movie on the shelf. I had to wait a whole entire week before I could find out what happened to Han Solo after he was encased in Carbonite.
But then again, thats not so bad. Those who saw the movies when they first came out had to wait 3 years to find out what happened to their heroes. But in a small way, I felt their pain.
Of course the Star Wars Trilogy lives on as one of the greatest sci-fi epics of all time. Even though the new trilogy tarnished its image, no one can dispute the epic awesomeness of the original trilogy.
“That’s no moon. It’s a space station.”
Full List:
#9 – Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
A Quantum of Knowledge 