everything you always wanted to know about the star wars holiday special but were afraid to ask

My good friend Peter (who writes the best film-buff blog in the business) just sent me this wonderful, in-depth article from Vanity Fair about the making of the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special (for those who don’t remember it, consider yourself lucky).  It’s a great read and full of tantalizing tidbits about the first, official moment in history when Battlestar Galactica was better than Star Wars!

And if after reading that you still hunger for more Holiday Special content (which one fan described as “The great secret of Star Wars; the 3-eyed cousin who lives in the barn attic, humping sheep and eating spiders”)  then head on over to Rifftrax, where the ex-MST3K boys have posted their own iconic commentary on the Holiday Special.  Hilarity ensues.

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Cell phone sunset

We had a gorgeous sunset today in Southern California, so I did the best I could to capture it with my cell phone (click for the full-res, stitched together, panoramic version).  Believe it or not, this is exactly what we saw today – no special effects work involved on this  one.

[Thanks to reader POLE for downloading and fixing the power lines in the final image, I didn’t even ask!]

Guiness-sanctioned videogame competition live online today!

Battlestar Galactica  Associate Producer and Supervising Editor Andrew Seklir is making a video game documentary, and today (Friday, 1/2/09), he’s braving the east cost cold to bring to us – live from MAGfest in Washington, DC – the competition for the world record of the arcade classic Nibbler (MAGfest is an annual coolest-of-the-cool videogame festival and the event is sanctioned by the Guiness Book of World Records).  It will be streamed live online all day Friday with cameras not only showing the players, but a direct feed of the screen itself!  Did you know that Nibbler was the first arcade game to break the one billion  point barrier?  Click through to find out even more.

happy new year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Many thanks to all of you happy-go-lucky, loyal Darth Mojo readers.  I really do enjoy sharing all this neat stuff with you, and it truly makes me smile when someone tells me they learned something from a post.  I hope all of you have at least a few moments worth remembering from 2008 (aside from the day you discovered this blog) and let’s all work together to make sure 2009 kicks some serious ass.  For me, finding a project – and a crew – that tops Battlestar Galactica sounds like wishful thinking but, then again, having BSG come back and finding myself working on it was a dream come true itself, so it just proves that we never know what’s hiding around that corner. 

Speaking of boldy going into the future, the image you see above is just a small section of a poster I recently did for a friend’s Star Trek-related project.   If you click on it, you’ll be treated to a hi-res picture that seems fitting for our charge ahead into the new year…  

sci-ficandy: BSG by Apple (aka radiosity renders)

So I was digging though the BSG CGI archives and ran across some early renders that used a process called radiosity.  In most cases, renders like this are only used for tests and are never seen by the general public but I’ve always thought they looked pretty nifty so I thought I’d share a few.  After all, it’s Christmas and I can’t think of anything Galactica  fans would like more than never-before-seen pictures of the Galactica!   Click ahead for more images and an explanation of what this wacky radio-city-thingamajig is all about…

movie review: the wrestler

My friends and I were sitting around last night with a fistfull of screeners (when you hang out with Hollywood types, chances are someone is going to have Oscar screeners) and we were trying to decide what to watch.  Everything was either too long or we heard sucked, but then we came across  The Wrestler.  It wasn’t a three-hour plus epic and we all have heard the buzz about Mickey Rourke deserving an Oscar for his performance, but we feared the film itself was going to be little more than a paint-by-numbers Hollywood tearjerker.  Still, it won the vote and we popped it on.

movie review: day the earth stood still (2008)

Whoa.  This sucked.  I mean REALLY sucked.  It starts off with an interesting premise and inspired twist on the original’s plot, but quickly descends into an incoherent mess.  Nothing makes sense, events do not logically flow into one another, I wanted the cute kid to die and the visual effects are the worst I have seen in a major Hollywood blockbuster in quite some time (what the hell, WETA, if it’s not a Peter Jackson movie do you just phone it in?).  Keanu Reeves is fine, you can’t blame him at all – it’s the fault of an unfinished script and a director who clearly just didn’t care.  And neither should you.  If you’ve never seen the original and were thinking about plopping down $10 or more to see this new one, seriously, either buy or rent the classic version and call it a day.

Q my savior

So for the last week, I’ve been stuck at home with a seriously twisted back and the worst food poisoning my my life.  What happened to my back? Nothing special, every couple of years I just reach for the salt the wrong way an WHAMMO, say hello to a few weeks of poppin’ fresh pain. Then, while recuperating, for lack of wanting to leave the house, I dug a little too deeply into the fridge and ate something that, given a more may days of gestation, probably would have eaten me.  Combine these two goodies and you get an (in)action-packed vacation!

so say we all

[Image courtesy of BSG Associate Producer/lead editor Andrew Seklir]

Click to engorge/download/spread like wildfire!  

OMFG the best star wars chapter in 28 years!

Ok, so, for the record, I TOLD YOU SO.  Hot on the heels of the less-than-enthusiastically received Clone Wars  movie, comes the innagural episode of the series, “Ambush” (which aired last Friday on Cartoon Network).   Remember how I asked all of you to give the show a chance, no matter how you felt about the movie?  Because with all the episiodes they’re going to produce, chances are some good ones were inevitable?  Well guess what?  It freakin’ already happened.

happy birthday battlestar galactica!

 On Sunday, September 17th, 1978, ABC premiered Battlestar Galactica.   THIRTY years ago.  How old do you feel now?  It seems like everyone remembers May 25th, the anniversary of that other  space franchise with Luke what’s-his-name, but why no love for  September 17?   I know I’ll always remember.  Sure, I was teased as a kid for wearing my Starbuck jacket to school and teachers chastised me for drawing Vipers in my notebook when I should have been paying attention in class,  but you know what?  The day I cashed my first paycheck with words Battlestar Galactica  on it is the day I offically told all those nay-sayers to bite me.  So yeah, I remember.

the true history of the cylons

There are those who believe that the Cylons were created by man.

Some believe that they were created by a race of highly advanced lizards who used them as foot soldiers in the war to exterminate humanity.

Well, it’s time to bring the rampant speculation and flame-wars to an end. Today, on the 30th anniversary of Battlestar Galactica,  the true origins of everyone’s favorite red-eyed, robotic menace will finally be revealed…

spaceships rule

This weekend, the visual effects in Battlestar Galactica’s  season four opener “He That Believeth in Me” won the Emmy!  Congrats to everyone here at BSG Visual Effects who took home the gold:

Gary Hutzel, Visual Effects Supervisor
Michael Gibson, Visual Effects Producer
David Takemura, Visual Effects Coordinator
Doug Drexler, CGI Supervisor
Kyle Toucher, CG Artist
Sean Jackson, CG Artist
Pierre Drolet, CG Modeler
Aurore de Blois, Senior Compositor
Derek Ledbetter, Compositor

Where the hell am I?

As some of you may have noticed, there has been a flurry of inactivity over here at Darth Mojo.  Yes, I’m still alive, (thanks to all of you who have asked) and the show will most definitely go on.   I’ve been busy doing my part to finish visual effects on the final episodes of BSG (sniff sniff) and taking care of all the things that happen in between work and blogging (i.e. doing absolutely nothing when I get home).  Rest assured, I do have some neat stuff planned for next week (the 30th anniversary of Battlestar Galactica) so stay tuned, there is plenty more to come.

movie review: clone wars (spoiler-free)

Imagine you’ve just suffered through the worst possible three-course dinner; the salad was soggy, the appetizer cold and the main course was a dry, burnt, flavorless steak. As you force yourself to finish chewing that last bit of gristle (after all, you were hungry), you happily put the fork down, toss your napkin on the plate and just thank god that it’s finally over. You look forward to spending the rest of the night at home, snuggling up with a nice, smooth, pink bottle of Peptol Bismol. Suddenly the host reappears with yet another covered tray and proudly proclaims, “dessert!” You slump back in your chair, prepared for the worst. The cover is lifted up and what do you see? Twinkies! You happily pick up one of the spongy, yellow treats and scarf it down with glee, savoring every bite and thrilled as can be that it wasn’t yet another failed attempt by the host to reach beyond his means. And, ladies and gentlemen, that’s the best way I can describe Clone Wars – a much welcome Twinkie.

clone wars: premiere photos

Sunday was the red-carpet premiere of the new Star Wars animated “movie,” Clone Wars (I put movie in quotes because it was not originally intended to be released as a film – it’s essentially the three-part opening of the animated TV series with some patching to serve as a feature).  Much of the cast and production personnel were on hand (including the Great One himself (no, not Ben Burtt)!  I’ll be posting a review in the next few days (hint: I liked it more than the prequels), but, in the meantime, feel free to peruse my cavalcade of exclusive photos…

two guys drinking at a bar (galactica style)

Mike Nichols, superstar editor who achieved fame by re-editing Star Wars Episodes I and II as the “Phantom Editor,” has just released the latest installment in his series of shorts Two Guys Drinking At A Bar.  He’s gotten a lot of mail from fans who have complained that the credits of his shows are often longer than the actual content, so he made this new episode as a response.  I love this guy!  Read on for more clips and info about the series…