Horror Beyond Imagination (from the other George)

Today's Nowherebad.com shirt of the day mixes popular bedfellows Star Wars with Zombies in the form of Tauntaun of the Dead. 

The artist, Blair J. Campbell, has some other interesting mash-ups including this nifty Super Mario Bros. mix.  

Clone Wars Screening at Lucasfilm

Tonight I had an opportunity that most fans from the East never get. I got to attend a screening of episodes of The Clone Wars in one of the best theaters in San Francisco. Lucasfilm, in their Letterman Digital Arts Center at The Presidio, presented the final four episode arc that completed season five of the show. Several strokes of luck got me in this happy crowd of attendees. That and some freeway sitting mixed with Bullitt-style driving through the crowded Friday rush hour traffic. A visit to the facility last week, in a story to be told soon, informed me of the screening and some schedule juggling allowed my wife and I to attend while we're on holiday in California.

Since we were some of the last people to arrive it was a great fortune to see my friend James Floyd of ClubJade.net. After a brief photo none other than Dave Filoni opened the door for us to join the crowd already in the theater. The place was nearly full and possibly held 200 people. We lucked into the center seats of the second row and were treated to an introduction of the show by Supervising Director Dave Filoni and Producer Cary Silver.

About this time a new member was inducted into Filoni's exclusive Wolfpack. Former Lucasfilm blogger and craft mistress Bonnie Burton joined the ranks that include Jason and Jimmy of Rebel Force Radio. She was given a plaque to commemorate the event and high praise from the man in the hat.

 Filoni and Silver explained that we were about to see a slightly modified cut of the most recent pair of episodes along with tomorrow and next Saturday's season finale episodes. The exclusive opening also included a treat not shown on TV, the traditional Star Wars John Williams opening theme over the receding The Clone Wars logo. It would make an excellent bookend to the last moments of the movie which featured Kevin Kiner's full orchestral spin on classic themes.

The arc was brilliant and will be shown on Cartoon Network and StarWars.com soon enough but I can tell you that there are some large surprises and revelations along with more tense action than they usually have time to include in average episodes. I also saw some of the finest animation in all five seasons and had a couple of questions answered. There's even a casting coup that has not been announced yet, but makes season 6 even more enticing. And remember the upcoming Star Wars video game 1313? Well, we get to see some of those lower Coruscant environments as well. 

After the screening we were treated to an hour of Q&A moderated by Pablo Hidalgo featuring Filoni, Ashley (Ahsoka) Eckstein, and Matt (Anakin) Lanter. Their comraderie was clear and Lanter was actually seeing these episodes for the first time. Many crew members were in attendance including Writer Charles Murray and CG Lighting and Effects Supervisor Joel Aron. 

Questions about the future of The Clone Wars and other Lucasfilm projects were steered around but they also took a number of questions from the audience. 

That this was one of my favorite arcs made this a wonderful night and reignited my love of The Clone Wars. Seeing it in a Lucasfilm screening room and then being present for the intimate discussion afterwards made this a night I'll never forget. I look forward to when everyone has seen these episodes so we can actually discuss the ramifications of these new plot twists and information.

And as luck would have it, the final episode will air on March 2nd- the day of our next SWGFA gathering at Heroes Landing. I promise it will be interesting...