lemmen writes "According the Brtish tabloid The Sun, Star Wars III will carry the name 'Birth Of The Empire'. This will be announced soon according the article. Also it describes one of the highlights of the movie: 'A thrilling lightsabre clash between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker while surfing on lava.' Can't wait till May 15th 2005!" Thanks to reader ExoticMandibles, another quality news source: Teen Hollywood. Update: 05/20 05:47 GMT by T : Gokey writes with a correction: "StarWars.com indicates that the movie is released May 19th, 2005 (exactly one year from now) not May 15th, 2005."

tashanna writes "I got an e-mail from my brother with a link to this. Someone has built an Imperial Star Destroyer model from the original Star Wars movie that's appropriately-sized for the 4" action figures. The guy made it with an armory, bridge, cell bay, computer room, engineering (split over 2 levels), Darth Vader's chamber, conference room, troop rest room, medical bay and it measures 2 meters, by 1.5 meters, by 1 meter and is for sale on Ebay. There are interior photos on the eBay site. Ummm... WOW!"

Jethro73 writes "Whether you love or hate the Special Edition only release, you should be excited to see the new Darth Vader costume on the upcoming Trilogy DVD set. Here are some more details on the upcoming DVD set."

snitty writes "Lucas Films has announced the release date for the last movie in the trilogy of prequels. The date is set for May 19, 2005. The title of the movie has yet to be released. I think I'll give it another year or so before I get on line for tickets."

An anonymous reader submits "Want to know who gets killed in the first ten minutes of the movie? How come Yoda runs off to Dagobah? Who will Darth Vader kill? Will the Clonetroopers become Stormtroopers? Will Chewbacca or Grand Moff Tarkin have a role in Star Wars:Episode III, and if so what is it? AgonyEngine of the Phatooine Network dares to answers these questions with a definitive timeline synopsis and character analysis, carefully compiled from the many spoilers and spy reports from the insiders and interviews."

securitas writes "The Cartoon Network is about to premiere a new series of animated shorts based on the Star Wars prequels. The series comes from Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Dexter's Lab) and debuts Friday Nov. 7 at 8PM Eastern Time. One correction: The USA Today article is incorrect in saying that 'Clone Wars marks the first animated series to involve any of the saga's leading characters.' That distinction goes to Nelvana's Droids, which followed the adventures of R2D2 and C3PO."

Thanks to several readers for pointing out that, according to a post on the official Star Wars Galaxies messageboards, the NDA has been lifted, so Beta testers are free to talk about their experiences playing this PC MMORPG, which ships on June 26th. Naturally, the official messageboards are filling up with many and varied viewpoints, and sites such as SWG Warcry, SWG Vault, and many other fan sites are posting a multitude of screenshots and opinions of this much anticipated title.

securitas writes "Soon Star Wars behind-the-scenes webcam goes live when shooting for Episode III begins in Australia. 'The webcam will be moved every day, shooting live for 12 hours and then replaying in a loop while the cast is sleeping.' Of course it's only free until next week when you will have to join StarWars.com's newly relaunched site to view the cam as part of a package of services that includes online chats, outtakes and deleted scenes." I'm not sure if it's worth $20, but it's worth something....

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Gamespot news story indicating that the console (PS2 and Xbox) versions of Star Wars Galaxies are now on hold. Although they were announced at E3 in 2002, and may appear eventually, a Lucasarts spokesman said of the MMORPG: "We are currently focusing all of our efforts on the successful launch of the PC version of Star Wars Galaxies." Meanwhile, the Star Wars Galaxies official site at its publisher, Sony, has links to some new mini-previews and E3-released gameplay movies from this title, which also has a thorough fanpage at RPGPlanet.

lyonsden writes "Ever want to be in a Star Wars movie? Live in Australia? Check out this page at the Maura Fay Group Casting web site. Especially the Star Wars part towards the bottom. Any takers?"

BrunoC writes "It's official! Peter Mayhew is going to play everyone's favorite wookie once again: Chewbacca is returning in Episode III, currently in pre-production phase. Peter says (quoted from StarWars.com) "I'm delighted to return as Chewbacca, I think his re-appearance in this film is a fitting way to tie the whole saga together, especially for Wookiee fans." Woa! Just for the records: Artoo and C-3PO will be there too! You can read the official annoucement here, at StarWars.com."

Several Slashdot staff people are major Larry Niven fans, so we feel he needs no introduction. You asked. He answered. Enough said. Read and enjoy.

snilloc writes "Starwars.com announces that Cartoon Network will carry "Star Wars: Clone Wars" cartoon shorts in order to bridge the gap between Episodes 2 and 3. I guess this means we won't be seeing the Clone Wars in Ep3, as many of us had hoped. On the bright side, we get our SW fix in twenty 2-3 minute shorts. We can only hope against hope that they won't suck."

frotty writes "The developers of Star Wars Galaxies recently announced that the game would only allow a single character per purchased account on any server. This has outraged some, and relieved others." Click on the link to see the reasoning behind this move.

czarneki writes "This is the first book from Phobos Books, a new science fiction publisher based in New York. It's a collection of winning short stories from their 2001 fiction contest, and Orson Scott Card was one of the judges as well as the editor for the book. I knew nothing about this book before finding it in the sci-fi anthology section of the bookstore, and I only picked it up because OSC's name was on the cover. (For an unknown company and an unknown set of authors, this book has an impressive set of people associated with it: Doug Chiang, the design director for the new Star Wars movies, did the cover, and Lawrence Krauss of The Physics of Star Trek wrote a foreword.)" With that pedigree, I'm sure you'll want to read the rest of czarneki's review, below.

Slashback with a reader review of the IMAX version of Star Wars Episode Two,the continuing courtship of AIM and ICQ, episode 408 of Futurama, and more, including How to go around the world without going anywhere at all. Read on below!

tiltowait writes In response to the incredulity expressed in this story about the technical prowess of libraries, I'd like to present a short essay titled "Librarians: We're Not What You Think" - read on for more. Update: 10/20 18:15 GMT by M : The author has also put up his essay on his own webpage.

randomErr writes "Canada.com has an article about Frank Robinson, an man who is into Lego WAY more than the average builder. Frank said "I still get Lego for my birthday and at Christmas, too. So do my kids." At last count the Robinson family's Lego inventory was nearing 100,000 pieces, a majority of which were tallied and itemized by type and colour on a computer spreadsheet." No Lego story would be complete without a link to something large and useless, say, a Lego harpsichord. Okay, it plays, so it's not actually useless. But the Lego Star Destroyer is.

skywalker404 writes: "Hasbro is releasing a 15" tall, functioning R2 unit. 'We built in all the feistiness of R2D2,' said Jeff Popper, director of marketing for Hasbro. 'He has the same charisma and charm that we have come to know in R2D2.' And apparently 'Hasbro also has programmed secret commands into R2D2 - putting an emphasis on the upper end of the "8-and-over" target market.' Rocky Mountain News has this article on it. You can also go to the (very meager) website that Hasbro has made just for it."

An anonymous reader writes "Be the first on your block to drive on of these! a StarWars Land Speeder. This used to be a 1988 Ford Escort and only has 880 miles since built." This is a surprisingly impressive conversion.