If you recall in May, we told you about the 2008 Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge by Atom. We were contacted by Atom (no  longer Atom Films) to tell you that the finalist are in! To vote, head over here to see the finalists and then vote for what movie you think is the best by July 10! Please note: To vote you must be registered at the Atom website, so do that while you’re there if you haven’t already.

The time has finally come. Since May of last year, the Star Wars.com homepage has been a neat, cool looking assortment of planets that show the latest news, while the rest of the website stuck with the old look. Now, it’s all changed!

Words can’t describe the number of differences, so check it out for yourself here. Be sure to revisit your favorite pages, none of them look like they used to! Special thanks to Club Jade for the image.

Comic Book Resources has a report for Mr. Sansweet’s entire presentation at Wizard Would in Chicago on Saturday, June 28. Sansweet talks The Clone Wars, The Force Unleashed, and more. Here’s an excerpt from the report:

“On Saturday, June 28, Lucasfilm gave WizardWorld Chicago attendees an extensive preview of their major upcoming projects. Steve Sansweet, head of Fan Relations, warmed the audience up by asking which bottle Todd McFarlene (who was on the previous panel) drank out of so he could sell it on Ebay and then introduced himself.“My name is Steve, and I’m a Star Wars-oholic.”

The first project he then discussed was the theatrical release of the Clone Wars television series on August 15.”

You can read the entire report on his presentation here. Enjoy!

Source: Comic Book Resources (via)

This just in from Doug, the Co-Founder of the hot new site “Galactic Binder:”

“GalacticBinder.com continues its series of feature interviews with Star Wars author and video game writer, Drew Karpyshyn. Drew discusses everything fromhis website to his Darth Bane novels to what Star Wars sites he visits. Come check out what in the Star Wars universe still gives him the shivers!

GalacticBinder also announces its second free giveaway. Please stop by to enter for a chance to win a Celebration III Exclusive lithograph from none other than the amazing Jerry Vanderstelt. This lithograph is one of the most sought after pieces of Star Wars art in the past ten years and seldom can be found on the
market. “

You can check out the interview here and then head over to here for the chance to enter in their giveaway, which can be seen above. Don’t forget to check out all of the websites listed on the largest SW Site directory, Galactic Binder!

If you plan to go to Star Wars weekends, expect to wait in line. A lot. This video shows the process of getting an autograph. Overall, at least 2 hours are spent just to get one autograph. The video shows a some of the lines that were formed early in the morning, an hour before the park opened. Everyone in the video is there for an autograph. Also shown is some good footage of David Prowse and Peter Mayhew at their autograph booths.

 Next up in the Disney Star Wars Weekends Coverage: Video of park activities, and a picture gallery.

The first version is standard quality for faster streaming and downloading. The second version is 720p HD, which requires a high-speed connection.

The latest QuickTime plugins are required to play these videos.

Click here for the 720p HD version. WARNING: This file is 44MB in size and may take a while to download and play.

On Friday, the EUCantina sent staff to cover Disney Star Wars Weekends. Coverage will include several exclusive videos and images. The videos and images will be released during the remainder of the weekend. To start, we bring you video of the Behind the Force special, which was hosted by Steve Sansweet, for this weekend only. The following video includes Steve’s entire speech, along with an introduction of Anakin’s apprentice. During the time when video was played at Behind the Force, taping was not allowed. However, most of the video came from Star Wars.com and other Internet sources. The real treat of the event was hearing Mr. Sansweet, who is as much a fan as everyone else, discuss the Clone Wars and The Force Unleashed.

The first version is standard quality for faster streaming and downloading. The second version is 720p HD, which requires a high-speed connection.

The latest QuickTime plugins are required to play these videos.

Click here for the 720p HD version. WARNING: This file is 350MB in size and may take a while to download and play.

Our good friends over at UK site Lightsabre have just updated their site with a wicked new layout. Their new face lift includes a new red background and banner, a new and completly organized and fresh menu-bar, and much more. (A small image is above.)

Head over there now to check out the amazing interviews, rpg, and new entries. Also be on the look out for an EUC Webmaster interview with our very own Austin (Old Master Ben) on Sunday night. Enjoy!

Source: Lightsabre

J.W Rinzler, author of “The Complete Making of Indiana Jones: The Definitive Story Behind All Four Films” and “The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film” has done an interview with our good friends at Lightsabre.

Q – You mentioned the Clone Wars as well, are your hopes high for that as well? There seems to be a good building of attention for the film, people seem very aware of it.

A – It’s really interesting, I don’t think anybody could have predicted that a Star Wars film would come out as an animated movie. We’ve seen a lot of the cartoons, and I haven’t actually seen the movie per se, I know the story but it’s looking real good. They’ve really taken a lot of care, a lot more care than what goes in to your average animated TV show.

Q – So you guys weren’t expecting it to become a movie? In fandom we were surprised that he decided to do a movie, it seemed to have really come out of the blue. It’s going to be exciting to see it on the big screen again for sure.

A – Yeah, but a lot of stuff George does happens organically. I’ve been working with him on a book, which I think we’re announcing fairly soon, it’s been fascinating to watch just how this project started, and changed into one thing, got bigger and in general his projects tend to get bigger. If there’s one general rule I’d say that’s it.

You can check out the entire interview here.

Our friends over at Lightsabre, along with our friends at Jedi News, were able to get a sneak peek at Indy 4. You can read their excellent, spoiler-free, joint review here.

We were just contacted by the nice folks at Atom Films with this:

“Howdy EU Cantina team!

We wanted to let you know that we’ve launched a revamped
2008 Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge website to help Star Wars fans create
the ultimate fan film and compete for the chance to get their movie on
TV!

AtomFilms has teamed up again with Lucasarts for the
annual fan film challenge. Star Wars fans should submit their fan movie,
parody or official Star Wars mashup by the MAY 27 DEADLINE for a shot at
intergalactic infamy! Not only will the winners be announced at Comic
Con in July - including one winning film hand-selected by George Lucas
himself - but top clips will earn air time on Spike TV! Plus, this is
the first year that fans can enter mashups in the contest — the simple
mashup tool at http://starwars.com lets fans use real Star Wars footage
to create their entries, so now you don’t need a camera to make a film!

To help out fans, we’ve launched a comprehensive site at
http://starwars.atomfilms.com. Here filmmakers will find the official
rules and guidelines, a production kit to help give their films the
perfect touch, past winning films, and much more! It’s pretty much the
best resource contestants can get without breaking into Skywalker Ranch!”

In case you weren’t aware, the The deadline for entry into the Fan Movie Challenge is May 27, and voting will run on AtomFilms.com from June 26 until July 10, 2008. So, if you’re interested in entering, or just watching, check it all out here. Enjoy!

Source: Atom Films

This week sees the release of Star Wars Rebellion #13, part 3 of 4 for the story arc Small Victories. If you’ve been following the story and enjoying it, be sure to pick it up this week. Also, this weekend is Free Comic Book day, and Wizards of the Coast is releasing 3 Star Wars Miniatures only in select stores so be sure to check with your comic store for availability. The complete Free Comic Book Day list can be found here.

Source: Diamond Comics, Free Comic Book Day.com