Star Wars

Anthony Daniels admits that being a pop icon can get old. But the man who played the gleaming gold robot C-3PO in all six "Star Wars" movies is by no means complaining. When hundreds of thousands of people have been so touched by your work, it's hard to stay too down. "Yes, there were times when it felt old, and almost - I'm going to use the word 'embarrassing,' without meaning to be unkind," says the 63-year-old British actor, who will be at 1st Mariner Arena Wednesday night to serve as narrator for "Star Wars in Concert," a multimedia presentation of John Williams' Oscar-winning scores, complete with orchestra, a huge movie screen and all manner of light effects.

In a move that most saw coming, BioWare will open up its “Star Wars” MMO, “The Old Republic” for free play this fall. Reports over the last six months of the game losing subscribers have been steady, with the company confirming Tuesday that the amount of paying customers has “dipped below one million.” BioWare has tried to bolster interest in the midst of the falling subscription numbers by offering free trial weekends to new players...

Come September, the Force returns to the original Star Wars' biggest fans. Between Sept. 12 and Dec. 31, those who fell in love with Han Solo and Princess Leia in theaters will be able to purchase the original versions of Episodes IV (1977, A New Hope), V (1980, The Empire Strikes Back) and VI (1983, Return of the Jedi), for the first time on DVD, packaged with the digitally enhanced and expanded versions released theatrically in 1997. Each title will go out as a two-disc set with a suggested retail price of $29.95.

News Roundup •••• The PAX East gaming convention kicks off today in Boston, with the fans and journalists eager to get a hands-on look at titles like Harmonix's newest offering, “Rock Band Blitz.” It's expected that Nintendo will share some more Wii U news, along with a rumored “ amazing announcement ” from BioWare. [ Pax East ] •••• Newly-minted NBA superstar Jeremy Lin is catching up on his gaming while recovering from surgery.

If there was one weapon system that caught the popular imagination in recent years it was "star wars," the sci-fi plan President Ronald Reagan launched in 1983 to put a protective anti-missile umbrella over this nation.It was to involve a network of satellites, sensors, lasers and interceptors in a triumph of 21st-century technology over age-old fears of attack. A decade and $36 billion later, it was abandoned as too much, too late.The end of the Cold War meant the end of "star wars."The reverse has also been argued: "Star wars" meant the end of the Cold War. It enabled the United States to play a card to which the Soviet Union had no answer, either financially or technologically.

IT'S COMING! PUT YOUR ear to the page and listen ... Bom-bom! Bom bom bom bom-bom! Bom bom bom bom bom! Bom bom bom bom ... That's right: It's the theme from "Star Wars," the movie series that gave the world a whole new lexicon, including such phrases as "the Force," "Death Star," "light saber," "lexicon" and "licensed merchandise.""Star Wars" has become an important and cherished part of our shared cultural heritage, like Starbucks and Pez. And soon another chapter will be added to the "Star Wars" legend with the release of the long-awaited new installment in the series, "Episode I: The Empire Gets a Building Permit."

Lucasfilm Ltd., the production company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas and owner of the Star Wars trademark, is suing a Maryland business that sells Star Wars light sabers through the Internet. Lucasfilm filed a patent-infringement lawsuit yesterday against William L. Osburn and an Abingdon company that he owns, High-Tech Magic, in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California. High-Tech Magic is diluting the Star Wars trademark and making a profit by "confusing fans," Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing, said in a statement.

Things had been coming to a head at her Kinko's Copies job for some time. Diana Bradley figured the 10 a.m. screening of "Star Wars" at the Senator Theatre yesterday was as good a reason as any to quit. So she did.There was Bradley in the second row, reading a book in the dim, pre-show light while waiting for the newly released special edition of the 1977 film to begin.Bradley was among 400 or so "Star Wars" acolytes at the Senator yesterday morning for the film's first showing, most of them young adults who essentially grew up with Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and their licensed character merchandise.

TOM KIEFABER walked across York Road about 2: 30 p.m. and headed into the doors of the Senator Theater. Wearing black jeans and a white shirt with a Lucasfilm Ltd. logo in blue letters on the upper left, he stopped briefly to hand a reporter a copy of a letter he had written to his "lawn-chair brigade."He was referring to the folks who sat, ever patiently, in chairs or on the ground in a line that went up York Road, wound its way around Belvedere Avenue and then snaked up a curving side street known as Croydon Road.

WASHINGTON -- In a stiff challenge to the Pentagon's goal of building a "star wars" missile shield, the House yesterday slashed President Bush's $4.7 billion request for the program by more than half, to $2.3 billion.The 225-189 vote sent a clear signal to the Pentagon that support for the Strategic Defense Initiative, waning since President Ronald Reagan left office nearly two years ago, has begun to plummet.Representative Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said the United States needed the "star wars" shield to avoid being "held hostage by some tinhorn dictator" armed with missiles.

News Roundup • SEGA's game division will be trimmed and restructured after an underperforming year. Specifically, SEGA of America will focus on its blue chip titles as underperforming and developing titles have been cancelled. [ Joystiq ] •Households are now spending more time using Xbox Live to listen to music and watch video than they are playing online games. One might expect that the next version of the console is going to be presented as much as a “life device” as it is a “gaming device.” [ Los Angeles Times ]

News Roundup •••• Sony launched the PlayStation Vita on Wednesday in North America and Europe, and analysts are predicting it could actually be a hit for the beleaguered company despite slowing sales in Japan. [ Los Angeles Times ] •••• EA Sports' “NBA Live” franchise, which was briefly “NBA Elite” and then briefly non-existent, will be back for a 2013 edition. I hope EA just caves to “Linsanity” and throws Jeremy Lin on the cover.

Free screenings of a collector's print of " Star Wars: A New Hope" at 4:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Wednesday will honor Tom Kiefaber's final day as operator of the Senator Theatre . Doors open at 4 p.m. The general public is welcome to these showings of a rare 1977 British I.B. Technicolor print of the film. Kiefaber said in a news release, "This is where I came in. I grew up in the Senator and I officially joined the family business in 1977, just as 'Star Wars' was about to change the film industry forever."

Anyone who's been to the movies lately knows that "RELEASE THE KRAKEN!" is probably the catchphrase of the season. As uttered in the trailer for "Clash of the Titans" by a bearded, berobed, Olympic-size Liam Neeson in reference to an 800-foot beast with bad teeth and a worse attitude, it doesn't have the romantic tingle of "You had me at hello." Or the saltiness of "I'll have what she's having." But as movie mantras go, it captures the exclamatory quality of "Clash of the Titans."

T he American Psychiatric Association this week released its proposed revisions to the bible of the profession, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM, and the timing could prove fortuitous. The DSM is always controversial, chiefly because of psychiatrists' propensity to discover and name new illnesses each time the hefty tome is rewritten. The fifth edition continues the trend, with certain substance abusers labeled as suffering from "cannabis-use disorder" and people who twitch while they sleep having "rapid eye movement behavior disorder."

Anthony Daniels admits that being a pop icon can get old. But the man who played the gleaming gold robot C-3PO in all six "Star Wars" movies is by no means complaining. When hundreds of thousands of people have been so touched by your work, it's hard to stay too down. "Yes, there were times when it felt old, and almost - I'm going to use the word 'embarrassing,' without meaning to be unkind," says the 63-year-old British actor, who will be at 1st Mariner Arena Wednesday night to serve as narrator for "Star Wars in Concert," a multimedia presentation of John Williams' Oscar-winning scores, complete with orchestra, a huge movie screen and all manner of light effects.

ON THE MORNING my car was stolen right out of my back yard, I naturally pointed the finger at George W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan before him. Bush and Reagan are not specifically police suspects, as they were nowhere near my neighborhood at the time. But, in the world of criminals and addicts, they have a name of their own: enablers. The cops said my car was probably sold for five bucks to finance some perpetrator's quick narcotics fix. President Bush would spend huge billions for a fantasy "Star Wars" nuclear defense against an enemy we do not know.

Anthony Daniels admits that being a pop icon can get old. But the man who played the gleaming gold robot C-3PO in all six "Star Wars" movies is by no means complaining. When hundreds of thousands of people have been so touched by your work, it's hard to stay too down. "Yes, there were times when it felt old, and almost - I'm going to use the word 'embarrassing,' without meaning to be unkind," says the 63-year-old British actor, who will be at 1st Mariner Arena Wednesday night to serve as narrator for "Star Wars in Concert," a multimedia presentation of John Williams' Oscar-winning scores, complete with orchestra, a huge movie screen and all manner of light effects.

This year's stream of escapist extravaganzas has kept crowds coming to the multiplex. But they haven't always left it happy. Watchmen disappointed Alan Moore fans and novices alike with its slavish, dated devotion to the ultimate dirty-hero graphic novel. Inkheart squandered a potential franchise for all ages about the power of reading, while the slick, empty Angels & Demons proved that Tom Hanks' haircut wasn't the only thing wrong with The Da Vinci Code. Monsters Vs. Aliens was so silly-stupid it made some of us wish we were watching a good version of a grisly film like Aliens Vs. Predators.