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Someone managed to get a clip on-line of the lost Star Wars scene from Jedi where Luke is shown crafting his Lightsaber. The full clip will apparently be included on the Blu-ray box set expected to come out in 2011. Hit the link below to see what is circulating. It's not much, but it looks real. Can't wait to see what they include in the 2015 version.
Update: 08/16 22:44 GMT by S : Lucasfilm complained, and YouTube took the video down.

It excites me incredibly to know that a Cowboy Bebop movie is happening. But it makes me scared to think that Keanu is getting the lead in what might be my single favorite Anime series of all time. I'm very skeptical that he can pull off this role. For now we'll have to wait and speculate who the rest of the cast will be. I'm mostly curious who will get Faye Valentine. And we can only cross our fingers and hope that the soundtrack remains intact.

DesScorp writes "Ricardo Montalban, immortalized as Khan in the Star Trek franchise, is dead at age 88, passing at his Los Angeles home. Montalban had a long and successful career on television and film. The voice of Rich Corinthian Leather is silenced, but we still have the memories."

E Online is reporting that a new spinoff is currently in the works to feature Cleveland, the soft-spoken neighbor in popular animated sitcom Family Guy. "Not much is known about Cleveland other than the fact it will revolve around the Brown clan. It's unclear whether the series will remain set in the town of Quahog or whether Cleveland, along with his wife and son, will continue to appear on Family Guy, though as both series are animated, the double-billing won't so much be a logistical problem as a creative decision."

Penguinsh*t writes "Though the movie version of Knight Rider has remained 'up on chocks' for the better part of the last decade, Knight Rider, the TV show is revving into high gear. 'The premise of the show will essentially remain the same as the original, which centered on a mulleted man righting wrongs with the help of a particularly chatty and souped-up automobile. No word yet on who will play the hero this time around, but the Peacock is looking for some new blood.' Besides which, 'the Hoff' is busy."

An anonymous reader writes to let us know that a new X-Files movie is in pre-production, directed and written by Chris Carter and starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Duchovny said in an interview that his understanding is that filming will start in November for a summer 2008 release. The article notes that in an earlier interview, Anderson said the film "would stay away from the series' (and first film's) sometimes tortured mythology" (quoting the article, not Anderson).

An anonymous reader writes "E! Online has an article about friction between archive.org and the surviving members of the Grateful Dead. They have come to an amicable understanding after some confusion involving online bootlegs." From the article: "A week after some of the surviving members of the Grateful Dead ordered a nonprofit site to remove free downloads of the seminal jam band's concerts--sparking massive online backlash and a Deadhead petition calling for a boycott of all band-related merchandise--the band has reversed its position. 'The Grateful Dead remains as it always has--in favor of tape trading,' spokesman Dennis McNally tells the Associated Press. "

Both E! Online and Gamespy have looks at the most recently launched Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying game, The Matrix Online. From the Gamespy article: "Since the close of the beta, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that it has employed a troupe of 20-odd people whose job it will be to enact narrative scenarios in The Matrix Online live. These people will assume the roles of popular characters, interact with players, and generally move the stories in ways that only live "actors" can."

Androclese writes "E! Online News reports - 'Star Wars: Clone Wars, a series of animated shorts featuring the epic battles often mentioned but never seen in the Star Wars films, is being prepped for its fall premiere on the Cartoon Network...helmed by Genndy Tartakovsky of Samurai Jack and Dexter's Laboratory fame. Each Clone Wars adventure will run two-to-three minutes and focus on Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and their cohorts as they lead the Galactic Republic against evil armies of cloned troopers created by the Separatists.'"

Androclese writes "E! Online News reports - 'Star Wars: Clone Wars, a series of animated shorts featuring the epic battles often mentioned but never seen in the Star Wars films, is being prepped for its fall premiere on the Cartoon Network...helmed by Genndy Tartakovsky of Samurai Jack and Dexter's Laboratory fame. Each Clone Wars adventure will run two-to-three minutes and focus on Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and their cohorts as they lead the Galactic Republic against evil armies of cloned troopers created by the Separatists.'"

Tonight's Slashback brings updates and clarifications to several previous Slashdot stories, so read on below for information on the (over-stated) recall of Segway scooters, the fate of RAV AntiVirus's Linux development team, VeriSign's Site Finder, the (latest) Lindows v. Microsoft scuffle, and more.

Linux antivirus developers join Kaspersky Labs prostoalex writes "The Linux development team of Romania-based RAV AntiVirus, acquired this June by US-based Microsoft, joined Russia-based Kaspersky Labs. This transition took place after Microsoft confirmed there will be no Linux or Novell version of antivirus software. Kaspersky Labs now works on RAV Migration program for Unix/Linux users, since the company officials deem this market as one of the fastest-growing."

VeriSign must love attention. talon77 writes "Netsys is reporting that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Verisign due to their Sitefinder. It's about time."

And Anonymous Brave Guy writes "VeriSign are in legal trouble yet again, this time for handing over a domain name to a former employee of the former holder. Also some interesting tidbits in here about the impact of the sex.com case, the fact that since July domain names are regarded as property under U.S. law, and the idea that VeriSign might themselves be held accountable for punitive damages awarded against someone who takes over a domain name improperly."

Piling on, Anonymous submits: "Verisign seems to have issues with returning proper response packets for DNS queries on unused domains, so we thought we would give them a quick reminder in case they forgot what the right answer was. You can find pictures here. (This was on their building in Mountain View, and the signs said 'Verisign/Netsol, as if people didn't hate you enough already... How greedy/stupid are you? [Made with figlet/vim/a2ps/poster.c]')"

Update: 10/02 00:37 GMT by T : And (ooops!) this part got chopped off: "Note that the Verisign web search is powered by Inktomi for search and overture for ads, both of which are now owned by Yahoo. You can always vote with your dollars and your clicks."

Ohio uncappers peer at the ToS. Mike writes "Looks like Broadband Reports has posted a follow up to what happened to those Ohio Cable broadband users who had FBI agents confiscate their hardware for uncapping their modems (See original BBR story here, Slashdot story here). Looks like most of the offenders settled for fines and community service, but one took the case all the way, and eventually got it overturned because the cable company's AUP failed to clearly mention their legal stance on uncapping."

Thorn-in-side lessons, part IIXIIXV. jlechem writes "Lindows and Microsoft are at it again. Wired News is running a story about Lindows refusing to take down the settlement website reported on by Slashdot earlier. CEO Michael Robertsone stated 'Our plan is to continue to offer the MSfreePC service in spite of your threats. If required, we will be a voice in the courtroom defending a consumer's right to use technology and an online process to secure their settlement claims.'"

MPAA Scratches Oscar Screeners xstein writes "In a follow up to this story, the major studios have agreed to go along the MPAA's proposal to stop sending out screener tapes and DVDs to Academy members. The agreement would include MPAA's seven studio members, Disney, WB, Sony, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, and MGM, as well as their affiliates, which include New Line, Miramax, Focus Features and Sony Pictures Classics. Dreamworks, although not an MPAA member, also agreed to the ban. This move scratches a longstanding tradition, and is seen to hurt smaller, independent-minded movies distributed by MPAA members the most, though may allow truly independent studios such as Lions Gate to gain extra attention with their screener tapes. E! Online and Salon.com have the scoop."

Phantom Offices? Ray B writes "On September 18th, Slashdot posted about an article on the Phantom video game console. Of particular note in the primary article investigating the Phantom's founder(s), was that the company did not even have physical offices.

Just four days later, the Phantom email Newsletter #2 is issued, with the first bit of news being:

"Infinium Labs recently signed a five-year lease on 10,000 sq. ft. of prime office space to locate its corporate offices in the Centre Pointe Building in downtown Sarasota, Florida. The Centre Pointe offices are in close proximity to many of the company's early investors, its corporate legal counsel and the industrial design firm that is developing the Phantom Game System(TM) prototypes"

Coincidence or damage control?"

Well, start with the Python then and work your way up. Wolfbone writes "A recent edition of 'Global Business,' a BBC World Service programme available here in RealAudio form, contains an admission that the BBC cannot afford to put it's entire archive online, contradicting an earlier Slashdot story and the BBC's own report. Even though it only has 11.56 Petabytes of the stuff, some of it recorded on wax cylinders, it would be too expensive, apparently, to keep their earlier promise. The rest of the programme is about the more general problems of long term archiving of data and how some organizations still don't trust digital electronic formats and prefer to stick with paper and microfiche."

Segway recall: in and out in 10 minutes! ptorrone writes "I got my Segway HT updated today, the 'recall' is a simple software update, it took 10 minutes and that was about it. To clarify what the recall is ...the HTs are not being sent back, Segway has people in each state of the USA and they update them. So far all owners have been notified and thousands have updated. The update makes it harder for people to ride after numerous low battery alerts (3 people out of 6,000 thought something else). Here are my pictures from the update procedure."

neoThoth writes "The MPAA is calling for a ban on all screeners for awards ceremonies. They state piracy as the rationale for killing of this tradition of the industry. It's interesting how this is never mentioned in their cries for tougher piracy laws. It's own members are the main source of piracy. 'The Directors, Writers and Screen Actors Guild all get screeners, as does the Golden Globe-selecting Hollywood Foreign Press Association and various critics' groups.'" Remember, movie piracy doesn't just hurt actors, but also camera operators, key grips, makeup artists, and costumers.

Dante Alighieri writes "Box Office Mojo, the Washington Post, E!, and others reports that The Matrix Reloaded opened with a record of $42.5 million in ticket sales." I saw it yesterday and have a variety of opinions on it, but the short review is that it isn't the original, but it's pretty damn cool, and I'm first in line for Revolution.

Lots of newsbits about copyright infringement today - let's mash them all together with some egg whites and breadcrumbs and see what we get. marklyon writes "The DOJ announced that they are planning to prosecute filesharers under the The No Electronic Theft ("NET") Act. John Malcolm, a deputy assistant attorney general, made the pronouncement at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's annual technology and politics summit Tuesday. Cnet has extended coverage." Reader M_Talon writes "According to this article on ZDNET the RIAA is using one of the DMCA's more nasty clauses...the right to subpoena an ISP for a suspected pirate's personal information. They want to force Verizon to reveal the customer's information, and Verizon is refusing on the grounds that the pirated material isn't on their servers." Reader MattW writes "Apparently some theaters are consenting to run anti-piracy ads before movies. After all, these are not a bunch of fat cats we're talking about -- piracy now threatens the livelihood of the rank and file workers of Hollywood. After all, the movie studios are having a terrible year, right?" Finally, the Washington Post (probably one of the last articles we post from their site, as they go registration-required) discovers spoofed files on Gnutella, and public radio is reporting that the RIAA will drop their suit against listen4ever.com, since it's, uh, gone.

jonerik writes "Despite six witty, intelligent seasons, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' has never been able to catch a break from the folks at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences who vote on the annual Emmy Awards, with the show's nine nominations to date (with no wins) being mostly in technical categories. And, according to this piece from E! Online, when the ballots for this year's Emmy nominations were sent out in early June, this season's musical tour de force, 'Once More With Feeling,' was inexplicably left out of list of shows eligible for the Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series catefory. The academy has attempted to correct its error by sending out postcards to Emmy voters informing them that they can, in fact, vote for the episode, but the fix is probably too little, too late. According to awards-show expert Tom O'Neil, 'It entailed such extraordinary effort that it was unlikely the voters would do it even if they loved the episode. So it definitely curses its chances.' If you missed it the first time around, 'Once More With Feeling' will be re-run tomorrow evening at 8pm eastern time on UPN."

jonerik writes "Despite six witty, intelligent seasons, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' has never been able to catch a break from the folks at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences who vote on the annual Emmy Awards, with the show's nine nominations to date (with no wins) being mostly in technical categories. And, according to this piece from E! Online, when the ballots for this year's Emmy nominations were sent out in early June, this season's musical tour de force, 'Once More With Feeling,' was inexplicably left out of list of shows eligible for the Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series catefory. The academy has attempted to correct its error by sending out postcards to Emmy voters informing them that they can, in fact, vote for the episode, but the fix is probably too little, too late. According to awards-show expert Tom O'Neil, 'It entailed such extraordinary effort that it was unlikely the voters would do it even if they loved the episode. So it definitely curses its chances.' If you missed it the first time around, 'Once More With Feeling' will be re-run tomorrow evening at 8pm eastern time on UPN."

gpinzone writes, "MGM and Danjaq, the British company that controls the Bond film license, have obtained a cease-and-desist order against New Line Cinema that prohibits New Line from calling the latest installment of Mike Myers' shagadelic spy series Austin Powers in Goldmember . The full article is available from E!-Online."

gpinzone writes, "MGM and Danjaq, the British company that controls the Bond film license, have obtained a cease-and-desist order against New Line Cinema that prohibits New Line from calling the latest installment of Mike Myers' shagadelic spy series Austin Powers in Goldmember . The full article is available from E!-Online."

gpinzone writes, "MGM and Danjaq, the British company that controls the Bond film license, have obtained a cease-and-desist order against New Line Cinema that prohibits New Line from calling the latest installment of Mike Myers' shagadelic spy series Austin Powers in Goldmember . The full article is available from E!-Online."

On June 6th, MPAA Chairman Jack Valenti finally recorded a deposition to be used by the United States District Court in the case of the DVD CCA vs. 2600. The deposition is available here from Cryptome, and here on 2600's site. Wired has an article about the deposition here, as well. According to the phrase-counters at Wired, Mr. Valenti said "I don't know" 62 times, "I don't recall" 29 times, and "I'm not aware" 16 times. Interesting that Mr. Valenti makes all sorts of statements, but isn't actually aware of what's going on.

Spazmoid wrote to us with (we sure don't link here often) a Eonline story talking about an upcoming interview with Sir Alec Guinness. Guinness talks about how much he hates Star Wars, dimissing the script as "those bloody awful banal lines." Now, before people go calling him a heretic, I'd argue that TPM has shown Lucas' negative side to a great degree. The sheer franchisization of the movies is stunning, IMHO-but what do you folks think?

*Menace* writes "So, it seems that a Canadian mother sued South Park because her young son's name is Kenny, and watching the show's Kenny die horribly week after week has given the real-life Kenny some psychological issues to deal with." Fortunately, she lost, but its a pretty amusing article anyway.

SPL wrote in with a link to E! Online's Episode II rumours Interesting ideas; it seems almost certain that Obi-wan and Mace Windu will have larger parts. DiCaprio as Anakin? Darth Maul's clone? I think I'll be happy as long as Jar Jar doesn't return.

arne fismenü wrote in to send us a link to E Online where you can actually read the Crawl Text for Phantom Menace. If you haven't bumped into this thing yet, and don't mind a bit of spoiler, check it out.