Welcome to the first “Nerd Week in Review.” Every Sunday I’ll be coming to you and going over all of the top Nerd stories for the past week. Let’s jump right in this week with the man genre fans love to hate…

200,000 Fans Hate Uwe Boll…Boll Claims It Isn’t Enough

After an interview with FearNet.com, director Uwe Boll has stated he will no longer direct movies if an online petition reaches one million signatures. When told a petition at www.petitiononline.com had more than 18,000 signatures requesting Boll no longer make movies, the director responded by saying 18,000 wasn’t enough to convince him and that one million would do it.

Well, fans seem to be rallying behind the “one million” battlecry and nearly 200,000 fans have now signed the petition asking Boll to “stop directing, producing, or taking any part in the creation of feature films.”

A competing petition went up the next day asking Boll to continue directing films. Unfortunately, only Boll’s mother and about 1600 of his closest friends have signed so far.

I’d say let the man keep directing because he did, after all, give us a topless scene of Kristanna Loken getting banged up against a jail cell in Bloodrayne. And, I for one will forgive anything in exchange for a bit of gratuitous nudity.

Don’t Fuck With Chuck!

In other celebrity news, it seems that Chuck Norris was at the top of a hit list written by a high school student in New Jersey. The “hit list” was found on the student’s desk by one of his teachers and contained the names of three fellow students, a school staff member and Chuck Norris, aka Walker, Texas Ranger. The New Jersey police took the student in to custody and will be charging him with one count of making a terrorist threat, in spite of the unnamed student insisting it was a joke.

Of course it was a joke, man. We all know no one can kill Chuck Norris, except maybe Bruce Lee, but he’s dead! Heck, Chuck Norris is so tough he doesn’t wear a condom beecause everyone knows nothing can protect you from Chuck Norris.

LucasFilm Sues Stormtrooper Designer in to a Galaxy Far, Far Away

In a move almost as stupid as going after Chuck Norris, Andrew Ainsworth (prop designer who constructed the original Stormtrooper suits for Star Wars) is countersuing LucasFilms for a portion of the ungodly merchandising revenue of the Star Wars franchise. This is in spite of a 2006 ruling by a California court in favor of Lucasfilm, which awarded them $20 million in damages. It seems Ainsworth’s company, Shepperton Design Studios, has been selling Star Wars knock off props online for years now and the Lucas folks took exception to the theft of their intellectual property, and rightly so I.

I can understand wanting to make a few bucks here and there, but everyone in fandom knows that LucasFilm’s penchant for lawsuits is second only to that of Disney. LucasFilm has moved the legal fight overseas and will be seeking a ruling from the High Court in London in the matter.

My God, Ainsworth, don’t piss off Lucas…you don’t know the power of the dark side.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Theatrical Trailer Leaked…and then Unleaked

In another bit of LucasFilm news, the trailer to the upcoming Star Wars: The Clones Wars theatrical release was leaked out on to the internet earlier this week. The trailer will be running with the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull film in May, and some naughty little Rebel decided to post a low quality version of it on YouTube earlier this week. I had hope to be able to post a link to the trailer, but the legal department of LucasFilm has already pounced and had the trailer removed. You can find the official LucasFilm teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars from earlier this year HERE.

The 3D animated film will be released in theaters on August 15, 2008, and takes place between Star Wars Episodes II and III, following the adverntures of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Star Wars: The Clone Wars the film will be a lead in to the 3D animated half hour TV series set to air Fall 2008 on the Cartoon Network and TNT.

Now, I had a chance to see the trailer and it looked pretty darn good. I’m not sure about the who “son of Jabba the Hutt” storyline — it feels like Lucas is trying to tie portions of the later films too tightly to the earlier stories — but I’ll definitely be in line to check the film out. While I wasn’t a fan of the designs early on (basically 3D versions of the old 2D Clone Wars cartoon from a few years ago), they have definitely grown on me over time and I am excited for a continued trip to that Galaxy Far, Far away later this year.

Amazon.Com Aids Helps the Handi-capable

Amazon.com has announced that if you are one of the morons who purchased an HD-DVD player from them in the past couple of months, they will give you up to $50 in refund for your lack of intelligence. The email they sent out to anyone who purchased an HDDVD player before February 23, 2008, reads as follows:

“New technologies don’t always work out as planned. We at Amazon.com value our customer relationships more than anything and would like to support customers who purchased these players by offering a credit good for $50 off any products sold by Amazon.com.** Just use promotional code [redacted] when checking out. The code is valid through April 9, 2009, so you have plenty of time to use your credit. Purchases from third-party merchants on our site are not eligible”

It’s mighty nice to see Amazon taking pity on the mentally challenged.

Don’t Cross the Streams!! Ghostbusters the Game official website open for business!

If you’re a child of the 80s like me then you were a fan of the Ghostbuster films AND you’re probably as excited about the new Ghostbusters console game coming out later this year as I am. From what I’ve read about the game, it looks like it has to chance to be one of the top games of the year and I am glad the original Ghostbuster are all taking part in its production - the game’s story is being written by original Ghostbuster creators, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis.

With the excitement building and the official release date having been set at September 26th, 2008, Sierra has launched the official website for the game, which you can find at www.ghostbustersgame.com. Check it out!

That’s it for the Nerd Weekly Wrap-up for April 13, 2008. I’ll see you next week with more news from the world of nerd.

-Mat N., the Nifty Nerd
http://www.TheNiftyNerd.com