It has been 5 long weeks however The Dark Knight has finally been dethroned from the US top spot. Tropic Thunder starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. took around $37 million, compared to The Dark Knight’s $16 million. Although, it did make more than Star Wars: The Clone Wars which took around $15 million.

The Dark Knight has just crossed the $800 million mark worldwide and has overtook Star Wars to become the second highest grossing film ever in the US. Batman overtakes the Star Wars franchise twice in one week, how cool is that? Only Titanic stands in it’s way for the top spot, although it is unlikely it will beat it. Adjusted for inflation The Dark Knight sits around 39th above Goldfinger and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, and it would have to take around $900 million to overtake Stars Wars. Although most people don’t bother too much with inflation so, well done to The Dark Knight!

Edit: Tropic Thunder grossed $11 million on Wednesday and Thursday, then $26 million over the weekend. It still beat The Dark Knight either way.

The Star Wars franchise returns this week as Star Wars: The Clone Wars is released on most parts of the planet. However, there will be no Hayden Christensen or Ewan McGregor. No Natalie Portman or Frank Oz. In fact, the only actors returning to voice their characters are Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu), Christopher Lee (Count Dooku), and Anthony Daniels (C-3P0).

Why is this?

MTV asked George Lucas that very question:

“When we decided to do the feature, we went back to the actors and said, ‘Look, we’re doing a feature. Would you like to do the voice? Could you come in a month?’ Some of them were all over the world. It was hard to get all the actors that would be off on set,” Lucas told reporters at a press conference last week. “You need people available every week. [Also] you can’t really afford multi-million dollar actors to do a television series. Those guys make more during their coffee break.”

But the bottom line for why most of the actors aren’t returning to voice the characters they made famous? Because George Lucas doesn’t need them, Lucas himself said to reporters.

“It used to be in animation you just had [unknown] actors do the parts. The idea of hiring a really good actor – Tom Hanks [for instance] – was a really revolutionary idea,” Lucas said. “Partly they did it because they were great actors, partly they did it cause they wanted to use them for publicity. To be very honest with you, I don’t really think I need to hire a big movie star to publicize my movie. I don’t need Angelina Jolie here. That’s what it comes down to in the end. They have two days in the studio and then they have like two weeks doing press. They are mainly paid for the press stuff.”

He has a point. Although it would have been great to have everyone back to voice an animated version of their characters, it is not how the world works. In Hollywood anyway.

How many of us have wanted to wield a lightsaber? Well, soon you’ll be able to!

It took a few years, but it looks like LucasArts is finally going to deliver Star Wars fans the lightsaber simulator they’re been looking for.

In a press release, the company formally announced the long-awaited (not to mention long-winded) Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels for the Nintendo Wii. Based on the upcoming Clone Wars animated feature film, the game turns players into amateur Jedi by transforming the Wii remote into the legendary Jedi sword, letting them virtually slice and dice through destructible Clone Wars environments.

Fans should take heed, however — since the game is based on the Clone Wars film, it will not feature popular characters from the original trilogy, such as Luke Skywalker.

Scheduled for release sometime in holiday 2008, Lightsaber Duels will be the third Star Wars game to hit the Wii, following the smash hit Lego Star Wars and the upcoming action game, The Force Unleashed.

Everyone, START YOUR WIIs!

A new trailer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars is now online. I’ll admit that I haven’t been following this, but after watching the trailer I wish I had. The animation looks great and the familiar voice of Samuel L Jackson combined with the classic Star Wars theme made me have 1/8th of a Star Wars fangasm.

Check it out below!

Star Wars: The Clone Wars will hit the big screen on August 15th 2008. The movie leads directly into the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series on Cartoon Network.