First things first...here's the official announcement:

4:00-5:00 The Saga Continues: Star Wars 2008— For Star Wars fans it’s a stellar year, with the new Clone Wars movie on its way next month and great new Star Wars games from LucasArts to follow shortly. Lucasfilm’s Steve Sansweet will welcome Dave Filoni (director), Catherine Winder (producer), Henry Gilroy (co-writer), and Jason Tucker (editor) to talk about George Lucas’ ground-breaking new, fully animated movie, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, in theaters August 15. There’s news for video game fans too, on The Force Unleashed and The Clone Wars. Prepare for exciting, exclusive previews of the movie and the games too! Hall H.

Next, the panel began nearly half an hour late, because the line was wrapped around the corner, and looped on itself not once, not twice....but three times! Crazy! I didn't have to wait sooo long, but still! That's nuts! Although I gotta give props t the folks running crowd control...they had things very organized and the line moved along smoothly.

They talked a little about The Clone Wars...and now they are about to show a clip from the movie. This is the first time anyone has seen the footage outside of Lucasfilm...

Well, not quite...it's actually the same footage we saw during Celebration Japan, so this would be the first time it's been shown to a US audience. Either way, it's very cool...Anakin, Obi-Wan, clones, droids, lots of blaster fire and exploding limbs! I think I even heard a Wilhelm scream! :)

The decision to kick off the animated series with a live-action film was due to George's reaction to what Dave was doing with the show...it NEEDED to be shown on the big screen! Luckily, the first story arc they were making was self-contained enough to turn it into a movie.

Ahsoka is the new padawan character introduced in the movie, but the animated series will allow them to take over from the movie and elaborate more into the world of Star Wars...really exploring more than just Anakin & Obi-Wan. While those two characters are in the film, they will not be the central characters. There's room for the background dudes as well!

A lot of the ideas from Dave & Henry were presented to George, and there aren't many that were turned down. Some of the characters are from the comic books, so comic fans will love the series.

Now they're talking about their personal backgrounds...why not show some more footage?

This footage shows Luminara Unduli....BRAND NEW footage! WHOO-HOO!!

The footage included Luminara, Ahsoka, Commander Gree, Super Battle Droids, Clones, Nute Gunray, Dooku, Sidious....with a huge applause from the audience.

Looks like that wraps up the presentation. So, that'll do it from the Star Wars 2008 panel....time to take a break! But be sure to check out The Force-Cast tonight for a LIVE report from the Midnight Madness event at Toys "R" Us!