The following is the text of the Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back opening crawl:

It is a dark time for the Rebellion. Although the Death Star has been destroyed, Imperial troops have driven the Rebel forces from their hidden base and pursued them across the galaxy.

Evading the dreaded Imperial Starfleet, a group of freedom fighters led by Luke Skywalker has established a new secret base on the remote ice world of Hoth.

The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding young Skywalker, has dispatched thousands of remote probes into the far reaches of space….

Relevant External Link: Wikipedia article on Opening crawl

No. Though release of the novelization of the first Star Wars film preceded that of the film, Star Wars was always imagined, by creator/writer/director George Lucas, as a film (or series of films). When the book was released (with George Lucas’ name, but ghost-written by Alan Dean Foster), the film was already in production. Each subsequent film in the series has had a novelization released before the film, but was based entirely on the script of the film. (more…)

Short answer, fall of 2007 and beyond.

Long answer- according to Steve Sansweet, head of Lucasfilm fan relations, a Star Wars 3D animated series set between the Episode II and Episode III- during the clone wars- is in pre-production as of February 2006. It is slated for release in the fall of 2006 and George Lucas is remaining involved with the entire process.

A live action series of “100 one hour episodes” (according to Rick McCallum) will not get under way until later and may not hit television screens until the end of the decade- i.e. 2010. This will be set between Episode III and Episode IV.

The series are not based on any of the main characters. Contrary to rumors, Clerks director Kevin Smith is not involved (as of February 2006).

(Some information courtesy MovieWeb)

I finally made it to the Star Wars exhibit at the Museum of Science here in Boston and it was worth every penny ($5 with a discount I got; up to $20 for normal people). From full scale models to costumes to replicas to miniatures and of course, the most important part, using it all to get kids interested in real science. I took 100s of photographs for you all, of which 59 of the best Museum of Science Star Wars pictures are uploaded and ready for consumption.

The tour started with “Luke’s landspeeder from Episode IV”:; a miniature and a full scale model. There was a section devoted to droids, with R2, 3PO, Droidekas and more. In the ‘Robot Theater’, they had a show (hosted by an animatronic C3PO inside a rusty sandcrawler) to teach kids about real world robots. The Aibos playing soccer was cool.

There were many sections where kids could build their own robots and test different real-world theories that could explain Star Wars technologies such as magnetic levitation and prosthetic limbs. Speaking of prosthetic limbs, in addition to models of the famous prosthetic arms of Star Wars, they also had models and descriptions of real world prosthetics.

Among Star Wars exhibits, the coolest was the 3-piece Darth Vader helmet, dismantled and available to view (through glass) inside and out. The inside of Vader’s helmet (as seen at the end of Episode III) is a very cool sight. There were many original models and costumes from the film; and for the first time, I saw stuff from all 6 films at the same location.

Instead of listing everything I saw, take a look at my Museum of Science picture gallery and come back here to tell me what you thought. The exhibit is definitely worth the trip for Star Wars fans; but you knew that already.