Now finding its way into subscribers' mailboxes and on newsstands is Star Wars Insider #96, the official Star Wars magazine from Titan Publishing. Here's a look at what's inside this Imperial Special Issue:

This issue includes all your favorite departments like Scouting the Galaxy, Q&A, Set Piece, Bantha Tracks, International Collecting, Padawan's Corner and more.

Fascinated by the Empire? Find out all you ever wanted to know with this Imperial Collector's Edition! Includes Q&As with the most iconic faces of the Empire; a sneak look at the Imperial Handbook; a Who's Who of the Imperial Military; plus, an exclusive interview with Star Wars producer Rick McCallum and an inside view of the 501st Legion.

The Future of the Force! Taking time out from his visit to Celebration Europe, Star Wars producer Rick McCallum updates Insider on the progress of some upcoming Lucasfilm projects. (See below for excerpt.)

An Excerpt from Star Wars Insider #96
Interview with Producer Rick McCallum:

How is the live-action Star Wars TV show progressing?
It's been exciting because we've had the opportunity to meet over 200 writers. George and I had a fantastic time in England, where we met about 35 or 40 writers. We met a lot in the United States, a couple in Paris, Prague, and Budapest, and then we're off to Australia at the end of July. We're trying to get a group of about five or six people from all around the world. I'm hopefully going to start the writers' conferences later this year. It'll take about six months to get the scripts, so by about 2009 we hope to actually be shooting.

Will you be shooting the show in Australia?
Right now, that's the plan. I think it's going to really depend on where the most effective and cheapest place that we can make it is. Right now, for us, that place is Australia.

How ambitious is the project going to be?
It'll be darker and more mature, and very character based. The idea is to do, say, 13 to 16 episodes over one or two years -- we haven't quite figured that out yet as television is changing so dramatically worldwide. After the second or third year, one of the characters from the first series could move on to his own series. Then, by the fourth or fifth year, we would love to have four or five separate TV series of 13 episodes each running. That's a pipe dream right now, of course! But as long as it's good, and as long as people respond, and as long as we're doing it at the level we need to do it, and people care about the characters, I think that's totally possible.

In terms of distribution, would you prefer broadcast television or something else?
I think it's too early to really say, because what's going to happen over the next few years in TV will be so revolutionary. I hope that we can be part of the process of imploding the television experience. Traditional network TV doesn't really work for us because we don't want to have interrupted storytelling. Cable is definitely a possibility. It's like the battle going on between HD-DVD and BluRay. This is just my opinion here, but they could all become obsolete. The industry could go straight to broadband downloading, with filmmakers creating their own websites where they have their own material that you can download. I really believe that is the future of television, of all entertainment. I still cherish going to the cinema and having that communal experience, but there's no question that it's changing sociologically, quite dramatically.

Any updates on converting Star Wars to 3-D?
Well, we're ready to do it. There's an extraordinary group of filmmakers, such as Peter Jackson, Jim Cameron, Robert Rodriguez, and Bob Zemeckis, all of whom would love to be able to help push digital technology and digital exhibition. One of the ways that we can do that is by taking our most successful films and converting them to 3-D, where people will go see them because they will be presented in a way no one's ever seen them before. We think 3-D can be a tool to get theater owners to get their act together and to put digital projection in the majority of screens in the U.S. and the rest of the world. That's one of the reasons that we're doing it. I'm really excited about Jim Cameron's picture, Avatar, because that's been shot and conceived in 3-D, not just a conversion. At Lucasfilm, we don't have any plans to do a picture in 3-D, but we're really excited about the format.

To read the full interview pick up a copy of Star Wars Insider #96 on newsstands now. For more information go to Titan's official website here.