UNITED24 and Monobank have partnered with actor Mark Hamill to launch a fundraising campaign with the aim of collecting funds to help Ukraine purchase drones to use in the war against Russia. The fundraising campaign will send out 500 packs of unique iodized salt from the state-owned company Artemsil, which will be raffling off the prize among those who contribute at least UAH 10 ($0.27) or more. The first 100 participants who contribute at least UAH 100,000 ($2,701) will receive a salt pack signed by the commander of the ground forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi. Another 10 packs of salt will also be signed by Hamill, the ambassador for UNITED24 and an actor well-known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, according to a press release. The project aims to raise UAH 59.2 million ($1.6 million) for Ukraine to purchase 300 DJI Mavic 3T Thermal drones.

At the end of season 2 of The Mandalorian (which aired in December 2020, so spoiler alerts are meaningless but here we are), a DeepFaked CGI version of Luke Skywalker makes a surprising appearance to recruit the young Grogu for his upcoming Jedi revival scheme. It was both a cool and creepy moment, with the impressive digital imaging nestling way too comfortably in the heart of the Uncanny Valley. It was so ineffably unsettling that a random YouTuber tried to fix the scene himself -- and did such a good job that Disney hired him. When CGI DeepFake Luke Skywalker returned in The Book of Boba Fett, his robotic performance was noticeably more convincing. But there was something about his voice that was still … off.

Anthony Daniels didn't want to meet a relatively unknown American movie director looking for someone to play a robot in a "low-budget, science fiction film." He just wasn't a fan of the genre, but his agent persisted, telling the aspiring actor "you never know what it could lead to." It's a funny anecdote when you consider that the director was George Lucas, the sci-fi flick was Star Wars: A New Hope and the part Daniels was auditioning for was a "nervous, persnickety and uptight" human-cyborg relations protocol droid named C-3PO. More than 40 years later, Daniels is the only actor to have appeared in all nine Star Wars movies -- from 1977's A New Hope to last year's The Rise of Skywalker, released on DVD last month. Now 74, he chronicles his journey, from classically trained actor and mime in London to one of the most beloved characters in the history of filmmaking (alongside his wing man, R2-D2) in a new memoir, I Am C-3PO: The Inside Story. The story about not wanting to audition is only one of the surprises that Daniels shares. Lucas actually tested 30 other actors to give voice to C-3PO after filming was complete, including actor Richard Dreyfuss, before being convinced by a voiceover pro that Daniel's take of the droid worked best. And he re-creates (in our video interview) some of his favorite lines, calling out the scene in The Rise of Skywalker when he's about to get his memory wiped. "I also felt that this was the last movie and I was saying goodbye and taking one last look at the fans around the world, the people who have been part of the whole thing," he says.

Fox News Flash top headlines for Jan. 13 are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com "Star Wars" actor Mark Hamill was recently reunited with a long-lost piece of memorabilia from the iconic movie franchise that was gifted to him many years ago. Bookmans Entertainment Exchange in Flagstaff, Ariz., returned the soundtrack for the 1977 film, "Star Wars: A New Hope," to the actor known to many as Luke Skywalker. The record was a gift to Hamill from film composer John Williams.

That is, if you were fortunate enough to get an invite. While last year's invite-only conference, held in southern California's Palm Springs, produced striking images of Bezos strolling with a robotic dog designed by Boston Dynamics, the CEO this time took to the stage with a flying robo-dragonfly. Much of this year's buzz, however, has come straight from the stars; among the attendees is actor Mark Hamill, who portrayed'Star Wars' protagonists'Luke Skywalker' in the films' original trilogy. Bezos demonstrated a robotic dragon fly on stage that circled around his head. As Hamill, who recently revived Skywalker for the latest iteration of the Star Wars franchise, mingled with guests, the conference's other attendees showcased their newest and most exciting revelations in the fields of robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more.

Mark Hamill is here to rescue your weekend with some good old-fashioned nostalgia. The "Star Wars" actor shared a photo Saturday morning of himself as a young Luke Skywalker posing in the Tatooine desert on the first day of filming "Star Wars: Episode IV -- A New Hope." He stands with his hands folded across his heart. "Taken in Tunisia early morning day [number one] waiting for my [first] shot (emerging from home for robot auction)," he wrote. Hamill has played Skywalker since 1977's "A New Hope," the first installation in the Star Wars movie franchise.