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Lucas Returning to Digital Animation
deadwood writes "It seems Lucas is creating a Digital Animation studio as a subsidiary of ILM, according
to this Yahoo! article.
Lucasfilm Animation is created roughly 17 years after George Lucas sold Pixar to Steve Jobs. I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?"
Lucasfilm Animation is created roughly 17 years after George Lucas sold Pixar to Steve Jobs. I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?"
I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?
Let me answer that for you... No.
Director Lucas Forms Digital Animation Unit
Mon May 12, 6:21 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following the path of Pixar Animation Studios, Dreamworks and other filmmakers, "Stars Wars" creator George Lucas (news) is forming a new group to make computer-animated films, a spokeswoman said on Monday.
The unit, called Lucasfilm Animation, is an offshoot of his special effects company, Industrial Light & Magic, that has been a pioneer in the field of digital effects and works on Lucas' own "Star Wars" films.
Lynne Hale, spokeswoman for his San Rafael, California-based Lucasfilm Ltd., said the new unit was "still in its beginning stages" and did not even have a project to talk about.
As a result, details were limited. Hale confirmed that Lucasfilm Animation will be formed from a nine-person team housed with Industrial Light & Magic. The new division will be headed by senior vice president Patty Blau.
Lucas is a vocal proponent of using digitally produced and computerized special effects in the movies. His companies have been active in designing new cameras for shooting digital films, and his most recent "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" was shot in the digital format.
Until now, however, he has lacked a production company dedicated to making computerized animation movies such as "Shrek," "Monsters, Inc." or last year's "Ice Age."
Those three films have been smash hits with combined global ticket sales of $1.36 billion. On its own, "Monsters, Inc.," which was produced by Pixar and The Walt Disney Co., raked in $529 million in global ticket sales.
Lucas is no stranger to digital animation. Indeed, Pixar had been Lucasfilm's computer graphics division 17 years ago before Lucas sold it to Apple Computer's Steve Jobs (news - web sites) for $10 million.
Pixar now has a market capitalization of roughly $3.2 billion
Lucas, too, has tried to mount efforts to make digitally animated movies, such as a version of "Frankenstein" that was scrapped by Universal Pictures in 1999.
Can't people just draw by hand anymore?
What has this country come to?
It's sad!
Hasn't he done enough to us already???
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
Atleast jar jar would be dead by Episode 7.
<obligatory jar jar joke>
I have read several times of Lucas stating that he will not be making any more Star Wars films after episodes 1 - 6 are complete.
I do hope he does though, or at least licences someone to.
We find out that Ewoks and Jar-jar form a new, dark empire who crush the evil alliance of script-leakers and Kazaa users.
In recent years however, he's rather been letting down his side of the bargain. I still gave him money, but he gave dross in return. It seems that most of the reason he's given me dross is because of an obsession with digital filmaking - looks like he's much more interested in the technology behind the film than in the film itself these days.
Bah. Bring back model-making and puppetry, and hire a decent set of writers...
Cheers,
Ian
10 million for ILM? i didn't realize how cheap they got it for. any of these digital movies are the real money makers. they're grossing as much as any tom cruise film and they don't have to dish out 25million to a single actor, i'm sure voice actors don't get this much, even if they are big names. ;)
Besides, you get to justify new computer stuff for your business.
100% Pure Evil With The Look And Feel Of Wholesome Goodness
Lucasfilm Animation is created roughly 17 years after
Did Yoda write this post?
I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?
Dear god no! It wasn't the technology that was the problem with I, II (and, no-doubt, III), but piss-poor stories. It wouldn't have mattered if Lucas did I, II, III, VII, VIII, or IX as live action, animation, stick figures, a puppet show, or Kabuki theatre unless he has a plot that doesn't suck the sweat of a dead donkey's balls they'd still stink.
already stated that there is no episode 7, 8 or 9.
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You could have done Monsters, Inc with sock puppets and it still would have been entertaining.
Lucas hasn't recently shown that he can deliver the plots and characters that are necessary to make an animated film work.
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Star Wars VII: The Further Adventures of Star Wars
Luke: Hey, everybody!
New Republic Senate: Luke!
(Luke walks up to the bar. Leia is standing behind it.)
Leia: Hey, Luke. How was work today? (He pours him a cup of coffee and pulls 2 cinnamon buns from her hair.)
Luke: Same old. Showed up, got tempted by the Dark Side, and my Dad kept going on about how when he was my age, he was already married with two unknown children out there.
Leia: (Rolls her eyes to the laugh track.) I think he just wants to become a grandfather before the Glowing Blue Light fades away.
(The bar door opens. The audience cheers as Han Solo walks into the room.)
Han: Heyyyy! (He hits the jukebox with a fist, making a holo-projector of dancing aliens appear.) Has anybody seen my blaster? (He pulls out a walkie-talkie from his side pocket.) I woke up in the Millenium Falcon with this strapped to my side.
Leia: I did that - you never call me when you're suppose to. I swear, you and that Wookie are having some weird love affair behind my back.
Han: How did you know? I mean, that's just silly, even though his fur is as soft as silk, and.... (He clears his throat.) Anyway, I brought you a present.
Leia: Another gold bikini?
Han: No... (He opens the door. There stands the former Queen/Senator/Love Puppy to Darth Vader - Amidala!)
Leia/Luke: Mom? We thought you were dead!
Amidala: No, your father had me frozen in carbonite, hoping to come back to me someday when the Emporer was dead.
Han: You could say she was naked and petrified.
(Laugh track and the audience goes "ahhhh" as Luke/Leia/Amidala/Han hug.)
Big titles: In Episode VIII, watch as C3PO remembers that he was made by Anakin, and could have saved everybody a lot of time by telling Uncle Owen and Luke Skywalker where he came from!
Now, imagine this animated. Scary, huh?
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
.. like .. a digital Mark Hammil ?
I fuse with Mercer every single day...
Please make a Howard The Duck sequel. That would rock! But maybe Howard should rap, the times have changed...
While people are busy grousing about Star Wars, there's plenty of other material Lucas already has access to that would make a great movie. Anyone who has played the LucasArts adventure game Grim Fandango would agree it would make a kickass feature film. Glottis > Shrek. ;)
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It can't be any worse than Episode I and II. And, after all, Lucas gives absolutely no freedom to his actors, so replacing them with animated characters wouldn't change a thing.
I'm also quite tired of the people who bitch about how great the first trilogy was and how boring/stupid the second trilogy is turning out to be. Look, Star Wars (the first one) was not that great a movie. But we loved it anyway, because it was cool. Empire was darker, and we loved it too. Jedi had Ewoks, and they were annoyingly cute, but we still loved the damn movie! Why? Because it was still really damn cool!
Now I will grant you that Jar-Jar got a little anoying at times, but on the whole, Episode 1 and 2 were damn cool movies. So what if Anakin and Jar-Jar bumbled their way through to victories in Ep1? They were not the stars of movie, folks. The stars showed up to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and they found they were all out of bubble gum. Although Qui-Gon found a piece right there at the end, and that was a bit disappointing.
So, to those who think Ep1 and Ep2 somehow sullied their memories of the original trilogy, I say go watch the trilogy again. I mean, really watch it. Watch all the bad acting and bumbled lines. Watch the melodrama and sap. Watch the forced and often unfunny humor given us through the C3PO/R2D2 banter. And then go enjoy Episodes 1 and 2 for what they are: damn cool action flicks.
"Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised."
-Marilyn Manson
Aside from, "No", IIRC George Lucas has dismissed doing the later episodes, as they have already been extensively explored in books. If you haven't noticed, the books on the Star Wars movie episodes follow the film to market, not precede it.
Imagine George changing the ending, in typical shitty Hollywood-fashion, of one book to make it into a movie and *fanfare* leave the ending in suspense! *raspberry* (For my money, Hollywood should STOP doing that and focus on films true to the original story.)
If To Kill a Mockingbird was filmed today, Atticus Finch would probably look like Rambo and be mowing the jury down with an AK47, a la Kill Mo' Mockingbird*, just because everyone (all those trapped in American Lit. classes or the three or four of us who liked the book and read it anway) already knows how it ended in the book.
* Reference to Bloom County
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
A 2 yr Television series....
That follows the ups and downs of a tramp freighter captain and his crew...
It'd be cool cause we'd see all the planets and homeworlds of the various races....
The question would be "when" it should take place. Personally, I think immediately after ROTJ. When the galaxy is in chaos....
What Gerry Anderson understood full well thirty years ago: Actors can be a real pain in the ass for director / producers.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?
Probably not as first projects, it's like handing an extremely important contract to the 17-year old trainee (who happens to be the son of the company's chairman).
Regardless of if the last three episodes are to be made into films or not (I predict that they will... eventually at least). I remember reading books which purported to continue the films' plotline (there was a renegade Empire general, and a jedi training camp, and Leia had twins who were uber-powerful jedi), but although these books were officially sanctioned books in the series of nine, AFAIK they wern't written by Lucas and so may not get the seal of approval to actually become films.
Anyone out there know anything else about this?
---
"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind" - Gandhi
Without reading the article -- a requirement for all /.ers -- I'll take it one step further and not read the posts because most, if not all, posts will bash Lucas for making crappy movies and Jar Jar.
Some people have a way with words, others not have way.
Hear Hear!
I just watched the star wars trilogy for the first time in ages last weekend, and I was struck by how much more realistic the models looked than the CG stuff in ep 1 and 2. Maybe because they were "real" (small, but actual physical objects). Oddly, the CG stuff in LOTR looked fine to me, and blended into the rest of the film seamlessly, so who knows.
I can't put my finger on "why" exactly, that is just how I feel.
Finkployd
"Please do not tip the Ninjas."
The plural for Ninja is Ninja
ex:
Fish:Fish
Lego:Lego
Ninja:Ninja
As punishment, you must sing the Ninja song!
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He can make really crappy movies and not destroy an actors career with it.
Think of that first short with the lamp, way back -- who'd have thought they could make it so expressive? Or all those birds on the line; they all look alike, but the little character touches set each one apart.
George Lucas, on the other hand, can have someone like Samuel L. Jackson in a movie and make him deeply boring -- even as a Jedi Freakin' Knight! Does anyone think Lucas improves his actors? Anyone? Does he direct for nice little character touches??
What George wants this splinter company to do is make huge, distractingly detailed landscapes and gratuitously gigantic battle scenes. Take a look at the battle at the end of Episode II; that's what he thinks computer animation is about. He's as bad with character touches as any director out there.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I think Lucas is effectively taking care of this evil alliance simply by making more movies. You know your movies suck when nobody on Kazaa wants them.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
face it, he's embarrassing himself...
I guess on the positive side, maybe he'll hire some animation people that can create something of actual worth. alas he'll probably produce blatant (and stupendously inferior)pixar ripoffs....
yaaawwwwwwnnnnnnnnnn
ok, flame away
do not or do not, there is no do.
In the mid 1980s Pixar was basically a computer hardware company making nifty graphics accelerators for volume visualization. Since this was not the core business of LucasFilm either Pixar would would have to compete with the parent company for development capital and perhaps one or both would be shortchanged. So Lucus spun his computer divisions off hoping they could making money expanding to other markets like medical imaging, oil exploration, etc. However, in the mid-1980s UNIX graphics workstations like Apollo, HP and Sun were caught up to Pixar's hardware. The crucial insight of Job's purchase was that Pixar's graphics expertise was unparalleled, so the hardware was dumped and they never looked back.