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Star Wars TV Show
The lunatick writes "IESB and Theforce.net report a Star Wars TV show. Lucas will not direct it just produce it. Kevin Smith (Silent Bob, the clerks series) is named as a possible director."
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hmm... maybe they'll be smart and incorporate some of the excellent books written by timothy zahn as screenplays.
The brain behind the excellent Clerks Animated helming Star Wars? Now *that* I'd pay money for!
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
Kevin would have to be a moron to do it. No matter how good the tv series is it will be slammed as not as good as the original. Expecially if you expect 3-5 seasons worth of good stuff. There is no pleasing the star wars fans.
Bad idea. You want to run a franchise into the ground this is the way to do it.
I'd think Star Trek would have demonstrated that already...
-nB
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I checked USA Today, Google News, and Yahoo News, and was not able to find the actual story in USA Today. Doesn't USA Today put everything on the web? Shouldn't a rumor like this be substantiated a little bit more?
It seems the Beflanneled One is intent on ensuring complete media saturation in perpetuity for the SW universe.
All things considered, this show could be pretty cool, but it likely won't be. The prequels have fallen short and I find it difficult to imagine fresh material coming out often enough for a TV show. A mini-series would be perhaps more appropriate.
I gotta say, everytime I see another part of Star Wars being sold out, a little part of me dies.
Star wars seems as though it is ill-suited for TV status. Giant space operas don't mix with 1 hour [plus commercial] slots.
Hell, I'd rather see the afore mentioned Spaceballs sequel made into a TV series.
Before everyone suggests this is a bad move I just want to say look at SG1. The original movie was at best 'ok' but thanks to the series the brand is highly valued.
Oh well, I guess I just pity the poor cow... The problem is, we are the cow!
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
So I don't *really* like Clerks, I just think I like Clerks because the mass media has told me to? Bah. You're just telling me that becaue that's what the cynical counter-culture has forced you to reply with
The weekly treadmill is precisely what television is.
For further insight, consider "Star Trek V". It was the only movie (based on the original characters) to lose money. However, when "Star Trek V" was broadcast on television, the movie seemed okay, compared to the junk food on the other channels.
The only conceivable way for Star Wars on the boob tube to not deteriorate to the level of Star Trek is to develop plots requiring at least 3 episodes to tell. In other words, across a 21-week viewing season, Star Wars, the boob tube show, would essentially be aired as 7 movies, each movie being 3 hours in length.
For fate's sake, please try to get good actors and actresses.
But wasn't that the strength of the first trilogy (eps 4-6)? Because it started off half way through the story, with the saving the universe bit, it drew the audience into the world. They wanted to find out what was going on in this world the films so suddenly started off in.
The prequel trilogy was doomed to fail because the story they tell isn't that interesting really, it's only interesting as a backdrop to episodes 4-6. All you really need to know about the story line of episodes 1-3 is summarised in about ten minutes in episodes 4-6.
The movies make a big point of having little bits of the background world intrude into the films to create an interesting universe - the rubbish collecting gnome creatures in episode 4, all the aliens living their lives in the background. But, just like episodes 1-2(+3 probably), if you concentrate too much on that background, you realise it's not as interesting as it appeared from a distance.
It's the same with Lord of the Rings. There's a huge backstory to the trilogy, but by starting the main story (Frodo and the Fellowship etc.) in the middle of that, you create a whole interesting world the reader wants to read about without having to bother with laboriously explaining it.
Wait a minute guys, this is a TV SCI-FI SERIES we are talking about here. There is no problem with them making Star Wars into the next Babylon 5, and here's why:
What do you always get in a TV Sci-Fi series?
Cheesecake.
That's right, Cheesecake. The only compelling reason to watch sci-fi, and directors like to serve up big, heaping slices topped with insincere gravitas and skin tight costumes.
Jerri Ryan, that Vulcan from 'Enterprise', Erin Grey, Lt. Orora, Tasha Yar (I think that was her name), Debbie from Sealab, um... someone from Babylon 5, uh...
I actually don't watch that much TV, so I don't really know the whole list. I am certain there are some other people who can help fill in the details.
But you get the drift, and I, for one, cannot wait until the first time someone has to swing across a vast chasm.
Hoping to see Pam Anderson as a Grand Moff,
M
There is no pleasing the star wars fans.
You're absolutely right! How could the man who gave us Howard the Duck ever do wrong?
Sarcasm aside, Episodes I and II are dumbed-down versions of Star Wars. They were more about the special effects than about the story. I find it ridiculously simplistic that Senator Palpatine could so easily engineer the takeover of the Empire; are there no other senior politicians who are in this with him? And the acting is wooden; even Ewan McGregor, one of my favorite actors, stumbles through these movies like he's not quite sure how to handle the material. Given how gifted McGregor is, I have to assume that it's Lucas's direction and writing that are the problem.
Thr first trilogy was made in the late 70's/early 80's, before the tech revolution. For most of us, it pushed the boundaries of science fiction. Two decades later, the tech concepts of the prequels are ho-hum. Lucas really needed to hand these off to someone who had a little more of a vision than he did.
Can you imagine if Lucas had contracted the Wachowski Brothers to write and direct the prequels? Even the least favored movie in the Matrix trilogy blows away the Star Wars prequels.
The best of the five Star Wars movies, SW:TESB, was not directed by Lucas. I think that that speaks volumes.
You know guys, you could always not watch it.
That pretty much works for me when I don't want to see a TV show.
-sig removed for tax purposes-
Sure, but you must concede that "You came in that thing? You're braver than you look" is a classic line. Lucas ain't perfect, but he's not as bad as he's made out to be.
Self important? Nah. Self evident maybe... go look up Ambrose Bierce's stuff, I'm sure more will offend :)
Since I'm biting on this troll:
Belief without evidence: true, by definition...
in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge,: Hint: the priest is just repeating what's in the book...
of things without parallel." - A.B.: What, is there another universe you can point me to?
Also, a Deist and an Atheist are nothing alike... you'd better go check your definitions.
Regarding zeal: Am I zealous to observe the sky is blue? That fire is hot? No, these things (given an analytical - scientific - method) are provable, or at least very very likely. So, I base all my 'beliefs' on evidence... I see no reason to make an exception on this particular point, just because many people in society hang on to ancient superstition.
Yes, I believe that most religions are probably wrong. No, I don't think they should be abolished, forbidden, whatever. I respect your (presumed) right to believe, whilst disrespecting the belief itself. What's the big deal?
Finally (and here we clearly cross into Flamebait territory)... my 'zeal' is derived from an interest in advancing the species, not a fear of damnation. You might consider your motives before giving me grief for not blindly following some mythical god.
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
Maybe it's just me, and maybe it's just because I've rewatched it recently. I wouldn't exactly call SW:ANH good or smart writing. It was a fun movie, with bad acting, Sir. Alec Guinness notwithstanding (actually, everyone but Han, Obi Wan and Tarkin were annoying this time around,) a pretty cheesy storyline, held together by three things (for me) : amazing special effects, an outstanding soundtrack and memories of when I saw it at the drive in when I was 5.
Come to think of it, the end has always bothered me : a small fleet of rebel starfighters attack a battle station the size of a moon, that housed "legions of Imperial troops and fightercraft" (starwars.com), yet, the Imperials only launch at best an equal number of fighters to repel the attack?! They were there to eliminate the Rebel threat, but they leave the vast majority of their fighters in the hangar??! Vader says (paraphrased) "Several of the fighters have broken attack formation, follow me." he brings TWO pilots with him!! This is supposed to be a fully operational battlestation ; did they forget the fighters and pilots somewhere?! Actually, if they intended to end the Rebel threat forever, why isn't the majority of the Imperal FLEET there? Two movies later, it took the entire fleet to (almost) repel the Rebel attack!
I'd hate to admit it, but I had the same "What did I see in this movie when I was kid" feeling that I had when I rewatched Krull. It was fun, too, but lacked substance. It had acting on par with SW:ANH but the soundtrack was great and the effects were very well done.
Empire Strikes Back was another beast however : that will always be Star Wars to me.
As to why it would work, I don't remember an explanation from the books, but I could see it as being a matter of actually generating their own version of the Force that happens to jam regular users much in the same was as jammers are used in electronic warfare measures.
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