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Lucas Confirms Star Wars spin-off TV series
Mictian writes "In a rare public appearance at the Star Wars Celebration III (his previous fan event appearance was in 1987), George Lucas confirmed that he's working on two TV series. One will be a full 3D animation series (with 30-minute episodes) of the recent Cartoon Network Clone Wars shorts, and the other a live-action series, that will be set in the time between Episodes III and IV, but won't feature the main characters. Production is expected to begin in about a year."
If I remember the previous round of rumors correctly, wasn't Kevin Smith fingered as a writer for the SW TV seriers?
"...but won't feature the main characters."
This will be tough thing to avoid. I've ready quite a few Star Wars novels in my day and all of them have noteable characters from the movies sprinkled throughout the plotlines. I could see how they might avoid using main characters if they set the television series Pre-episode I or pretty far past episode 6 (post new jedi order?) but for the series to take place between episodes 3 and 4 would require a few staple characters to make regular apperances in order for the audience to become grounded.
I recently watched that amateur Star Wars fan film "Revelations" and without an appearence by Darth Vader, it wouldn't have seemed like Star Wars. The sets and sabers alone just don't draw me in like the cast of characters that everyone is familiar with.
Here's hoping that is an overstatement and we'll see a few familiar faces in the series.
As Lucas (and the article) said, it's not exactly true that no main characters are going to be in the TV series (I think his exact words were "Well, that's not strictly true now that I think about it"). He didn't clarify what that meant though.
Also possible in the future is either a new Willow movie or TV series, and another thing for sure is an update of the decrepit Star Tours ride at DisneyWorld (in Janurary next year).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Timothy Zahn, a great author IMHO, made quite possibly the best starwar books ever.
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Three books, very well made, and intresting. Why not make a cartoon (or movies) based off of them, instead of spewing this crap?
The author will be happy (royalties, yay!), George will be happy (He won't have to pull bad ideas out of the air), and I'll be happy (which is the most important).
Here's a link to some short descriptions of the books: http://www.bookstoremall.com/Thrawn_Trilogy_Serie
I think for the live-action TV series, this might be good. I would like to see the everyday life of people who live under the empire, with pirates and gangsters and all the other stuff that make up a regular world. As long as they stay away from the force and "save the universe" level plots, it should be interesting.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
As long as Lucas has nothing to do with either series (with the exception of licensing the name), they might be worth something. Just get Kevin Smith to direct.
- Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
Sure, it seems impossible, but look at what happend to Star Trek. For years Trek fans were livin' large, with several shows to choose from, but now it's all going out with a whimper.
Hopefully Lucas will learn something from the Trek saga, and he won't try to keep a deathgrip on the creative process in the Star Wars TV shows. If fresh talent is able to come in and mess around a bit with the tried-and-true formula, Star Wars could thrive on TV. If they stick to what they've done before, it's a doomed venture.
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Back in the early days of ANH, before it was renamed as episode 4, I heard stories that the entire saga was meant to be 3 trilogies. The first trilogy focused on the boy who would become Vader, the second 3 focused on his downfall, and the last 3 focused on the rebuilding of the republic and the final defeat of the Empire. I also recall being told that the only characters who would exist in all 9 episodes would be R2D2 and C3PO. I have no idea if this is based on fact or not but there is a synopsis of episodes 7-9 supposedly written by Lucas himself.
You know how many people love the star wars movies when they were kids and are now experienced Actors/Directors/Writers? Lucas had Speilberg and Samuel L Jackson begging to be a part of star wars. Imagine handing over starwars to the best creative teams out there and just letting them go.
It could be very awesome if Lucas can just put his ego aside and let someone else give it a shot. Nothing against Lucas the man's a genious at coming up with ideas, and doing special effects, but he can't write dialog or direct actors worth shit.
If Lucas comes up with the general ideas, and does the special effects, and gets the best and the brightest to take over writing and directing, it could work very well.
It's because the Star Wars universe consists of more than just the movies. After the original trilogy many novels have been written about what happens to the characters after "Return of the Jedi." All of the plotlines in these novels are approved by George Lucuas himself. Therefore, if he were to create sequels, they would either A) make the novels no longer relevant since he's making movies that don't reflect those stories, or B) He would just be making the novels into movies. (Timothy Zhan's sp?) Admiral Thrawn series would be excellent.
While all of these novels were being created, Lucas publication arm would not allow any to be made Pre "A New Hope" because he always intended to make movies out of the back-story. Therefore the new movies haven't bungled up the universe or plotlines (at least not much). In fact the only books I recall that centered around pre-episode 4 content was the Han Solo trilogy that is a pretty good set of books that tells Han Solo's back story from about age 17 to right about the time he walks into the cantina in episode 4.
I hope this helps.
personally, I'd like to see something like the Tales of the Jedi or Young Jedi Knights done as TV... You can explain a lot of cool SW lore without directly competing with the movies.. Also, a "Taken" style miniseries would be better than a "series" I know many /.rs laugh at that Sci-Fi run, but they executed it masterfully..and the shorter timeframe to watch it in kept interest up...when it couldn't quite hold a whole season. Also, there's no "attachment" to doing more and you can't be cancled. It fits the SW style [OK everybody but lucas] in telling compacted stories [like the Young Jedi Knights, comics or Zahn's novels] Also, 22 hours of SW would do a lot better than the crash-and-burn movies we've been getting... Oh... Broadcast it in HDTV too George!!!
This doesn't sound like too bad of an idea.
Assuming Lucas can cut back on the melodrama and other crap that's plagued the new movies, this could turn out to be pretty cool. I'd love to see self-contained episodes that show the stories of average, ordinary "Star Wars citizens" caught up in a galaxy suddenly distressed by revolutionary warfare and political change.
What if we could see the empire's dominion actually forming (something it seems like the new trilogy is barely talking about)? The civil wars that would erupt on planets as communities clashed over whether to fall in line with the Empire or rebel? I mean, just imagine being able to view the transition from a Jedi-ordered galaxy to one where the Jedi "religion is all but extinct," with the exception of the whispers and stories and rumors that would just be starting to spread of one Darth Vader.
The idea excites me. With good stories and direction, it could really become one of the better creations of the Star Wars Universe.
So, basically: Please, Lucas... stay as uninvolved in the project as possible.
Why all the negativity?
Ep4 was great because it was something new.
Ep5 was great because LK worked some heavy magic over it, and it was still something fairly new.
Ep6 was the warning bell that Lucas had begun to believe that he could do anything and it would still be great. There were moments (Vader looking at his hand; the death of Yoda; etc.), but they were just that: moments. All you have to do is say, "Ewoks," and everyone seems to snap back and remember how disapointed they were. Keep in mind also that Ep6 had LK working his magic again, but more from behind the scenes (script work only) this time.
Ep1 was an amazing exploration of CG... and a mildly interesting introduction to the prequel trilogy, but again all you have to do is say, "Jar Jar," and people recall the horror...
Ep2 was a botched love story on top of what was actually not a half-bad action flick, introducing the clone wars. I liked Ep2, but you have to admit that it wasn't worth Ep6 & Ep1.
Clone Wars was a wonderful bit of work, especially season 3. It just kept getting better, just like Samuari Jack... and THAT is because it was GT doing it, not GL!
So... in answer to your question, we're being negative because we cannot imagine that Lucas is going to spin off a show worth watching. It's really that simple.
Now, if he got Joss Whedon to run the show with a few of the writers from Battlestar Galactica, then I could see it working, but not with Lucas in control.
Let someone else worry about it? Lucas stays involved in everything Star Wars; you'll notice that until recently he didn't even allow Star Wars gambling machines because he figured it would be immoral to lure people to gambling just because they're Star Wars fans (although now he has decided that the fans have grown up, ergo Star Wars slots). But I went off on a tangent; Lucas doesn't just let other people run off and do things. Rest assured he'll be working on these TV thingies as much as the Prequels.
:/
For better or for worse
Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.
Actually, he didn't even start at "Episode IV." Those words were added retroactively to the intro scroll after he realized Star Wars was going to be sucessful enough to allow him to make more movies. "A New Hope" officially became "Episode IV" after it's first re-release in '79, I think.
Personally, I'm looking forward to the series. I think if he lets someone else write and direct the episodes, it could be very, very good (both of them). Think about how much better Stargate SG-1 is than the movie it was based on. I remain optimistic.
There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead. -V. Marchetti, CIA
Don't forget this one: I have fond memories. Here's the editorial review from Amazon.com:
Here's how critic Roger Ebert described the unique and lasting value of George Lucas's 1973 box-office hit, American Graffiti: "[It's] not only a great movie but a brilliant work of historical fiction; no sociological treatise could duplicate the movie's success in remembering exactly how it was to be alive at that cultural instant." The time to which Ebert and the film refers is the summer of 1962, and American Graffiti captures the look, feel, and sound of that era by chronicling one memorable night in the lives of several young Californians on the cusp of adulthood. (In essence, Lucas was making a semiautobiographical tribute to his own days as a hot-rod cruiser, and the film's phenomenal success paved the way for Star Wars.) The action is propelled by the music of Wolfman Jack's rock & roll radio show--a soundtrack of pop hits that would become as popular as the film itself. As Lucas develops several character subplots, American Graffiti becomes a flawless time capsule of meticulously re-created memory, as authentic as a documentary and vividly realized through innovative use of cinematography and sound. The once-in-a-lifetime ensemble cast members inhabit their roles so fully that they don't seem like actors at all, comprising a who's who of performers--some of whom went on to stellar careers--including Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips, Charles Martin Smith, Candy Clark, and Paul Le Mat. A true American classic, the film ranks No. 77 on the American Film Institute's list of all-time greatest American movies. --Jeff Shannon
I totally agree with this review.
"Lack of technical competence coupled with the arrogance of power, as usual, leads to no good end."