"Star Wars" Downsizes

[ALinChainz]

By Josh Grossberg

Got the Boba Fett blues now that George Lucas has wrapped his final Star Wars movie installment?



Fret not, Force faithful, there is a new hope.


Jedi master George turned up over the weekend at Celebration III, a mega-gathering of 30,000 Star Wars geeks in Indianapolis, where he announced plans to move his space opera to the small screen.


For his first appearance at a Star Wars convention in 17 years, Lucas made a big splash. During a Q&A session, he announced that he is going to produce a 3-D animated action series expanding on the Cartoon Network's Emmy-winning Clone Wars. Then he dropped a bigger bomb, confirming a live-action Star Wars spinoff series is in the works.


Does that mean we'll get to see Darth Vader duking it out with the Donald on the next Apprentice?


Not quite.


According to Lucas, both shows will take place during the period between the end of Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith and the original Star Wars (aka Episode IV--A New Hope), when the Emperor became all-powerful and started hunting the Jedi down.


Lucas said the live-action series is the more ambitious undertaking, attempting to translate the magic of the Star Wars universe to the small screen via supporting characters that fans have only briefly come to know from the movies. The filmmaker added that the show will also be similar in tone to the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, the TV adventures inspired by his other mega-franchise.


"We're probably not going to start that for about a year," Lucas said. "Like on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, we want to write all the stories for the entire first season all at once. I'm going to get it started and hire the showrunners and all of that, then I'll probably step away."


It is not known whether the two TV projects were the basis of a highly publicized Internet rumor a few months back speculating on future Star Wars adventures.


Lucasfilm has yet to make an official announcement on the new shows. The company doesn't even have a deal in place with a network to air either series because it's been marshalling all its minions for the hugely anticipated May 19 release of Revenge of the Sith, the final prequel.


This isn't the first occasion Lucas has packaged Star Wars for the boob tube. First, there was the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978, which Lucas has disowned. Then, after 1983's Return of the Jedi, he hatched two made-for-TV spinoffs, 1984's The Ewok Adventure and 1985's Ewoks: Battle for Endor, both of which were largely derided by Star Wars fans for focusing on the relatively tame deeds of the furry critters at the expense of action-packed escapades of cooler characters.


Lucas' infatuation with Ewoks continued with the Ewoks cartoon series, which was paired with another kiddie-themed 'toon, Droids, focusing on the mishaps of R2-D2 and C-3PO. Those shows ran from 1985 to '87.


It's expected that the new standalone animated series will showcase the same kind of epic battles as seen in the more action-oriented Clone Wars series of shorts--with the added benefit of adding potential new Star Wars enthusiasts and giving merchandisers the chance to sell even more action figures.


In some related Star Wars news, premiere fan site TheForce.net quotes Lucas telling people backstage at last weekend's confab that he's prepping yet another box set--this one will include all six films, plus a possible seventh disc featuring deleted scenes from the original trilogy. He says he doesn't expect to make any more tweaks to the films as he did with the last box set.


And lest you think you've seen the last of Darth and the gang on the big screen, think again. Lucas appeared at last month's ShoWest exhibitors convention in Las Vegas and announced that, starting in 2007, he'll rerelease all six episodes, beginning with the original Star Wars, in IMAX digital 3-D.


Meanwhile, the typically media-shy filmmaker is gearing up to make his own splash on the small screen. He's scheduled to guest star as himself on the May 12 episode of Fox's The O.C.. The plot: Lucas becomes interested in a graphic novel written by Seth (Adam Brody) and invites him to dinner to offer some sage advice. Seth is forced to choose between taking Summer to the prom or hanging with George.





Let's hope the Force will be with him.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=794&ncid=799&e=1&u=/eo/20050426/en_movies_eo/16417

[bueno bob]

I'm not so sure about this...A) I'm not convinced it's a great idea at all and B) I'm not convinced that it's even going to happen. We'll see.

[guwapo_rocker]

USA Today reported that, at his appearance this weekend at the Star Wars Celebration III convention, director George Lucas officially announced that he has...

"given the green light to two Star Wars television series. First up will be a 3-D animated half-hour series based on his popular Clone Wars cartoon shorts. The second and most ambitious project will involve a live-action series. He wants it to be similar to the serialized The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV series he executive-produced in 1992. Lucas plans to film the entire first season all at once, with shooting to begin in about a year. Lucas says he will set up the show, but then plans to step back and move on to other projects."

While most of the Star Wars TV endeavors based on the Original Trilogy were not commercial successes, the Clone Wars mini-episodes from Cartoon Network have proved otherwise. While the animation is more streamlined and caricatured that what you would expect for Star Wars, the writing and action sequences was done in a way to make it entertaining to adults and children alike.

However, despite being a modest fan of Star Wars (meaning I don't dress up in costumes or attend conferences), I'll be honest and say I'm not initially crazy about the idea of a live action TV show for Star Wars. Now, before all of you Star Wars-aholics strike me down with all of your anger, please allow me to explain.

First and foremost, going from Film to TV is usually a recipe for disaster. Remember, there were TV shows made of: Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Dirty Dancing, Clueless, and Stargate (Yes, I know that show has lasted a while, but it's only because of MacGyver fans.) The only recent Film to TV success I can think of is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But with Buffy, the movie was really bad, while the TV show got a better actress (Sarah Michelle Gellar). The only all-time Film to TV success is M*A*S*H. But 2 out of 50 isn't good odds on TV.

Second, with TV budgets not necessarily being the same as the movies, I worry the special effects necessary to maintain a multi-episode show will have to be compromised. Come on, let's face it, one of the reasons so many live action sci-fi TV shows cannot compare to the movies are because the effects are sub-par. I give a lot of credit to channels like Sci-Fi for producing original programming, but one of the reasons they come out somewhat cheesy is the lack of budget.

Lastly, if there are to be any characters that carry over from the movies, I doubt they'll be able to secure the same actors to play them, thus convoluting the original impressions you know so well from the movies. Think of George Clooney or Val Kilmer taking over in the Batman movies after Michael Keaton left, or better yet think of Sammy Hagar taking over vocals for Van Halen after David Lee Roth left. Yes, I know, those are different genres, but I think you get the point.

All in all, Episode III is sure to please, and fans can speculate the future later. Hypothetically, Lucas could put out an Emmy award winning series for all we know. So let's hope that his sorcerer's ways have the clairvoyance to avoid the pitfalls of cheesy sci-fi TV.



Link (http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/26/095417.php)

[Vinnie Velvet]

Well, considering the success of the animated Clone Wars cartoon, I think an animated or computer animated series would be good.

I'm not sure of Live action though.

I just think of all the shit-ass spinoffs Star Trek had that failed miserably.

Then again, there are rumours that the series could include Boba Fett.

[Warham]

We'll see what happens.

I have faith in George.

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by Warham


I have faith in George.

Hmmm...http://bb6.drliew.net/images/ewoks.jpg

[bueno bob]

lmao, classic! Gotta give a five star there for making me smile, sesh :)

[Warham]

I don't really mind the ewoks.

I also didn't mind Jar Jar in Episode I.

[bueno bob]

Honestly, I didn't either. The Ewoks, for me, weren't that big of a deal - even at ten years old, I was there to see Luke fight Vader, and the Ewoks were just something I was able to just kinda look over. I still do today...they're there, but it's not any big deal to me. I didn't understand the vehemence against them then any more than I do now...it wasn't as if they were the main characters of "Jedi". Same for Binks...he's been a supporting character to me, just some comic relief for the kids and nothing worth focusing on or hating the movies over.

But I certainly can and do understand that both Binks and the Ewoks were a huge turnoff to a lot of people, so maybe I'm the minority, can't say for sure.

[Vinnie Velvet]

Originally posted by bueno bob
Honestly, I didn't either. The Ewoks, for me, weren't that big of a deal - even at ten years old, I was there to see Luke fight Vader, and the Ewoks were just something I was able to just kinda look over. I still do today...they're there, but it's not any big deal to me. I didn't understand the vehemence against them then any more than I do now...it wasn't as if they were the main characters of "Jedi". Same for Binks...he's been a supporting character to me, just some comic relief for the kids and nothing worth focusing on or hating the movies over.

But I certainly can and do understand that both Binks and the Ewoks were a huge turnoff to a lot of people, so maybe I'm the minority, can't say for sure.

Well, then I may be in that minority as well.

The Ewoks don't bother me nor did I ever care for them (okay, when I was 9 I did think they were funny as every other kid did when they first saw Jedi).

I never cared for Jar Jar either. Sometimes I think the media made such a huge deal out of him and then everyone hated Menace because of it.

There's a lot to like about Episode I if your not constantly focusing on Binks, since he's not the focus of the movie anyway.

[Dave's Bitch]

I FUCKING HATE JAR JAR