Full Series Does Star Wars Lend Itself Well to Television?

Well, obviously it does for TCW, but I'm more talking about the Live Action Series. Star Wars has always been a very visual franchise. So naturally, making an all CGI show to show off neat visuals seems like a no brainer. TCW does work as weekly Star Wars, it's visually diverse, and for the most part, capable of telling an interesting story. If the story lacks, the visuals can pick up the slack.

But I'm worried about the Live Action Series. For those of you who've been watching, you know that Game of Thrones just finished its first season last night. Now, since being set on one world, the show didn't need to have impressive CGI or big sweeping shots, just really well made sets and an excellent script. Obviously, it suffered in places, like how any of the major battles were either glossed over or outright edited away from existence. This is the problem of working with a TV budget, it doesn't allow for much visual diversity.

Since Star Wars is best used visually, I'm really worried that budget costs will hamper the live action show. The writing is obviously going to be on the sketchy side, since Star Wars has never really been known for having good dialogue in the first place. Without strong writing to fall back on, the show has to rely on convincing sets and good visuals. On a TV budget, that is very difficult to pull off. I'm afraid it'd be like the Battlestar Galactica remake. "Sweet! Look at those cylons and vipers duking it out in a huge pitched battle!" Early Episodes. "Who's going to turn into a Cylon this week, and where'd the starfighters all go?" Later Episode.

If the show runs out its CGI budget, then the Live Action series is going to be in for a rough tumble without a strong script backing it up. With this in mind, does Star Wars really lend itself well to a Live Action Television setting?

 

I'm not too worried about the writing, because as revealed in past interviews, they have writers from Life on Mars and have talked with writers from Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, and Lost. In fact, a couple years ago they claimed that they've met over 200 writers and that number could still be growing. So I'm not too worried about the writing. That, and John Williams is directing the score. As for the CGI, they did say that they're working on new techniques to keep the cost down, but until the series makes it's debut, it's all just talk.

 

Considering right now each episode would be $50 million to make I would say not to worry to much. Visuals is what George cares about most I think. He'll let the plot go to **** before he lets the visuals go.

 

I agree and this is what worries me.

 

I'm worried that the show will pull a Battlestar Galactica and waste all its big budget on the first few episodes, leaving the rest to work off of a sub par script.

 

My feelings here depends on what version we are talking about. Most of the American remake was taken directly from the British original.

The writing in the last couple of series of Heroes was rather dreadful in my opinion and we have a writer from Lost currently acting as the head writer for TCW since s2 and I'm not sure on his work so far, I much preferred 'kiddy-writers' like Gilroy.

And seeing some of the other writers George Lucas approached we could be looking at a very tonaly inconsistant show. He just seemed to approach writers involved with critical and/or commercial hits.

Has that been confirmed? Scoring a TV show is a lot of effort and takes far more time than scoring a movie, which may clash with John's other projects.

 

The very nature of the series is episodic, so yes, in does in fact lend itself to shorter formats like television.

 

2 things:

1) JW is directing the score? Oh, well good for him. But that's not a make or break thing for me. Especially seeing as not even the most powerful music can redeem the crappiest scenes (fireplace, I'm looking at you)

2) TCW has shown us you really only need to produce a tad more than a movie; as long as you get a few 'generic fight music' and 'generic emotional music' pieces done then they can get reused throughout the show's lifespan.

 

It does make it work well for TCW, but the Live Action series seems to be going for a more progressive storyline than the animated show. I don't know how well it will work out with a TV budget and a George Lucas script.

 

First of all, George Lucas is easily better than any TV writer. But these are not going to be George Lucas scripts in the sense that he sat down and wrote them. We know that isn't the case. Writers were hired. They're probably going to be George Lucas stories though, at least broadly. But that has always been the case with Star Wars, generally speaking.

I believe the Lucasfilm approach to television was defined back during the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. The idea was, or became, to film episodes and then cut them into films. I was pretty sure this was the case with The Clone Wars. Now they are making little films and cutting them into 22 minute segments for airing on television. They're not even pretending The Clone Wars as single episodes is the intent. They care more about longevity and mini-films can be a profitable venture for the company's future.

The basic tenants of Star Wars are going to be there in the live action show. They can't change that and they won't or it won't be Star Wars in essence.

In short, I believe they could (not that they will) air A New Hope on television in segments. Then you could edit it back together and call it a film. I think that is what will happen with the live action show. The only difference will be the focus on the crime families rather than becoming a Jedi.

 

I don't see it. For one you'd need special effects equal to or better than star trek. That's probably more than 2M per episode.

 

They're better off just sticking with 3D. At least that way there are no limitations.

 

I don't think visuals will be a problem. Whether the price remains at high prices, or the team can find a way to do great effects at cheaper prices, the look of the LA show will be at least satisfactory.

I think that the thing to worry about most is the scripts.

From what's been revealed so far (Empire rising to power ala Godfather, underworld bosses, prostitution, etc.) good scripts are essential to get this kind of a show to the calliber that it can be.

 

It will be good. The clone wars keeps getting better and better visually, and unfortunately, Gilroy is a thing of the past. Chritian Taylor is the man, and god knows what kind of stories they have lined up for season 4 and 5. Lets not forget Katie Lucas either, she's starting to sow her oats in the series. Also, the cinematics for both TFU 1 and 2 were very good, so yes, star wars is set for tv, and GL loves visuals.

 

To answer the OT, simply yes.

Star Wars lends itself perfectly to serial episodes because that's what it was based on in the first place: the serials of the 1930s.

We may never see another three feature films, in which case we are seeing the future of Star Wars in this tv series (I've given up on ever seeing the live action tv series being made, now). And the future looks pretty bloomin' healthy to me.

 

I think it has the potential to. We've obviously seen good animated television series come out of the SW universe. A live-action series would have to be pretty careful. The best moments of Star Wars come from intense action-oriented scenes, and the writers would have to be able to deliver those weekly, in order for the series to feel like a Star Wars series. Honestly, the Clone Wars would have been a good choice for a live-action series, though the budget might have been a bit much.
I'd like to see a live-action series involving the New Jedi Order. I'm a big fan of the video game Jedi Academy, and always thought a TV series revolving around Luke's academy would make for a good series.

 

It'll be like the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. He was executive producer and look how well it turned out(it was an Emmy Award winning series).

 

Nah not Live-action but maybe animation would be nice of that idea but no Rosh Penin he is more irritating than 7 Jar Jars all voiced by BJ Hughes