idea for a NEW story

Ok I've been trying to find a home for this idea of mine. Based on a post I recently read about Episodes 7, 8, and 9, I think I may have found a home for my idea (which someone has probably thought of already).

I wrote this a few weeks ago, posted it on the "Official Star Wars Blog," and got no response. Since this site is way more active for blogging, I should be able to get some active feedback. Here is what I wrote:

I love Star Wars. Just as many many people do. I want nothing more than to continue reading and watching Star Wars for many years to come. The direction of Star Wars has been in question as of late. Whether or not I agree with that assertion, I do believe that the franchise needs to take a new direction. My idea, probably someone has already though, would help take the franchise to a new level.

After the Clone Wars has been finished, and the live action series is under way, Lucasfilm will once again be in the familiar place of "where do we go from here, if anywhere." I believe, and I am sure every single Star Wars fan does as well, that the story of Star Wars should not end.

After Return of the Jedi was released, Star Wars fans were left to wonder what happened to Luke, Leia, Han, and everyone else from the Trilogy. Not until Timothy Zahn published Heir to the Empire did Star Wars fans have any official storyline concerning the Original Trilogy's heroes. Since Zahn's trilogy, countless novels and comics have been published. Some good, some bad, but none have come close to capturing the actual feeling that the Original Trilogy gave us like Timothy Zahn's trilogy. Zahn masterfully creates a story that takes readers to a familiar galaxy far far away.

Now if Lucasfilm was to make a movie about Luke, Leia, and Han; the chance of recasting the same actors is virtually impossible. However, since Lucasfilm loves computer animation, the characters could once again be brought to the big screen, just not in the same sense. I am not talking about the recent computer animation used in The Clone Wars though. I am thinking more along the lines of the computer animation used in the Final Fantasy movie that was released a few years ago. And if possible, Lucasfilm rounds up as many of the Original Trilogy actors to do the voices.

The result of this would certainly be a success. Star Wars movies are obviously a hit. Zahn's books were New York Times bestsellers. Combine both and you have an instant cash cow.

If Lucasfilm was to actually go through with this idea, there are two ways it could be accomplished. Now I mean no offense by this, but what I am about to say is something that many many people/critics have stated. The writing in the most recent Star Wars releases has been amateur to say the least. If Lucasfilm would consult with Zahn, even ask him to write the script, the problem that the latest releases have been accused of would most likely be avoided.

The story is there. The demand is there. Star Wars fans would absolutely love to see the Original Trilogy characters back in action. Let's not forget, the story did start with them. The story of Darth Vader has been told. Fortunately for everyone, that doesn't mean the story of Star Wars ends.

Thank you for reading.

Let me know what you think. And if this doesn't belong here, I apologize, I am just trying to find a home. If you saw this on one of the other forums, don't accuse me of spamming. Lastly, don't make fun of my noobness.

 

There's a lot of fan fic....

 

Yeah, try these guys. http://boards.theforce.net/fan_fiction/c10051

 

You're not an agent for Zahn are you, per chance?

I read the Zahn books quite a few years back, and all I can say is that they must have been distinctly unremarkable because I've never felt the urge to re-read them and don't remember much about them.

The success of star wars is not down to the characters any more than any other aspect of the films. It's the combination of the mythology that was established by ANH, with the sound effects, the score, the SFX, the principles garnered from Jospeh Campbell's work, that when combined give us a great story.

Now whilst you could still apply the characters, the sound effects, the score and the SFX, the tale has been told. I've never read Joseph Campbell's work, but I'm pretty sure there's not a chapter about 'at the end of the hero's journey, here's how you can spin-off from it to make more money...'.

That's not to say Campbell's work is the be-all-and-end-all, but there's only so much an audience can take of one particular story. We've already had the Death Star blown up only for it to reappear 2 hrs later. Vader's dead. The Emperor's dead. The Empire has fallen. If you start that endless cycle of 'well actually, the Emperor could have cloned himself.... and there's other dark jedi around other than the Sith...' the audience gets tired of not being able to assume it's over. People want a beginning, middle and end, and if you can't trust that the end is The End you get disillusioned with the entire thing.

The OT was a package. ANH hope intros the setting and the main characters, ESB adds a few more characters, then ROTJ shows you what happens to them. I'm as big a PT defender as most, but few will deny that it's a separate package, telling a different story with a different tone and style. The two packages, OT and PT, are obviously linked by the surviving characters of the PT, and some familiar locations, props, sound effects, music etc. but I don't see how anyone can argue that overall, the PT has not damaged the reputation of Star Wars as a whole. And I think if you start a new story after the OT with the surviving characters, you weaken the OT even more. Particularly if you accept that Star Wars is the story of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. The saga was built around that character. There's no bringing him back so immediately you're losing a major component of the story. All the surviving OT characters we have seen in relation to Vader. It's already well-referenced that Han Solo was seen as a bit of a dead-weight during ROTJ, in terms of the overall story, because there's nothing more tying him directly to Vader's story (or if you look at the OT originally being more about how Luke Skywalker defeats the Empire, there's nothing more tying him to the central story) - i.e. he's not necessary. And so, in the same way, at the end of ROTJ Vader's dead and the Empire's defeated and therefore none of the other characters are necessary i.e. the story's over, hence the film get's quickly wrapped up.

Everything we know about the characters Luke, Leia and Han, we know for the purpose of telling the story of Darth Vader. Star Wars (and therefore those charcters) was never written allowing for additional 'Tales of Luke and the gang' afterwards. So anything you try and do with those characters afterwards is in completely new territory and I think, based on the general population's reaction to the PT, people won't put up with 'new territory' bolted on just so we can watch some more lightsaber fights and space battles and listen to John William's score again.

I don't want people to miunderstand me - I don't hate the PT or think it was necessarily a mistake. I've really enjoyed it and will continue to do so, but now ROTS has been and gone I'm able to reflect on the PT and see whilst it gave us some fantastic scenes, it actually added very little to the story, other than explaining why Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader and how the Empire came to be in the first place (not that these are insignificant of course). And I think they show that it wasn't that George Lucas didn'

 

The Thrawn Trilogy sucked ***


I never really understood hy people found the Thrawn story to be so great.

 

I don't think the Thrawn trilogy is GREAT, per se, but I am in the last book of it now, and it's at least keeping my interest!

I thought a new story I'd like to see would be something from the old days of the republic...the Jedi-Sith war days, like way before Yoda was even born. I would love to see that in a movie! There's much potential there...I did read over a couple years ago that Lucas himself said if they ever do a SW MOVIE again, it would be just that...I wouldn't bank my hopes on it happening, but it's interesting to know it's at least in his thoughts...we all know how he sometimes changes his mind all of a sudden over time (the idea to do the prequels is a great example...if I remember correctly, I believe he said after ROTJ that would be it. Then, 15 or so years later, he decided to to I-III.)

 

You've got to be kidding me. Up until 1999 the PT was the backstory and there were planned 9 episodes, with 7-9 about moral choices and passing on what you've learned, which focussed on Luke. At the end it flashes forward and is revealed as being told by the 2 droids (all straight from GL in interviews). Star Wars was never written as the story of Anakin until GL changed his mind and shifted the focus during the PT.

Darth Vader wasn't even Luke's father until a later draft of Empire (Anakin appears to Luke in the early drafts) and is killed in the early drafts of Jedi (redemption entering around the 3rd-4th drafts).

The Lucasfilm produced Magic of Myth tour that traveled around after TPM opened even said that the planned story takes 9 episodes. So even as late as January 2002 Lucas had plans for 3 additional movies.

Go to the library and search for magazine interviews from 1977-1998 and you will see that Star Wars was written as and for further "Tales of Luke and the gang," i.e. that's why it was billed for 20 years as "From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker."

 

I think that when ANH came out there was a very good chance that it would be a one off film, and if it wasn't "the adventures of Luke and the gang" is exactly what GL had in mind, hence "The Adventures of Luke Skywalker" Vader being the main star of the films is a reasonably recent idea.

For me, ROTJ seems like the perfect end point for the end of the SW saga. I've read post ROTS EU and whilst I've enjoyed some of it, nothing, including Thrawn, has really captured my interest. I much prefer the pre TPM stuff or the books which fill in between film periods.

 

I never really understood hy people found the Thrawn story to be so great.

Because it was well written and clever? That's what I thought, at least.

 

I'm not denying that, or at least, I didn't mean to, and perhaps I used the wrong words when I said 'it wasn't written', but what I'm getting at is that there's nothing in the OT films that sets up any sort of follow up, and as DarthDuckie says, ROTJ ends at the right point to end the story. Any subsequent films would, therefore, in my opinion, be fundamentally detached from what we know as Star Wars (and I'm talking purely in terms of the films, cos that's what this thread is about, so whatever Lucas and Lucasfilm have said is, in a way, irrelevant because they have been seen to be entirely unreliable when it comes to what the 'Star Wars story' is) and would result in a major deterioration of the story's legacy.

 

the unfortunate thing now is that (mainly due to the ages of the actors) it's too late to do any VII-IX...If Lucas would've jumped on it right around 1990, the 9 episode saga would've flowed perfectly from IV-IX, then I-III...

I know that's kinda skipping around, but given the way he originally did it, and the AGES of the characters mostly, that would've been the best way to do it...

in the end, I'm happy with the 6 episode saga...

 

The funny thing is that he always said in the old interviews that he would do 1-3 1st and then make 7-9 to give the actors time to age naturally because there was an ~25 year gap between 6 and 7.

 

I agree.

 

yeah no more movies. however the thrawn trilogy is 7-9 and the beat eu novels ever but its a book and book to movie translations are so iffy

 

Ok, if the majority says no more movies, how about a future television series?

Sort of like the idea for the Song of Ice and Fire series. Each book will be a season. The Thrawn books are pretty detailed, so it could work.

 

Sounds good to me! I call for an animated series that depicts (as drg4 has mentioned in the 7,8,9 thread) the events of Dark Empire in long, multi-episode form. The material needs a little massaging/adaptation/re-imagining, but it's the kernel of a good story, and a fine place to start for a post-ROTJ project. (I would replace the cloned Palpatine of the story with another Sith lord, perhaps Darth Plagueis the Wise, whose experiments with midi-chlorians have allowed him to resurrect his now zombie-rotted body!)

 

A re-working of the Dark Empire story is a great idea.

Both the Thrawn trilogy and DE make for great stories, whether it be an on screen movie, animated, or live action series.

 

I read the Thrawn series a while back and eh.... It wasn't awful, but it made some annoying leaps and I really felt like I had closure with Jedi; no, everything wasn't all neatly wrapped up, but Luke had fulfilled his destiny as it were and freed his father from his. Sometimes it's nice when a story ends on the right note and things are not neatly wrapped up with a bow. Infact, I would venture to say that is how some of the best stories end - with a renewed hope, but without a definitive "end" Are we supposed to follow Luke to his grave??? I can imagine a 92 year old Luke Skywalker slouched over on the crapper dead of a heart attack at the end of the 14th movie. This is why the original Rocky was a classic and Rocky 2, 3, 4, 5... all paled in comparison.

Ok, enough on that. If I were to watch another Star Wars movie, it would be either a prequel to the origins of Sideous/Palpetine and his tutelage under Plagueis or something WAY back to an entirely new storyline, maybe something that sets up the Jedi vs. Sith and maybe the choice between light and dark isn't so defined... I think either of these (or MANY, MANY others) represents a more compelling storyline than watching Luke, Han, and Leia defend their retirement home from greedy developers by challenging them to a bowling tournament... Now, if they included Lando as their "ringer" only to have him hurt his wrist and be forced to coach an inexperienced but talented Chewbacca to lead them to the title through a montage, THAT would be compelling drama!!!

 

Rocky 2, 3, and 4 were excellent.

 

I actually liked that GL ended the story with ROTJ, it is the prefect ending to the saga. Luke redeems his father, and along with his sister rebuilds the Jedi Order. That is why, I don't really like to read EU after ROTJ, it just takes away from the end of ROTJ, there is really no story after ROTJ(But the gap between ROTS and ANH, that is another story,lol.)

 

Bad idea in animation. Eithier the original cast or no movie.

 

You know what's a bad idea? Jar Jar...

Last time I checked, the Clone Wars is animated.

 

But did'nt Clone Wars suck?
I think that's why you would want the real McKoy kinda movie for 7,8, and 9.

 

When one looks at how the PT is generally regarded compared to the CT, and then looks at how poorly Clone Wars has been received one can only dread how horribly Episode VII, VIII & IX would turn out, if they were ever made.

But if they really are going to make a trilogy set after ROTJ, I pray that George Lucas will not direct them.

 

Apples and oranges.

"How poorly Clone Wars has been received", for example, is not the same thing as TCW's inherent quality.