Indiana Jones and The Curse of LucasTV. Could it happen to Star Wars?

Don't get me wrong, I?m all for a TV series (proposed for 2007), however, lets just remember the History of other projects Lucas has created for TV. Admittedly the first few series of the 'Young Indiana Jones' TV series was ok. However, soon the franchise moved to making full episodes simply about Indy joining a blues band. Come on, where is the archeologically adventure in that?

Could this happen to the Star Wars TV series? I mean the Star Wars universe in itself is much more interesting that 1920's - 30's America, but will the budget be enough to make the Live Action TV series look anything like as good as the films? The rumours are that after completing a first series Lucas may pass the live action TV series to 'Other Talented People'. The thing is will this 'Other Talented Person' know what the fan really wants? Will he be true to the movies? The success of the Fan films is solely due to the fact that they are made by fans, who love the films, I mean Pink Five was amazing (although spoof), will we see talented people like that making the TV series.

Another problem is the plots. It has been said (after Revenge of the Sith) that Lucas? text between Anakin and Padme was very poor. As Harrison Ford said: ' You Can write this **** but cant say it' when seeing the Star Wars script. With a TV series, which would have to rely on text and a well-written script, will we see interesting storylines? I have every faith in Lucas; however, some see this proposed new TV series as a way of cashing in, again, on the Star Wars Universe. I believe however, that it is simply Lucas' way of allowing his Universe to appeal to new fans.

The books are successful as there are so many different stories after and during the Films period. This has led to loads of different interpretations (such as no-one is sure of Yoda's true father or master because of the different interpretations). A TV series would be taken as Fact and thus it would take a very clever person to tie it in with the endless books and comic books. It is possible that these 'Other Talented People' may create things that Lucas would not be happy with and which may confuse the casual fan! For example, Lucas disliked the idea of their being an Anakin Solo in the Jedi Order books as it may confuse the casual fans, thus the character was killed off shortly after this was revealed!

I hope you tell me what you think of a Live Action TV series?

May the Force be with you,
Jedi Lukmas (www.msnusers.com/starwarsfansite)

LP edit: Questionable words should be fully starred out.

 

In regards to your concerns about what "other tallented people" may do that Lucas may not like... I have a feeling that while Lucas may step aside and let someone else head up the production, he will in fact still be the one to say "yes" or "no" regarding things that touch on elements that are key to the primary story presented in the movies. I think he will be looking for people who he can trust to handle things well enough that he doesn't have to constantly look over their shoulders to make sure they are doing right.

In regards to what happened with the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, I agree. I have said this in another thread, but it is worth repeating: People wanted to see Indiana Jones BE Indiana Jones. I understood that we needed to see how he got the way he got, and that we would learn cool little details about him along the way. But as you said, entire story arcs were written with him doing crap that had no bearing on the character we knew from the films.

Sean Patrick Flanery was an excellent choice for the role. He could play the Indiana Jones attitude very well. But the writing was boring. Incidental events in Indiana's life were given the primary focus, so the spirit of the character was essentially lost.

The Star Wars TV Series cannot repeat this. The writers must take it to heart that the period the stories will be extremely chaotic. The Empire has been formed. Worlds will be subjugated. Lives will be lost on a catastrophic scale. The remaining Jedi will be hunted by Vader. the characters will be caught up in all of this. Exploring their backgrounds is fine, but the galaxy is in chaos. We cannot have entire episodes with them just sitting around drinking Blue Milk and chatting.

Not every episode has to deal with imperial entanglements. There is the galactic underworld as well. Not to mention any number of sub-factions whose loyalties can be to themselves, the empire, the ideals of the Old Republic, or to the Underworld.

One thing to remember is that the movies told the story of one group of characters... The TV series will tell the story of another group of characters. However, the new group's exploits should be just as exciting and important in their own right as those of the movie characters.

If the characters are going to be part of something big, then the writers need to throw them into it as quickly as possible with as little lead-up as they can get away with.

I was going to GameMaster a session of the Star Wars pen-and-paper roleplaying game, using a plot that I was writing. The first three "episodes" were not going to directly involve the empire at all, but by the end of the third episode, it would be clear that the empire was behind everything, and that would have brought the players' characters into the Galactic Civil War. The purpose was to give the players a sense of their characters' background. That they weren't just a group of people fighting the empire. They needed a reason to be involved. And rather than leaving it to them to just create it as character background, by letting them actually play through scenarios that created the background for them, they could truly relate to events, not just ideas. Unfortunately, real life prevented me from running the scenarios, and I haven't had time for that sort of thing since.

-DO

 

I think that Lucas should worry about the curse of the Star Wars Holiday Special rather then the curse of Indiana Jones.
There are no guarantees in the TV business. Star Wars fandom is big, but not big enough to make a sucess of a prime time expensive TV series, as opposed to a low budget cartoon show on a cable channel. Don't get me wrong,I love "Clone Wars" but a lot more is at stake with a prime time live action series.
It's gonna have to appeal to the average viewer, not just the Hard Core fans. That is why some of the suggestions I have seen in this forum are never going to happen.

 

'The rumours are that after completing a first series Lucas may pass the live action TV series to 'Other Talented People'. The thing is will this 'Other Talented Person' know what the fan really wants? Will he be true to the movies?'

Well, Lucas passed the torch to someone else for ESB and I still think that's the best SW movie so I don't think that should be a major concern.

By the way, is there any way to directly quote another user?