Discussion Lucasfilm "dramatic downsizing"

I can just imagine the collective groans and petulant stamping of feet, if when Episode 7 gets released thats there's no hint of Mara whoever and Luke hasn't had son, from these obsessive EU fanboys.

 

Havent read that one yet, good despite the benevolent Hutt angle or only ok?

Reason why I didnt include it on my list. Decent enough books though...

 

It's funny, I recently started reading the "Lando Calrissian" trilogy from1983 after 30 years of not wanting to...and I am finding it far more enjoyable than pretty much every post ROTJ novel of the last 4-5 years (with the exception of Stover's excellent "Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor")...due to the fact it didn't have to worry about reams and reams of novel continuity? Let's hear it for Vuffi Raa!

 

I've said it so many times about "Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor"...shows how any 'historical event' can be changed to be almost unrecognizable when it is dramatized for an audience (in this case Holonet viewers). It was a really excellent commentary on how things in an "expanded universe" can't and won't always fit, nor should they if an entertaining story is being told. It seems a lot of EU readers missed the point of the book.

 

Well, hold on there; just for a moment, let's play devil's advocate and speculate that while the EU as we currently understand it is probably going to end up deader than disco, that doesn't necessarily mean that there'll be absolutely nothing from it in the sequel trilogy. Pablo Hidalgo did go on record saying that he provided the writers of Episode VII (Arndt and company) with a lot of material concerning what he knew about the state of the galaxy post-Jedi, and we have to assume that means they at least asked him what the EU had to say before starting to write the script. We also have to keep in mind LFL's preexisting track record of using the EU as a well to draw ideas from, not a sacred scroll to be filmed as written.

With that in mind, we can at least allow for the possibility that something like Mara or Ben might be in the film, but it won't be because the writers really love the EU or those characters as written; it'll be because they like the IDEA of those characters and think there's a place for something like those characters in the story, so it might as well be them if it'll make us fans happy; but the whole backstory of Mara Jade, former Emperor's-Hand-turned-Jedi-Hero, may not survive that transition and we will have to be prepared for that. And if it happens, and fans really do start collectively groaning and stamping their feet petulantly, then the only people who will lose by it will be us, the fans, because the general audience will consider us to be fools getting obsessed with non-issues when they're just trying to watch a movie and be entertained.

 

Yeah that's true. But the flip side of that coin is that it could've just been a token gesture to Hidalgo. To Arndt and Kasdan et al, they may possibly be thinking, 'right we've got a blank page here with the opportunity to come up with something totally original and exciting' you may argue well why get Hammil, Ford and the others back then? It's not like their all totally ignorant to what Star Wars is about and how the ROTJ ended. And as for GL? Nobodies gonna be kissing his ass and agreeing with everything he says this time round so he better get used to having limited input in the ST. (At least, that's how I envisage it

 

[Mod Voice] Everyone is entitled to their opinion on the EU and cannon, but this is not the place to discuss it. [/Mod Voice]

 

I think the ground just shook a little

 

I'm sorry, mavjade, but it's relevant if we're talking about the many factors that led to LFL being both bought and downsized. I grant, and I have said previously, that it is neither the only, nor the worst, aspect of the general problems that led to all this happening. It is a small symptom of the larger problem: that for whatever reason, Lucasfilm got distracted from its core purpose and its core values. And if one aspect of that distraction is that a film company became more concerned with printing books for a small audience than making films for a large one, then this is the place to discuss it. Discussing the quality of one book over another, and other such minutia, of course belongs somewhere else, but you'll never convince me the EU has no place at all in a discussion about LFL's problems that led to the company being downsized.

And by the way, it's spelled "canon," not "cannon."

 

You're using a bit of a "slippery slope" argument in this thought process. No offense, but that's considered a logical fallacy for an argument. Just because they closed the Lucasfilm Animation division does not mean that they would close Lucasfilm as a whole down.

Lucasfilm Animation had one active show being created (TCW) and one being planned (Detours). Both of them got cancelled recently, and Disney not surprisingly probably thinks they can handle future animated TV shows. But there have been six highly successful SW movies, a slew of successfully merchandised products, successful divisions like ILM, successful spinoff companies like THX, and other franchises like Indiana Jones all from Lucasfilm. Disney may be in control, but they know which parts of their acquired company have a history of high performance.

 

Discussing the EU in context of this thread is fine (as in, was the EU a part of the decision to downsize), but a big chunk of what has been discussed recently does not apply to that. The talk of what characters are in what books, what might or might not be taken from the EU to the movies and EU fanboys/girls getting upset does not apply.

 

The SPHA-T was a pretty good cannon...it took down a Lucrehulk class core ship with no problem

 

That's because that's where the industry is largely headed. The game sales have been soft for years. Now all of these phone apps and online games and gadgets have taken a bite out of that market and it's likely not coming back. Even Lucas saw this years ago when he created another game division, Lucasfilm Games to focus on educational games, rather than let Lucasarts do it. They couldn't. All there really talented people bolted(Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert, Sean Clark, Lee, etc, etc).

And LA had a huge turnover at the top because they couldn't figure out their mission. And again, we're still just speculating about what's really going on.

Disney is not going to forsake the profitability of SW, that I am assured of. There will be no dearth of new material. They need a ROI and NO product doesn't accomplish that.

They're just changing directions for the better, IMHO.

 

...and the "does Luke finally get his power converters" discussion is more important and relevant then this?

 

That is 100% completely the opposite of the truth. Disney is the one who has a unionized workforce stateside. Lucasfilm is the one who does not. And I'm sorry, but how is Lucasfilm Singapore not outsourcing? How is subbing out most of the work for TCW to some Asian firm not outsourcing. Please.

 

Oh, kevmp, if we get into discussing why nonsense threads such as that are allowed to stand, it could go nuclear. And nobody wants that...

 

Agreed. Look at the clunkers of Star Wars games that have been coming out for consoles the past few years...Force Unleashed II, Republic Heroes, Star Wars Kinect, Lightsaber Battles...yuck. It was obviously way past time to clean house, it seems logical to think that the early development of "1313" was looked at and the quality was lacking, so it has been postponed/shelved. That isn't a bad thing at all. If it looked like a winner and big money maker it wouldn't have been. But obviously a some people think slapping the Star Wars logo on a game box automatically makes it an awesome game. Far from it.

 

I'm just impatient for season 3 of Game of Thrones to start and have nothing better to do than start nuclear war in a SW forum...

 

Including Lucas himself for Episode One. Man, remember those rehash games and Jar Jars Gungan Adventure of whatever it was called? I tried to play it at a game store once..........uhmmm...yeah.

 

Of course there were dreadful Star Wars games in the past, but also when the Prequels were being released out we got quality like Knights of the Old Republic and Republic Commando. It's been pretty slim pickings since the first Force Unleashed came out, except for The Old Republic which isn't a console game.

 

12 days.........

 

Pfluegermeister, I pretty much agree with everything you said concerning the recent state of affairs of Lucasfilm. I do want to add that they did make "Red Tails," which was the first non-Indy or Star Wars Lucasfilm production in quite sometime. We know it wasn't really good or a commercial success, and that it was one, of many, projects that have been in the pipeline forever. I'm honestly surprised they made the film.

But your general premise still holds regardless.

 

And the Battlefronts were good too. But again, pretty much Lucasarts in-name-only by that point.