TV Discussion Official Live Action Series Discussion Thread

The ForceCast quoted George Lucas on it. I don't remember where he appeared and someone asked him about the LAS... Disney Weekends? I don't know...

 

Hopefully they shed more light on this at Comic Con this year. It's coming up at the end of July...

 

I honestly don't expect to hear anything on this until CV.

 

It seems they really didn't think this through before they started. It may yet be canceled.

 

I really hope that at Celebration 5 fans bring up the LAS a lot to get the message through to Lucas.

When it comes to Lucas' comments about the LAS being on hold it was at the ESB 30th Anniversary screening for a audience Question & Answer...

http://www.rebelscum.com/story/front/TESB_30th_Anniversary_Screening_131186.asp


Audience Question: Is there ever going to be a seventh movie?

Lucas Answer: Uhhhhhh....noooooo. Watch The Clone Wars next year, third seasons' way better than the second season.

Audience Question: How are things going with the live action TV show?

Lucas Answer: The live action TV show is kind of on hold because we have scripts, but we don't know how to do 'em. Because, they literally are Star Wars, only we're going to have to try to do them...a tenth the cost. And, it's a huge challenge...lot bigger than what we thought it was gonna be.

 

CadBane - I thought that was you just making up parodying dialogue until I clicked the link....

 

Well, it seems it will happen. He already has scripts made, and just doesn't know how to do them, like he said. They are probably figuring that out. I don't think Lucas would make scripts for the show then just ditch the whole idea.

 

How utterly stupid is it to write scripts that don't take the TV budget into account? It's not like they wrote these scripts with a movie in mind and now they're changing mid stride. It just makes no sense.

So they hired writers who didn't understand how to write for a TV budget? And I thought this was supposed to be more character driven and not need big time special effects anyway?

I will say this, how cool would it be if eventually GL liked the story so much that he decided to make a movie (or movies) instead?

 

Actually, if you look at this news from a certain angle, it's actually quite reassuring. It shows that Lucas is not done pushing the envelope. When he set out to do a Star Wars TV series, he didn't want to just abide to the current TV standard for a Sci-Fi series. He wants a Space Opera, not a Soap Opera. It can't be like Lost where amazing (special effects-heavy) things only happen a few times throughout a season. The entire thing has to be fantastic. It would seem that he told the writers: "Write me a Star Wars series. STAR WARS, like people are used to see it. Don't worry about how it will be possible to actually make it, we'll find a way." And, well, pushing the envelope is hard, obviously harder than Lucas was expecting this time, so the production is on hold.

I for one would rather have no LAS than to have a watered-down soap opera in space. Star Wars needs to be epic, it needs to be amazing, or it doesn't need to be at all.

 

I agree... if the show can be done really well, great... but if not, I'd rather not see it done.

 

I like Haden Blackman's comment of trying to see his character's in either large or small screen tv other than video games. I think that based on the success of the trialers for TOR, its obvious its only a matter of time, before small screen stuff becomes the norm for star wars. Seriously

 

To me, and I would imagine to many others as well, everything Star Wars that isn't the six films will always be "extra" Star Wars, not the norm or main content.

 

It's pretty depressing to hear the live action series is "on hold" after all these years of waiting for it. But this is just how Lucas is. He is such a creative guy that projects just gets bigger and bigger and bigger until he's satisfied. It may be he's realised that to make this project happen he'll never be happy doing it with a TV budget.

Wouldn't it be funny if out of all this we got another set of movies?

 

I really hope they don't blow the idea off after all. I've been anxious for the LAS ever since I heard about it. I mean TCW is great, but the LAS is what I -really- want to see.

BRING ON THE DARK TIMES!

 

Maybe this series is the "Blue Harvest" for Episode Seven...a fan can hope!

 

Let's think about the chronology here... it would be Episode 3.5.

 

So I had a thought today (hold on, it gets better), and I was wondering what people thought of the idea of essentially recreating the LAS as... well, animation.

I realize it could no longer be referred to as the "Live Action Series", but it could still cover the period known as the Dark Times, as it is reported to do. It could also still be darker and grittier in tone and plot than TCW, which it has also been reported to be.

They could use all the plot ideas they've apparently already come up with, some of which have apparently rendered the LAS potentially too expensive to move forward with any time soon. The animation could be done less expensively than a live action show, yet still be more realistic looking than TCW. I wouldn't want them going for the style that aims to actually look like live action ("photo-realistic" I guess), but something more so than the visual style of TCW (which incidentally has already become somewhat more realistic looking than it was when it started).

Thoughts?

 

That is a VERY interesting idea. From the very start everyone knew that the concept of a live-action Star Wars show was a very tricky one, because it would have to be on the same level as the multi-million dollar movies. Well, it turns out it really IS tricky and George can't make his grand ideas fit a TV budget. So, turning it into a CG animated show, would make it much more feasible. Without going the Old Republic photo-realistic way, epic storylines can be created on a fairly reasonable budget, specially with the experience garnered from the CW show. Sure, it could be a little less stylized than CW, to make it a bit more "grown-up" but it doesn't have to be photo-realistic.

Of course, making it an animated show would lose some of the potential audience. A good part of so-called mainstream audience still thinks animation is just for kids, and will not tune in to another animated Star Wars show, no matter what the content. On the other hand, making it animated sort of atenuates some of the pressure the show would face. A LA SW show would be much more closely scrutinzed by mainstream media than an animated one.

 

Thanks. The rest of what you said pretty much sums up the rest of my thoughts on this.

If anyone from LucasFilm / Lucas Animation is reading this and is intrigued by this idea... I'd be happy with a small fee.

 

For a guy in his 60s Lucas has truly Epic Hair.

 

As he said himself, he has it specially moulded by special effects artists.

I don't know if anyone ever posted it but there was a test film using cheaper cameras by Phillip Bloom for 'future productions'. Not entirely sure whether they are refering to a future film release or the LAS, but the cinematography is stunning and it's, hopefuly, a sign that the Pre-production is in some sort of progress despite the more recent news of the series being on hold.

 

Mr. Bloom is one fortunate fella!

Yeah, I'd imagine that the backup plan for the series is to go the animation route. I'd definitely support it. Not their first choice to be sure. Seems like I remember GL mentioning something about it being another ten years before they could affordably do a LAS on the scale he wants. I hope they don't wait that long! But with the success they've enjoyed with TCW, it seems like a relatively safe way to go. I really don't look for any more theatrical movies in GL's lifetime.

 

If they do go the animation route, I hope they use more realistic animation than TCW. I think the stylized animation is great for a more imaginative show like TCW, but for a more serious-sounding show like the LAS, they should go the TOR trailer route.

 

Again, that is NOT an option. Making a TOR Trailer-quality TV series would be more expensive than making it live action with movie-quality effects. It could be less stylized than TCW, but not photorealistic like TOR.

 

Also, if we believe it will be drama based and not action based, it would be a failure as CGI faces don't deliver the best performances. It would turn into Avatar to make it work and that's the opposite of cheap.