TV Discussion Official Live Action Series Discussion Thread

Yeah, it looks like it hasn't been confirmed which show Detours is.

 

CGI is holding the series back. Perhaps Lucas should go 1977 for the show instead of attempting to make a effects laden prequel movie per episode.

Lucas and McCallum have been somewhat consistent in interviews going all the way back to 2004 when the series was first announced (ie based upon new background characters such as Bounty Hunters and Rogues).

The only new element is the price tag issue. Given cost issue prominence in Lucas interviews, perhaps Lucas is fishing for studios and governments to offer tax and production incentives in exchange for jobs (AOTC and ROTS were shot at Fox News Australia for this reason).

 

The live action has the suckiness feel to it. How many people are going to be around to watch godfather type stories with red laser shots. Not with other stuff starting to come around. This show will have to be extroadinary, and I doubt it can do it with simple characters.

 

I'm going to say it again, Cad Bane, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Lando, Jabba the Hutt, Bossk, and all of those characters are tied to crime. In other words, a lot of the most beloved moments and characters come from Star Wars come from this crime background. Why would our knee jerk reactions be that its a bad idea? That simply doesn't make any sense. The Clone Wars itself has shown, in a very minor way, exactly how crime prospers during war. Trust me, the premise is fine.

 

These characters and their stories were all minor parts of an overarching story about galactic wars and heroic struggles. A movie/TV series all about Jabba the Hutt's dealings with Cad Bane would be terrible. The TCW episode "Evil Plans" was bad enough.

I have a hunch that Lucas et al. don't really have a great deal of choice in their subject matter. They don't and won't have the resources to justify a series about the traditional Star Wars elements. I would personally prefer something more focused on the transformation of the Republic's military and government into those of the Empire, focused on clone/stormtroopers, new recruits, Order 66 escapees and Coruscant politicians (ie. a proper successor to TCW), but that would probably be prohibitively expensive. They're thus confined to working with something that could be done cheaply if the studios aren't willing to shell out cash. Hence all the talk about The Godfather and Boba Fett.

 

maybe they're just waiting for Daniel Logan to reach the right age for the time period they have in mind

In all seriousness though my bet is it's going to be 9-10 years after ROTS almost bang in the middle between ANH, or perhaps even later in the timeline.

It's rumoured we have Oola, if this is the case than any earlier and she'd likely be a child which would make the prostitution stuff harder to stomach.

Also would make it easier for them to include Starkiller if it's further along [got a stong hunch they will want to]

 

Well, Lucas bases much of Star Wars on real history. He could have a crime lord like Al Capone. I once heard that Al Capone was often wrongly accused by Herbert Hoover for the Depression or helping the Depression. Palpatine could try to blame much of the senate disappearances on this hypothetical crime lord(because Palpatine was getting rid of the people who went against him). Though if the series isn't exciting, I think Lucas may be forced to step it up a bit. Maybe show civilizations in the satellite galaxies or in the unknown region territories getting crushed by the Imperial forces or fighting back. Maybe there's more to the Imperial Period than just the Empire? Let's hope so.

 

I don't know if STar Wars is the right vehicle for a series about the criminal underworld but Boardwalk Empire has had a lot of success in that genre.

Somehow I don't see the Live Action Series comparing to that from a character and story perspective though.

 

I'm hedging my bets now that this series will focus on the exciting life and times of Elan Sleezebaggano.

Not a bad concept. Palpatine always seems on the lookout for scapegoats.

 

Here's an other story idea. Where do the rebels get their weapons from? Well, people like Rahm Kota or Mon Mothma can't just set up a weapon's factory and start making them. The rebels are going to have to get their equipment from somewhere. So in can tie in with the story of the rebellion and how it came to be. Of course, there's still no rebel alliance. They'll probably be referred to as "insurgents" or "rebel groups", not "the Rebellion". Also, the whole series probably won't be based off the Godfather. It'll probably just be the first season. I'm cautiously optamistic about the series. On the plus side, it seems Lucas won't be the one writing the series, for the most part. He also said that once he's done with the first season, he'll "pass it on from there", which means that there will be other directors. All that means more variety in talent.

New topic: Does anyone have any other possible story ideas that could be incorporated in the TV series? How they set up their army? Who the Empire conquers? They're expedition throughout the Outer Rim, Unknown Regions, and satellite galaxies?

 

Any idea as to when this might actually come to fruition?

 

GL has been hinting at this and teasing us since CIV and nothing has happened yet so who knows

 

CIII, actually.

 

Never been to any of them so it makes no difference to me

 

Really hope this does get made.

So much potential.

 

I seriously hope they don't forget about the established prequel aliens in this, at least the Neimoidians anyway.

 

Yep. They're really pushing the Czech Republic for this show. That's where they shot most of Young Indy(studio shooting).

 

CGI isn't holding the series back. That's really presumptuous.

 

Why? CGI - as in movie quality CGI (which I suspect Lucas wants, at least of PT quality) - for a TV series is expensive.

 

He did have to go home and rethink his life....

 

CGI as seen in the prequels, excluding the opening battle for Revenge of the Sith, is not that expensive anymore. I'm not saying its super cheap either. The problem is that every avenue of production needs to be refined.

The current pipeline of production is based and built upon outdated flows of production that do not make as much sense in the digital age as they did 25 years ago. Lucasfilm is trying to reorganize that production pipeline to eliminate excessive costs.

DSLRs were tested for Red Tails to slash the cost of cameras and coverage. For instance, in A New Hope, sometimes they only had 3 cameras available for shooting because they cost so much. A DSLR rig is exponentially cheaper than anything the industry has seen before. Check out Phillip Bloom's recent work if you're curious or haven't seen anything he's done recently with DSLRs. The point is, coverage won't be an issue anymore and having weak coverage is what makes a TV show not look like a film a lot of the time. Coverage just became affordable.

A few friends I have in the industry have told me Red Tails is easily a $125 million dollar movie but they made it for $34 million dollars. Altering the pipeline, using cheaper digital equipment during principal photography, filming in locations that do not have heavy fees and taxes, as well as places that will give you a grant for using a local orchestra all play into these cost cutting measures to make epic productions on the cheap.

Its not CGI that is actually holding up the show. Its pushing the things above to the extent that they become viable on television. Lucasfilm could probably make The Phantom Menace at 50% of the cost had they made it today and maybe even cheaper since they wouldn't have experiment and problem solve like they did in 1997. That really means TV budgets are coming close to being able to look like films.

Its not a CGI issue, its a production issue. When they achieve this goal, television is going to get really good.

 

From what I know so far about where the series stands, it definitely seems like the special effects is the major road block holding it back. It really does seem to just be a waiting game, if LFL wants the show to be visually stunning then they will have to wait for the equipment to fit a TV budget.

Although at this point I'd be okay if they shot the show in someone's backyard as long as the writing is solid.

 

They can run around Skywalker Ranch and film it haphazardly like those gazillion fanfilms on youtube of kids running through the forest. Only the props won't be crappy homemade replicas but whatever they find in the Ranch basement.

 

I hope with Clone Wars maybe winding down in the next two years and "Red Tails" being released, they can start focusing on bringing this to fruition.

 

I'm quite optamistic about the writing, probably because interviewing over 100 writers seems fairly cautious on LucasFilm's part.