What happened with the Live Action series?

Witwer was speculating (or had he heard whispers?) that pretty much all effort was going into Episode VII, and that he felt like if there were a TFU3 game, that it wouldn't come until after Episode VII. I figured that y'know, since Lucas Arts has nothing to do with the films, that they would go on making their games while LucasFilm makes the new movies, but then I saw the report that 1313 was on hold... apparently because all effort is going into Episode VII. This still made some sense, since from what I had heard, Lucas Arts was collaborating with the various other departments like Lucas Animation, etc. for the game, so if those at Industrial Light & Magic are too busy now working on Episode VII, perhaps 1313 is on hold until they are available to collaborate on the game again? I have no idea.

On the same note, I would think that ILM would need to be available for any big budget Live Action Star Wars production as well, and so I would think that the LAS is on indefinite hold. They also might use the response of the sequel trilogy to determine whether or not to go ahead with it.

 

Ugh.... This is how I feel about episode 7..... This deal is getting worse all the time.

 

Here's Kotaku's update on the status of 1313 from yesterday. There's a few tidbits of the Live Action TV show, too.

http://kotaku.com/5987674/the-strange-status-of-star-wars-1313-a-hot-game-with-an-uncertain-future

Basically, 1313 started production back in at least 2009, and was going to be a tie-in to the Live Action show, "Underworld." Apparently, that was 1313's original title as well. Around 2010 the game was revamped when it became apparent the TV show wasn't happening anytime soon. It went from an open world RPG to it's current 3rd-Person Adventure mode. Lucas was apparently pleased with the progress of the game, and he recommended that LucasArts incorporate more characters and plot ideas from the TV show's scripts into the game. As we all know, the game got great responses from fans and the media last year during E3, and save for a few sporadic updates in 2012, word on 1313 has been silent. LucasArts insists it's still in production, but it's starting to look more and more like it's on hold or heading to the can, unfortunately.

Lucasfilm already has a stack of scripts ready to go for the TV show. I'd have to do some digging around, but I think I recall an article or two from some years back that mentioned a few of the writers. I'm sure some of the TCW writing staff probably chipped in as well. These past episodes of TCW, the "Ahsoka" arc, features a lot of the lower levels of Coruscant (Level 1312, 1315, etc). A lot of this design work was shared and based on material for the TV show and 1313.

I'll never buy the "too expensive" to film argument for the TV show. I honestly think Lucasfilm just didn't really know what to do with the it. Lucas has been gearing up to retire for the past few years, and I'm sure securing his successor (Kennedy) and the sale of his company (to Disney) probably has kept his mind occupied the past few years. Additionally, he's been going back and forth over design and expansion plans to Skywalker Ranch. Lucasfilm had plans to construct a state of the art studio facility, which Lucas finally scrapped after years of public negativity towards it and its environmental impact to the valley. If I recall, the studio was supposed to focus on groundbreaking greenscreen filming, and I imagine there was some intent to film the live action TV show in that proposed studio.

There's tons of great sci-fi shows that have had small budgets but still work very well (BSG, Stargate, etc). I know we like to say that the "scale" of Star Wars is different, but some of the episode budgets that have been tossed around are just exceedingly high, but what to I know...I know we can't necessarily compare TCW with Underworld, but do we know how much an episode of TCW costs?

Lucasfilm shot on location around the world for the Young Indy series during the early 90s. According to Wikipedia (which didn't list a source), each episode cost about $1.5 million, or about $2.5 million in today's money. There were about 20 something episodes produced, plus a few TV movies, before the show was canceled due to it's large budget and somewhat disappointing ratings. Of course, throughout the late 90s, Lucasfilm continued editing episodes together creating "movies" to air on TV and sale on home video. ILM actually did a lot of cool sfx work on the series that was relatively groundbreaking for TV shows at time. Their work helped create a more expansive world, while also keeping the budget down. The series was shot in 16mm, rather than the traditional 35mm, in order to cut costs.

A lot has changed in the world of TV since then, but I'm sure Lucasfilm has studied their Young Indy production while they've been planning the Live Action SW TV show.

For all intent purposes though, I'm sure Underworld, as originally conceived, is dead. There's a lot of transitioning right now at the company due to the Disney purchase, and it will take them time to sort things out. Rest assured, we will be getting more Star Wars on TV, we may just have to wait a bit longer. ABC execs are obviously open to the idea of SW TV shows, as Disney in general. They're currently filming a Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D TV show for ABC, so we'll eventually get some sort of SW TV. It just probably won't be the exact same concept of Underworld.

 

Yeah we still will and we may have muliple Live action and animated series of tv show coming!!!

 

Or at least FX. I would prefer something edgy.

 

SW: Underworld was executed and killed during Order 66 by George the Hutt himself. However, rumors still persist of his survival.

 

I think it got cancelled (or possibly just put on hold) because of the sequel trilogy.

 

I'm not holding my breath for it. I'm sure Star Wars will be on TV again (they even announced a new series in the same announcement that TCW was being cancelled), and even the idea of a Live Action Series might come up again years down the road. But I'm not sure about THIS LAS. The creators aren't going to sit around forever and keep their careers on hold for one project, and especially with Lucas retired and a change of management, I think that it leaves even less chances for the show ever getting off the ground. It's on hold indefinitely, but I figure we'll just hear less and less about it until eventually there's just no more news. Then if/when we finally do see a live action show, it'll probably be a completely different show with completely different scripts, crew, and maybe even time period.

 

An episode of TCW cost 1-2 million dollars. Not sure how that would compare to the live action show. TCW is about on part with what Young Indy would be projected to cost today however.

 

I know that post was over a month ago but I couldn't resist not commenting on it.
What in the frack are you talking about??? That was one of the most popular shows on televison and it only got better as it went on. The production went up as the show went on. They are still making BSG movies (the most recent was "Blood and Chrome") and those are awesome as well.

 

I tend to agree, as most of what you're saying makes sense. That said, I can't see the wisdom in excising those 50 completed scripts, either. Something should come of the resources already put into the LAS effort.

 

It's frozen in carbonite.

Anyhow, I'm sure I've said this before, but what I'd *like* to see happen would be for the scripts to be converted into 22-minute episodes (maybe two-parters a la the old 60s Batman TV series) and serve as the basis of that new CGI show that Filoni was talking about.

 

Weren't episodes supposed to be an hour long?

If so, they really should stay that format. Splitting them up would kill the pacing.

 

And a one-hour format just isn't going to happen for an animated series.

Besides, why would that kill the pacing? The arcs we've seen so far are basically one story split into four parts. Why would splitting a story into two parts work any worse?

 

Well, then don't use the scripts because it's probably not going to do well. Rewrite them.

Yes, and the pacing of these 4-part arcs is one of the major complaints I've seen on these boards. There always seems to be an extremely slow episode that seems unnecessary in the 22-minute format and an episode that could've used double the screen time.

Don't underestimate pacing - it's really important in terms of TV or film.

 

The pacing of the arcs was (like everything else in pre-Disney Star Wars) uneven. It was very good in the Ahsoka arc and the Onderon arc, pretty okay in the Young Jedi arc, incomprehensible in the Droids arc.

 

Onderon and the Fugitive arc had a very slow first episode as it was the first part of an 88-minute storyline. I've seen many people suggest the first episode of each arc was unnecessary.

The Fugitive arc also dropped covering Barriss' trouble with her emotions in detail, and explaining just how she managed to kill Letta and the clones, thereby setting up Ahsoka, due to lack of time.

Basically, they didn't have good pacing.

Also, I hope you're aware that we shoot Disney sympathizers around here.

More insufferable than OT purists.

 

The fact that TCW frequently screwed around devoting time to completely unnecessary stories while rushing other stories that deserved more time to tell, was a function of bad priorities and lack of coherent planning at LFL, not any problem inherent in telling multi-episode arcs.

 

I actually like the first episodes of both of those arcs. In fact, I'm a huge supporter of the Onderon arc, which seems to get a lot of flak.

I was looking at them from the point of view I see most often on these boards.

Personally, if you're going to go all 4-parters, I do think you're better off going with 45-minute episodes. Not only does it work better for pacing, but you're not going to lose viewers so often if they happen to hate a particular storyline, because it's not going to take a whole month to play out.

 

No network is going to air a one-hour animated series. You can argue till you're blue in the face about why it should happen, and maybe you're right, but it just isn't going to happen.

 

May I ask why?

 

Because no one's done it before, and people think it's just not what one does. Animated series are 30 minutes. Sitcoms are 30 minutes. Dramas are 60 minutes. That's the way things always have been, and no one's going to start doing things differently.

That may be a lousy reason, but I assure you that that's how Hollywood thinks, and it isn't going to change anytime soon.

 

Thanks, I'm not a huge watcher of TV (I usually buy DVDs/Blu-Rays) so aren't as aware of the conventions as I should be.

SW has always been a franchise to try something new (or at least it has been - maybe not any more?). It's just a shame because I think TCW would have really benefited from the increased running time, and I imagine a future animated series would too. It's a little early to judge knowing nothing about it.

 

Oh, no! Underworld was the thing I was looking forward to.
Lucasfilm's lack of faith concerns me.
They should have focused on the live-action series instead of on the ST (as I said previously on this thread).

 

Pacing is not the same thing as including inside leg measurements for every character.