Category: TV Star Wars Live Action Location Shooting


MORE RUMORS FROM A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY

There probably will be more Star Wars films. Despite the fact that he was supposed to be done with the Star Wars universe after the Prequels, George Lucas has been unable to leave well enough alone, and there’s a live action TV series in the works to go alongside the currently airing Clone Wars cartoon. But what will this movie be?

The question is raised once again, this time by musician Thomas Dolby – yes, the guy who sang ‘She Blinded Me With Science.’ On his blog he talks about hanging out with a Lucas guy. Here’s the pertinent quote:

My host is friend and former collaborator Paul Sebastien, who over the years has worked for Xbox, Playstation, and now LucasArts. Last night he was telling me a little about the forthcoming Star Wars-related TV show, movie and online games—very cool indeed.

There are a lot of things this could mean. It could mean, quite simply, that Sebastien spilled the beans to Dolby about a super secret return to the cinema for Star Wars. Possible, but highly unlikely. The folks who work at Lucasfilm and LucasArts don’t spill beans. Maybe Dolby is breaking a major confidence here, but that sentence doesn’t read like he’s telling tales out of school.

So Dolby could just be plain old wrong – there are no Star Wars movies in the pipeline. Or he could be confused: maybe Lucas is planning to kick start his live action show with a movie. Lucas took the first few episodes of Clone Wars and jammed them together into a film; it would be easy to do the same with the first two or three episodes of a live action show. But then again, maybe there’s no theatrical component at all and Lucas just wants to start his new show with a two hour TV movie – basically a double sized episode.

This raises an interesting semantic question, though: do you count the Clone Wars movie as a Star Wars movie? Are there seven Star Wars films in your personal canon, or just the six? I bet more people would count a big screen version of the live action show as a real movie than the CG Clone Wars.

At any rate, it’s going to happen. There will be a new Star Wars movie, a real one. Maybe even one that grows out of the end of the TV series. But I think we’re some time from that happening.

In the meanwhile, check out this video of David Lynch recently discussing meeting with George Lucas about directing Return of the Jedi. It’s pretty funny.

New Star Wars TV show tainted by memories of Jar Jar

Wednesday, 10 February 2010 John Howell

skywalkIn the history of cinema it’s hard to top the utter disappointment felt when watching George Lucas’ follow ups to the original Star Wars movies. From the horror of Jar Jar Binks (a completely humourless animated character introduced in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace) to the victory of special effects over substance, the style and sense of wonder present in the original three movies was nowhere to be found. With this level of disappointment, it’s great to read an interview inTotal Film Magazine where George Lucas reveals that he wants his new live action Star Wars TV series to be more like the original movies.

“It’s kind of likeEpisode IV — it’s funny and there’s action, but it’s [a] lot more talky. It’s more of what I would call a soap opera with a bunch of personal dramas in it. It’s not really based on action-adventure films from the ’30s — it’s actually more based on film noir movies from the ’40s!”

If by “more talky” he means more plot, depth and a more compelling narrative, I’m all for it. Even better was a quote from the show’s producer Rick McCallum on the Star Wars Blog:

“It’s a much darker, much more character-based series, much more adult, and we’re hoping that it will go on for up to 400 episodes,” he said.

In 2007, McCallum also said that the new TV show is “something that can go on for years and years. One of the ideas is that we’ll have multiple series going on in about two or three years’ time.”

More adult and more character focused (and darker without being silly!) is certainly what’s needed to overcome the problems of the last three Star Wars movies. I’m aware that they made a great deal of money, but I can’t imagine ever watching them again – even if they are released as special editions and converted to 3D. Imagine Jar Jar Binks in 3D! It’s too horrible to contemplate. If they really do make 400 episodes though, it will be hard to sustain the writing quality. Excellent TV series such as Lost, Fringe and Heroes struggle to avoid cliché and poor plotting and they are nowhere near the 400 episode mark.

According to io9 (via Wookiepedia and The Celebrity Cafe) the new Star Wars TV show takes place in the “dark times” between the last prequel Star Wars EpisodeIII: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, when most of the Jedi and anti-emperor politicians were hunted down and killed. Apparently it will be a gritty and dark series, which will star minor characters, including Boba Fett, C-3PO, and the Emperor Palpatine.

MTV recently revealed that the action will follow the Rebel Alliance as it slowly gains strength against the Empire, and as he did with the animated Clone Wars series, Lucas will write and produce an entire year’s worth of episodes before looking for a cable channel to air them.

When asked what he thought about the new Star Wars TV show by The Huffington Post, Mark Hamill, the actor who played the iconic role of Luke Skywalker in the original three Star Wars movies, appears to agree that George Lucas lost his way in the last three movies and that a TV series is a “positive step” forward:

“They’re going to really have to rely on good scripts rather than making it some special effects extravaganza,” Hamill said. “… he kind of got caught up in making it bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger until you’re just exploding with special effects all over the screen like some fireworks display. And to me, I think it’s more important to make the audience care about the characters. And I think with an hour script for TV, he might be able to reboot in a way that’s positive.”

When asked whether he would make an appearance in the new show he added:

“I don’t think it’s set in the time frame. I don’t know what the time frame is. My guess would be, if Luke appears, they’d want him younger. [Laughs] So they’d get a different actor. I really don’t know.”

Way back in 2005, the BBC reported that Lucas will write and produce the first season and then “hand it off from there”, while remaining executive producer and general overseer throughout the rest of the series. The style they are aiming for is apparently similar to Lucas’ Young Indiana Jones TV series.

There is no fixed release date for the show, but it’s expected sometime in 2011 or 2012 (with the end of 2010 no longer a possibility). According to MTV, casting for the series is currently underway.

Let’s hope the new Star Wars TV series, the first Star Wars spin off featuring live actors, makes up for the sins of the George Lucas follow up movies. I can’t live with another Jar Jar Binks or a young Anakin Skywalker in a futuristic racing vehicle (with sequences that look surprisingly like Xbox or PS3 computer games!). The sacrifices George Lucas appears to have made for the sake of blatant merchandising are disturbing.

Interestingly, speaking of Jar Jar, I came across an old Los Angeles Times article recently that reported that even some of the Lucasfilm team who worked on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace had doubts about Jar Jar Binks and recognised he would alienate audiences. Phantom‘s visual effects supervisor Rob Coleman told a seminar that he brought his concerns to George Lucas, who told him that he had designed Jar Jar to appeal to small children. “I only had one audience member to please and that was George Lucas,” Coleman said. “If he was happy with what we were doing with Jar Jar, then I was happy.”

Apologies to fans of the last three Star Wars movies, but they just don’t do it for me at all. Even making allowances for being younger and more impressionable when I watched the originals, the contrast is too stark.Remember the love story between Anakin and Padme? It was a frightening thing. Please George, save me from the memories of that walking talking animated buffoon, the one and hopefully only Jar Jar Binks. Erase the nightmare. Let your live action Star Wars TV show be a compelling new chapter in a series that has lost its way but deserves to rise from the ashes.

Rumored TV show – Star Wars: Galactic Heroes

Posted April 3rd, 2010 by Mark

Alright younglings, this might be the Star Wars show for you!  Yes, in the same tradition of the Marvel Superhero Squad cartoon, the Galactic Heroes toy line is rumored to have its own television show, aimed specifically at preschoolers and Kindergartners.  If the rumors are true, they are currently in pre production with the working title: Squishes (let’s pray they stick with the Galactic Heroes toyline title!).

gh1This move comes at a good time for Lucas, while his current The Clone Wars TV series is taking a turn towards the Dark Side of kids television, this title will be aimed at the youngest of the Star Wars fans, the ones who might find the current Clone Wars disturbingly dark.

What can you expect?  Well it’s too early to say, but if one takes into account the Marvel version, this incarnation of the Star Wars characters should be a much lighter and all around more lighthearted Star Wars adventure for everyone.

At the present time there is still no word if Cartoon Network or its WB sister companies will be airing the series.  EUCantina decided to hold off on posting this article until after April First worried it might have been a April Fool’s Prank that was leaked.  It’s safe to say this wasn’t part of the pranks, whether or not it will see the light of day is another subject.  But either way faithful Star Wars fans EUC will keep you informed.  Stay Tuned!

Source: IGN

Leaving the Czechs?

In what is almost a follow up to our previous post on live-action series set location speculation, The Wall Street Journal has published a piece highlighting the fact that the live-action series seems to be drifting away from the Czech Republic as a set location due to a lack of tax incentives. Could Hungary be the alternative? Click here for the full piece and see below for an excerpt.

“Mr. Lucas has chosen the Czech Republic for smaller projects. The filmmaker and his executive producer, Rick McCallum, recently completed the filming of “Red Tails,” a low-budget movie about African-American fighter pilots during World War II, in which locations in the Czech Republic doubled for Italy.

With a budget of $25 million, “Red Tails” was relatively inexpensive to make for Lucasfilm, Mr. Lucas’s production company, and Mr. McCallum said the high skill level of Czech film crews overcame the lack of tax breaks.

But this likely won’t be enough for the “Star Wars” television series, with a planned budget of $100 million to $150 million annually to shoot about 100 episodes over four years, Mr. McCallum said. “I had a wonderful experience on ‘Red Tails,’ but in order to bring a larger production to the Czech Republic, the government would need to be competitive with other countries’ tax incentives,” Mr. Lucas said.”

Big thanks to Atlas of Starwars.hu for the link

Jabba could be in Live-Action.
This is from Creative Screenwriting Magazine newsletter an interview with Clone Wars writers Henry Gilroy, Steve Melching, and Scott Murphy.

Quote:
Were there any initial mandates from George about what territory they wanted covered, or things they wanted you to avoid?

Gilroy: No, most of the time George was really receptive to ideas. The entire movie plot of Jabba the Hutt’s son being kidnapped, initially I had pitched a story…[George] had said, “Try to stay away from Jabba the Hutt, because I want to use Jabba in the live-action series.” I wrote this story about the Hutt kidnapping, and then at the next meeting he said, “Why didn’t you put Jabba in it?” “You told us not to put Jabba in it!” “Oh, you gotta put Jabba in it!” George really is open to all sorts of stuff.

Kind of fits in with the whole criminal underworld themes rumored to be included in the series.

Found at TFN

Star Wars: Live Action Music News
STAR Wars is coming to WA. Music for a massive TV series of the popular space opera will be recorded in Perth by a local orchestra.
The movers and shakers behind the initiative are tight-lipped, but Perthnow has learned the deal will be announced in November.
World-renowned scoring mixer Malcolm Luker is the project’s driving force.
Mr Luker has worked on many big-budget Hollywood productions, including Shrek the Third, Team America: World Police, and Black Hawk Down.
“As far as any Star Wars announcement is concerned, that would come from Lucasfilm,” he said.
“We’re not at liberty to discuss that right now.”
Perthnow has discovered planning for the Star Wars work is well-advanced: Mr Luker’s company Rook Park has received substantial State Government support.
A spokesman for caretaker Industry and Enterprise Minister Fran Logan said the Government has been developing an opportunity to establish a film scoring and mixing studio in WA.
“The Government has made available an industry assistance program worth up to $300,000,” the spokesman said.
Mr Luker’s musicians are the WA Philharmonic Orchestra, a collection of around half a dozen local musicians and 50 more from interstate.
They will record the music for the Star Wars TV series either in the State Government-funded new studio or at the ABC in East Perth.
Mr Luker said his State Government money is being used to buy microphone stands, headphones and lighting for the studio, which will be in Mt Lawley.
The TV series, which could have 400 half-hour episodes, will be made at Fox Studios in Sydney.
Mr Luker said the Philharmonic usually used the same principal players.
“We just did Body of Lies with Russell Crowe and Leonardo Di Caprio. That’s due out in October,” he said.
“And we did Helen 123 with John Travolta and Denzel Washington earlier this year.”
Mr Luker first asked the WA Symphony Orchestra to record the Star Wars music when he was trying to get the project off the ground.
“We were approached, but we didn’t have the time to do it,” said WASO chief executive officer Keith Venning.
“We are committed to our own program of opera, ballet and main stage performances.”

Link: http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/stor…0-2761,00.html

Star Wars Live Action series

Sorry if any of this is already here. But I’m new here and this is what I have on this topic.

Lucas will offer Live Action first to Fox then to Warner Brothers.
Video: http://www.iesb.net/index.php?option…ectlink&id=851

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Quotes from Lucas about the Live Action Show

How does it dovetail with the live-action TV series that you’ve announced?
Lucas – I’m just starting to work on the scripts now for the live-action TV series. We finished the first year of Clone Wars, [and] we’re in the middle of working on the second year. I’m finishing the scripts for the third year. And now I’m working on the scripts for the first year of the live-action show. [Smiles] So it’s a lot of scripts.

Where is the live-action one going to fit into the overall Star Wars narrative?
It’s completely separate. This one has all of the characters that everybody knows — everybody from Yoda to Anakin to Mace Windu to Obi-Wan — everybody’s there. The live-action has nobody there, because it’s after Episode III, so everybody’s dead, basically, or hiding somewhere. You hear about the Emperor, just like you do in Episode IV, but it’s mostly about a whole different world. I mean, there are a million stories in the big city — you’ve only seen one of them. [Laughs]

Yeah, but I guess there is stuff that you could imagine coming in between parts III and IV — for example, we never saw a young Han Solo.
No, well, this has nothing to do with those series. Some of the characters from the features find their way in there, so it’s not completely divorced. It’s as if we just went down the street and told a different story. You know, we were doing, I don’t know, 24, and now we’re going to move down the street here and do The Wire. Same thing, it’s just different people doing the same thing in the same city.

With the same Emperor.
Yeah.

And the same rules.
Yeah, all the same rules, all the same places, all the same stuff, and a lot of the same species. So it’s a familiar world, it’s just that you’re seeing a completely different side of it.

Do you have a network yet?
Not yet.

Are you still hoping for 100 episodes?
Yeah, I’m going to 100 episodes no matter what.

Cast?
No, we haven’t gotten there yet.

Have you built any sets or done any mockups?
No, what we do in our TV series is we write the entire first year and finish it as a script. Then we start getting ready to shoot it, then we start casting, and then we do it. We know where the whole first year is before we even start to work on it. I mean, I can do that because I’m financing the whole thing. So I’ve got it pegged out for 100 episodes, and I know exactly what I’m going to do and how I’m going to do it and what the risks are.

How long will the episodes be?
They’re an hour. It’s a regular live-action TV series — you know, Law & Order. [Laughs and waits a beat] I hope.

So we’re talking a couple of years?
Yeah, it should take another couple years. The live-action TV series probably won’t go on until around 2010. It’ll take this year just to get through all the scripts and then another year to get them all shot.

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Quote Originally Posted by JediBendu View Post
some more rumours:
The live-action show is going to end up on whatever network pays the most. However, I’ve heard they’re talking about the show being on HBO or even Showtime. Which jives with the slugline for the show…think Deadwood meets The Sopranos. Want a bit more? Could the live action show feature Gangsters? Could it follow the underworld of the Star Wars universe? Perhaps even a crime family? Have I said too much? Again, think Deadwood meets The Sopranos.

I LOVE the idea about the Black Sun being part of it.

In 10 to 12 years from now Lucas and McCallum have said they want around 400 hours of TV time stories. (Can give you link to back that up) Now that’s 100 from the Clone Wars, 100 hours from the Live Action (LA) and if the LA works out 100 hours for a KotOR and 100 hours for a post OT story. That will mean in 12 year we will not be talking about the movies as a reference but the TV shows, like StarGate fans now do. There very well could be 420 or more hours of stories and only 16 of them from the movie. Fan will say because I complained about this or I always said that and the fans would take the credit from there being stories the way they wanted. But I now think this has been Lucas’s plan from some time and had to make the movies first and out of the way to make the TV shows.