George Lucas talked to Entertainment Weekly about the announced live-action Star Wars television show, and revealed a couple new tidbits.
“The live-action has [none of the characters from the Star Wars movies], 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 Lucas. “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.”
“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,” Lucas told EW. “…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.” “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.”
Lucas confirmed that the series will at least have 100 ome-hour episodes (”I’m going to 100 episodes no matter what) and that casting has not yet begun. And the good news, George Lucas won’t be hands on with this project.
“You know, I’m an executive producer now - I don’t do the day-to-day work. I check in once a week, maybe, and it’ll be the same thing on the live-action show.”
You can read the full interview with Lucas at EW.com. Collider reported last week that the live-action show will be considered “official canon” of “Star Wars” mythology, and is being shopped to HBO and Showtime, but will end up on whatever network pays the most.
March 18th, 2008 at 2:54 am
Cool beyond words-
100 hour long episodes-!! ACE.
But also depends on Lucas- he doesn’t have his finger on the pulse anymore and the last 3 films proved that-
Least he’s not directing.
Will be a huge success regardless- as die hards will buy anything!!! Jar Jar Binks anyone- maybe a show of his own is on the cards! lol
And don’t get me started on those bloody Ewok teddy bear things!!! arrrghhh!!
March 18th, 2008 at 2:57 am
I’m expecting a high budget production with quality SFX
but I’m still hoping GL would come back to make Star Wars feature films.
March 18th, 2008 at 4:03 am
i think the hbo & showtime channels will play a major role in the success of this show. fox, cbs, nbc, abc whatever else there is - imo - are a death sentence, as far as program quality goes.
March 18th, 2008 at 4:53 am
2010 eh? So I’ve got 2 years to figure out how the wife and I can get on that show as an extra, background Stormtrooper.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:06 am
“The live-action has [none of the characters from the Star Wars movies], because it’s after Episode III, so everybody’s dead, basically, or hiding somewhere.”
“Some of the characters from the features find their way in there, so it’s not completely divorced.”
Which is it George?
March 18th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Which is it George?
Well they can be referred to without actually appearing in the series…
March 18th, 2008 at 7:00 am
“Find their way in there” implies that they will appear, not just be name-checked.
March 18th, 2008 at 8:31 am
WHAT ABOUT F*CKING VADER!?!?! Is he HIDING?
NOPE.
“What about Padme? Where’s Padme.”
“She’s dead man. You killed her practically.”
“kaNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
Ill see you in Hell Lucas.
March 18th, 2008 at 9:19 am
well there are tons of characters from the features that are not dead for the time period they are doing, like Boba Fett, Chewy, Vader, Jabba, R2 and 3CPO, Akbar and just plain tons more.
I think the point was that the main stars are dead so it will not be a show about Jedi’s or any of the specific main cast.
March 18th, 2008 at 9:23 am
I really want this series to be good, but I refuse
to get my hopes up too high. My fingers are crossed.
March 18th, 2008 at 9:31 am
hack.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Regardless of what ppl think of GL, he’s backing all of this with his own cash so he’s doing it cause he wants to.
March 18th, 2008 at 11:06 am
This says everything about Lucas’ writing ability
“because it’s after Episode III, so everybody’s dead, basically, or hiding somewhere.”
haha, this dork doesn’t even try.
March 18th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
can’t wait for 2010, I think the
show will be awesome - the only
character coming back is everybody’s
favorite bounty hunter…BOBA FETT
VECTOR is upon us…….
March 18th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Please let Star Wars die. If I never see another lightsabre duel I’ll die happy. It’s been going downhill for years. Stuck in its own repetitive, sterile universe. Like Star Trek. If you’re going to spend all that money, create something fresh and new. Hiring a decent scriptwriter would be a start. Oh wait, we’re talking about Hollywood where visionary is a four letter word. Never mind, I can always read a good book.
March 21st, 2008 at 8:30 am
I really would love to see Obi-wan in this one!
May 20th, 2008 at 10:41 am
no jedi == no watch. star wars is about the jedi. who wants to watch 7 seasons of boba-fett? BORING!