New Details Emerge on Live-Action Star Wars TV Show

Mike Kayatta

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Aug 2, 2011
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New Details Emerge on Live-Action Star Wars TV Show



Series creator compares to the show's baddies to the "criminals and gangs" now "running Wall Street and the United States."

The Star Wars community first heard about George Lucas's plans for a live action television series somewhere around 2009, and waited on a fool's hope (or a purist's curse) for a pilot to appear. Additional news didn't arrive until an interview last May, [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110458-New-Star-Wars-Show-Isnt-As-Far-Along-As-Youd-Hope] wherein Georgey explained (somewhat confusingly) that he had fifty hours worth of scripts that weren't ready for production yet. The show is apparently on hold until the cost of special effects work lowers, but that hasn't stopped the show's producer, Rick McCallum, from dropping some details that include the show's working title: Star Wars: Underworld.

"It's underneath what's going on," explained McCallum, describing the premise. "It's [about] the criminals and the gangs. The guys who are running Wall Street, basically. The guys who are running the United States."

Though McCallum's statements may seem somewhat tuned to the current Occupy protests, he holds that the overarching ideas are far from fleeting. "They're timeless," he said, speaking of the fifty or so episodes already penned. "They take place between Episode III and Episode IV. That 20 year period when Luke is growing up. It's not about Luke, but it's about that period when the Empire is trying to take things [over]."

Though the series is still on indefinite hold, McCallum is still extremely enthused about its future. "We have fifty of the most unbelievable scripts," he said. "Each one hour episode is bigger than any of the prequels were. And they're complex, they're dark, they're adult ... But right now, technologically there's no way that we can do them for the five million dollar mark [per episode]; which would be the maximum that we could do. That is because there is so much digital animation, because we have so many digital characters. I think the idea is that we just hold off [and] wait and see if there are any major breakthroughs in the next year or two."

Like all things Star Wars post-1983, I will be waiting with reserved excitement for the next installment on the unlikely chance that something other than a videogame will ever be able to get things right again. Regardless, it seems like a minimum of two years before this appears on our televisions and, remember, that's just the first iteration of the show. Lucas will then, understandably, need to spend years changing important plot points, adding digital blinking, altering sound effects, and re-releasing it in 3D. Hell, we might not see the "real" version until 2020.

Source: ComingSoon.net [http://www.comingsoon.net/news/tvnews.php?id=85791]




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vrbtny

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Sep 16, 2009
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I'm getting a distinct molyneux feeling from this. Well being better than the prequels can't be difficult.
 

Mike Kayatta

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Aug 2, 2011
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vrbtny said:
I'm getting a distinct molyneux feeling from this. Well being better than the prequels can't be difficult.
That's what I said to my buddy while waiting in line to see the Clone Wars movie.
 

Soviet Heavy

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Jan 22, 2010
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Shut the fuck up Rick McCallum.

Honestly, next to George Lucas and Dave Filoni, this guy is one of the most irritating people to have ever worked on Star Wars.

Also note, all those 50 scripts are George Lucas' "Original Vision", as in, the shit he stole from other movies after they came out yet he claims were there from before the films he's stealing from were made.
 

Soviet Heavy

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Mike Kayatta said:
vrbtny said:
I'm getting a distinct molyneux feeling from this. Well being better than the prequels can't be difficult.
That's what I said to my buddy while waiting in line to see the Clone Wars movie.
Good god, that movie was terrible. The show itself is alright, some really good episodes, others pure crap. But nothing is as bad as the movie. Except maybe the poisoned tea at Mandalorian Schools plot.
 

ThaBenMan

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Mar 6, 2008
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Sounds like it could be pretty cool. I like the "underworld" aspect they're talking about - stories with bounty hunters and smugglers and the Hutt cartels could be great. I'm really enjoying the Bounty Hunter storyline in SWTOR right now - while the Sith and Jedi are having their metaphysical struggle for the soul of the galaxy, I'm just a mercenary trying to get paid, dealing with seedy folks in the grimy corners of whatever planet I'm on. If they take some cues from that, the show would be awesome.
 

Kmadden2004

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Feb 13, 2010
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Anybody else hoping for Sam Witwer to reprise his role as Starkiller from The Force Unleashed for a few episodes?
 

Soviet Heavy

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Kmadden2004 said:
Anybody else hoping for Sam Witwer to reprise his role as Starkiller from The Force Unleashed for a few episodes?
God no. There's enough angst in Star Wars already. I don't want him coming back to moan about how "YOU'VE TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM ME!"
 

Kmadden2004

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Soviet Heavy said:
Kmadden2004 said:
Anybody else hoping for Sam Witwer to reprise his role as Starkiller from The Force Unleashed for a few episodes?
God no. There's enough angst in Star Wars already. I don't want him coming back to moan about how "YOU'VE TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM ME!"
Point taken.
 

Jamane

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Sep 24, 2010
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DVS BSTrD said:
Will we finally get to see Lando's little maneuver at the battle of Taanab?
And of course Bobba will have plenty of work to do in this setting.
that reminds me when is this set in relation to the movies anyone know??
 

Neverhoodian

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Apr 2, 2008
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I'm getting uncomfortable Revenge of the Sith flashbacks from the following quotes:

Mike Kayatta said:
"It's underneath what's going on," explained McCallum, describing the premise. "It's [about] the criminals and the gangs. The guys who are running Wall Street, basically. The guys who are running the United States."
So does that mean more blatant, ham-handed political commentary that has no place in a universe of magical Force-wielding warrior monks? Also, way to potentially alienate a fair number of viewers with a comment like that. Not everyone supports "Occupy Wall Street," you know.

Mike Kayatta said:
Though the series is still on indefinite hold, McCallum is still extremely enthused about its future. "We have fifty of the most unbelievable scripts," he said. "Each one hour episode is bigger than any of the prequels were. And they're complex, they're dark, they're adult ..."
I can't help but hear an echo of "it's so dense, every single image has CGI everywhere greenscreen fetish blah blah blah." I also remember claims that RotS was going to be "grimdark," and that turned out to be a tonal mess. One moment you had characters resort to euphemisms like "younglings" when discussing Anakin's child killing spree, and the next you traumatize younger viewers with a horrific scene of said child killer burning alive.

Yeah, you can probably tell I don't really like the prequels (well, except The Phantom Menace. I actually like that one, despite its flaws). I'd like to be excited for this, but between the prequels, the recent Clone Wars movie and show (the 2003 Genndy Tartakovsky cartoon was awesome though), the needless Blu-Ray changes to the classic trilogy, and the complete lack of quality control for EU novels, I'm more than a wee bit skeptical.
 

CapitalistPig

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Dec 3, 2011
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Let me try to type between vomiting sessions here. So by showing the "underworld" you're going to take spin city (See sitcom featuring Micheal J. Fox) and make it into a star wars franchise. Now instead of our thinly disguised communist overture from the movies its just gonna be an outright political statement flipping a big fat finger to the fan base to make a Micheal Moore "Food in Mouth" announcement that they don't like the "wall streeters." Watch me hold my breath.
 

Baron_BJ

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Nov 13, 2009
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I FUCKING TOLD YOU PEOPLE NOT TO LET GEORGE NEAR A PEN!

But you didn't fucking listen! You didn't listen...

Needless to say, this sounds unbelievably terrible.
 

GaltarDude1138

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Jan 19, 2011
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Baron_BJ said:
I FUCKING TOLD YOU PEOPLE NOT TO LET GEORGE NEAR A PEN!

But you didn't fucking listen! You didn't listen...

Needless to say, this sounds unbelievably terrible.
He didn't write these 50+ scripts. He found other people to write them, in fact.

I'm open to the idea, so I will be waiting, and hopefully it'll be good. And hopefully it'll be on Cable so I can watch it. It's not like I can control what cable provider my college provides.

Oh, and I wonder which Star Trek series people will start comparing this to. Trust me, once it airs, it'll happen.
 

Dastardly

Imaginary Friend
Apr 19, 2010
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Mike Kayatta said:
New Details Emerge on Live-Action Star Wars TV Show
You know... I actually find the further you get George Lucas away from a lightsaber, the less he sucks. The original trilogy was far more about smugglers than Jedi, and it did pretty well. Maybe a return to Star Wars as a total universe, rather than just a stage for saber duels, could reinvigorate the series.

Also, I could grow bacon by planting bacon bits, my job could suddenly double in pay and involve time travel, and my penis could grow its own penis.
 

Lord Beautiful

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Aug 13, 2008
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Oh, yeah. I'm sure those scripts are written with the utmost grace and subtlety.

Just cancel the goddamn thing. There's no way this will end well.

Off topic, what the hell is this?
 

sir.rutthed

Stormfather take you!
Nov 10, 2009
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Too many digital characters? How about you get some people to put on a rubber suit like in the original movie damnit! For fuck's sake, how is it these people can take a shit without a blue screen in the bathroom I'll never know. And they're letting George write it? I think after the prequel trilogy it's safe to say he just doesn't 'get' Star Wars. At all. Somebody boot his ass and get Timothy Zahn to write the scripts.
 

punipunipyo

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Jan 20, 2011
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Damn... they should just do a Post-Cinema time line, where Luke holds a(few?) Jedi academy(s?) but story takes POV of a student(pada-wan) in the academy... his/her journey to become a full pledge Jedi knight... (instantly killed all Harry/Percy fans right there on the spot)

Perhaps follow ups as well... when our hero becomes Teen, the show takes on the likes of Twilight/I am number 4/[insert your favorite Emo super powered teen love complex]...

Till the end when the boy/girl grew up to face yet an other galactic conflict, and have to take the whole thing in to an other series, or better, the BIG SCREEN!

Personally, I like the first idea... REALLY want to see Jedi-Academy being made in to a series... it'd be cool... cooler if they put Kiel K. in it... actually... they SHOULD just do one about Kiel, and Jaden (boy/girl/alien don't matter, but he/she/it better be a kid, because view the force as kid, makes it COOLER, and even cooler when Kiel teaches force "gray" style!) WANT... BAAAADLY...