StarDestroyer.Net BBS

George Lucas wrote: The live-action [series] is not the movie. It's the Star Wars universe, but it's characters from the saga who were [previously] minor, and it follows their stories.

Lucas: No, we'll do it just the same way that we're doing the animated series, which is we usually write a whole year first, and then we'll start shooting, and then we'll shoot the whole year and then once we've got [something to show], we'll see where we can put it. We're going to do a hundred of them, too. [It should be] easier [to place] than the animated one because it's live-action.

Sidewinder wrote: I wonder if Lucas is out of touch with reality-- what if the live-action 'Star Wars' TV series has poor ratings? Will he just scrap the next three seasons, or try to force some network to put them on air?

Sidewinder wrote:

Lucas: No, we'll do it just the same way that we're doing the animated series, which is we usually write a whole year first, and then we'll start shooting, and then we'll shoot the whole year and then once we've got [something to show], we'll see where we can put it. We're going to do a hundred of them, too. [It should be] easier [to place] than the animated one because it's live-action.

I wonder if Lucas is out of touch with reality-- what if the live-action 'Star Wars' TV series has poor ratings? Will he just scrap the next three seasons, or try to force some network to put them on air?

Zac Naloen wrote:

Sidewinder wrote:I wonder if Lucas is out of touch with reality-- what if the live-action 'Star Wars' TV series has poor ratings? Will he just scrap the next three seasons, or try to force some network to put them on air?

More likely he'll release them on DVD...

Sidewinder wrote:I wonder if Lucas is out of touch with reality-- what if the live-action 'Star Wars' TV series has poor ratings? Will he just scrap the next three seasons, or try to force some network to put them on air?

Interview wrote:TV Guide: So you'll film before you get a commitment? Or how will that work?
Lucas: Well, we're doing these before we get a commitment, so we're just doing them on the faith that we're going to [sell them]. I mean, we're doing them ourselves, so we can finance them, we don't need to have a commitment of any kind. We're simply going to sell them.

TV Guide: Will you be looking for a network like an HBO to say, "We'll take all hundred"?
Lucas: Yeah, but they probably won't do that. [Laughs] Somebody might, but usually what they'll do is they'll take 13 or 26 and then see what happens and they'll take the next group.... If that group doesn't work, then we'll move to another place. Lucasfilm is basically acting as the production company.

TV Guide: Yeah, but usually a network will commission a single pilot off a script or pick.... Well, you know the process.
Lucas: Right — but I have enough confidence that this is good, and I'll make it really good, so I'm not too worried about that part of it. And if worse comes to worse, I'll end up with a lot of library product. [Laughs]

TV Guide: A whole lot of DVD stuff.
Lucas: Yeah. It's the San Francisco way of doing things: This is something I want to do, and I'm going to go ahead and do it. And how the system copes with it or how I mesh it into the system or how I manage to end up earning my money back and all that kind of stuff is a whole different problem that I don't think about at this stage. I just go and do what I want to do.

VT-16 wrote:I like that risk element, and Lucas has enough dough to compensate, then there's reissues of the films, etc. in case they need to earn back the costs.