Lucas gives update on SW live-action series

[Vympel]

Link

So a movie-of-the-week (I presume pilot) has been written together with approximately 50 hours worth of episodes, but its on hold because its too expensive and would cost about $50M per episode to make. I presume GL was exaggerating but in any event, they're waiting for the technology to catch up with what they want to do.

Might not see a SW live-action series for a few more years yet.

[Srelex]

Even if he is exagerrating, it still sounds like a pretty damn ambitious project.

[Darth Fanboy]

Just put the first part of it into a movie to generate interest, sell a bunch of tickets, make all that money back, and then have it promote the TV show.

[Srelex]

Given what happened the last time Lucasfilm tried that sort of thing, perhaps we should just let it pan out the conventional way?

[Darth Fanboy]

Why? Because that movie did its job, made a bit of money, and successfully targeted the young audience it was aiming for?

Much of the critique about the Animated CW movie had to deal with it's CGI, a live action show isn't going to be subject to that nearly as much (if at all), especially given the amount they want to spend on production.

[YT300000]

$50 million per episode? Does anyone else think this seems to imply that it'll be more special effect-driven, and less story and character-oriented?

Also, that clone trooper behind Lucas was incredibly fidgety, and kept distracting me through the whole video.

[Soontir C'boath]

It could be they want to model it like Sanctuary where all the sets are all CGI but presumably want it to look more realistic. Other than lowering the costs of CGI, I wonder what other technologies Lucas may be waiting for.

$50 million per episode is pretty daft.

[Jim Raynor]

$50 million per episode? Does anyone else think this seems to imply that it'll be more special effect-driven, and less story and character-oriented?

Also, that clone trooper behind Lucas was incredibly fidgety, and kept distracting me through the whole video.

Like Vympel said, that was probably just an exaggeration. $50 million over a short, cable TV-length season of 16 episodes works out to $800 million, or way the hell more than freaking Avatar. There's no way any TV series gets made for that much money. Lucas was probably just making a point about how they're not ready and how the technology they need isn't there yet.

[adam_grif]

When this thread title appeared in my peripheral vision I read it as "Lucas gives up on SW live-action series" and my heart jumped for joy. But getting delayed for a while is still good news I guess.

[Havok]

When this thread title appeared in my peripheral vision I read it as "Lucas gives up on SW live-action series" and my heart jumped for joy. But getting delayed for a while is still good news I guess.

Shut the fuck up. If you don't like the idea or want it to fail, go start your own thread and stop being a fucking ass.

[Connor MacLeod]

I have mixed feelings about a live action series. If the Clone Wars series so far is any indication things could be a bit frustrating from a technical/vs debating point of view, but who's really been caring about that anyhow. On the other hand just to enjoy SW (like I do with the CW series which I enjoy immensely) it will be neat to see, if it is done halfway decent (This IS sci fi on TV after all.)

The real issue is the "waiting for technology to improve" bit. He did that with the prequels, and that was something of a mixed bag, and depending on Lucas' expectations we dont know how long we'd have to wait.

[Connor MacLeod]

Shut the fuck up. If you don't like the idea or want it to fail, go start your own thread and stop being a fucking ass.

What exactly is the deal with his response? I see nothing wrong with it. Its not like it was Darth Hoth or smething.

[Bakustra]

I have mixed feelings about a live action series. If the Clone Wars series so far is any indication things could be a bit frustrating from a technical/vs debating point of view, but who's really been caring about that anyhow. On the other hand just to enjoy SW (like I do with the CW series which I enjoy immensely) it will be neat to see, if it is done halfway decent (This IS sci fi on TV after all.)

The real issue is the "waiting for technology to improve" bit. He did that with the prequels, and that was something of a mixed bag, and depending on Lucas' expectations we dont know how long we'd have to wait.

I'm honestly curious about this, so I looked up some other sci-fi stuff and Babylon 5 was made with an average budget of about $800,000 an episode. Space: Above and Beyond was made with between a million and two million per episode. Stargate needed about 2 million per episode. So this is well beyond the typical sci-fi series. Rome's first season had about 8.3 million budgeted per episode, which still puts this beyond Rome. Hell, this is about the entire cost of the pilot of Boardwalk Empire! Even though he's almost certainly exaggerating, I'm not sure where this fits in with his idea of it being a more noir series. Does he want to include aliens as main characters?

[Srelex]

Perhaps they're really aiming high for the scenery and backdrops?

[Aaron]

Perhaps they're really aiming high for the scenery and backdrops?

AOTC apparently had a budget of 150 million. 50 million an episode says "shove a tonne of stuff on the screen" to me. Now I won't object if there is an actual interesting story, with fleshed out characters.

[Srelex]

That depends on who's writing it. Didn't Lucas declare he was hiring writers a while back?

[Aaron]

No idea, I gave up on this a while back figuring it would never be made.

[Thanas]

That depends on who's writing it. Didn't Lucas declare he was hiring writers a while back?

Yes, the series had a writing staff and all that. Now that the scripts are written, polished and they are not shooting, these have been let go iirc.

[Jim Raynor]

I wouldn't even care if whatever new effects Lucas is seeking look a bit raw or unpolished in the eventual show. The bar set by television scifi effects is far, far lower than the one set by visual effects in blockbuster movies. If people can watch Star Trek, Babylon 5, and Farscape, then what's the big deal if the Star Wars TV series has conspicuous CGI? To me, the important thing is whether the writing is decent.

[Sea Skimmer]

50 million might be hyper bowl, but if the episodes were produced to the same standards as Revenge of the Sith that’s not totally out of reason either. All the more so if the show featured many diverse settings on different planets, requiring a whole lot of original artwork each time. I suspect what they really need to wait for is just more drawing tools and filters to radically cut down the man hours that process requires. Everything else would just be bad acting in front of blue screens.

[adam_grif]

If AOTC was 150 mil, then 50 mil for something ~1/3 it's length (42 minutes) is about to be expected assuming you're keeping budgets proportional to run time. Why they would need to is beyond me.

[Stofsk]

I don't understand how they intend to do this show. Fifty episodes (well, assuming one hour episodes) are written but they won't go ahead because it would cost an estimated 50 million per episode? What the hell.

Does anyone else get the feeling that Lucas just doesn't understand the differences between film and television and he's going about this show ass-backwards?

[VT-16]

He produced the Young Indiana Jones series, didn't he? He's got experience with tv productions. Iirc that show was very expensive for its time. Probably wants to outdo the production.

[Channel72]

Lucas has always been a real special effects enthusiast, to the extent that most of his career has revolved around his special effects company, ILM. He pioneered a lot of the VFX we take for granted today, such as scrolling star fields. All of Hollywood turns to ILM for great VFX, and Lucas has a reputation to live up to. So I'm sure it's very important to him that every major project he works on looks really fantastic, and I suppose it's just not possible to do that with a TV budget at this point.

In my opinion, it would do him some good to work within serious budget constraints; the last thing I want to see is another blue-screen fest. Every second some guy is standing around in an office with the Coruscant cityscape in the background probably costs Lucas like $10,000 - and it's really not even necessary. Nobody is impressed with CGI anymore.

[Srelex]

But remember, for a TV series that by the sounds of it will have a large cast and many locales, you'll also need lots of physical props and scenery--just take a look at some of the DVD extras to see just how much work that requires, even for the Prequels. And CG can be a selling point for many people--just look at Avatar. I have a feeling Lucas doesn't want to feel left behind with that.