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Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-19 11:57am
by Lonestar
https://www.slashfilm.com/knights-of-th ... confirmed/
The Star Wars universe is only going to get bigger after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker closes out the Skywalker Saga this December. And for Lucasfilm, that means returning to a few beloved stories that have never yet been adapted to the big or small screen. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, in a somewhat uncharacteristically frank answer, confirmed that a long-rumored Knights of the Old Republic project is in the works.

Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that a Knights of the Old Republic project is in the works, stoking rumors that an adaptation of the popular video game series could soon be making it to the screen. In an interview with MTV, Kennedy responded in the affirmative to reporter Josh Horowitz’s question whether a Knights of the Old Republic title was in the works. “We talk about that all the time,” she said, adding:

"Yes, we are developing something to look at. Right now I have no idea where things might fall. But we have to be careful that there is a cadence to Star Wars that doesn’t start to feel like too much.”

....

Kennedy’s confirmation adds credence to the recently circulated rumor that the Star Wars films that Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are developing will be a Knights of the Old Republic adaptation. The filmmakers’ experience at crafting a rich, character-driven story out of a sprawling high fantasy setting lends itself to that rumor, as the story of Knights of the Old Republic takes place 4,000 years before the foundation of the Galactic Empire and shares similar mythic elements to Game of Thrones.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-19 12:22pm
by NeoGoomba
Oh shiiiiiiiiiiii

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-19 12:54pm
by K. A. Pital
Cast Revan as a girl.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-19 01:55pm
by FaxModem1
I really hope we get Kreia, as Malak is, by all accounts, a rather lame villain.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-19 03:39pm
by RogueIce
I have the feeling that people expecting a movie adaption of the game, rather than just something set in the era, will be rather disappointed.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-20 12:59am
by Darth Yan
I don’t mind Revan as a dude. The exile is a woman and she’s more of a warrior (canon seems to go with Revan as a scholarly force user more than a warrior). His relationship with Bastila is much more compelling.

As with Malak he does get a backstory in the comics and there is a sense of tragedy in that YOU were the one who started him down the dark path

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-20 01:07am
by Imperial528
RogueIce wrote: 2019-04-19 03:39pm I have the feeling that people expecting a movie adaption of the game, rather than just something set in the era, will be rather disappointed.
I would rather have something set in the era, myself. The game's story is only as compelling as it was due to the way the player interacts with it. Strip that away and it's really rather dull, in my opinion.

Using the Revan-era Republic as a vehicle for a new story would make something more lasting, I think. Though I wouldn't mind them including some characters seen in the game, either as cameos or even in a major role, so long as it all fits together.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-20 08:10am
by tezunegari
If they make a movie about Revan, I would like to see the Mandalorian War that lead up to Revan's Fall.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-20 07:42pm
by The Romulan Republic
Eh, if its from the Game of Thrones creators, at least it will probably look gorgeous and have the best talent on-screen and behind the camera. I'm interested to know how far they'll go in terms of sex and violence, though. On the one hand, its the Game of Thrones guys, so there will be certain audience expectations. On the other hand... its Disney, and GoT was always NSFW, while Star Wars is traditionally seen as more of a family/all-ages franchise.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 05:28am
by ray245
As much as I like GoT, let's not forget the producers thought making a series about the Confederates winning the civil war is a good idea.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 05:31am
by The Romulan Republic
ray245 wrote: 2019-04-21 05:28am As much as I like GoT, let's not forget the producers thought making a series about the Confederates winning the civil war is a good idea.
Whether that reflects poorly on them depends on how they were planning to handle the subject. If it was going to portray the Confederacy as the appalling slave state it was, then fine. Its just a dark alternate history like many others. If they were planning to white wash the Confederacy, then fuck them for racist shits.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 05:46am
by ray245
The Romulan Republic wrote: 2019-04-21 05:31am Whether that reflects poorly on them depends on how they were planning to handle the subject. If it was going to portray the Confederacy as the appalling slave state it was, then fine. Its just a dark alternate history like many others. If they were planning to white wash the Confederacy, then fuck them for racist shits.
There was a lot of outcry because there's fear of it fetishing the idea of people suffering under slavery. There's also a lot of fears it might legitimise the idea that the confederacy could have maintained slavery and survive into modern day as a prosperous state.

So even if the producers are not white-washing the confederacy, it does suggest they might not the ones you want to be tasked with doing world-building for Star Wars.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 06:08am
by The Romulan Republic
Maybe. But I don't want to judge them simply on a vague premise, without knowing what they were going to do with it.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 06:52am
by Gandalf
Yeah, there was a film in 2004 called Confederate States of America which was definitely worth a watch.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 09:16am
by ray245
The Romulan Republic wrote: 2019-04-21 06:08am Maybe. But I don't want to judge them simply on a vague premise, without knowing what they were going to do with it.
I just don't think they are the kind of people that thinks really careful about the implications of their world-building.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 09:59am
by Gandalf
ray245 wrote: 2019-04-21 09:16am
The Romulan Republic wrote: 2019-04-21 06:08am Maybe. But I don't want to judge them simply on a vague premise, without knowing what they were going to do with it.
I just don't think they are the kind of people that thinks really careful about the implications of their world-building.
In what way?

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 11:26am
by ray245
Gandalf wrote: 2019-04-21 09:59am In what way?
In the sense that they think a confederate state surviving to modern day with slavery intact makes good world-building.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 12:11pm
by Gandalf
ray245 wrote: 2019-04-21 11:26am
Gandalf wrote: 2019-04-21 09:59am In what way?
In the sense that they think a confederate state surviving to modern day with slavery intact makes good world-building.
Again, how so? The film I mentioned above did it fantastically, using the horrors of the Confederate mindset and transposing them onto a modern day setting.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 01:17pm
by Esquire
ray245 wrote: 2019-04-21 11:26am
Gandalf wrote: 2019-04-21 09:59am In what way?
In the sense that they think a confederate state surviving to modern day with slavery intact makes good world-building.
Good world-building =/= a good situation, extremely obviously. If you have a deeper point than 'you shouldn't talk about this because it's nasty,' you're not making it effectively.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 01:21pm
by The Romulan Republic
Esquire wrote: 2019-04-21 01:17pm
ray245 wrote: 2019-04-21 11:26am
Gandalf wrote: 2019-04-21 09:59am In what way?
In the sense that they think a confederate state surviving to modern day with slavery intact makes good world-building.
Good world-building =/= a good situation, extremely obviously. If you have a deeper point than 'you shouldn't talk about this because it's nasty,' you're not making it effectively.
I think his point is that the Confederacy would not have been able to survive and prosper to the modern day as a slave state, so portraying it doing so makes slavery look more viable than it actually was.

I'm inclined to agree, but would note that an unprosperus, shit hole slave state surviving to the present is entirely possible (I mean, that's not too far off from what North Korea is, is it?), and that the Nazis used industrial-scale slave labor as late as the 1940s.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 01:34pm
by FaxModem1
The Romulan Republic wrote: 2019-04-21 01:21pm
Esquire wrote: 2019-04-21 01:17pm
ray245 wrote: 2019-04-21 11:26am

In the sense that they think a confederate state surviving to modern day with slavery intact makes good world-building.
Good world-building =/= a good situation, extremely obviously. If you have a deeper point than 'you shouldn't talk about this because it's nasty,' you're not making it effectively.
I think his point is that the Confederacy would not have been able to survive and prosper to the modern day as a slave state, so portraying it doing so makes slavery look more viable than it actually was.

I'm inclined to agree, but would note that an unprosperus, shit hole slave state surviving to the present is entirely possible (I mean, that's not too far off from what North Korea is, is it?), and that the Nazis used industrial-scale slave labor as late as the 1940s.
Well, Spike Lee's CSA gets a bit ridiculous due to their conquering of the entire United States and then moving southward and pretty much conquering all of South America. But the film can be mostly forgiven as the reveal at the end is that a lot of the parody pop culture stuff brought up throughout the film is actually rather thinly disguised products from our history, showing just how racist those things were that used to be acceptable.

Someone collected all the fake commercials on Youtube:


Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 01:34pm
by PREDATOR490
I do not see much good coming from this. Either you adhere to the game which will ultimately result in a shitty film because translating across a medium is rarely successful and the premise only really worked BECAUSE of the game medium.
Alternatively, this ends up being creatively 're-imagined' which can vary from being little more than butchering the content into whatever narrative suits the mindset of the developers or mangled into an unrecognisable mess.

Frankly, I think this period would do a lot better as a series rather than a standalone film (s). This could be a starting point for more projects in this period.
This period is a target rich environment that is sufficiently 'active' within the lore and abstract from the Skywalker Saga to the point you can actually tell a fairly consistent story over 1,000 years.
They can go from the Mandalorian Wars all the way to TOR story. However, I have a strong feeling that the people behind this are going to be looking at money bags rather than having any interest in using the material that obviously attracted enough of a following to make this project worth pursuing.

The major issue I have with this is how they will really handle Revan if they are bringing in some GoT talent.
On the one hand, Revan's rise, fall and whatever could make for a nuanced and compelling movie story with enough action to get plenty of battles on the go across the spectrum.
On the other hand, the amount of backstory that surrounds this period and Revan is going to be dauntingly difficult to adhere to in a single movie or even in the movie format without cutting corners or gutting the setting.

It does not help that the period they are aiming for is fairly expansive in time. Even if you drop the MMO element which is around 300 years later, the Mandalorian Wars / Revan stuff is still a few years of stuff happening.
Would they even go into the backstory of why the Mandalorian Wars happened, the secret sith Empire sitting in the wings and the Emperor that will not show up for 300 years ?

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 01:34pm
by PREDATOR490
Double post - No idea how.

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 08:22pm
by PhoenixKnig
I wish them good luck with this

Re: Lucasfilm Head confirms KOTOR project in the works

Posted: 2019-04-21 09:53pm
by Lord Revan
As a direct retelling of KOTOR a TV series/movie would probably not work, however a project set in that era could work like telling how Revan turned from all account idealistic Jedi Knight/Master to a very powerful Sith Lord.

As long they don't go the way of "he was evil all along" the tale of Revan's fall could be intresting. Especially since even as Sith Lord, Revan didn't seem casually brutal or sadistic, ruthless sure and merciless but with purpose behind the brutality rather then just doing it for its own sake.

How idealist becomes a well intentioned extremist and becomes the very thing he was fighting against could be an intresting tale.