George Lucas to make two more live-action SW Films!

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2007-05-10 12:39am

But of course, we were most interested in talking with George Lucas, the affable genius film director who occasionally graces us in New York with an appearance. Lucas is absolutely one of my favorite people, a lovely guy who seems unaffected by his enormous success.

Lucas is currently preparing "Indiana Jones 4" with Harrison Ford, Blanchett and Shia LaBoeuf. The latter plays Ford's son, which means his mother was possibly the character Karen Allen played in "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

"I can't say," Lucas said when I brought up Allen.

Lucas says that Sean Connery still hasn't signed on, but his character, Indy's dad, is in the script. Other than that, his lips are sealed.

"Steven thinks we can keep the whole thing a secret," Lucas told me. "I explained to him that it's impossible nowadays. We can't live like that."

So then, tell me more about "Indy 4," I suggested.

"Oh no," replied Lucas with a smile.

Lucas told me he has seen all the summer movies since his company, Industrial Light and Magic, does most of the special effects. The only one they didn't work on was "Spider-Man 3." What did he think of it?

"It's silly. It's a silly movie," he said. "There just isn't much there. Once you take it all apart, there's not much story, is there?"

Well, it's not "Star Wars."

"People thought 'Star Wars' was silly, too," he added, with a wink. "But it wasn't."

Lucas, by the way, says he is readying "Clone Wars," an animated series for TV that's derived from "Star Wars." Many "Star Wars" characters appear in "Clone Wars," but voiced by other actors.

And here's a little news: Lucas tells me he will make two more live-action films based in the "Star Wars" era.

"But they won't have members of the Skywalker family as characters," he said. "They will be other people of that milieu."

The two extra films will also be made for TV and probably be an hour long each. But, like "Clone Wars," Lucas doesn't know where on TV they will land.

Hello, HBO and Showtime. It may be time to pony up.

I do anticipate the SW tv series

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2007-05-10 01:16am

I hope it's not a channel like HBO or Showtime, since Star Wars is a Fox Century thing would they show it on there?

Jericho Kross · Post by **Jericho Kross** » 2007-05-10 01:18am

Beter start praying

JediToren · Post by **JediToren** » 2007-05-10 01:46am

I'm guessing these 1 hour "movies" will be the pilot episodes for the TV series.

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2007-05-10 02:40am

JediToren wrote:I'm guessing these 1 hour "movies" will be the pilot episodes for the TV series.

I dunno. He did break a couple of TV formatting and timing conventions when he did the Clone Wars series. He might actually make 1 hour movies.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-05-10 02:47am

Starshadow was right?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-05-10 02:51am

Starshadow?

Sounds like a My Little Pony.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-05-10 02:58am

Supershadow, my bad.

I couldn't even remember his nick properly.

Macross · Post by **Macross** » 2007-05-10 08:01am

Well, Lucas has made live-action TV movies based on Star Wars before... Anyone remember the Ewok movies?

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2007-05-10 09:20am

Macross wrote:Well, Lucas has made live-action TV movies based on Star Wars before... Anyone remember the Ewok movies?

No and the Lucasfilm MIB's will make sure you don't remember them either.

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2007-05-10 12:55pm

Looks like there may have been a bit of a miscommunication.

UPDATE: Friend of TFN Mike in Florida (yup there are lots of us Mikes) had some interesting thoughts regarding this news story and I thought they were worth sharing. Here is what he had to say:

"I believe Freidman was referencing the live action TV show(s?) and not a feature film. It doesn't even make sense that Lucas would make a one hour film for TV... Isn't that basically a TV show pilot? If you read Freidman's stuff regularly you know he always has his head in the clouds--so to speak. He probably was drooling to break some Star Wars news and misinterpreted what Lucas said. I guess the only real news is that Lucas is still perusing doing two live action shows instead of the one."

Admittedly, this is from TFN, but it does make sense, and I haven't seen any other sources picking up the story.

Deathstalker · Post by **Deathstalker** » 2007-05-10 10:23pm

No and the Lucasfilm MIB's will make sure you don't remember them either.

Lucasfilm's MIB aren't that good, I just put the Ewok movies DVD on the shelf at Blockbuster last week. We also got Droids and Ewoks cartoon DVDs.

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2007-05-10 10:24pm

General Schatten wrote:I hope it's not a channel like HBO or Showtime, since Star Wars is a Fox Century thing would they show it on there?

Fox distributes Star Wars to the extent Lucas says they do; they have no say otherwise. Lucas owns SW lock, stock and barrel.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-05-10 11:09pm

Lord Pounder wrote:
Macross wrote:Well, Lucas has made live-action TV movies based on Star Wars before... Anyone remember the Ewok movies?
No and the Lucasfilm MIB's will make sure you don't remember them either.

I don't recall Lucasfilm ever having any issues with the Ewok TV movies, in fact they seem to be completely and perfectly accepted.

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2007-05-11 03:00am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
Lord Pounder wrote:
Macross wrote:Well, Lucas has made live-action TV movies based on Star Wars before... Anyone remember the Ewok movies?
No and the Lucasfilm MIB's will make sure you don't remember them either.
I don't recall Lucasfilm ever having any issues with the Ewok TV movies, in fact they seem to be completely and perfectly accepted.

Hey, does anyone here remember the Star Wars Christmas Special, you know the one that doesn't exist? What was I talking about again?

JediToren · Post by **JediToren** » 2007-05-11 04:29am

The Star Wars Holiday Special was aired on Thanksgiving 1978.

I have unfortunately seen this monstrosity on a bootleg tape. It is utterly horrible. It's even bad when compared to Batman & Robin (aka Batman on Ice). It consists of:

1) A drugged Carrie Fischer badly singing the Star Wars theme with lyrics relating to Wookiee Life Day.
2) Mark Hammill with more make-up than Captain Kirk.
3) Harrison Ford with the words "What the fuck is this shit!" written all over his face.
4) Han & Chewie dodging re-used special effects from ANH.
5) Itchy watching VR porn.
6) Jefferson Airplane, sans Grace Slick, renamed Jefferson Starship, and only 9 years after performing at Woodstock, entertaining Lumpy with a holographic music video.
7) Stormtroopers searching a small bookshelf for "rebel secrets" for 2+ hours.

Bea Arthur dancing with Ponda Baba from ANH (Dr. Evazan's friend who got his arm lobbed off) and then leading a congo line with all of the customers at the Mos Eisley Cantina.
9) A mediocre cartoon introducing Boba Fett (it only seems good because its a breath of fresh air after hours of shit)

Fuck. Just thinking about that horrible piece of shit again makes me want to kill someone.

Feil · Post by **Feil** » 2007-05-11 04:50am

No Skywalkers, eh? If he'll just go one more step and do "no Tatooine", too, I may actually watch them.

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2007-05-11 05:21am

JediToren wrote:I have unfortunately seen this monstrosity on a bootleg tape. It is utterly horrible.

I saw it on, hold on let me see if it's still there... yep, Youtube.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2007-05-11 08:14am

You know, if the SW TV series and movies run into the same problems that destroyed Star Trek (I.E. writers not giving a flying fuck about science, continuity and throwing technobabble at everything) I'm going to laugh.

Then cry.

apocolypse · Post by **apocolypse** » 2007-05-11 12:31pm

Chris OFarrell wrote:You know, if the SW TV series and movies run into the same problems that destroyed Star Trek (I.E. writers not giving a flying fuck about science, continuity and throwing technobabble at everything) I'm going to laugh.

Then cry.

That's exactly my concern too. Can't remember where I read it, but I did hear they're going for a nBSG feel though, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Tychu · Post by **Tychu** » 2007-05-12 11:36pm

apocolypse wrote:
Chris OFarrell wrote:You know, if the SW TV series and movies run into the same problems that destroyed Star Trek (I.E. writers not giving a flying fuck about science, continuity and throwing technobabble at everything) I'm going to laugh.

Then cry.
That's exactly my concern too. Can't remember where I read it, but I did hear they're going for a nBSG feel though, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

That makes me very pessimistic. As for the things that came before; I like the Ewok movies, have them on DVD. I have the Droids DVD, it's good for the very child based turn your mind off thing. And I have a bootleg SW Holiday Special VCD, its the worst thing ever put on film but if your a Star Wars fan you should watch the worst thing it could ever be at least once

Lazarus · Post by **Lazarus** » 2007-05-17 06:57am

The idea of a SW TV series scares me to be honest. I hope it'll have something like an nBSG feel, but I expect the 'cater to the majority audience' factor will come into play and we'll get some sort of family program instead...

Cao Cao · Post by **Cao Cao** » 2007-05-17 08:45am

Then again, nBSG's popularity might spur them on that route.
It'd be beautiful irony; the original Battlestar Galactica was seen as copying Star Wars. And now, a new Star Wars series is taking inspiration from nBSG!

It's the circle of life.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-05-24 03:31am

If it's a neoBSG clone, I won't be watching. Ooooh, we're so gritty! All of our characters hate each other! This creates tension in the script! We're so ADULT! Now the non-scifi people will take us seriously instead of calling us geeks! ++5 points for respectability!

Kane Starkiller · Post by **Kane Starkiller** » 2007-05-24 08:56am

SW doesn't need to become gritty but I would like to see them cut down on silly theatrics which really got stupid by ROTS (buzzdroids, R2D2 spraying those battledroids with oil, silly battledroid voices etc. etc.).