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?
He basically answered it in the interview:
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.
Basically, yeah, he'll either find another network or sell them on DVD, depending on what happens. In any case, both series will be completed.
So if it's good but gets low ratings, it can't be completely canceled the way, say,
Firefly was. If it's really bad, well, nobody else will take it and then it'll come out on DVD.
Later...