Probably closer to four times that much, but I doubt if Lucas would have done much filming here in the States. IF The Young Chonicles is anything to go by he would've filmed the Star Wars series around the world as well.
Star Wars : live action series or more movies?
- Thread starter borgomatic
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Probably closer to four times that much, but I doubt if Lucas would have done much filming here in the States. IF The Young Chonicles is anything to go by he would've filmed the Star Wars series around the world as well.
Didn't BSG cost something like 2.5 million dollars an episode? And that was with the money saved by shooting in Vancouver, and a lot of episodes that didn't focus on big, expensive space battles. A Star Wars series would certainly cost more, especially if it didn't allow for some talky installments.
A live action Star Wars series could be more "talky" than we're used to in the movies. Think of it like Star Trek episodes vs the movies, where the backstory and characterization is mainly on TV and the movies are more heavily action.
But all this assumes that someone is writing the episodes who actually can come up with a worthwhile story of the sort where talking isn't automatically boring.
But all this assumes that someone is writing the episodes who actually can come up with a worthwhile story of the sort where talking isn't automatically boring.
^^
Exactly. And with Lucas wanting to assume creative control that's a pretty big fantasy.
The most appealing parts of the prequels are the visuals and the John Williams scores, neither of which are going to be a big part of any television series. Williams' themes might be present, but we'll get a cheaper composer to imitate him if Lucas wants to keep it on budget. So...what's drawing me into this?
Exactly. And with Lucas wanting to assume creative control that's a pretty big fantasy.
The most appealing parts of the prequels are the visuals and the John Williams scores, neither of which are going to be a big part of any television series. Williams' themes might be present, but we'll get a cheaper composer to imitate him if Lucas wants to keep it on budget. So...what's drawing me into this?
The live-action series could ultimately become a CGI series set between Episodes III and IV, IMO, and would be in the same style and tones as The Clone Wars, but feature both new and a few familiar characters...
Personally, I think there actually is a pretty good chance could have gotten some pretty good stories out of the show. After all he spent forever looking for and gathering up writers, and I'm pretty sure that they going to be people with TV experience.
How much control does he even take over The Clone Wars, I was under the impression it was pretty much Dave Filoni and Catherine Winder in charge with Lucas in more of an advisory position.
It would be great to see him do the live action series he talked about, but id like to see him recast all the characters we already know and mix them into the show as well. I agree the most likely motion picture though would probably be in the distant past during the hight of the jedi order.
Considering how boring the Jedi were in the PT, why would they be any less boring 1000 years in the past? This thread keeps missing the point. What makes a TV show good is the strong writing about characters we care about, and actors capable of portraying those characters.
Movies also depend on those things, but to a lesser extent, since visuals and kinetics can take up some of the slack. On TV, your crutches are gone and if your story and characters suck, there is nowhere to hide. If Star Wars is barely tolerable in the PT movies, it will be a incendiary disaster on TV, because the very things that the PT could not pull off are the only things a TV show has going for it.
Clone Wars may be good - I need to give it a bit more of a chance than I have, I guess - it's because Lucas isn't frakking it up, and it's in the hands of people who know what they're doing.
Movies also depend on those things, but to a lesser extent, since visuals and kinetics can take up some of the slack. On TV, your crutches are gone and if your story and characters suck, there is nowhere to hide. If Star Wars is barely tolerable in the PT movies, it will be a incendiary disaster on TV, because the very things that the PT could not pull off are the only things a TV show has going for it.
Clone Wars may be good - I need to give it a bit more of a chance than I have, I guess - it's because Lucas isn't frakking it up, and it's in the hands of people who know what they're doing.
Which I can pretty much guarantee you would be the case in the live action TV show. Even if he was the show runner, then he would still have entire writing staff who would handle the majority of the heavy lifting, and as long as he picks competent writers, I really think there is alot of potential for awsomeness.
Here's what wookiepedia says about the writers:
Here's what wookiepedia says about the writers:
So it sounds to me like they were really going about this the right way.
So if those writers were so awesome, why did Lucas lack enough faith in their abilities that he didn't think they could hold our interest in the absence of pricey SFX?
Maybe they are awesome enough to do the job. Good writers should be able to point a camera at two people talking for an hour and absolutely rivet our attention. I've seen plenty of writers who can do just that. But Lucas won't give them the chance.
With his superstar stable of writers, why doesn't Lucas try something radical: completely low-tech Star Wars. Keep the focus narrowly on the scattered rebels, who lack resources. They rarely even get the means to cobble together a spaceship. They're trapped on dusty worlds without any fancy buildings. Take all the whizbang crutches away and let's see how good these writers really are. I'd be willing to give them a chance. Too bad their boss has no faith in them.
Maybe they are awesome enough to do the job. Good writers should be able to point a camera at two people talking for an hour and absolutely rivet our attention. I've seen plenty of writers who can do just that. But Lucas won't give them the chance.
With his superstar stable of writers, why doesn't Lucas try something radical: completely low-tech Star Wars. Keep the focus narrowly on the scattered rebels, who lack resources. They rarely even get the means to cobble together a spaceship. They're trapped on dusty worlds without any fancy buildings. Take all the whizbang crutches away and let's see how good these writers really are. I'd be willing to give them a chance. Too bad their boss has no faith in them.
I'd always assumed the "Dark Times" TV Show would have had a small scope, a Firefly type show where they're on a single ship fleeing the Imps. I don't really see there being any huge space battles since they describe the battle immediately before ANH as the Rebels' first major victory and they didn't even really have capitol ships back then.
^ This was what I was under the impression as well...a type of low scale anthology series. There were rumors last year that Kevin Smith was one of those contacted to write for "Dark Times" but he's never confirmed that i don't think.
I think the problem is that one thing Lucas seems to love to do is push things as far as they can go tech wise and I really think this time he just pushed to far. For pretty much all of the movies he had to come up with new SFX tech, and I have feeling was wanting to do the same thing for the show. Only there just isn't the money to do that on a weekly TV show.
While I do agree with you that a small quite show could have worked, the majority of people would probably expect it to be a big effects filled action show.
That would have been fine with me! They could do the first season almost entirely on some dustball planet, with a few cut scenes of the Imperials bwah hah hah-ing. I was really looking forward to seeing Wayne Pygram as Moff Tarkin (there could be no one else) and let's get Ben Browder in one of those hot Imperial officer uniforms.
Bah. All my fun ruined.
Why would they expect that? TV doesn't do big effects filled shows. There would be a hurdle to overcome to prove that Star Wars on TV can have writing and acting that will be a draw without the eye candy - sort of the reverse situation that Star Trek faced, proving that it could be a big-screen draw after boring the spit out of us on TV - but there's a way to overcome that problem: deliver the goods.
If Lucas just wants to play around with tech, then he needs to get out of the writing/directing/casting business and hand those functions over to competent people.
Well, hopefully with the TV show he would have had to... mostly. As a rule TV is much more of a group project than movies. So even if Lucas was show runner then there still would have to be a bunch of other writers and directors who would be doing most of the heavy lifting.
Well, keep in mind that The Flannelled One is 66, and never promised to do SW until he dies - in fact, he's publicly threatened to hang up his spurs several times, especially with the end of the PT. He advises and contributes ideas to the Clone Wars show, but I'd guess that his actual time involvement isn't all that big. Maybe he's had second thoughts about whether or not he really wants to godfather a live-action production as closely related to the OT as a series... Dunno, just speculation. 
I would personally like to see Tv-series set to the time of the orginal SW trilogy. Maybe I am old fashioned but I would like to see Star Destroyers and TIE-Fighters...and outnumbered Rebels fighting the huge empire.
There would be countless oportunities for stories there..and it would be cheaper to produce as you could have standing sets a la Star Trek for the ships and bases, for exsample.
As for the not finding writers thing..well, considering how many good shows there has been in the US television, there is lots of good writers our there.
Maybe Lucas just is too protective about his creation?
Or does he think he is better than the other writers? I hope not.
I am not saying that Lucas is not creative or a visionary, but he is not as good director nor writer, as many claim him to be.
This is just my opion, ofcourse
There would be countless oportunities for stories there..and it would be cheaper to produce as you could have standing sets a la Star Trek for the ships and bases, for exsample.
As for the not finding writers thing..well, considering how many good shows there has been in the US television, there is lots of good writers our there.
Maybe Lucas just is too protective about his creation?
Or does he think he is better than the other writers? I hope not.
I am not saying that Lucas is not creative or a visionary, but he is not as good director nor writer, as many claim him to be.
This is just my opion, ofcourse
One issue the PT had was the lack of iconic ships. There were too many different varieties, and none of them was given sufficient personality. Naboo starfighter one day, Jedi fighter the next. What happened to the Y-Wings and Z-95s that were supposedly rampant in this era?
