Star Wars: Here we go again...

[Temis the Vorta]

Hopefully the movies will be better edited than "Star Wars: Landings, Arrivals, and Departures". I swear to god, like half of the Prequel trilogy (especially Revenge) is abnormally long establishing shots of people departing, arriving, leaving ships, going into ships, walking from place to place, all in excruciating detail. Wasn't editing supposed to be George Lucas' specialty?

That's what happens when you're ignoring your story. You have to fill time somehow, so you just lard it up with extraneous detail. The wacky thing is, to really convincingly take Anakin from hero to villain would be a difficult challenge, requiring the full six prequel movie trilogy length to do justice to. But instead of doing any of the necessary work, Lucas just skipped it and filled screen time with a lot of nonsense.

When the Clone Wars' five seasons is over and done with, it will be an interesting exercise whether to envision it being telescoped down to six hours of relevant detail about Anakin's fall. The prequels could easily have started with Anakin already being a Jedi fighting in the Clone Wars, and then given us some well-chosen flashbacks that would explain his backstory. Hopefully by the time the series ends, we will have a full understanding of why he falls to the dark side, which would take up maybe half an hour of screen time (and I'd love to see that included in Clone Wars, too).

Perhaps Lucas has learned from the experience and is eager to leave audiences with a better "final" impression of Star Wars on film?

This may be wishful thinking on my part, but given the total and much improved rewrite of Anakin that is underway in Clone Wars, maybe he really does understand that he frakked up, and now realizes he needs to depend more on strong collaborators. I can't help but think if Dave Filoni had been helping out on the PT, things wouldn't have gone off the rails so badly.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

For the record I absolutely believe this rumor. I also believe that Lucasfilm will deny it until they are ready for production.

George talks, like a proud father, at how, every step of the way, they are "hooking" new fans. The prequels are the star wars for a group of kids who grew up with them, and now a new generation is being born with the Clone Wars series. It occured to me then that George really runs Star Wars like its own corporation. There needs to be a steady drumbeat of new "star wars money" coming, they need to show quarterly growth, they need new "product" out there at all times (this isn't meant to be an insulting observation necessarily - hell if i thought the prequels were amazing, this would be a compliment) to keep the money coming in. It's very much like a studio executive looking at Star Trek and deciding "ok, now we need this franchise to produce more revenue, time for a reboot movie franchise." In the corporate world, if you are making, say 30 million one year (or quarter, whatever), and then make 16 million the next... it's not "hey you made 16 million dollars! awesome!"... it's "profits dropped by almost 50 percent... we lost 14 million."

There's going to be a point where Clone Wars is over, the live action TV series is over, and the OT can't be re-released again for a while (after the 3D theater release and Blu-Ray). At that point there will have to be a substantial star wars money maker out there to keep the "profit level" up above a certain point. And that's when we'll see a sequel trilogy.

(a sidenote: the rumor says it'd be set 100 years after SW. SW Legacy was a popular comic series set in that time, critically acclaimed actually, and was really suddenly canceled without clear explanation, it was kind of a mystery. the writer said he could have gone years writing it and sales were good... you know, before the prequels, Lucasfilm was putting the kibosh on any stories set during the "prequel movie time." I wonder... )

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Even if this rumor is bogus, I would still welcome a new sequel trilogy, and it wouldn't at all surprise me if it eventually happens with the way Lucas is keeping the films in the public consciousness. Hopefully Lucas would have some co-producers/directors/writers to act as "no men" to reduce or reject his more outlandish impulses and deliver something more like ANH or preferably TESB than the Prequels. I enjoyed the Prequels as fun fluff for the action and visuals, but I'm under no illusion that they were quality films or anything.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Lucas may want to prove to the world and himself that he can make serious money - TV/film money - with characters who aren't named Skywalker. Because if he can't, wow, that's a big problem for a corporation that wants to keep milking Star Wars indefinitely.

I see no reason why the stories absolutely need the Skywalker family. But I also see no reason to ignore those characters. How about a Clone Wars style series that gives us the story between 4&5, 5&6 and post-6?

 

[Harvey]

Lucas already proved that with a minor character named after his dog. He was an archeologist or something?

But, in terms of STAR WARS, I don't think Lucas is looking to prove the viability of the franchise without the Skywalker family. First of all, he's already done that with the expanded universe (though much of it is linked to the Skywalker family, some of it isn't). Second of all, how is it a big problem when it comes to making money off the franchise? It might strain story credibility for stories to continue to center around the Skywalker family, but in terms of making money, how does that begin to matter?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Yeah I meant making serious money in the Star Wars universe, silly! It wouldn't be healthy for the whole universe to be so dependent on such a small range of characters. Compare it to Star Trek, which has already proven that it's not necessarily tethered to particular characters or even the Enterprise.

Second of all, how is it a big problem when it comes to making money off the franchise? It might strain story credibility for stories to continue to center around the Skywalker family, but in terms of making money, how does that begin to matter?

TV and movies provide the engine that pulls the train of spinoff merchandise - all the video games, books, Halloween costumes, toys, etc. Most of the loot may come in via the train, but the engine does need some maintenance from time to time. The obvious reason Clone Wars exists, for instance, is to indoctrinate a new generation of kiddies in Star Wars stuff so that they will hound their parents for related toys and other merchandise and hopefully continue to be brand loyal into adulthood.

Lucas hasn't come close to wearing out the Skywalkers' welcome in TV and movies - the reason everyone hates Anakin from the PT is because he was so badly bungled, but his appearances in Clone Wars register a good deal less loathing. However, in theory, the time could come when they are overused, and it wouldn't be a bad thing to plan for that day (assuming Lucas will ever bother to overuse the characters to the point where we just can't stand seeing them anymore).

 

[Admiral Shran]

Yet another rumor for a 'sequel trilogy'

 

[Skywalker]

The hilarious thing about the idea of a sequel trilogy is they'd still make unholy amounts of money, even after the relatively disappointing prequels.

Personally, I'd love to see it happen, and wouldn't have any problems with them invalidating the EU (though I'd wager the movies would borrow elements from it, just as the prequels did). But as much as I like Lucas for his skill on the technical and conceptual side of things, I'd feel a lot more comfortable with these if he only stuck to coming up with the basic story and themes and letting other people write and direct the movies.

 

[EJA]

So the live-action TV series isn't happening now? That's a shame. I would've liked to have seen how that turned out.

 

[Listener4]

As terrible as the prequels were, I still would get a bit excited if there was to be a new Star Wars movie.

 

[sidious618]

I would repeatedly orgasm if new Star Wars films were to be made.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

A sequel trilogy or a remake of the original trilogy will happen eventually... I just doubt either happens during Lucas' lifetime.

If that's true, we may well have to kill Lucas so we can see these in our lifetime.

 

[milo bloom]

I'm in. I think Lucas may have truly learned collaboration on all the Clone Wars projects and we may get something pretty nice.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

thoughts

So the live-action TV series isn't happening now? That's a shame. I would've liked to have seen how that turned out.

I think the cost to do it for the ROI isn't worth it. Instead of do a 13 episode (instead of 26 episode) 1 hour series making that 585 minutes (45 minute episodes) or...
make 3 feature films lasting 180 minutes each = 540 minutes. yes those would be 3 hour films.

Star Wars feature films just would make a lot more money and the merchandise for each film would be even more.

Lucas told MTV in 2004 that the series "was never planned as a nine-episode work," the rumor of a sequel has been alive since 1983 when Lucas was quoted in Denise Worrell's book Icons: Intimate Portraits as saying that "the first trilogy is social and political...(the second trilogy) is more about personal growth and self realization, and the third deals with moral and philosophical problems....

http://www.reelzchannel.com/movie-news/8051/george-lucas-prepping-a-third-star-wars-trilogy

 

[Temis the Vorta]

So the live-action TV series isn't happening now? That's a shame. I would've liked to have seen how that turned out.

Yeah the news broke about a month or so ago. Lucas couldn't figure out how to do a live-action TV show on a TV budget, which just tells me that what he had in mind wasn't geared towards TV in the first place, so maybe it's for the best that it's been killed.

Star Wars on TV shouldn't need movie-level slam-bang action and SFX. Star Trek on TV never needed that, and did okay (and the reason it failed had more to do with the changing nature of the TV biz, and the sci fi audience for TV, than VOY or ENT sucking, which they kinda did, but a lot of TV shows suck worse and get by just fine). Whether it's Star Trek or Star Wars or anything else, a TV show needs strong characterization, acting, writing and some stab at an underlying theme to develop. Even if the visuals and action must be scaled back, the acting and writing can compensate.

The PT had bad casting, bad dialogue and disastrous writing, but still made money because of the cinematic experience of action, visuals and incredible music is worth your ten bucks. Try that on TV and you're headed for cancellation city. Yes, even something with Star Wars stamped on it can be cancelled on TV.

 

[Set Harth]

Wasn't editing supposed to be George Lucas' specialty?

It was all Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.

 

[Whofan]

She seems to be a bit of a recluse, Lucas's ex-wife-as far as I know she's never been interviewed by Star Wars fans or anything like that, and yet many credit her with being part of the OT's success (along with Kurtz).

Apparentally their messy divorce is the reason Lucas made Temple of Doom so dark.

Anyway, Lucasfilm recently denied the rumor so it looks like nothing for the time being except for Clone Wars and the 3-D releases.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Soooo...this Marcia was Lucas' ex-wife then? (Sorry if I'm late in catching up but I'm a full time Trekkie and only dabble in Star Wars ). Was she around for ANH and ESB and not for the others?

Because if that's the case, wow, there does seem to be some connection between her absence and the sudden cliff that Star Wars inexplicably fell off.

 

[Hyperspace05]

I dunno... I guess I'm curious to see how it will turn out. But the PT doused almost all of my Star Wars fandom. I don't have any confidence in George Lucas anymore.

That being said, I'd still watch them when released. Provided they weren't marketed exclusively to kids. I may love spaceship and 'xplosions, but there is a limit to what I am willing to endure - And the PT set that limit.

 

[Whofan]

Marcia Lucas was indeed Lucas's ex-wife and the editor of both ANH and ROTJ (But not ESB). They divorced shortly after ROTJ. She actually got an Oscar for it (The editing, not the divorce!)

Here's the photo:

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1430427648/nm0524235


Lucas did apparentally had a relationship with Linda Rondstand for a while afterward.