quote: With his prequels behind him, Lucas has shifted his attention to two daring projects that could bring tie-fighters, tauntauns and Tatooine to a new generation of imaginers. First among them is a largely 3-D animated show very different from the recent, slick Genndy Tartakovsky "Clone Wars" cartoons but set throughout the same epic battles. "We've got a number of episodes finished now," he promised. "It looks really good. It's a lot of fun.
"It's that same time period," Lucas added of the show, which is being shopped to various channels. "But it's quite a bit more sophisticated, and it's not like anything you've ever seen on television before. ... [Tartakovsky] used his distinctive 2-D style to do [Clone Wars], but it was two minutes at a time, so it was a test-subject kind of idea. It worked and everything, but then we knew we were eventually going to do a 3-D animated series."
In 2007, Lucas will begin work on a live-action "Star Wars" show set during the 18-year gap between Episodes III and IV. "We haven't started yet; I start that next year," the filmmaker said, adding that he's determined to write an entire first season before shooting begins on the show that will star "background" characters from that time period.
"None of the Skywalker story, none of that stuff is in there," he explained, shooting down any depiction of a young Han Solo acquiring the Millennium Falcon or running with Lando Calrissian. "It's completely different. The animated series has got all the characters in it. The one that comes after, the live-action one, is with people who were in 'Star Wars,' but they're not the main characters."
Lucas said the plot will be steered by characters such as Tie-Fighter or Rebel pilots, most only briefly glimpsed in the six "Star Wars" films.
Those who haven't been stuck in a cave for the past five years know all too well that Lucas, Spielberg and Harrison Ford have been developing a fourth Indiana Jones adventure for more than a half-decade now, with all three needing to approve the finished script. When pressed for an update, Spielberg insisted that he wanted to keep the day's focus on his producing partner; Lucas is optimistic about the project.
quote: But as far as proper directorial efforts go, Lucas seems uncertain that the once bright-eyed kid behind "American Graffiti" and "THX 1138" will ever truly return — and if he does, he wonders if anyone would even want to see the end results. "After I've done (the executive-producing work), I'm gonna go back and do my own films, but they're more esoteric in nature," Lucas said. "And I'm not sure whether they're even going to be released."
Such comments will undoubtedly raise eyebrows among Lucas die-hards, who have spent years tracking the progress of "Red Tails," the passion project that was earmarked to serve as his directorial return. "It's a producing movie," Lucas said of the flick, which will tell the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of black pilots who served in the Air Force during World War II. "[I'm producing] 'Red Tails,' then 'Indiana Jones,' and then I'm doing an animated feature."
Lucas was hesitant to give any further details on the animated flick, which his Lucas Animation plans to begin working on in a year. He also held back details on what exactly those "esoteric" directorial flicks will consist of.
"I've got lots of ideas for movies and for TV shows. I'm gonna pursue those when I'm on my own, because I've set up a fund that I can use up," he said. "And if they don't work, then I'll just keep going until I've used up my fund — and then I'll retire for real."
So the multi billionaire has a fund set up as his own personal movie making piggie bank. He has tons of movie and tv show ideas, and he really doesn't need approval from anyone to go out and make them. He has a massive production team behind him at the ready for anything he wants to make.
That said, I don't know how his live action show that takes place between III and IV can have TIE fighters and X-Wings, and especially how it can have peripheral characters from the movies. He should be talking about someone like Wedge Antilles, but Wedge wasn't really involved in the Alliance until Episode IV, which means he's going back over the same material, but doing background stuff.
Either way, if that's what we're getting, then I'm a lot more excited than I was before. I've been hoping since rumors of this first broke that it would be a snubfighter show, and fellow Star Wars fans on Hatrack have also voiced hope that it'd be about Rogue Squadron.
I'm curious as to who is writing these shows though. And I'm interested in what else he will be working on, (and I'm sure everyone is excited that he both recognizes that no one wants to see him direct again, and he more or less stated that he WON'T direct again).
And it's nice to see he's giving to the next generation of filmmakers:
quote: Reflecting on his seventh decade of life, as well as his imminent retirement, George Lucas recently handed over the largest donation in the history of the University of Southern California — giving birth to the brand-new School of Cinematic Arts.
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The prequel trilogy has left me really.... hesitant where Lucas and Star Wars are concerned. I hope it is good, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
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The Clone Wars cartoons were very fun. If Lucas gets a good team together, and mostly just watches with his mouth shut and his hands behind his back I have hope for future ventures.
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quote:Originally posted by MightyCow: The Clone Wars cartoons were very fun. If Lucas gets a good team together, and mostly just watches with his mouth shut and his hands behind his back I have hope for future ventures.
That's what I'm hoping for too. Hopefully, his other projects will keep him away from these as much as possible.
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