Star Wars TV Show, And An Unmade Trilogy

Necromutant writes "Mark Hamill comments about Episodes 7, 8, and 9 really got everyone's attention. Mark told those in attendance what Lucas told him the third trilogy would be about. Also confirmed today officially, a Star Wars television show coming in the future. -- I don't know if I should be happy or scared..."

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[Spytap]

Mark told those in attendance what Lucas told him the third trilogy would be about.
How Long ago did Lucas tell Mark Hamill about this, was this sometime back when they were originally filming?

tv based on brian daley novels?

[welloy]

This could be great. If Lucas et al took something like the brian daley [tripod.com] novels (Han Solo at Stars' End, (1979), Han Solo's Revenge (1979) and Han Solo and the Lost Legacy (1982)) --stories that involved the SW characters but not really the plot line of the movies-- and made a bunch of television episodes out of them that could be really interesting. That could give lots of very creative people a great way to flesh out the rest of the SW universe and provide some neat backstory, without worrying too much about stepping on the Canon of SW. How neat would it be to see Lando and Han back in the bad old days smuggling spice or gambling for each other's ship? Or following Biggs through the Academy? Or watching the Empire take over a planet or two?

The problem is of course, most all TV shows and movies produced are crap. And I dont think the SW TV show is any more or less likely to be crappy TV than any other sci-fi/fantasy show.

Was Mark Muzzled?

[victor_the_cleaner]

What I find strange about this article is that supposedly Mark made these comments on Wednesday of this past week.

On Friday, Mark did two live radio interviews in my market to promote the upcoming DVD releases. In both interviews the host asked about the next trilogy. Although he did not give the same answer word-for-word, he basically said, "I don't know, most of the time the fans know more than I do"

Did Mark say too much on Wednesday and was told to keep his mouth shut?

If Lucas has half a brain

[multiplexo]

and can contain his ego he'll option Timothy Zahn's series of Star Wars novels, hire someone else to direct, put his name on it as executive producer and then STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM IT! . The Timothy Zahn novels, along with Alan Dean Foster's Splinter in the Mind's Eye were the best Star Wars novels written. For those of you who haven't read them they are:

Heir to the Empire [amazon.com]

Dark Force Rising [amazon.com]

The Last Command [amazon.com]

There would be problems with the fact that the actors are older than their characters are portrayed in the Zahn books, but hey, George is a wizard with CGI, let's see him do something useful with it instead of creating more characters like Jar-Jar Binks or editing the cantina scene so that Greedo shoots first.

JMS?

[Anonymous Coward]

If this is the potentially huge TV series that JMS of Babylon 5 fame is involved in, this could be very interesting. He probably wouldn't even bother with it unless he had a great deal of control (or as much as possible in someone else's sci-fi universe), so I'm keeping my hopes up until he says he's not involved.

The Lucas Problem

[Nom du Keyboard]

The Lucas Problem is that he is considered such a God (or Jedi Master) of science fiction films that no one dares tell him when he's wrong about something. And everybody's wrong some of the time.

I'm certain that is the only reason Jar Jar Binks ever survived being edited out of Episode 1 is that no one would dare say to George, "Uh, George, you may not have realized it, but this character is nothing more than an offensive racial stereotype that will not go down well with anyone."

The Audio did real well.

[DelawareBoy]

If you like Brian Daley, check out the NPR Audio Series [amazon.com] done by Brian. Especially the first one of Star Wars. If the TV series is 1/2 as good as these tapes, It will be worth watching.

Animated Zahn

[qui-bay]

Make an animated series

CGI the ships etc...

Hire as many old & current cast members to do the voices.

One hour long each episode. If they did the Zahn books like this they could have an entire series plotted out and it would be a huge hit.

Also, needs to be an HBO series. With Lucas' stand on not wanting to be influenced by studios, wouldn't it make sense to not want censors or suits influenceing the product? I'm sure HBO does much of the same, but I bet they would steer his old ass into a great product.

its about R2-D2

[Anonymous Coward]

R2 is the only character who is instrumental in every single event in the SW series, original trilogy and the prequels both.

Luke comes & goes, as does Annikin (sp?) & everybody else in the series.

Star Wars is, in effect, a story about a droid.

Re:A big stick and a dead horse

[shokk]

You must have missed that Return of the Jedi movie, then. At 13 years old, I could not believe what I was seeing on the screen. After Empire I expected magic out of that third movie. Biggest Letdown Ever.

Re:tv based on brian daley novels?

[connorbd]

The Zahn novels (and to a lesser extent the Correllian trilogy of Roger McBride Allen) were very well-written books and worthy additions to the world of Star Wars. If you think Zahn sucked, you haven't read the work of uberhack Kevin Anderson.

To be fair to Lucas

[rsilvergun]

he always intended to do the prequals. Well, that's not quite true. The original script was too long, so he skipped to the middle. It's not surprising to seem him go back and finish making the rest of the script. Moreover, it's got nothing to do with art. I really think Lucas just wants to make the movies. This is actually a problem. I think he entered into the project without a clear picture of what he wanted to do; and instead just has a bunch of cool ideas that have been floating around in his head for years. It doesn't help that he's listening to his critics lately. The result is the mess that is Eps I & II. Oh well, at least Clone Wars TV rocked.

Re:The sad thing is...

[Rallion]

Particularly the Thrawn Trilogy. God, would I love that...Hey, Thrawn and Palleon are confirmed to exist by Lucas, anybody remember the opening movie in TIE Fighter?

And for a time it was rumored to be in the works, too.

Re:tv based on brian daley novels?

[magefile]

I'd rather see Zahn's books as TV miniseries. The Thrawn trilogy, and the later duo about the Camaas debacle.

Re:A big stick and a dead horse

[ultranova]

There is no science behind star wars light sabers, ships, force (except the midiclorian mistake) or anything else in the universe. It is the analogy to magic swords, horses, unicorns, olifants and whaterer mechanical doomsday devices you might want to add.

Just because it has blinking lights doesn't make it sci fi.

Actually, yes it does. Sci-fi, even "hard" sci-fi, introduces devices that cannot be manufactured at current technological level. Since these devices cannot be yet manufactured, their existence in future, as well as inner workings, are pure speculation.

Simply because some author is good at giving "science-like" explanations about how things work in his universe doesn't make those things any more scientifically sound than any other sci-fi props. Don't be fooled by technobabble :).

Think of it this way: There is some science behind magic swords - namely, the inclined plane (the cutting edge forms a wedge) and the fact that pressure increases as the surface decreases (which is why the blade cuts). There is also some unscientific things (the magical properties). There is a lot of science in several sci-fi spaceships (rocket engines, closed hull) and lots of unscientific things (faster-than-light drives in almost all of them, positronic robot brains - why would these be any different from normal electrons ?). It's just a matter of degree.

Re:A big stick and a dead horse

[LPetrazickis]

No, Fantasy and Science Fiction are both subgenres of Speculative Fiction (and so is Alternate History). For example, it is generally agreed that the sf in rec.arts.sf.written stands for Speculative Fiction.

Your idea doesn't really make sense. There's nothing scientific about fantasy. Doing the opposite and calling science fiction a subgenre of fantasy would also seriously piss off quite a few people.

Re:A big stick and a dead horse

[TheSteve]

This would be a prime opportunity to make a completely different final trilogy - to complete the story and provide another feel. The first set was funny, adventurous and believeable - adolescent, even. The second was for a younger stage of life. What could the third be like? Starting with the feel at the end of the current storyline, using new technology, becoming more serious with the story and portrayal? Not so much an apology as a completion. Their quality scales may have been reversed, but then so was the order in which we watched them. The best may be yet to come.

The final three could be like he's never done and we've never seen before - they could be larger in size, scale and epicness than even the Lord of the Rings films. They could be mature, thoughtful, genuinely funny, dramatic and moving films that could sweep the Oscars and be everything anyone ever could have hoped for in Star Wars movies!

We can only hope to find the force is strong with Lucas.

The Pitch

[Poietes]

GL: Thanks for seeing me, Harvey. I've got this great idea for a TV show, and I wanted you to be the first to hear it.

HW: Okay, George, shoot.

GL: Great, okay. Picture this: the camera pans in to the gates of Dathomir Imperial prison, at night, where a crowd has gathered, holding picket lines. They are holding a candlelight vigil, and it is raining: the faces in the crowds are lit up like Japanese lanterns.

HW: Japanese lanterns, nice. Okay, I'm listening.

GL: The gates of the prison open, revealing a hair covered humanoid in a bandolier. It's a wookie.

HW: A wha?

GL: A wookie: but not just any wookie. It's Chewbacca. The crowd has been waiting for him. He begins to speak.

HW: What does he say?

GL: He says: RowRWAROOR.

HW: Uh-huh. Why's he in prison again?

GL: He was imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. And now he's out to right the wrong: one wookie against the world who wronged him. On his planet, Kashyyyk, there's a special breed of justice. Eighteen thrusters of justice.

HW: Keep going.

GL: Cut to the forests of Endor. Our hero, Chewbacca touches down on the Endor moon, and enters a tree-top Ewok village. He is crowned king of the Ewoks! The Ewoks party hard, getting drunk on tree-root ale and rubbing up against tree-bark until the static electricity sends them flying across the clearing. He speaks to the crowd of drunk of drunk Ewoks.

HW: What does he say?

GL: He says: RowRWAROOR.

HW: I like it.

GL: Shmi, after giving her son Anakin away to Jedi training, starts going a bit wild and gets a name for herself on Tatooine. She started hanging out with wookies, and ended up going steady with Chewbacca's grandfather. Cut to a Christmas dinner scene, where Shmi and Chewbacca Snr. are meeting Shmi's parents for the first time.

HW: Sort of Guess Who's Coming To Dinner meets My Stepmother Is An Alien?

GL: Exactly. So, can I have some money?

HW: Sure, take these two big bags of money and make your show.

GL: Woohoo!

Re:A big stick and a dead horse

[lee7guy]

Fantasy is a sub-genere of Sci-fi.

Um, yeah. Right.

Would you please be kind enough, pointing out the scientific parts of LOTR, The Belgariad or The sword of truth (bad series)? These are afaik, prime examples of what is considered Fantasy.

Sure, not all stuff that people label Science Fiction is that scientific either, but at least SF mostly tries to tell us what might happen in the future and what technology, society and science of the era might have evolved into.

SF could be seen as a genre of Fantasy, but imo SF and Fantasy are already defined as two separate generes (where overlaps occur, which you mentioned) by most of their readers. Fantasy is the genre where you will find magic, dragons, orchs, goblins, swordfighters or other similar characters, set in an enviroment that more often than not bear some resemblace of medieval or pre medieaval Europe.

If you take the overlaps as proof of point, then it is probaly useless trying to convince you otherwise. But, I can assure you most fans of these kinds of litterature relatively easily can single out what genre the book in question belongs to, by reading a few chapters.

Hint:

If it is Fantasy with elements of SF, place it in the Fantasy bookcase.

If it is SF with elements of Fantasy, place it in the SF bookcase.

Some cases like Stephen King's gunslinger series are very hard to define. In these cases you can always use the classification: good novels (or bad).

Re:The Lucas Problem

[God! Awful 2]

I'm certain that is the only reason Jar Jar Binks ever survived being edited out of Episode 1 is that no one would dare say to George, "Uh, George, you may not have realized it, but this character is nothing more than an offensive racial stereotype that will not go down well with anyone."

I've seen plenty of 8 year olds whose favorite Star Wars character is Jar Jar Binks. I guess it just goes to show who Lucas considers to be his audience.

-a

Re:To be fair to Lucas

[Mac Degger]

What irked me was that in one interview with Lucas and a couple of other Hollywood heavyweights (I think Copola was there, as well as someone else extremely famous...it looked like an old homes get-together, seriously!), Lucas mentions that he didn't want to direct TPM. But then he said all his (ass-kissing, upsucking) friends told him he could do it, no, he /should/ do it, so he did.

Now maybe I'm reading way to much into this one offhand comment, but something about the way he said it made me think that Lucas knew he wasn't that good a director (eps 5&6 where the best SW, ep 4 was good because it was new, not because the directing was any good), and the only reason he did direct TPM was because his friends convinced him that he should do it anyway.

Re:The Lucas Problem

[glsunder]

Uh, guess what age 1/2 the people who obsess over star wars were when ep 4 came out. I'd be willing to bet alot of them/us grew up in the 70s and 80s. Jar Jar isn't any worse than the ewoks were. Heck, he's a better actor than the guy who played aniken in ep 2.

Re:maybe it's porn

[toddestan]

porn is so in right now. since there are so few jedi left it could their adventures in repopulating the jedi population across the galaxy

Finally, we'll get to find out just how Anakin Skywalker was concieved!

Re:A big stick and a dead horse

[pthisis]

You may choose to define it however you want, but to the average English-speaking person it is precisely the technobabble and backdrop that make the difference between sci-fi and fantasy.

There's a genre jargon definition of sci-fi that is along the lines of having a rational explanation for how things work, but in English it means having blinkenlights and cool tech instead of dragons and magic wands. The only real difference between a blaster and a magic wand is a technobabble/backdrop one, but it turns out to most people that's a very large distinction (so much so that most people would consider the first Pern book to be fantasy even though to a hardcore fan there's an argument to be made that it fits the jargon definition of sci-fi).

What the devil are you talking about.

[rsilvergun]

People are constantly telling him what they think is wrong. That's why we get Greedo shooting first. That's why the Ewok song gets cut (yes, I liked the Ewok song. It's a God damn childrens' movie people). Watch the commentary on Ep2. People bitched left and right about Yoda kicking ass. Did it rock? Yes, I think that it did. Lucas sucks most when he listens to his critics.

This isn't to say Lucas is some genious who ought to be left along to create. For God's sake, somebody should have pointed out that if Ep 1 was going to be a childrens' movie, Ep 2 damn well better be. And how the hell did Natile Portman get hired? Anyway, both movies seem to me more like a bunch of cool ideas with a script hung on them than the other way around. But I think the worst stuff (mitochondrians and virgin births) where crappy reponses to critics.

As for Jar-Jar, I think he was something the Special Effects guys really wanted to do. A completely CG character who was also totally believable. It's really quite a feat, it's just a pity the accomplishment is overshadowed by how god damned annoying he his. Like I said, lots of cool ideas, no solid foundation to hang 'em on.