Star Wars Live Action TV Show, By Lucas The Hutt

By seamus -

Let me start this bit off by mentioning just how huge of a Star Wars fan I am.

Like many other boys my age, I was fascinated by the fairy-tale like sci-fi space opera and the je ne sais quoi that made Star Wars beloved by millions of fans. To this day I can’t properly express what it is about Star Wars that makes it so appealing. It’s awesome, it’s organic, it’s realistic in an interesting way (for once, it’s not set in our future or even our corner of the universe…that helps open your mind up and make room for things that you would normally frown upon if the franchise was set in a more familiar setting), it’s got struggle, heroism, space battles, villains and heroes, super-powers, princesses and queens, lasers, sword-fighting …

It’s got EVERYTHNG guys love. It’s basically a pot-pourri of every single thing young (and old) boys fantasize about. Maybe that’s why it’s so dear to us Star Wars fanboys.

And yet, those unfamiliar with the behind the scenes dramas of the franchise deserve a quick walkthrough. Fans throbbed with anticipation for the prequels, but many were disappointed by the new Star Wars feel these brought. Personally, I knew the prequels couldn’t be anything like the old movies, and I actually enjoyed The Phantom Menace a great deal, so I wasn’t altogether put off by its new twist.


But there were some things about it that did spoil it for old fans. The cheesy humor entered ridiculous new areas, many characters were lackluster and shallow, plot lines didn’t add up, CGI overpowered good acting and strong story mechanisms etc. Long story short, it seemed that 20 years later, George Lucas had lost his shit and all the talent he had when directing the original trilogy.


Truth was a bit more complicated. For once, Lucas was changed by the enormous wealth Star Wars merchandise franchising had brought him, and the new trilogy was probably designed with that in mind –keeping everything shiny, marketable, and easy to convert into toys. He knew how many toys, games and other merch he could squeeze out of these new movies so he tried his best to mold the movie according to projected toy lines. Secondly, it wasn’t his talent that made the original trilogy the epic saga it was – it was the contribution of many other talented people that influenced the then-young director’s creative decisions. For the prequel series, Lucas held all the reins and all the power – and the true extent of his talent became evident in the family-friendly tone of the new movies, easy to consume and somewhat offensive to many fans.



Now, after this long introduction, on with the main story. Lucas isn’t done with Star Wars, and it Lucasfilms is producing a new, live-action TV show featuring the time inbetween episodes 3 and 4, bridging the gap between the old and new trilogies. The show is on hold for 3-4 years, according to Lucas, because the CGI budget is still too big for TV productions at the moment. They’re working on 5 million dollars per episode so far. 
So far, Lucas claims to have 50 hours of scripts for the series. And what will this new series’ tone be? Well, to paraphrase producer Rick McCallum, it’s Godfather in space: the seedy underground of Coruscant and their world of drugs and prostitution, having to face crackdowns from the newly-formed Empire.

To that I say…OH NO. Why?



When I see George talking about the show, this is what I really hear: “HeeHeeHEeee, silly Jedi! De wanka cho bass woompa sleeemoo.” Translation: “The Mighty Lucas the Hutt loves cash. Might Lucas is a one-trick pony, and China isn’t that good at CGI to set up a vfx sweatshop just yet.” The VFX technology wasn’t there for the old trilogy, and yet the pioneered it especially for the movie. Are they too lazy to meet the challenge now? Or has the fount of creativity really run dry and are they now forced to turn to the soulless quick fix of shiny CGI too appease the consuming masses? Why do all these sci-fi shows have to go the “gritty/dark/edgy” reboot way? Star Wars is a particular kind of sci-fi: it’s all about escapism, it’s all about fairy-tale themes and epic adventures of good versus evil. It's NOT about gritty Sopranos-style mobster stories, it's NOT morally ambiguous, it's heroes are ALWAYS the good guys and it's NOT Star Wars if it doesn't have Jedi.


But then again, I have to give this show the benefit of the doubt, for the sake of the franchise. I am, after all, a Fanboy. What do you think?


Read about it here, here and here.

Comments

  1. Aaron11 April 2012 at 08:44

    Darth Vader hunting down remaining Jedi would be insanely awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous18 May 2012 at 22:26

    Too bad their ability to cast believable Jedi has been lost to the Dark Side.

    ReplyDelete

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