Lucas to make more Star Wars?

[Buzz Bumble]

Well, this "third trilogy" rumour has finally been proven rubbish (took long enough, but no surprise there), but the "TV series" rumour lives on. Here's two intertwined reports.

First from MovieHole.net ...

Lucasfilm talks Star Wars 7,8,9
We checked in with Lucasfilm ourselves today to see if we can't get to the bottom of these "Star Wars 7,8,9" rumours.

Last week news surfaced over at TheForce.net that employees of the company have been asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement relating to Episodes 7, 8 and 9.

Talking to Moviehole this morning, Lucasfilm are quick to state that there won't be any further "Star Wars" movies, adding that news about employees having had to sign a non-disclosure agreement with something about the sequels on them is false, because agreements are never film-specific there.

John Singh, of Lucasfilm, tells Moviehole : "The rumors of "Star Wars" VII, VIII and IX are absolutely false. "Star Wars" Episode III: "Revenge of the Sith" is being released worldwide on May 19, 2005, is our last and final installment. ILM employees sign a standard non-disclosure agreement that does not pertain to any particular film or project."

As much as I'd be interested to see what Lucas can do with a post-"Return of the Jedi" story, you've gotta admit : there's gonna be some severe CGI needed to make Mark Hammil, Carrie Fisher and company look younger. In addition, can anyone actually see Harrison Ford signing on to reprise his role as Han Solo? Buckleys chance there.

Still, you never know, we mightn't have seen the last of the "Star Wars" world. There's rumours of a TV series too remember - and that ones yet to be debunked. In fact, IESB heard from a source who says that might be what Lucasfilm have in mind. Says the site, "I received an email from one of our sources deep inside the world of LFL who is backing up TheForce.net's claim that there is indeed rumblings up in "The Ranch" regarding the rumored sequels. We were told that "Uncle George" isn't planning to make anymore theatrical movies but he is looking at a possible animated TV series that might take advantage of Lucasfilm's new Singapore animation venture that was announced a few weeks ago. That is the only way that we will ever see Luke, Han, Leia and the rest of the gang in any new adventure that would take place after Jedi.I was also reminded by our "friend" over at LFL of our video interview that we had with Steve Sansweet at Comic-Con last month where he clearly stated that they are indeed looking at several different avenues for Star Wars including animated and live action weekly TV".

And this one from IESB ...

TheForce.net posted a story last week that Lucasfilm employees had signed a non-disclosure agreement regarding Episodes VII, VIII and IX giving Star Wars fans everywhere hope that Revenge of the Sith would not be the final installment of the series. E! online later refuted the story when they spoke to Lucasfilm spokesman Lynn Fox who said "The rumors are absolutely untrue, Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith is our last and final installment." She was also very adamant that Lucas would not pass the franchise on to another director.

Clint over at Moviehole also talked to John Singh from Lucasfilm who said "The rumors of "Star Wars" VII, VIII and IX are absolutely false. "Star Wars" Episode III: "Revenge of the Sith" is being released worldwide on May 19, 2005, is our last and final installment. ILM employees sign a standard non-disclosure agreement that does not pertain to any particular film or project."

So we wont see Star Wars sequels, right? Hold on, wait a minute. I received an email from one of our sources deep inside the world of LFL who is backing up TheForce.net's claim that there is indeed rumblings up in "The Ranch" regarding the rumored sequels. We were told that "Uncle George" isn't planning to make anymore theatrical movies but he is looking at a possible animated TV series that might take advantage of Lucasfilm's new Singapore animation venture that was announced a few weeks ago. That is the only way that we will ever see Luke, Han, Leia and the rest of the gang in any new adventure that would take place after Jedi.

I was also reminded by our "friend" over at LFL of our video interview that we had with Steve Sansweet at Comic-Con last month where he clearly stated that they are indeed looking at several different avenues for Star Wars including animated and live action weekly TV (Click here (10meg, .wmv) for the video interview).

George has allowed other people to direct Star Wars in the past and I truly believe that any future live action TV series would be no different. So will we see the sequels in one way or another? George is no idiot and Star Wars is to big of a cash cow to let it go. There will be more Star Wars after Revenge of the Sith.

 

[Borsk]

I have a hard time picturing a live action star wars tv show (with special effects done on the cheap). If they go for a tv show, I think it will be animated.

 

[Darth Boru]

Maybe they'll consider a TV show if the project is handled properly. Stargate did some pretty great shows over the years that included some heavy effects work. Nothing as complex as the SW movies, but then it didn't have to be, given the scripts etc.

 

[Zepp]

Babylon 5 did pretty well CG-wise

 

[Buzz Bumble]

Originally Babylon 5 and SeaQuest DSV both used Commodore Amiga desktop computers to create their CGI scenes - that's why it could be done so cheaply (relatively speaking) and still look reasonably good, but it took ages for each scene to be rendered so they had to often reuse the same sequence.

 

[Zepp]

Commodore rox!

 

[Jedi 1073]

Bring Back Babylon 5!!

 

[Buzz Bumble]

Commodore rox!

Commodore computers "rox"! (roxed??)

Commodore management "sux"! They were so completely hopeless that they managed to destroy the Amiga.

 

[aceface]

"...the original cast is too old..."

But there have been plenty of roles for older people in the SW films. The Emperor, Obi-Wan ("Ben"), the assorted generals, officers, etc. And don't forget that Yoda was over 800 years old! Age is an important part of these stories.

I think y'all are forgetting the excellent interview with Mark Hamill ("The Many Faces of Mark Hamill") that appeared in a 1998 issue of Axcess magazine (Vol. 5 No. 1 to be exact). Here is the relevant snippet....


Would you do another Star Wars movie?
But they’re going backwards. Well, to work with George again would be a dream come true. That’s something that would work out for me, but unfortunately the chronological order is going the wrong way. He had mentioned something - and this was years ago so I don’t know whether he’s changing his mind - but way back when he asked me whether I’d be interested in doing the final three, where there would be a place for the new young hope finding the old. It would be like a repeat of the first one except me in the Obi-Wan role.

That would then have to be way, way, in the future.
It’s nothing I’m holding my breath for. In general, I’d probably do anything George wanted me to do.

 

[Jedi 1073]

Here's an attempt at horribly casting the sequel trilogy:

Han: Ben Affleck
Leia: Famke Jannsen
Luke: Owen Wilson
Lando: David Chappelle
Chewie: Shaquille O'Neal
C-3PO: Andy Dick


By the way, this is a joke.

Actually i would like to see that movie it would make a great comedy spoof!

 

[Zepp]

Commodore computers "rox"! (roxed??)

Commodore management "sux"! They were so completely hopeless that they managed to destroy the Amiga.

Up until about 5 years ago they were still the best puters out there graphix wise, unfortunately you're right about their inability to manage the business half of the market and their niche was taken by a company with far inferior puters but better management, mac...

 

[Buzz Bumble]

I'm not sure about Apple having better management - they make many of the exact same mistakes that Commodore did (eg. almost zero marketing, it's left to the resellers) as well as adding many new ones of their own (eg. over-pricing and dropping the Newton just as the PDA craze was about to take off). This has caused them to nearly go under a few times.

Of course Commodore also had the problem of not knowing what to do with the Amiga. Originally it was meant to be a games console, then it became a computer which was too expensive for home and no software for business, then it became a home computer, and a video editor, then it went back to a games console (CD32), then a home computer ... among many other changes.

Another problem with the Amiga was that the OS was simply a toy compared to the Mac's very easy-to-use system. There was simply too much twiddling in the CLI. Rather peculiarly the Mac has now gone to MacOS X which has the same "twiddle factor" with it's Terminal and Unix background, making it equally difficult to use at times.


To sort of get back on topic, Amigas were used a little at LucasFilm / LucasArts, but they now use Macs instead ... although the graphics are finally rendered on big high-end systems like Indigos, etc..

 

[Zepp]

I want to get myself a Cray... but I don't have the space for it...

Anyway, the original graphix of most of the movies in the late 70's through the early 90's were on Amigas. Now they are going high-end, but the market has become flouded with second rate graphix even in first rate movies... The original trilogy had a great balance between CG and 'real' fx, which was why it was effective. You don't use a phillips for a flathead screw, but that's what alot of movie makers (including Lucas in the trilogies, Phantom Menace moreso, although he seems to have gone almost exclusively to digital backgrounds for Ep III... and would probly continue the downward spiral into any further product...)

 

[Stevetrooper]

I like the Star Wars spoof cast except instead of Ben Affleck I would go with Dennis Quaid as Han, and instead of Famke Janson I would go with that Saturday Night Live news girl with the glasses. (what's her name?) as Leia.