LucasFilm Marketing Plans 2004 - 2006

[KitFisto]

From YakFace.com through way of SithClan.net.


First, we received a brief presentation of the 4,5,6 DVD set. Still nothing any of us hasn't heard before. They played the trailer currently running on Hyperspace.

As far as the Episode III movie overview, this one was not nearly as spoiler laden as the one for Ep II was but I did see some rough footage from a couple key scenes, along with some storyboards and sketches.

To put it in perspective, after the Episode II presentation, the only thing about Episode II that remained a complete surprise to me was the whole Death Star thing. That was it. Anyway...

Vader / Lava themed product packaging (saw a sample, SWEET!!!!)

HEAVY Vader presence in all marketing (saw some samples - again, SWEET!!!)

(NOTE: On more than one instance, some of the artwork incorporated the lone word "REVENGE" (Revenge of the Sith perhaps?)

(Secondly, during the commentary, the phrase "closing the circle" or the "circle being complete" was also used more than once in a very "wink-wink" kind of way. (Tagline?)

First Ep III teaser trailer debuts in Nov. 04

First full trailer, April 05

Ep III Product release first week of April 05 (start saving!)

A mention of an increased focus on high-end collectables (master replicas? gentle giant?)

Eps 1, 2, 4, 5 & 6 to air on FOX throughout the month of April 05

Clone Wars Series 1 & 2 DVD coming in Q1 of 05

Clone Wars Series 3 to air April 05 (Ten 12 minute chapters)

Licenses renewed with BK & Pepsi / Frito-Lay

License with as-yet undisclosed wireless service.

LIVE ACTION TV series to premire in 2006!!!

Wow, that's a lot of tidbits to chew on!



Fucking sweet.

[SI]

I wonder if ten 12 minute chapters is a typo...?

[I_SHOT_JR]

LIVE ACTION TV series to premire in 2006!!!

The future of HS after Episode III, giving us behind the scene glimpses into the productiion of this thing.

[Joe1138]

Lots of good stuff in that report. You know, something tells me that even if the fan favorite title "Revenge of the Sith" is chosen, there's bound to be some folk on the net that'll cry foul.

[foxbatkllr]

I wonder if ten 12 minute chapters is a typo...?

No, SW.com said they were 12 minutes long each.

[Forcechoke]

Yep, it's just that there are five of them.

[BobTheGoon]

Yep, it's just that there are five of them.

The yakface article says 10 chapter of 12 minutes each. We can only hope.

[Forcechoke]

And the Offical Site said five. Who are you gonna believe?

[dylan]

The yakface article says 10 chapter of 12 minutes each. We can only hope.

And the Offical Site said five. Who are you gonna believe?

Maybe both? We only got ten 3 min episodes last Novemeber, followed by ten more in March. Maybe we get five 12 min episodes first, followed by five more later. Then both reports are "right".

[Ktulu]

Clone Wars Series 1 & 2 DVD coming in Q1 of 05

What does Q1 to 05 mean?

[Ktulu]

Tnx for clearing that up...

[Justin]

Sounds sweet, but a SW TV show? Didn't georgie porgie learn his lesson from the XMAS special?

[Vanda]

The yakface article says 10 chapter of 12 minutes each. We can only hope.

Yikes. As far as I'm concerned, they can keep them all, five or ten. The first two seasons were abominations.

[darthpsychotic]

http://www.toochilled.com/episode-x/boards/viewtopic.php?p=32177#32177

[Vanda]

It's not the plots of the toons that I hated... nor the animation. It was just the lack of continuity with the movies. The complete and utter disrespect for everything that had been established in the movies was jaw-dropping. Mace taking out an entire army is ludicrous enough, nevermind without a saber. Grievous spinning like a top and taking out many high ranking Jedi without even breaking a "sweat." Asajj Ventress being a THIRD Sith, or, possibly worse, a Dark Jedi. Yikes yikes yikes.

If Genndy wasn't allowed to do all that shit and they just wrote regular stories, they'd be great.

I wouldn't mind at all if they showed the kidnapping of Palpatine and left it as a cliffhanger. That'd be interesting. As long as, like I said, continuity was retained.

[Ternian]

TV series?...so that's what evolved from all those poor Farscape workers.

[Zidious]

I don't think fans should be required to watch cartoons to prepare for the next movie.

ANH started off the same way: right in the middle of the action with the rebels somehow obtaining super secret plans to the Death Star. And it's never explained! In 1977 we just watched and enjoyed it.

[SI]

just like you didn't have to watch the Droid toon of '78 to understand who the fuck Boba Fett was.

[Vanda]

Actually, I think this is how ALL THE JEDI should have fought in the Geonosis arena. The Jedi were mowed down too easily... IMHO

Well, that is of course your opinion. I don't necessarily disagree with it. But the fact is that our opinion doesn't matter. We may THINK that the Jedi should have been better fighters, but they weren't. THAT is canon, not what we think, what we want, or anything like that.

So the cartoon should've stayed true to the movie. But it didn't.

[KitFisto]

Actually, I think this is how ALL THE JEDI should have fought in the Geonosis arena. The Jedi were mowed down too easily... IMHO

Well, that is of course your opinion. I don't necessarily disagree with it. But the fact is that our opinion doesn't matter. We may THINK that the Jedi should have been better fighters, but they weren't. THAT is canon, not what we think, what we want, or anything like that.

So the cartoon should've stayed true to the movie. But it didn't.

You are taking your SW a little too seriously. Relax

[Vanda]

Perhaps. I'm just disappointed that Lucas is selling out his saga. I know he already does it in millions of other forms, but the cartoon is even more disappointing, ESPECIALLY in the area of the Grievous introduction. There are gonna be so many disappointed sheep when Grievous turns out to be absolutely NOTHING like he was in the cartoon in the movie. It's poor planning, poor marketing, etc.

Then again, if I was George there never would've been an EU of any kind.

So I'm sure most of you are glad I'm not George Lucas. :p

[Ternian]

Sure Vanda...until YOU need the money to liposuck your three kids, you'll never understand the power of money.

[Vanda]

Sure Vanda...until YOU need the money to liposuck your three kids, you'll never understand the power of money.

Eww...

[KitFisto]

Perhaps. I'm just disappointed that Lucas is selling out his saga. I know he already does it in millions of other forms, but the cartoon is even more disappointing, ESPECIALLY in the area of the Grievous introduction. There are gonna be so many disappointed sheep when Grievous turns out to be absolutely NOTHING like he was in the cartoon in the movie. It's poor planning, poor marketing, etc.

How the fuck do you know anything about how Grevious will act in Episode 3 ?

oh I don't fucking think so

[vanillazinger]

I believe it was Pablo who said Grievous isn't as exaggerated as he is in the cartoon. And in the audio commentary for that episode, Tartakovsky says they had almost nothing to work from but some production art and a basic description. So they basically had to make it all up. Cut Vanda some slack.

Vanda, of course you know the cartoons are EU. Blow them off if you don't like them. (I don't give two shits for the EU but I took the cartoons for what they are -- cheesy, over-the-top fun.) If you want to like them, though, take heart that Tartakovsky will have a lot more to go on for "season 3." I'm sure they'll exaggerate everything (it's a cartoon, after all) but their collaboration with LFL should be light years beyond what it was for the first Grievous episode.

(If anybody cares, I thought the Geonosis arena was the first time the Jedi fought at the level I expected. I never thought they were superheroes in the OT. I assumed Luke would have stood out among them.)

[dylan]

Perhaps. I'm just disappointed that Lucas is selling out his saga. I know he already does it in millions of other forms, but the cartoon is even more disappointing, ESPECIALLY in the area of the Grievous introduction. There are gonna be so many disappointed sheep when Grievous turns out to be absolutely NOTHING like he was in the cartoon in the movie. It's poor planning, poor marketing, etc.

I laugh because to my almost-9-year-old nephew, the CW cartoons are better than the movies. He totally digs them. In fact, the single episode he wanted to watch over and over was the Episode 20 because it had that "awesome bad guy" in it.

Were you not around for Driods and C3P-Oh's? Have you not had the experience of being stoked on Star Wars Saturday morning cartoons and fuzzy plush Ewoks? Or posters of Yoda, C3PO and R2 in your middle school library? Seriously, I don't know why half of you take this as seriously as we do.

[Vanda]

I laugh because to my almost-9-year-old nephew, the CW cartoons are better than the movies. He totally digs them. In fact, the single episode he wanted to watch over and over was the Episode 20 because it had that "awesome bad guy" in it.

...and then when he sees Episode III he's gonna be all upset that that "awesome bad guy" wasn't so awesome after all. That's why it bothers me that LFL chose to introduce him this way. I would've had less problem with the cartoon had it come out AFTER Episode III. Then people would've seen Grievous going crazy and said to themselves "well it's just a cartoon... I suppose he can draw what he wants." But now they're thinking "holy shit I can't wait to see that in live action!!" And they won't.

I mean, it's not a big deal for me. I know he won't, and the cartoon is not going to affect me. I just don't think it's smart from LFL's POV since the large majority of the viewing audience for the cartoons isn't us know-it-all message board posters.

Were you not around for Driods and C3P-Oh's? Have you not had the experience of being stoked on Star Wars Saturday morning cartoons and fuzzy plush Ewoks?

No, no, and no, thank goodness.

[Forcechoke]

So, you've seen all of the GG footage from Episode 3, then Vanda?

I mean, you'd have had to to make such absolute statements about what he does or does not do in the movie, right?

[Vanda]

Why don't you read up to vanillazinger's post, Force Kin.

[Forcechoke]

(I've read the thread, thank you)

I guess Lucas should just hire you as his LFL marketing director then?

Regardless of the differences in cartoon Grievous and movie Grievous, there's no reason GG couldn't be as "awesome" to a 9 year old kid in different ways in Episode 3.

I take it you haven't seen GG in Episode 3 yet.

[bobbyisthesavior]

I really wonder what they are gonna do about this tv show. Do you guys think it will be about the jedi purge and vader hunting the jedi of the week, or maybe a generic rebal alliance thing were we see the starting to cause trouble in the new empire. God i hope its a all wookie all the time show with bea aurther singing.

[HookLineAndSinker]

License with as-yet undisclosed wireless service.

Let's see here. James Earl Jones is the current spokesman for Verizon Wireless. Hmm. That one was tough to crack.

[Ktulu]

Hmmm didn't Pablo say something about Grievous? That he can't do the things he does in the cartoon... like handle a saber with his feet?

[Vanda]

I take it you haven't seen GG in Episode 3 yet.

Obviously I haven't seen it. None of us have. So let's ask someone that has.

Would you say the Greivous in the Clone Wars cartoon is very different (in look and character) in comparison to the real EP 3 Greivous?

PH: "The cartoon Grievous is physically capable of things the actual CG model won't allow. "


Jeez Pablo, why can they do that in the cartoon?


Why is Anakin's mechnical arm drawn under the elbow when his arm was chopped higher up the arm in AOTC?

PH: "Creative license, I guess. "


And don't forget that the sw.com article said that at the time the plots were written and drawn they really had NOTHING to go on for Grievous. They had to invent him.

I'm not making stuff up here. It's quite clear that Genndy and his team used their creative license to make the "coolest" bad guy they could. It's also quite clear that that's NOT the same bad guy that will be seen in the film, and I'm quite sure of that without having seen the film.

[Vanda]

I was thinking about this earlier and I was thinking how much I hate it when I see threads about the box office take and how everyone hopes it blows Titanic out of the water or whatever, because I really don't care if it makes 500 million dollars or 50 bucks (my $10 5 times). As long as I like it I don't really care.

So if this whole Grievous thing actually does upset people when they see the movie, and they hate Star Wars forever, I really couldn't give a shit. I'll still like it. I just don't understand LFL's thinking. Though, as mentioned above, the thought of Grievous being kick-ass might get more people into the theater for the first time, if they're disappointed in it, it won't bring them back the second, third, fifth times. It won't make them buy the DVD.

Etc etc.

[Forcechoke]

It doesn't come across like you don't give a shit.

[Silence]

This whole GG situation reminds me on certain things from AotC. You remember the supposed top stories during that time? Count Dooku fighting with 2 lightsabers. Mace and Jango battle it out hard. The jedis in the arena do all kind of crazy shit.

Nothing of this was the case. So I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if GG just stands around and dies without doing anything crazy. Even if shit like karate kung fu kick with lightsaber between the toes is the script (which I highly doubt) does not mean it's in the movie as well.

The spoiler game is always about exaggerating. It's cooler this way I guess.

BTW - GG is fucking overrated. As was Dooku. As was Maul. See a connection?

[KitFisto]

BTW - GG is fucking overrated. As was Dooku. As was Maul. See a connection?

It's hard to compare Vader to these cunts that tried to be bad ass.

[Vanda]

It doesn't come across like you don't give a shit.

Just stating an opinion, Force Kin. Didn't realize that was taboo.

[Wrath Mania]

Grievous has slowly grown on me. Its kind of interesting a character who isn't a sith could be in Sidious's circle (or as far as people go in Sidious's circle). Could Grievous seperate Obi-Wan from Anakin so Anakin could face Dooku alone because GG's aware that Sidious wants Anakin to kil Dooku?