ABC • Star Wars Live-Action Series

[DoubleSith]

source: (insidetv.ew.com)



ABC entertainment president Paul Lee says he’s going to take a look at the long-gestating Star Wars live-action TV series now that the Disney deal to acquire Lucasfilm is complete.

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“We’d love to do something with Lucasfilm, we’re not sure what yet”

“We haven’t even sat down with them. We’re going to look at [the live-action series], we’re going to look at all of them, and see what’s right. We weren’t able to discuss this with them until [the acquisition] closed and it just closed. It’s definitely going to be part of the conversation.”

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“It’s going to be very much up to the Lucasfilm brands how they want to play it”

“We got to a point here with Marvel, a very special point, where we’re in the Marvel universe, and very relevantly so, but we’re not doing The Avengers. But S.H.I.E.L.D. is part of The Avengers.

So maybe something oblique is the way to [approach the Star Wars universe] rather than going straight head-on at it.”

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Sources say the live-action series centers on the story of rival families struggling over the control of the seedy underside of the Star Wars universe and the people who live within the subterranean level and air shafts of the metropolis planet Coruscant (the Empire’s urban-sprawl-covered home planet). A bounty hunter may be the main character. The time period allows for all sorts of potential appearances from classic figures from the Star Wars universe.

Extensive art work including character designs, costume designs, and set designs were all developed by a top team of concept artists and designers who worked for more than a year on the third floor design studio at Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch’s main house on the project. The team was closely supervised by McCallum and Lucas.

If all this sounds vaguely familiar, it might be because this matches the description of the upcoming Star Wars videogame 1313. In fact, sources say story materials and production designs for the TV project were used to help make the game. So if you want to see what the TV show was supposed to look like, check out art from 1313 (one example above). This creative strip-mining could arguably help the TV show’s chances. It’s not like Hollywood has been shy about doing crossovers between videogames and films before.[/quote]

Entertainment Weekly

First time I've seen Ron Moore's name attached to this project.

[Cryostar]

I like the idea of Ron Moore with it.

I don't like the idea of ABC doing it.

[CoGro]

With Episode VII a reality, I am not really starved for this product.

Clone Wars is satisfying me for now.

[Topeka]

I think it would be a mistake to push the live-action show right now. The brand has already been diluted in recent years. Clone Wars needs to end. Squishes needs to be canned, pronto.

As excited as I am for the new trilogy, I look at it as a fresh start rather than a need for fulfilling content.

[The_Somnambulist]

Still curious about you and Clone Wars.

I've given up on Clone Wars

Why hath thou strayed from the fold?

[AdamK]

I stumbled upon GameCube game Bounty Hunter. I heard it was mediocre, but I couldn't resist for a low price. Luckily it works and I played 4 levels already. If the series were made like this game then I'm all for it. Jango is amazing in it and the story/setting is far more interesting than everything the prequels gave us.

[TroyObliX]

I played the hell out of that game. It was pretty interesting. Good mix of story and playability. The puzzle elements were a tad confusing at first, as was the jetpack control (I just wanted more time) but overall I thought it looked great, was lots of fun to play, and years ahead of its time. Anyone writing a series or dialoguing a new game along similar lines should be forced to play through it, just to see what a lot of people saw in it. To disregard it would be stupid.

They should cast Clancy Brown in the new Star Wars U somewhere. I recall his bonus scene/blooper reel from Bounty Hunter (he voiced Montross) had him saying he wished the prequels were made 20 years earlier so he could have played a young Vader. Which, in hindsight, would have been really interesting having the Kurgen play Anakin. Still, he's pretty good in most things I've seen him in (esp. in Bad Boys, 1983). He and Ray Park are two names I wish other people were throwing around.

[DoubleSith]

I played the hell out of that game. It was pretty interesting. Good mix of story and playability. The puzzle elements were a tad confusing at first, as was the jetpack control (I just wanted more time) but overall I thought it looked great, was lots of fun to play, and years ahead of its time. Anyone writing a series or dialoguing a new game along similar lines should be forced to play through it, just to see what a lot of people saw in it. To disregard it would be stupid.

They should cast Clancy Brown in the new Star Wars U somewhere. I recall his bonus scene/blooper reel from Bounty Hunter (he voiced Montross) had him saying he wished the prequels were made 20 years earlier so he could have played a young Vader. Which, in hindsight, would have been really interesting having the Kurgen play Anakin. Still, he's pretty good in most things I've seen him in (esp. in Bad Boys, 1983). He and Ray Park are two names I wish other people were throwing around.

Clancy Brown currently voices Savage Opress on the Clone Wars.

[Bandersnatch]

More about ABC's possible involvement:

http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/abc-has ... television

[E_CHU_TA!]

This is interesting in the backdrop of the Rebels project and Episode 7. I would say the smart way to handle this and Rebels would be to order 10 episodes apiece. Rebels can have 10 hour-long episodes airing in the fall and this LAS series can have 10 hour-long episodes airing in the spring. Trailers for the new upcoming mid-summer Star Wars film can debut during the season finales. The teaser trailer will be shown at the end of Rebels' season and the final theatrical trailer will show-up at the end of the LAS' season.

[Thundercracker]

Great to hear that things may finally be in motion for the LAS. As the article states; they picked up Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D series and Marvel Studios, LFL and ABC are all under the Disney umbrella now, so I could definitely see this this happening.

[royalguard96]

Is overexposure a concern here? Rebels sounds awesome, and Episode 7 certainly won't lack for attention. But I worry about too much of a good thing with a live-action series. I feel like 1313 could satisfy that visual and storytelling element, particularly if the game is developed for the PS4/new XBox.

I agree that Bounty Hunter was a very engaging video game, and 1313 could take that same premise to the next level. I just feel like, if 1313 becomes a reality, a LAS series becomes redundant.

[Alexrd]

I just feel like, if 1313 becomes a reality, a LAS series becomes redundant.

I see better odds for the Underworld TV series becoming a reality than for some developer house picking 1313.

[DoubleSith]

Ron Moore confirms he was a part of the writing staff for the show:

Any update on the Star Wars live-action series that you helped develop a long, long time ago?
Moore: I have heard nothing. It’s owned by Disney now.

I heard the issue was George Lucas wanted to make a show that would have been impossible for TV, budget wise.
Moore: It depends on your expectation level. What George wanted to do with it, his scale was extraordinarily ambitious on a TV budget. Lots of CGI and complicated effects work. There’s a way to do the series more on a produce-able scale, but it would still be expensive. If you’re going to put on a Star Wars show the audience is going to expect a certain level of “wow.” The scripts were written as if money was no object. George was like, “Don’t worry about it.” [Producer Rick McCallum] would groan and put his head in his hands periodically. So for us it was like, “Okay, f–k it, let’s write whatever we want.” But if you wanted to go back into it, you could realistically dial it back.

EW.com

[Bandersnatch]

EW.com

Now that is interesting.

I'm wondering if Star Wars Rebels is in a sense "dialing it back." The new show jumps ahead 10 or 15 years after Episode III, so they could be leaving that decade + gap open in the event that these as yet unproduced scripts could still have a chance, in one form or another, "live action" or not.

[CoGro]

ign.com ron-moore-discusses-working-on-the-live-action-star-wars-series

[The_Somnambulist]

Sounds like an interesting spat. Coulda used more details, though.

[DoubleSith]

I really, really wish we get to see those scripts some day in whatever form.