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"Lucas can't find home for Star Wars spin-off" — Page 2

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Originally posted by: ADigitalMan
Lucas said that after the PT he could spend the rest of his life making the projects he wanted to at a loss.


I think George was at a loss during the PT.

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Having seen the footage on the big screen at CELEBRATION IV, the new CLONE WARS is crying out for release on the cinema screen and would fill a big gap in the hearts and minds of those people, like me, that miss the STAR WARS SAGA as a big screen experience. With all the SHREKS, MONSTER HOUSE'S, RATTATOUIE (or whatever it's called or spelt!!!) light relief/comedy anmation, how about some good old fashioned, really loud THX quality, digital picture, kiss ass dramatic STAR WARS stuff (I mean, that shot of the animated Anakin with his lightsaber, mid-air in the clouds of a pink skyed alien world, leaping from STAP to STAP destroying them, on the BIG SCREEN, would make it worth my £6.00 for a cinema ticket, I can tell ya!!).

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Originally posted by: lordjedi
Originally posted by: ADigitalMan
Lucas said that after the PT he could spend the rest of his life making the projects he wanted to at a loss.

Consider this project #1.


He also said he wanted to move on from Star Wars and do other, smaller projects. I guess he changed his mind.


No money in them. It's really that simple.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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Originally posted by: starwarsmania
Having seen the footage on the big screen at CELEBRATION IV, the new CLONE WARS is crying out for release on the cinema screen and would fill a big gap in the hearts and minds of those people, like me, that miss the STAR WARS SAGA as a big screen experience. With all the SHREKS, MONSTER HOUSE'S, RATTATOUIE (or whatever it's called or spelt!!!) light relief/comedy anmation, how about some good old fashioned, really loud THX quality, digital picture, kiss ass dramatic STAR WARS stuff (I mean, that shot of the animated Anakin with his lightsaber, mid-air in the clouds of a pink skyed alien world, leaping from STAP to STAP destroying them, on the BIG SCREEN, would make it worth my £6.00 for a cinema ticket, I can tell ya!!).


Whoa! Just watched the trailer for these things. Ouch! It comes to me sadly that this thing being 100% CG, look almost exactly like the films that it is spun off of, only slightly better and with very cartoony looking human characters. If they just dropped the cartooniness and tried to make the thing look realistic instead of like the cut scene to a childrens video game, it could easily be mistaken for the films. It is like the prequel triology, but now with a "Bonus 15% more CG absolutely free!" I just can't get over the over the top cartoony characters, they would be really hard to take seriously. If it were not for that, and if I knew it could be expected to have better writting than the PT, I might actually think I could enjoy these things.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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Yeah, I hate the over-the-top cartooniness of the characters too. And yet, they march around in fairly realistic settings.

The first Clone Wars series was moderately successful because the PT had not been finished. Now, the PT is done, and rather than ending on a high note, it ended on a middle-range note with some sour dissonance farting out toward the end.

I think Star Wars on film (big or small screen) is pretty much dead thanks to the prequels. Of course, the wheel of merchandise will grind on, but not as full-steam as before.
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I really can't get my head around the whole 100 episodes. At 22 minutes an episode, that's over 36 hours of clone wars. I'll say that again, that's over 36 hours of clone wars.

How much story is there to tell in a 3 year period. The clone wars failed to get much screen time at all in the whole PT yet now we're getting 100 episodes devoted to it. Not forgetting to mention the previous clone war animated series. Like I said I can't get my head around it.

"Well here's a big bag of rock salt" - Patton Oswalt

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Originally posted by: see you auntie
How much story is there to tell in a 3 year period?


How long will people watch? How much money is there to be milked from it.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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Originally posted by: see you auntie
At 22 minutes an episode, that's over 36 hours of clone wars. I'll say that again, that's over 36 hours of clone wars.


Dude, you made me shudder in disgust! I haven't shuddered like that since I was an infant in a high chair being spoon fed mashed up peas!

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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And, seeing as how the Clone Wars were one of the only PT elements mentioned in the OT, you would have thought that would have been a bigger part of the story (and that the parts included wouldn't have been dumb as shit, i.e. Jango Fett is the key to all clones; they were manufactured to fight the Republic, then switched to fighting a droid army, then Trojan Horsed into fighting the Republic again, all so that a piddly old man can become emperor instead of just being supreme chancellor - oh, and he planned all of this years and YEARS prior to enacting it).

I forgot how dumb and convoluted the PT's background storyline was.
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Super Mario Bros. - The Wicked Star Story
"Ah, the proverbial sad sack with a wasted wish."
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Yeah, and then what the heck happened to the 'Mandalorians' being defeated by the Jedi during the Clone Wars *??

(*as per the ESB script AND novel, when Boba Fett's character is 'introduced'....)
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what do you mean by this andy? are you saying that the clonetroopers were bad guys in the original SW universe?
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Originally posted by: TOSCHE-STATION
Yeah, and then what the heck happened to the 'Mandalorians' being defeated by the Jedi during the Clone Wars *??

(*as per the ESB script AND novel, when Boba Fett's character is 'introduced'....)


Once again, Lucas left it up to the Expanded Universe to figure this out. In the comic Jango Fett: Open Seasons, a group of Jedi battle the Mandalorians and kill all of them except for Jango who escapes. This particular part of the story is set in 34 BBY (before the battle of Yavin) which - whether coincidentally or not - is right around the time the Clone Wars were supposed to have happened in the earlier version of the prequel back story.
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Given that the Space between AOTC and ROTS has now been covered with novels, comics, video games and cartoons - Will tihs new series present much that is
1 New
2 Interesting
3 And doesn't dramatically alter things we've already 'seen'.
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Originally posted by: Johnny Ringo
Given that the Space between AOTC and ROTS has now been covered with novels, comics, video games and cartoons - Will tihs new series present much that is
1 New
2 Interesting
3 And doesn't dramatically alter things we've already 'seen'.


I really couldn't care less. The question is "Will it make money?"

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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Yeah, no kidding. Honestly the time for something like this would have definately been between episodes 2 and 3, instead of those stupid clone wars shorts. Imagine how excited people would have been about it then. Now everyone, even friends of mine who love the PT, seems to think this is going over board. If this would have been instead of the shorts more people might have enjoyed them. They would have been on at regular hours and therefore easier to watch than the CW shorts, and they would have quenched people's thirst during the wait for episode III. Instead of 'too little too late', I think a twisting of the term to 'too much too late' might be appropriate.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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Yeah, exactly. back then we didn't quite know how the clone wars would be resolved so it was all open ended. We didn't really know what would happen save for things like Obiwan et al surviving to die another day...

The animation looks interesting and I'll definitely want to check it out bt I think it'll fall into the same category [at least for me.] as the force unleashed. Even if it's fun and well told, It will still leave a sour taste in the mouth.

Originally posted by: George Lucas

I really couldn't care less. The question is "Will it make money?"
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with the way lucas has treated the oot i will never buy another one of his damned products unless it be the oot trilogy restored in anamorphic. barring that i hope he never makes another dime as long as he lives the one trick poney hack.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

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Originally posted by: Sluggo
what do you mean by this andy? are you saying that the clonetroopers were bad guys in the original SW universe?


Sorry - that wasn't very clear. What I meant was, Mandalorians would have been cool to feature in the pre-OT Star Wars universe, but they never materialized. Nope, we got legions of Clonetroopers in the final draft of the PT instead, and the rest is history.

So, I guess I'm saying, the little tiny hints about event before SW made in 1977/1980/1983 were and are still far more fascinating (and better ideas) to me than the results of millions of dollars of movie-making in the past decade.

I really wish someone with the skills could do a nicely written rewrite of the PT to make it fall more in step with the original elements of the story. I mean, think of all the things you imagined back when you were a kid about how Anakin became Vader, the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan's past, older characters in the OT like Mon Mothma and Tarkin, etc. Was ANY of it in the PT, except the volcano fight? I really don't think a million Star Wars fans writing a million different ideas would have come up with Jar Jar Binks, "Ani," midichlorians and the like (unless they were 9 - even I wrote a story about Boba Fett escaping the Sarlacc - how stupid I was).
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I think the reason the networks aren't terribly interested in this series are multiple:

1.) Commitment. Normarlly a network buys a (single) pilot episode, focus groups the hell out of it and goes back to the production company with results, which lead to changes in format, characters, etc. (Classic example being the orignal Star Trek pilot with Captain Pike wich was considered to "intellectual" and "liberal" (with a woman 1st officer) and transformed into the series we know). They buy one episode without commitment and work from there; they do not buy 100.

2.) A network buys a series to make a profit (like any other business venture); a network makes a profit by selling advertising. Advertisers buy time to sell a product to a market which has money to spend on said product. If the only people still interested in the franchise (particularly the PT era) agter the reception of the PT are people like the so-called "TF.N gushers", the only products this group spends its money on are Star Wars merchandise, which they will buy anyway. After spending their bucks on this stuff, they have no money left over. So, who would be the target for advertisers? Not beer makers, car makers, pharmaceuticals or any of the regulars.

3.) The reception of the PT. While Sith got a better reception than the first to prequels, this was largely due to the fact that it was the last one. You can only sell something as the last one so many times. Lots of people are just sick of the whole thing. And unlike a film in theaters where a film makes that same amount of money if ten people see it or if one person sees it ten times, advertising based broadcasting is entirely based on ratings--the raw number of people who see it at once. It is clear with cult films (which the franchise has become) that the huge numbers the PT generated at the box office were largely the result of the multiple viewings of a harcore fanbase, which does not translate well to the broadcast arena.
The movie from 1977 was called Star Wars, not Episode IV, not A New Hope, not Star Wars Episode IV: a New Hope, just plane Star Wars
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Originally posted by: DarthPoppy
I think the reason the networks aren't terribly interested in this series are multiple:

1.) Commitment. Normarlly a network buys a (single) pilot episode, focus groups the hell out of it and goes back to the production company with results, which lead to changes in format, characters, etc. (Classic example being the orignal Star Trek pilot with Captain Pike wich was considered to "intellectual" and "liberal" (with a woman 1st officer) and transformed into the series we know). They buy one episode without commitment and work from there; they do not buy 100.

2.) A network buys a series to make a profit (like any other business venture); a network makes a profit by selling advertising. Advertisers buy time to sell a product to a market which has money to spend on said product. If the only people still interested in the franchise (particularly the PT era) after the reception of the PT are people like the so-called "TF.N gushers", the only products this group spends its money on are Star Wars merchandise, which they will buy anyway. After spending their bucks on this stuff, they have no money left over. So, who would be the target for advertisers? Not beer makers, car makers, pharmaceuticals or any of the regulars.

3.) The reception of the PT. While Sith got a better reception than the first to prequels, this was largely due to the fact that it was the last one. You can only sell something as the last one so many times. Lots of people are just sick of the whole thing. And unlike a film in theaters where a film makes that same amount of money if ten people see it or if one person sees it ten times, advertising based broadcasting is entirely based on ratings--the raw number of people who see it at once. It is clear with cult films (which the franchise has become) that the huge numbers the PT generated at the box office were largely the result of the multiple viewings of a harcore fanbase, which does not translate well to the broadcast arena.


Wow. Excellent post. I think that, while Star Wars is far from a cult film, I think that the spin-off definately are. And really, there's just not that much money is such a small audience. I'm not being idealistic about my dislike of the TV series. I'm not trying to rip into anyone. There's just simply not. And buying 100 episodes of anything really just doesn't make a lot of buisiness sense.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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Originally posted by: DarthPoppy
I think the reason the networks aren't terribly interested in this series are multiple:

1.) Commitment. Normarlly a network buys a (single) pilot episode, focus groups the hell out of it and goes back to the production company with results, which lead to changes in format, characters, etc. (Classic example being the orignal Star Trek pilot with Captain Pike wich was considered to "intellectual" and "liberal" (with a woman 1st officer) and transformed into the series we know). They buy one episode without commitment and work from there; they do not buy 100.


Didn't they not take that pilot? I think a while later they gave them a second chance make a new pilot called "Where No Man Has Gone Before" with the cast we all know and love.
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Yeah Sean, they watched the pilot, said it wouldn't fly as is, then after they redid it they took it. But that is the point, they didn't like the pilot and so they said that they would take it with some changes, which was easy enough to do since only one episode had been made. With this silly SW cartoon thing, there are already 50 made, with another 50 being cooked up. That means rather than a "Let's see how this thing is and we'll go from there" sort of thing, it is a commitment to buy the entire 100 episode run. If you consider that most shows have about 24 episodes or so in a season, this is the equivelent to 4 whole seasons before it has even hit the airwaves.

So in the case of this show, it would have to be after the 100th episode before they could give them a second chance and make a new pilot with the cast we might all come to know and love.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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Originally posted by: C3PX
Yeah Sean, they watched the pilot, said it wouldn't fly as is, then after they redid it they took it. But that is the point, they didn't like the pilot and so they said that they would take it with some changes, which was easy enough to do since only one episode had been made. With this silly SW cartoon thing, there are already 50 made, with another 50 being cooked up. That means rather than a "Let's see how this thing is and we'll go from there" sort of thing, it is a commitment to buy the entire 100 episode run. If you consider that most shows have about 24 episodes or so in a season, this is the equivelent to 4 whole seasons before it has even hit the airwaves.

So in the case of this show, it would have to be after the 100th episode before they could give them a second chance and make a new pilot with the cast we might all come to know and love.


Who the fuck makes 50 episodes of a show before it makes the airwaves? Sounds stupid to me.
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Well, McCallum seemed like he was only half-joking when he said "maybe you'll be watching it on your ipod."