Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
I realize I just did a media roundup, but this one is a doozy: A University of Utah grad student was escorted out of a campus building after arguing with her advisor and “claiming that George Lucas had control of her thoughts and ideas.”
I think I argued with someone like that on a message board once.
There are scans of a Total Film interview with George Lucas over at MillenniumFalcon.com. They hit all the standards, including Indy IV, The Clone Wars and the live action series. At one point, George says “People live in the Empire, but you don’t see Stormtroopers.” A departure indeed… There’s also an interesting bit about the EU, George’s “three pillars of Star Wars.” Nothing terribly surprising, but we’re still at the point where any crumb is thrilling.
With a little help from George Lucas and a new clip, the Cartoon Network presented their programing lineup today. The Clone Wars will air Friday nights and be the centerpiece of a new fantasy/adventure block.
Here’s what Lucas had to say about the new series, from USA Today:
“We wanted something more in the realm of anime, design-wise, than was currently on TV or movies outside Japan,” Lucas says. But “we wanted to give the look and feel of something that was past,” adding that Gerry Anderson’s 1960s British Thunderbirds series, featuring talking marionettes, “was an inspiration. We didn’t want it to look like Beowulf or The Incredibles.”
Lucas says that while the show can appeal to viewers ages 8 to 80, it’s primarily targeted at 12-year-olds. As a result, he’s added a new 11-year-old girl, Ahsoka, as a “padawan learner” for Anakin Skywalker to mentor, now that he and Obi-Wan Kenobi are “equal partners.”
The series will air again on TNT, but no specific dates or time yet. (TNT upfronts will be on May 15th.)
Oh George. Love them or hate them, everyone remembers the reaction to the prequels. In other words: We know!
In less angsty news, on May 18th the Sci-Fi Channel will be airing the three Indiana Jones movies, along with a Mystery of the Crystal Skulls investigative special.
Wired nabbed a few notables, including The maker, to pay tribute to the science fiction icon.
George Lucas, filmmaker
Arthur C. Clarke was a great inspiration to me. The breadth of his imagination has yet to be equaled. He will be missed, but I’m grateful that his legacy will live on through his visionary novels and his groundbreaking work on 2001.
(via)
Coming Soon and StarWars.com weren’t the only folks talking to George at ShoWest – Entertainment Weekly got to sit down with the Maker as well. Although mostly focused on the two TV shows, he also talks Indy IV and Red Tails.
Coming Soon gets to talk to George Lucas. He talks about The Clone Wars and the live action series, which we won’t be seeing until 2010, now. He even talks about the EU, sort of:
But there’s no story past “Episode VI”, there’s just no story. It’s a certain story about Anakin Skywalker and once Anakin Skywalker dies, that’s kind of the end of the story. There is no story about Luke Skywalker, I mean apart from the books. But there’s three worlds: There’s my world that I made up, there’s the licensing world that’s the books, the comics, all that kind of stuff, the games, which is their world, and then there’s the fans’ world, which is also very rich in imagination, but they don’t always mesh. All I’m in charge of is my world. I can’t be in charge of those other people’s world, because I can’t keep up with it.
“They don’t always mesh.” Understatement of year! But hey, we knew what we were getting into, right?
Right?
The Associated Press nabbed George Lucas at ShoWest to talk a bit about The Clone Wars. Not much of a look at any new footage, sadly.
George Lucas is (naturally) one of Forbes’ Celebrity Billionaires.
He’s #277 on their list of The World’s Billionaires, and featured in Homes Of The Billionaires… But didn’t the L.A. Times article say he doesn’t live at the Ranch? We need a fact-checker, stat.