George Lucas recently spoke to TV Guide about his upcoming CGI animated series, Clone Wars. Still deep in production, the creator of the biggest money making franchise is still hopeful for a 2008 premiere.
Here’s an excerpt:
TV Guide: And you’re going to do a hundred episodes?
Lucas: We’re going to do a hundred episodes. I think we’re on [No.] 40 right now. We’ll probably end up with 50 to 60 episodes before we start to put it on the air. We’d like to put it on next fall, in about a year from now, but we’ll see what happens.TV Guide: Where do you see it living? How do you see this playing? Obviously it doesn’t sound like a Saturday morning cartoon.
Lucas: Right now, we don’t know. It’s out there to people, and people are talking about it, but so far, everybody’s got the same conundrums — “How do we program it? Where does it live? Where can we put something like this?” You know, it has to go after 9 o’clock and it can’t be on a kiddie channel.TV Guide: So you see it on a more mainstream channel or the Sci Fi Channel or something like that?
Lucas: Well, it’s one of those things. Television is sort of bifurcated up into small niches and unless you fit in one of those niches, no one knows what to do with you. And, of course, I’m always outside the box, so it’s like, “Uh-oh, we don’t have a box for you.” [Laughs] But it’s Star Wars and it’s really good, so I’m sure somehow or another, people will also start thinking outside the box and it will find its home.TV Guide: What about your Star Wars live-action series for TV?
Lucas: Yes, I’m working on that. We’re just going to start writing it in about a month from now, start doing scripts for it.TV Guide: And where will that live in the Star Wars continuum relative to Clone Wars and relative to the films?
Lucas: Well, Clone Wars has got all the characters in it — Yoda and Anakin and Obi Wan and the Emperor and all that — so it’s basically the movie. The live-action [series] is not the movie. It’s the Star Wars universe, but it’s characters from the saga who were [previously] minor, and it follows their stories. It’s set between [movie episodes] III and IV, when the Empire has taken over. It’s like Episode IV in that the Emperor and Darth Vader are heard about — people talk about them — but you never see them because it doesn’t take place where they actually are. There are storm troopers and all that, but there are no Jedis. It’s different, but I think it’s very exciting because I get to explore a part of that universe that I haven’t been able to explore. Once you have a saga, it’s got a lot of requirements because it’s about a particular [thing] — in this case, Darth Vader — and so it’s his story from the time he’s 10 to the time he died. You really can’t go off that track because that’s the story. Whereas now, I can make a left turn on 10th Street and go down there and see what’s going on.
…
TV Guide: Right. So to talk about TV again for a second, is there any particular TV you enjoy watching?
Lucas: I watch a fair amount of TV, not a huge amount. Mostly the news and stuff, and the History Channel, to be honest with you. I like Law & Order and some shows like that. I love Jon Stewart. [Laughs]
TV Guide: Lost or Heroes, those kinds of things people might think of as George Lucas kinda shows?
Lucas: I’ve watched those. The kind of continuing shows, I have a tendency to wait until they’re all over and then watch them on DVD, because those are the kinds of shows where you miss an episode and you’re kind of lost, literally. So it’s just too bothersome for me. But I have loved some things in the past that are kind of like that that sort of have forced me to be there every Sunday night, like Rome and Deadwood. I loved those shows.
… Lucas and my mom would so love each other.
