Tag Archives: george lucas

Savage Opress threatens the Jedi in Star Wars the Clone Wars series 3

(This one is for Marko)

The animated sequel to the second prequel Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: The Clone Wars continues to earn accolades from fans and critics alike. An explosive action-packed program, this series is surprisingly violent and often times far more articulate and developed than the big screen version if the Star Wars mythos. Currently in its third year, a new villain has been introduced that promises to change everything (and after reading some spoiler-y reviews, that is very true).

Meet Savage Opress…

Straight from Wookieepedia:

Savage Opress was a male Zabrak, during the Clone Wars, who was chosen by the Nightsisters to be transformed, by their magic, into a warrior with enhanced abilities who would be given to Count Dooku. Trained by Dooku in the ways of the dark side, he became a Dark Acolyte and part of the Separatist cause, killing Jedi and clone troopers alike.

(Director Dave Filoni and author Aaron Allston on Savage Opress via Star Wars: The Old Republic)

Filoni: “It’s important that when creating a new character that they become iconic. It was important that you don’t confuse him with Darth Maul — we couldn’t make him red and black so we made him yellow and black.”

Aron: “This whole arc was really a challenge for us. I kind of took liberty with him in anything that he did in trying to get it more cinematic, more active when he fought. Just tricks to get your heartrate up so when you watch, you’ll actually have an emotional reaction to him or feel fear. So I think the look was there already, but I always made sure he was lit in a way that was menacing — there’s no nice lighting to him. I always wanted him to be either in shadow or silhouette.

“With Savage Oppress, you really needed to keep your eye on him. There’s reasons to stay focused on him. Because of that, we’ve let the animators go the extra mile on facial expressions with him, so that when you do hear him speak, you pay attention. In Season 3, we re-did a lot of our facial rigs, to talk technically, so the animators now have a lot of freedom for getting emotion and expression. You don’t see wooden characters anymore and that’s a big leap for our show.”

Trailer I

Trailer II

Opress’s appearance will kick off the second half of series 3 in a three-part story this January. Select cities have played host to special showings of the entire story edited together as a film and the word on the street is very positive (and full of spoilers).

Lost scene from Return of the Jedi revealed

I know this is an old news story, but after discussing it with a few friends and acquaintances who should already know about any breaking Star Wars news and don’t, I decided to draft a quick piece.

Star Wars fans are a patient lot, content to watch their favorite films adjusted, re-edited and re-released in various formats ( I kid). Ever since the original trilogy was released with added special effects and material to update its look and match the prequels, it seems that George Lucas may never be satisfied with the work done on the classic Star Wars movies.  A missing scene from 1983’s Star Wars: Return of the Jedi was revealed at Celebration V   this past August to a roaring audience.

Via CinemaBlend:

The big news that came out of Celebration V today was that there are official plans to release the entire Star Wars saga, meaning episodes one through six, in a comprehensive Blu-ray package. While Lucas would not say which version of the original trilogy would be released, be it the original or the special editions, he did promise that they would include a long-lost deleted scene in which we finally see Luke building his lightsaber in Return of the Jedi. Said clip was shown during the announcement, and, lucky us, someone taped it.

TheForcenet on YouTube has uploaded the short clip, which clocks in at less than a minute, but is certainly a piece of history. In it, Darth Vader is sending a message to Luke about his destiny, before we see young Skywalker, concealed by a hood, building his lightsaber in a cave on Tattooine. You can almost hear the ground shake when he activates his lightsaber for the first time and it is guaranteed to send chills down the spine of every Star Wars fan.

TheForcenet on YouTube has uploaded the short clip, which clocks in at less than a minute, but is certainly a piece of history. In it, Darth Vader is sending a message to Luke about his destiny, before we see young Skywalker, concealed by a hood, building his lightsaber in a cave on Tattooine. You can almost hear the ground shake when he activates his lightsaber for the first time and it is guaranteed to send chills down the spine of every Star Wars fan.

There is a LOT of confusion surrounding the legitimacy of this ‘missing scene’ as Mark Hammill has stated in 2009 that he has no memory of filming the scene but this past Summer proudly introduced what was referred to as his first scene in the final film, intended to open the movie (CinemaBlend has done an incredible job of accumulating all the contrary evidence here).

We may never know the true story, but I for one am excited about added material being edited into Return of the Jedi that actually matches the original movie (even if it was created in an editing lab using CGi models).

Of course that statement may sour after the release of the Super-Duper-Special-Edition Hologram Box Set is released in 2020.

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Star Wars: Clone Wars


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.