Lucas Urges Parents To Leave Small Kids Behind for Next 'Star Wars'

[Sci-Fi]

From IMDb:

3/11/2005

Lucas Urges Parents To Leave Small Kids Behind for Next 'Star Wars'

George Lucas has predicted that his final Star Wars epic will not receive a PG rating like the previous five films and says he quite accepts losing a significant part of his younger audience. "I don't think I would take a five- or a six-year-old to this," he says in an interview for CBS's 60 Minutes due to air on Sunday. "It's way too strong." The story describes the transition of the heroic Anakin Skywalker into the evil Darth Vader. "We're going to watch him make a pact with the devil," Lucas tells interviewer Leslie Stahl. "[The film] is much more dark. ... It's much more of a tragedy." He said that he expects the film will receive a PG-13 rating.

[nextceo]

Geez... You'd think he was going all nuBSG or something! HAHAHA!

[Dawg]

That's like comparing caviar to chum, nextceo.

I must say I'm disappointed Lucas turned away from the family-friendly story telling, but under the circumstances I see his thinking.

Vader is such the villian, such the evil character, that to tell his origins in a compelling manner the storytelling might not be suitable for younger eyes. And, to tell the story properly, he may be willing to sacrifice his pre-teen audience.

But he won't, and isn't, and knows it. Most parents are likely to take their kids to see it - particularly if they've already seen the previous five movies.

The originating philosophies behind the two (E3 and nuBSG) are so different, anyway, you're not bringing a legitimate comparison to the table.

I intend to see Mr. Lucas' movie, particularly since it will probably be the last of the Star Wars movies. I've seen all five prior movies; at least he tries to keep it in the same universe.

I am
Dawg

[Ian_W359]

A news story from the UK suggests that the UKs rating could follow the US lead, and be something like a '12A' or a '15' - previous Star Wars films have been rated 'U' (Eps I, IV, V & VI), Episode II was cut to take it down from a '12' to a 'PG' - Jango Fett's headbutt on Kamino was deemed too violent!

http://news.scotsman.com/movies.cfm?id=269542005

Ian W359

[Darth Marley]

It should have been more of an adult story from the beginning of the prequels.

Jar-Jar and Amidala in compromising positions?

And I suppose one man's chum is another man's caviar.

[nextceo]

Good point Darth...

[braxiss]

not only will i keep my kids away, i'll keep myself away, lucas has screwed up the series so much it not even the same story i used to love, i really wish the new film would flop. the good news is that this movie is the end of the star wars films, aleast until lucas decides it time to do special editions

[cranky1c]

This is the only prequel I have any interest in seeing, and it's a shame that the past two movies have been such a drawn out roll up to this. Three movies about Anakin making a pact with the devil would be interesting. The last two prequels have been CGI testbeds as far as I can tell. Has Lucas forgotten In Medias Res?

[Rowan]

I haven't really liked the last 3 that were made. There were moments that I liked of course in each but none that make me want to watch them over and over like I do with the first two.
I have my fingers crossed over this last one.

[gmd3d]

I will watch and see the last film o be made .as to the other two........well the less said the better. I do want to see the transformation of Vader.

A while ago I heard that SW could go to TV maybe a mini series ??? anyone hear the same of was it just a dream

[Sci-Fi]

Originally Posted by Taranis

I will watch and see the last film o be made .as to the other two........well the less said the better. I do want to see the transformation of Vader.

A while ago I heard that SW could go to TV maybe a mini series ??? anyone hear the same of was it just a dream

Lucas stated he wants to make a SW TV series, but run by somebody else. No news since the announcement back in Sept 2004. Can read more about it here:
http://www.iesb.net/tv/tvt92804.htm

Might be better to do a SW mini series once a year if he wants to keep the flavor and style of SW's alive. Otherwise it might get old fast and run over budget if they are doing fx battles every week. Lucas might have just floated the idea to see what kind of reaction and interest there is. He could also just end up making 3 more SW movies: episodes 7, 8, & 9 as he previously had planned. Just wait a few years until people start bugging him about it or if he needs the cash before he makes the films. Would give him time to write and develop the story arc too. BUT with the feel good ending of Return of the Jedi, Lucas would be taking a big chance to try to top that and where would the story arc go or be about? Their children? The return of the Sith? Star Wars cartoon series might be another option if they do it Japanese Anime style.

[gmd3d]

Thanks for that ... Sci-Fi

I would like a mini series .. perhaps dealing with Lukes rebuilding the jedi the republic , can' see Harrison Ford of Carrie Fisher reprising there roles though even for a once off ?? what do you think

[BRG]

Originally Posted by Rowan

I haven't really liked the last 3 that were made. There were moments that I liked of course in each but none that make me want to watch them over and over like I do with the first two.
I have my fingers crossed over this last one.

You summed up my feelings on SW perectly Rowan!
BRG

[BRG]

Originally Posted by Ian_W359

A news story from the UK suggests that the UKs rating could follow the US lead, and be something like a '12A' or a '15' - previous Star Wars films have been rated 'U' (Eps I, IV, V & VI), Episode II was cut to take it down from a '12' to a 'PG' - Jango Fett's headbutt on Kamino was deemed too violent!

http://news.scotsman.com/movies.cfm?id=269542005

Ian W359

I think they will go for the new 12A rating over here. A 15 rating would cost them millions at the box office, and the 12A makes it sound more grown up than a PG. Most parents will allow under 12s to see the film anyway.
BRG

[shiningstar]

Originally Posted by nextceo

Geez... You'd think he was going all nuBSG or something! HAHAHA!

Unlike the NUBsg, Starwars always stated that Anakin Skywalker had been turned into Darth Vader.

In the NUBsg ...............the universe was altered and changed to suit Bonnie Hammer's "VISION".........not Larson's not Desanto's.

There's a HUGE difference between what happened to Bsg and Star wars.

IN Star Wars ........the film coming out is nothing more then what Lucas has stated ALONG ............the battle between light and darkness ............or if you will the transition of from Jedi knight into a dark lord ........Darth Vader to be exact.

Lucas didn't change the Star Wars Universe. Unlike Moore and Hammer .......HE stayed TRUE to HIS vision. He didn't do a RAILROAD through the fans make up a travesty and then say TAKE it or LEAVE it ........the FANS don't matter to US. HAMMER and MOORE did that. NOT LUCAS.

I have to say that I feel like Lucas pandered too much to children doing this newest set of movies, making them fairly unpalatable to many fans. Otherwise, how else do we explain the Jar-Jar (shudder) merchandising phenomenon? Whether it was something Lucas thought of or something the merchandising execs sold him on, it was a bad decision. Myself, I'd pay extra for a Jar-Jar free version of this entire series.

Not that the Gunguns (sp?) themselves were not a Lucas-like part of the story but it didn't need to continue past the trip to the surface of the planet. Jar-Jar must die so I'm hoping Lucas will take the opportunity to shoot him the back, ignominously push him off a platform, out an airlock, or whatever in this last episode thus restoring cosmic and karmic balance. At least it was mollifying (soothing) to have Jar-Jar be the puppet of the Emperor and scapegoat for the entire clone war in Episode II.

On the whole, Lucas is not so altruistic a story teller as he once was and that's not all bad but I do think you lose something along the way. There are times when scenes in the movies are obviously gimmicks there for the game aspects, such as Anakin and Amidala on the construction line of the Droid Factory in Episode II, Darth Maul hiding between the power panels (not sure what to call those) separating Obi-Won and Quigon in Episode I, and the pod racing on Tatooine (but that was cool enough it didn't really matter).

I think that kids can be attracted to good stories without having to put something special or funny in it just for them to watch. Star Wars came out when I was in Fifth grade (yeah, I'm showing my age here) and my brother and I begged my mother to take us to it three times, which was excessive back then at the prime time full ticket price of $3.50. One time we watched it from the second balcony but it was still so great because there had been nothing like in the genre to that point. We also gobbled up every episode of TOS BSG and Space: 1999. I still love watching the original movies when the opportunity presents itself, even Episode I and II, muting/fast-forwarding any Jar-Jar parts, except when he gets sucked through the pod engine.

The Star Wars Clone Wars animated micro series (20 chapters, each only three minutes long - agonizingly short) developed by Lucasfilm and Cartoon Network that aired last year was pretty fantastic, and rang much more true to Lucas' original work. I was so grateful when at the end of season they showed all the episodes in sequence. I do wish CN would spend more time and money on stuff like this instead of Super Milk Chan and Tom Goes to the Mayor crapola, which are total channel turners.

CN announced last year they are continuing the saga with five new expanded chapters beginning March 21, 2005:
http://www.starwars.com/clonewars/ab...s20040608.html

"Once again helmed by Genndy Tartakovsky, Star Wars: Clone Wars continues where Chapter 20 left off, but in a new format. Whereas previous installments were just three minutes long, each new chapter will be 12 minutes, promising viewers four times the excitement, adventures and intrigue as they lead into the long-awaited finale to the saga, Star Wars: Episode III."

As far as the picture rating, many people in the US are not very careful about what their children see at theatres or on TV and thus we have a society of children inured to violence and exposed to very adult situations at a fairly young age. I feel this problem is not new and more of an issue with parenting trends rather than with Hollywood/Networks' attempts to shock us so please don't think I'm a reactionary in league with the censor-happy folks on the "nipple-gate" bandwagon scandal from last year. The second and third Matrix films were rightly rated R for sex and violence but there were parents in the theatre who took 10-12 year-old kids to these movies and made half-hearted attempts to cover their eyes during the sex scenes but made no effort to do so during the violent ones. Ron Moore comments on this strange disparity in the US culture in the blogs, particularly about last week's episode "Tight me up, Tigh me down".

Apologies for the long posting....Anyways, my 1.50...

Rigel

[TopGun]

Saw the new Trailer last night, and I can't Wait

[ernie90125]

I've seen all five prior movies

Don't we all know that there are 14 Star Wars Movies ???? Some might argue 13, I can understand that, but I love tripping people up when they say they have seen all 6 !!!!

Try and work out the above

Myself, I'd pay extra for a Jar-Jar free version of this entire series

This exists. A fan cut up The Phantom Menace to exclude JarJar. Lucasfilm threatened all sorts of legal action, but I don't think they found out who did it. Then there was a rumour that Lucas would do a re-cut of the movie without JarJar, but in the end it turned out that he just listened to critisism about the character, and minimised his role in EpII.

I would like a mini series

I too would love a mini-series. You could use a number of characters from both trilogies. Setting each mini-series in a different time between the movies. If you look at the classic trilogy characters that can be used as they don't age :

Darth Vader
C3PO
R2D2
Chewbacca
Boba Fett
Yoda
The Emporer
Jabba & co.

For Example :

A droids movie set between Ep3 and Ep4

Boba Fett's somewhat problematic trip to take the Carbonite Han to Jabba was originally written into the movie, but not included.

Lucasfilm have always (since the 70s) put a block on the story of how Han and Chewie met being explored, except to say that Han rescued him from slavery....perhaps that is a plan they have ?

can' see Harrison Ford of Carrie Fisher reprising there roles though even for a once off ?? what do you think

Money can talk a lot. Look how Harrison Ford has participated in the 'Young Indy' telemovies to create a scene that ends with him telling how "when I was a lad...." Now he wants to do another Indiana Jones movie, as he was very fond of the character....Can't rule out Han Solo ????

And it is well known that the Lucasfilm archives has vast amounts of archive unseen footage of the actots shooting scenes in the 70s that could be cut in.....

The future of Star Wars could be quite exciting !

[TopGun]

I like the Thrawn Trilogy

[Sci-Fi]

Originally Posted by Taranis

Thanks for that ... Sci-Fi

I would like a mini series .. perhaps dealing with Lukes rebuilding the jedi the republic , can' see Harrison Ford of Carrie Fisher reprising there roles though even for a once off ?? what do you think

It depends in the script and/or story arc. To continue their story arc may lead to a creative dead end especially after ROTJ. I remember many Star Wars fans hating the Ewok TV movies because in their view, it went too far to appeal to the kiddie (Disney) audience and ignored the SW movie fans. But it may have been a calculated gamble on Lucas' part to appeal to that segment so his subsequent films will have a continuous following as the kids grew up. Plus much of the money Lucas makes is from merchandising, so any new characters he can introduce and *may* become popular means more money in his pocket. Remember at that time, Lucas was seen by many to be the new Disney. So it may have been natural to believe your clippings and try to tap into that market since Disney at that time was pretty much at rock bottom. Personally, I enjoyed the Ewok TV movies.

So it becomes a marketing exercise for Lucas. If he feels there is a demand for his films and merchandise, then he will *try* to develop properties to meet the demand and expectations. *BUT* even Lucas realizes he can't keep the momentum up indefinitely, and that may be the reason why he wants to turn the reins over to somebody else. It's a good fallback for him. If whoever happens to unfortunately fail, he can always claim innocence even though he will still have input into the production. So it's a win-win situation for Lucas and he doesn't risk his reputation with his fans.

To get back to your original question, it would be nice to see (age in parenthesis) Carrie Fisher (49), Harrison Ford (63), and Mark Hamill (54) reprise their roles, but with the passage of time, they would probably have grownup kids by now. Let's see 1983 was when ROTJ was released, so if their characters had kids, they would be about 20-22 years old by now. So would it be parents and their off-spring going on an adventure together? Or would the bulk of the story be focused on the new generation? As speculation, Luke could be the new Yoda or be tapped to take his place after the Republic is re-established, Han could own and run his own trade federation, Leia could be the spiritual leader of the Republic as well as Han's wife or ex-wife. Or would they be gently cast aside, still heroes, but relegated to lessor roles in the new Republic?

But what kind of budget would a mini-series or TV series have or be approved? Will Lucas or his hand picked successor be able to produce a high production value program with those constraints? Or will fans complain about the lack of action sequences? Farscape's mini-series was very entertaining and is the reason why I would favor a mini-series approach. You can tell a compelling story with plenty of action and have plenty of time to develop the story. Yet since you will only get one mini-series every year or two, the story would be fresh to the minds of fans. Plus Lucas can make even more money from the DVD sales. Most SciFi TV series have to save up their pennies and have one or two or even three fx heavy episodes a season. Will SW fans accept that? There may be enough fx scences from the movies to be reused to save money. Stargate reuses and mixes in their fx library shots very well but yet doesn't overuse the same ones.

Then the questions become, what will the *majority* of the fans want to see? Will they accept seeing the new generation heavy story arc or want to see their favorite characters take the lead once more? It's probably why Lucas states he doesn't want to make episodes 7, 8, and 9 if he has to use the original characters, unless it's about a completely new cast of characters and possibly totally separate from the old characters and their off-spring. Then he is not bound to any convention or expectations and can tell new stories and create a different story arc. But that is also a gamble. Look at the flak he took from fans with the prequels. Just read some of the above comments about the prequels and you see what I mean. But he basically said the hell with them and he is going to tell his story, his way regardless. And in most cases it paid off for him and gained new fans to the franchise and of course made more money for him, all at the risk of alienating part of the fanbase. Funny thing was that most of the detractors went to see the movies anyways.

Oh well....we'll see what happens, if it does happen.

[Darrell Lawrence]

Originally Posted by ernie90125

Don't we all know that there are 14 Star Wars Movies ???? Some might argue 13, I can understand that, but I love tripping people up when they say they have seen all 6 !!!!

Try and work out the above

..gee, I wonder if SE's and Ewoks have anything to do with that

[ernie90125]

Well guessed on the Ewoks.....but I wasn't including the SE's.....

Wanna try again ?

13 (or 14) different all new productions each time.........

[BRG]

Originally Posted by ernie90125

Well guessed on the Ewoks.....but I wasn't including the SE's.....

Wanna try again ?

13 (or 14) different all new productions each time.........

13 or 14! BRG is baffled.

Was there any fan films made? Would they count?
What about cartoons?
Are you counting the cut scenes from video games?
Are you counting that holiday special from the 70's?
Are you sure they are not just figments of yor imagination brought to life after too many bottles of Newcastle Brown?

I'm afraid you have me beat ernie!
BRG

[ernie90125]

In order for Storyline (I think) :


The Phantom Menace (DVD)

Attack of the Clones (DVD)

Animated : The Clone Wars (Series - DVD) (and more forthcoming)

Revenge of the Sith (Forthcoming)

Animated Droids : The Pirates and the Prince (DVD)

Animated Droids : Treasure of the Hidden Planet (DVD)

A New Hope (DVD)

The Star Wars Holiday Special (Never to be Released Officially)

The Empire Strikes Back (DVD)

Animated Ewoks : The Haunted Village (DVD)

Animated Ewoks : Tales from the Endor Woods (DVD)

Live Action Ewoks : Caravan of Courage (DVD)

Live Action Ewoks : The Battle for Endor (DVD)

Return of the Jedi (DVD)


I have noted in brackets how they can be officially bought. I don't know if the Clone Wars have been edited together into a movie, they may have been, so that's why I am unsure if it is 13 or 14 movies.

I have not included fanfilms, computer games or figments of my imagination. And a nice guess with Newcastle Brown Ale, the first drink I bought myself a couple of in a Pub at age 14.

The above are all new productions with all new footage....including the Holiday Special which is compulsory for those wanting to cheese off George Lucas by knowing about it !!!! It is available on illegitimate DVD.

Any other questions about them....please ask.....I just love Star Wars !

[gmd3d]

Sci-Fi: you have hit on a number of good point there and I would like to see them al together again ...

[Darrell Lawrence]

ernie, when you said movies, I didn't count the cartoons, because when they aired, well.. they weren't movies!

The SE's, on the other hand, with the changes made, make them a different movie than the original.

...and you just had to bring up that Holiday special! AAARRRRGGGHH!!!

[TopGun]

The Clone Wars are being released on DVD as a series. Season 2 is comping out on TV soon, longer Programs but fewer

[Ian_W359]

Originally Posted by TopGun

The Clone Wars are being released on DVD as a series. Season 2 is comping out on TV soon, longer Programs but fewer

The final episodes of Clone Wars start on the UK's 'Toonami' channel next Monday, March 21st at 8am, 4pm & 6pm. The channel is currently re-running the original 20 chapters day-by-day leading up to next week!

http://www.toonami.co.uk/

Ian W359

Shoot! I wonder if they've been re-running those on Cartoon Network here in the US as well...I'll have to check their schedule.

Thanks for sharing Ian_W359.

[TopGun]

Felgercarb, I don't have Toonami or Cartoon Network