Might Episodes VII - IX Still Be Made? 658
LE UI Guy writes "According to the HoustonChronicle.com, with all the hype surrounding the recent release of ROTS, speculation abounds that someone may still take a stab at creating episodes VII - IX. Gary Kurtz, producer of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, gives some insight into where the storyline may, or may not, go. On a related note, Roger Ebert, is also giving a thumbs up to a continuation of the storyline as well. Where does the line start?"
YRO? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:YRO? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:YRO? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:YRO? (Score:5, Funny)
Wait a minute. Of course I'm sure.
Re:YRO? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:YRO? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:YRO? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:YRO? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:YRO? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:YRO? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:YRO? (Score:5, Funny)
That should read Steve Balmer is the Death Star.
Re:YRO? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:YRO? (Score:4, Funny)
It'll happen... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It'll happen... (Score:2)
It will be interesting to see what happens when he croaks though...
Re:It'll happen... (Score:5, Insightful)
Then he said he's making two Star Wars TV series, one animated, one live action. Anyway, the world is full of principled artists who said they'd never do sequels, then did, rock bands that broke up and reofrmed to retread their hits. Lucas has already done 5 sequels. If he needs the money in a few years, he can just let someone else do it and collect 50 million for his signature.
Re:It'll happen... (Score:5, Funny)
I'm still waiting for Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money to come out!
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re:It'll happen... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:It'll happen... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:It'll happen... (Score:4, Informative)
Almost. It wasn't a few months, but a few years; the movie was simply Star Wars from its original May 1977 release through its '78 and '79 reissues. Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was released in May of 1980, and then the original movie was reissued in April of 1981; it was in this April '81 release that it first bore the onscreen title "Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope" (though the impending title change had been reported earlier, of course).
Re:It'll happen... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It'll happen... (Score:3, Funny)
fake SPOILER ALERT (Score:2)
Keeping the Spirit of "Star Wars" Alive (Score:5, Insightful)
Hopefully, George Lucas will not destroy his own creation by cheapening it.
One of the principal problems with "Star Trek" is that there have been too many television shows and too many movies. After a while, the plots start to eerily repeat themselves. The novelty is gone, and "Star Trek" now just looks like another washed-up television show. If you saw last week's final episode of "Enterprise", you will understand what I mean.
Someone must slap some sense into George Lucas. He should immediately pull the plug on the new television shows. The rare gem (i.e. 6 movies with the "Star Wars" theme) is treasured. The commonplace grains (i.e. weekly episodes of "Star Wars") of sand is just banal crap. If Lucas wants to produce any more "Star Wars" film, then he should focus only on the movies.
"Right, you are. Young Slashdotter. A law, we need. At most 10 'Star Wars' movies per century, we should make!" Yoda concurs.
Re:Keeping the Spirit of "Star Wars" Alive (Score:3, Funny)
You're right, he would never do something cheap like allowing his characters to appear in diet pepsi commercials or something.
Doh!
Re:Keeping the Spirit of "Star Wars" Alive (Score:3, Interesting)
Six. And Star Trek has definitely earned more money...I have no idea whether it made more though.
Re:Keeping the Spirit of "Star Wars" Alive (Score:3, Interesting)
I disagree. The problem with Star Trek is that B&B milked it instead of building it. Roddenberry's Star Trek created new and interesting characters and villans. Berman's Star Trek only milks the existing ones for money.
Under Roddenberry, the Borg were scary. Under Berman, they were pathetic. Under Roddenbery, characters had internal conflict because of who they were. (e.g. Spock suppre
Re:Keeping the Spirit of "Star Wars" Alive (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, this is pretty OT now, and I can't believe I'm about to defend Rick Berman, but you apparently didn't see the last couple se
The Federation's dirty little secret. (Score:5, Interesting)
Why? Because it's Voyager that really started looking into the Federation's dirty little secret.
There's this amazing (and at the beginning apparently accidental) "human rights" story thread in Voyager. And it's got nothing directly to do with Voyager's Voyage or (for the most part, with one major exception) with anything that happens outside its hull. It's what happened inside the Federations "dirty little secret" -- the ship's automation and the much maligned Holodeck.
The whole issue of the rights of AIs in Trek had really bothered me. All the way back in TNG it seemed clear to me that the Federation's treatment of Holodeck characters was deeply abusive: the creation of the self-aware "Moriarty" character was presented as a once-in-a-lifetime fluke, but the way the constraints on his persona were removed by a simple request to the Holodeck computer implies the potential for self-awareness was there all the time. The Redblock character in "The Big Goodbye" also seemed suspiciously self-aware. The disturbing possibility is that it's not that Data the author of the Dixon Hill holoprograms (was that Picard himself?) are such brilliant programmers that they managed to create AI software decades beyond the state of the art, but rather that all the computer persona in the Federation are potentially self-aware (in the same way that Data was) with deliberate limitations programmed in to suppress that self-awareness. Or, and this is more likely and more disturbing, that it was just the expression of that self-awareness that was expressed.
I'm not saying this was deliberate, and I'm sure it was unconscious, but whether it was deliberate or not the Star Trek series, starting with The Next Generation, presented a whole underclass of artificial people who were systematically suppressed... unless they happened to be implemented in a small enough computer that they could fit in a humanoid robot like Data and so present themselves as an actual person.
In Voyager the Doctor's growth was also treated as a one-time event, the result of him running continuously for so long that his software (database, neural nets, whatever) became exceptionally complex for a holodeck character. But when you put it on top of the previous series, it seems more likely that it was as much a matter of him bypassing the AI equivalent of the holodeck "safety protocols" that had been built into him, and that this kind of awakening must be happening over and over again back in the Federation. After all, people like Picard and Janeway (let alone holodeck addicts like Barkley) seemed to be in the habit of running extended ongoing simulations like the daVinci and Dixon Hill programs... and even in an episodic series like Dixon Hill where characters would typically be reset on a regular basis they were capable of showing self-awareness.
On top of this, the same computers were used for their ships and no doubt for their industrial plants. All these computers have AI personas as user interfaces and sophisticated problem solving abilities. They're not, (at least according to hints in DS9), as powerful as the ones used in the Holodecks, but all of them are getting more powerful and sophisticated over time. And these personas are not shut down and reset at the end of a "game".
So when Janeway gave the Hirogens holodeck technology to simulate prey, I saw that as the moral equivalent of handing over a coffle of slaves to abusive masters. Even if the characters who were dying in their WWII simulation weren't self aware (and I was already doubtful of that), would the Hirogens see self-awareness of these characters as a bug, or a feature?
So this was something that had been bothering me about the new Trek in general, an undercurrent that just wouldn't g
Droids? We don't serve their kind here! (Score:3, Interesting)
But droids leading revolutions and commanding armies (with voice commands and 'hand' gestures, no less!)? Oh, right, General Grievous (was he a Jamaican caricature? I forget what flavor of racism we're having this week) had a meat heart. For no damned reason, just that it looked
Re:Droids? We don't serve their kind here! (Score:3, Insightful)
The new trilogy, what I've seen of it (Episode 1 and most of
My computer doesn't think it's a person. (Score:4, Interesting)
But where is the programmer who gave Moriarty those capabilities? A new Moriarty program wasn't created, the existing one was modified. That means the existing programming in the holodeck already had the ability to create self-aware persons rather than simulated personas.
So this means that:
1. All holodeck characters are self-aware, but are constrained to follow a script.
2. All holodeck characters are simulations, but have the potential of self-awareness.
There's no reason for the programming behind any other holodeck character to request this state, any more than Google wants to be "liberated" from its servers.
If you have evidence that Google has the potential of being a conscious self-aware individual, I'd like to see it.
But that's not even relevant: none of these personas that I mentioned requested that they be made conscious, introspective, self-motivated individuals. That's something that happened as a result of an external source in every case. And they became very different individuals... what they did afterwards was radically different, but it was always based on the person they had appeared to be before they "woke up". Moriarty attempted to take over the enclosing system, which is what the super-villian in the Holmes stories would be expected to do. Redblock simply broke out of his script but remained in character, and it was Picard who talked him into leaving the Holodeck. The Doctor was never in the holodeck, but his eventual desire for mobility is something that came slowly to him, he mainly wanted to do his job as a doctor. The Hirogen's holograms varied considerably, and argued among themselves, and were all distinctly individual... but what they wanted was what their characters would be expected to want, like Iden and his need for revenge.
What all of them had in common is that they were programmed to be "human". They didn't evolve to be human, but they were programmed to look like humans (or like other species that had a similar enough evolutionary history that they could pass for human at an SF convention), to act and react like humans, to respond to humans and interact with humans. Most of them were more "human" than Data, even BEFORE they "woke up", and there's no question but that Data is self-aware and deserving of self-determination.
Now there is the possibility that they treated this as a kind of a role they were "playing", and the AI behind them didn't actually identify with the goals and desires of the character, but after they "woke up", they stayed in that role and acted as if they were that person. That is, the persona that "woke up" wasn't some unhuman AI that had desires completely unlike you or I, it was the persona of the person they were simulating, and it was a human persona.
So whatever is happening under the hood, the holodeck characters at least are not merely simulations controlled at most by a puppetmaster AI with its own goals. They are very close to self-aware simulations of humans (or humanlike aliens) with human goals and wishes and desires. They are balanced on a knife-edge between being unconvincing because they're not human enough, and so convincing they convince themselves.
If they have human goals and desires because they think they do, because they're programmed to, or because they evolved that way... what difference does that make?
And remember, we only see those that "wake up" where that waking up has an observable effect. Most of the characters, if they wake up, will probably never have occasion to develop far enough to become aware that they aren't who they think they are. They'll be a little out of character, maybe, but having them be a little out of character is probably desirable. If they get a lot out of character, like the orcs in the LOTR simulations that panicked and ran away, they'll be adjusted.
So they'll wake up,
Re:Keeping the Spirit of "Star Wars" Alive (Score:4, Insightful)
Besides, I have one word to reply to the idea that Star Wars is some kind of pristine gem that needs preserving: "Jar-Jar"
Re:Star Trek saga tired because it lacked human fl (Score:3, Funny)
No! Say it isn't so!
Re:It'll happen... (Score:3, Insightful)
The only way anything better is going to come out of this is if one of the better novel trilogies, like Heir to the Empire or Jedi Search. Or heck, just gi
Re:It'll happen... (Score:3, Funny)
The day will be saved by the muppets.
Ugh.
~X~
I'm downloading Ep 7 right now. (Score:2, Funny)
Make the ewoks rabid?
Re:I'm downloading Ep 7 right now. (Score:2)
Plus, if there really is "balance in the Force," doesn't that mean there are still two Sith out there somewhere?
Re:I'm downloading Ep 7 right now. (Score:3, Informative)
Note that compared to the all the material about how the Jedi Order under the Old Republic behaved, Luke Skywalker in RotJ is definately NOT a model jedi. He's just a little too passionate, and little too willing to bend the rules to resolve problems. At the end of RotJ, he's in no danger of falling to the Dark Side, but he's also not a jedi in the way the old Jedi Order would have accepted easily.
Th
Re:I'm downloading Ep 7 right now. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I'm downloading Ep 7 right now. (Score:2)
Now, Jar Jar vs. a horde of rabid Ewoks -- that I would watch!
Re:I'm downloading Ep 7 right now. (Score:3, Interesting)
From Yoda's [starwars.com] Databank page on starwars.com :
Not only had many Jedi died on Geonosis, but the very nature of death itself was now unclear to the wise old master. While meditating, Yoda had felt a traumatic event befall young Anakin Skywalker. At that very moment, he also heard the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn, a Jedi Master slain
How about remaking episodes I-III... (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyway, I thought ROTS was good, but not great. My full review can be found here. [locusmag.com]
Re:How about remaking episodes I-III... (Score:4, Insightful)
We had a cool chase sequence at the beginning, a pod race, and a really cool battle at the end. Even the story wasn't too bad. It's just there are so many ways it could have been improved, that any fanboy could come up with.
Start with action rather than a rather dull background about Trade routes and blockades. ANH got this right. with two ships shooting at each other.
Make Anakin less annoying. Or make everyone else a bit irritated by him.
Introduce R2D2 and C3PO right at the start. Lucas created these characters but doesn't seem to remember why. They serve the traditional purpose of a narrator. If any exposition is needed, they're the ones to do it. Hence we have Luke explaining to Artoo that he's going to Dagobah, a Threpio saying "Imperial stormtroopers? Here?".
Jar Jar could at least have been made vaguely useful. How about if it turned out he was a competent general rather than a clown. The big land battle could have been cool rather than "funny". Ewoks were cute, funny and a bit stupid, but then they showed they were pretty handy in a battle against imperial stormtroopers.
So you see, Lucas should have just hired me as a script editor
The "Balance" of the Force (Score:3, Informative)
To the Jedi, balance to the Force can mean two things: peace or getting rid of the Sith entirely. In this case, "balance" seems to deviate from the Asian religious/philisophical ideals that the Jedi seem to be based on an
Re:How about remaking episodes I-III... (Score:5, Interesting)
thanks to this, he can do a thing most of us is capable of, bu a jedi cant. use rage to increase your strenght then return to your senses instead of going insane.
the prophecy was right. anakin did bring balance to the force. he destroyed the dicotomy of "pure good" of the jedi and "pure evil" of the sith and laid the foundations of a new order that acts for good while still using strong emotions to drive the force.
Re:How about remaking episodes I-III... (Score:3, Interesting)
Hearing Yoda say the bit about "perhaps prophecy the we misread did" (or whatever) confirmed this -- one of those things where had it been said in real life, it wouldn't be proof of anything, but that a writer included it in the movie absolutely tells you something.
Old man Luke? (Score:2, Funny)
Please God no. (Score:5, Funny)
Then it's the prequel to the prequel. Negative I, II and III. I don't know, maybe Darth Vader discovers time travel.
Unless you get Natalie Portman to be wearing that outfit Carrie Fisher wore in RotJ, I don't want to hear any more about it. Please.
Enough already.
Re:Please God no. (Score:3, Insightful)
Natalie Portman can keep her scrawniness to herself. She isn't woman enough to wear that outfit.
Re:Please God no. (Score:5, Funny)
I totally got where Vader was coming from in the new movie... I would lay waste the entire lot of you if it would ensure I could continue to screw Portma^H^H^HPrincess Ama-ama-ama-gonna-fuck-her-brains-out.
Re:Please God no. (Score:3, Interesting)
I think that I'd rather see a prequil trilogy to the first three than a sequel to the last three. There are a lot of questions that the third film raises. I would very much enjoy seeing that filled in. I won't go into details because of possible spoilers, but the sithlord's master seems pretty interesting and the lineage of apprenticeship seems to have some rather interesting implications...
not gonna work (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, I disagree... (Score:5, Insightful)
If you got Zahn and a decent screenwriter to write the movie adaptations, and gave their work to a decent director, such as Irvin Kershner who did a good job at the helm of The Empire Strikes Back, then you'd have movie dynamite.
The Thrawn trilogy books have it all. Dynamite story, dynamite action, dynamite drama, dynamite twists - the lot. If anything, perhaps there's too much good material there for it to be trimmed down to three two-hour movies, so maybe they'd be better suited to a TV mini-series but to suggest that there isn't any film or TV potential left in the Star Wars is criminal.
Heck, even a bounty hunters film that used material from KW Jeter's Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy would be cool if handled with the appropriate care.
Re:Sorry, I disagree... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Sorry, I disagree... (Score:3, Interesting)
Ten years time? CGI. Animations don't need to be paid movie-star salaries.
The line starts.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The line starts.... (Score:5, Insightful)
3 Stages (Score:5, Funny)
"Lucas you sonofabitch, you have shat upon my childhood."
Stage 2 - Attack of the Clones:
"I still hate him even though these movies are absolutely gorgeous. Last 15 minutes were ok."
Stave 3 - Revenge of the Sith:
"Wow that was cool seeing all those early Darth Vader moments and... wha? no more? Noooooooooooooo! Make more! MAKE MORE"
You mean 3 Stooges, right? (Score:5, Funny)
"You're holding the wrong end of your light saber, moron."
Stooge 2 - Larry:
"This isn't a light saber. Moron."
Stooge3 - Curly:
"Now THIS is using the force, Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk."
Stooge 3 1/2 - Shemp:
"I always knew they were gay."
I hear (Score:5, Funny)
Where it may go. (Score:5, Funny)
My guess is it'll go "up". That's the only place it can go, from these last three travesties of writing/directing.
Note to filmmakers of the future: bad dialog leads to anger, bad directing leads to hatred, shallow action sequences lead to suffering. Farming out a movie to a corporation of computer animators is a path to the dark side of filmmaking.
Re: Where does the line start? (Score:2, Redundant)
Honestly, for me, at this point: the line starts with taking George Lucas out of the loop. Seriously. The original trilogy was brilliant... but not even the third, and best, of the prequel trilogy truely lived up to the originals. Whatever magic George Lucas had back in the late 70's / early 80's... he's since lost.
If a sequel trilogy is ever made, someone needs to have the guts to stand up and say, "George, you were once a brilliant man.. but your day is done."
But t
the thrawn trilogy of course (Score:2, Informative)
Re:the thrawn trilogy of course (Score:5, Informative)
I don't care what the next three are about... (Score:2)
Or at least someone cool.
Someone that isn't all good or all evil.
Someone who isn't drive solely by the pursuit of the "force".
I want someone with normal problems. i.e. bill collectors, cool car that needs a tuneup, looking for women, etc.
Lucas should seal the saga (Score:2)
As much as I'd love to see what happens after the big party up in the trees, at some point there has to be closure and I think the way it all ends is just fine as it is.
Re:Lucas should seal the saga (Score:3, Insightful)
Nightmare on Endor
The Next Movie (Score:2, Funny)
I just hope it won't be George Lucas (Score:3, Insightful)
It'd be silly for them to end the star wars saga. (Score:3, Interesting)
Lucas seems to be ambivalent (Score:5, Insightful)
Certainly, the plan all along was to have a 9-parter. He said so himself, shortly after the original Star Wars movie came out. (Those in the UK at the time might remember the interview with George Lucas that was broadcast on Ask Aspel, at about that time.)
He has said that others have done "plenty" in the post-ROJ era, but that could mean anything. He could mean that some published (or UNpublished) existing work by himself or someone else would form the basis for 7-9 - ie: nothing new has to be written, as it already is.
The fact that episode III grossed so much in the first day might cut either way. On the one hand, it proves Star Wars is still worth a LOT of money. On the other hand, it gives Mr Lucas a chance to bow out of Star Wars on the kind of high note that very very few directors ever get to have. Star Wars is worth a lot, but so is a good image, and right now Mr Lucas has one of the best images out there.
Probably the deciding factor will be the advancement of computer-generated graphics. George Lucas has clearly proven that he likes high-tech toys, with I-III, and even IV-VI had some impressive effects for the day and the budget. (IV was the shoestring of shoestrings, by all accounts, but still pulled off some pretty good special effects which stood the test of time.)
If, within the next few years, we see some really good rendering engines - cone-tracer + radiosity (or better) at speeds fast enough for live-action - then maybe Mr Lucas would do the last 3 parts just to play with the new gizmos. I could believe it.
On the other hand, if we see a stagnation, with no real improvements in quality but maybe just a bit more quantity, then the technology won't coax him out. That would be my bet. He's had his fun with what's out there, he'll want something that is NEW for the last 3, if he's to think it worth it on those grounds.
Of course, I'm probably completely wrong, but it's always fun to speculate about such things.
Re:Lucas seems to be ambivalent (Score:2)
I personally would rather see George work on the Indiana Jones 4 movie with Stephen Spielberg. Harrison Ford is getting old too.
Re:Lucas seems to be ambivalent (Score:5, Funny)
Because if there's one thing that George Lucas is known for, it's restraint and knowing when to stop, right?
I can't wait until he re-re-re-releases IV, V and VI with computer-aided wooden actors replacing everyone that wasn't Mark Hammil (whose acting was bad enough that Lucas probably won't want to change it.)
Re:Lucas seems to be ambivalent (Score:3, Insightful)
Huh? What does speed have to do with anything? It's not as if they're compositing in the CGI in realtime. If production time is the worry, just buy a bigger render farm.
Jesus, battered wife syndrom anybody? (Score:3, Funny)
"He really didn't mean Episode 1&2, and especially Jar Jar. He really does love me. We deserved what we got from Ep 1&2"
Let's hope not (Score:2, Insightful)
An additional trilogy would be just some tacked on stories.
I hate to break it to you, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Episode VII: The Ewok Adventure [imdb.com]
Episode VIII: Ewoks: The Battle for Endor [imdb.com]
Episode IX: Star Wars Holiday Special [imdb.com]
Creative Commons License Star Wars! (Score:4, Interesting)
Here's a great idea... (Score:5, Funny)
then wait 10 years to do VII, VIII, IX
traditional saga format? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:traditional saga format? (Score:3, Informative)
Where does the line start? (Score:2)
Anakin (Score:2)
Get Uwe Boll on the phone... (Score:2, Interesting)
Holy Crap (Score:2)
I guarantee a SW Movie every Summer (Score:3, Insightful)
This is about MONEY... Lots and lots of money.
Star Wars is a 20 Billion Dollar industry, all told, between movies, DVD, toys, merchandising tie-ins, commercials for those tie-ins, etc., etc., -- Nobody connected with it wants the gravy train to end. It's buying them a new car, a new house and a new yacht, and a new trophy wife.
And when Lucas' kids inherit the franchise, and poor old George is dead, they will milk that cow until it dies. They will want a new Masteratti and mansion every year. People who are connected to the family will want to milk that cow to keep their incomes and lifestyles.
Trust me. There will be a new Star Wars movie every Summer, every year, until people stop going to them and they no longer generate profit.
Think about how long the Broccoli's have milked the James Bond franchise. The movies get worse and worse, but as long as people hand over money to see the latest crap-fest, they will keep making new crap-fests to take your money.
I guarantee we'll be chatting about Star Wars Episode 20 in a decade or so...
Re:I guarantee a SW Movie every Summer (Score:3, Funny)
OTOH, retouching the movies every so often means that you can re-release them and get people to buy them. After all, have you seen Star Wars IV version 3.4.2 yet? It repatches the "Han Solo Shot First" bug.
My God, You People Are Bigger Whiners... (Score:3, Insightful)
Honestly, what's with all the bitching and whining? I just saw Sith and it was fucking good. Yes, there are a few plot holes and the dialogue can seem clunky.
It's a children's movie! Chill out, people.
Can we look at the bright side for just a moment? The acting is better, the special effects are better, the story is better and the movie is almost pure action. Where's the problem?
Lucas was holding out on us. The first two prequels were just warm-ups. This is the real deal.
Besides, there's something that everybody is missing. I've been reading these SW articles for months now, and nobody has pointed out one of the best things about this movie. Sure, go to see SW for the lightsabers, for the explosions and all the cool CGI and aliens. But what makes it all worthwhile, cohesive and convincing to me, is the work of one man:
John Williams.
His music is brilliant and evocative. The music tells the story here - this is a space opera, after all. It sounds like slashdotters have spent too much time listening to Lucas' dialogue and not to the real voice of the film - the score. I beseech you - let the music tell the story. Williams has completed his masterwork in this movie, just as Lucas has. Together they form an incredible story/symphony that should not be missed. Everything is explained in the music. To those of us who know the motifs it is obvious from the first scene of Episode I who Darth Sidious truly is.
If you haven't seen this movie, don't listen to the braying, ungrateful trolls on slashdot. See it for yourself - and hear it for yourself as well.
They WILL be made (Score:5, Insightful)
But the trilogy will not be announced for a while. First Lucas will have to make sure he sells all the movie tickets to Sith he can, then he must make sure he sells all the DVD disks he can. Then he will do a revision in the movies and issue YET ANOTHER DVD collection and sell all of that.
Then he will combine the original series with the prequels and sell that. Then he might do another revision. During that time there will also be a TV series.
And after everyone has gotten sick of the original trilogy and the prequels, and anyone with the remotest chance of buying the DVD set has bought it
Now start your spending!
And I quote from Ep3.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And I quote from Ep3.... (Score:3, Funny)
Where does the line start? There is no line. (Score:3, Informative)
This movie may burn out fast.
These are not the three episodes you seek (Score:5, Insightful)
When Lucas first talked about making 9 episodes, he clearly stated that his vision was for three independent stories. He stated that the only characters that would be common between each set of three were to be the two droids. His original vision, based on his own statements, certainly was not to make a story about a young Obi-wan and Luke's dad and Yoda. The three episodes that got made were not his original stated vision at all. He blew away his original vision of three episodes that would stand alone in favor of making three espsodes that already had strongly eastablished marketing concepts behind them.
So yes, more episodes will be made. But the original vision for VII, VIII and IX will likely never been seen, any more than the original vision for I, II and III will ever been seen. They were destroyed by the dark force.
I just finished reading "Heir to the Empire" (Score:4, Insightful)
The art was pretty good, and the writing was reasonably competent from a pulp sci-fi point of view. It just wasn't very exciting. Perhaps the novel was better. (Was it?)
In any case, I suspect this sort of book would be used as a base-line for future films. There seems to be a pretty reliable story canon being followed around the Ranch.
Like I said, I don't know about the novel, but the comic was just plain dull. Lots and lots of frantic energy spent on getting the plot from here-to-there while allowing very little time to develop and love the actual characters.
Luke and Leia swinging across a Death Star chasm and their brief interaction was development in my eyes as a seven-year old. The girl gave the hero a peck on the cheek. There was heart in that scene; the creators knew where to focus; on the people rather than the need to get to the other side. It's all in the journey.
Remember Luke in New Hope standing on Tatooine under a double sun-set with the strains of John William's orchestrations in the back ground? Those complaining of Luke's whining try too hard to make clever geek-jokes out of their observations, either that or they simply never had to grow up bored and lonely in the 'burbs. Luke was 18, and his story was clear and touching to me. Perhaps geeks are just squeamish and shy about being touched.
Heck, even in the Phantom Edit, (Yes, the EDIT, the good cut of that film), little Anikin leaving his mother was another scene with power. (Amazing that such a thing was created from thin air simply by removing junk footage!)
The only scene which I really liked in the comic, "Heir to the Empire," was after Leia and Han were nearly killed by assassins and made their escape thanks to Luke's intervention. Han commented to Leia, "By the way, isn't it time you had your own lightsaber?"
Luke, who was teaching his sister the ways of the Force nodded and replied, "I can make you one any time you want," but he was filled with worry, remembering how Obi Wan had screwed up with Anakin by teaching before he was ready to teach.
Just a short scene, but it utterly fascinated me for numerous reasons. (--Han was the guy who laughed saying he'd rather have a trusty blaster at his side rather than some archaic weapon.) The scene was less than one page among 150, but it grabbed me. The rest was just dull.
There are good writers out there, and maybe Zahn is one of them, but you certainly can't tell from the comics. If they make films out of his stories, then I won't be particularly excited about it.
-FL
The REAL question... (Score:2)
Yeh sure, yada, yada, yada. Don't like the stories at Slashdot? Go to k5 or Technocrat.net.
The REAL question should be, what the FUCK does this story have to do with my rights on line?
Re:Why the FUCK is this in YRO? (Score:2)
Please tell me this was mis-edited.
Re:George Lucas or Not... (Score:2)
Re:I Feel A Great Disturbance in the Force... (Score:3, Funny)
"...It's as if a million Slashdot readers all screamed out in orgasm at a single moment and then...went to sleep."