November 3 2005

source: empireOnline.co.uk


STAR WARS TELEVISION

Rick McCallum: "What we said is why don’t we try and restructure the process of how television is made; let’s set up our own studio, with the same players. They’re not going to be out of work; they’ll make a decent living; there’s no stars, the actors get what the crew gets, the crew gets what the actors get. We try and set up a different system to make a television series that had all the basic look and feel of a feature film."

"What we want to do is take everything we’ve learned from feature films and this new digital pipeline and put it back into television and set a standard for how in four or five years time we can start making feature films for five or ten million dollars instead of the $80, $90, $100 million it takes now."


ROTS DVDs

EmpireOnline: You've said that you like DVDs because you could show how these scenes were built up, but some directors say that’s exactly why they don’t like DVDs, that it spoils the magic.

Rick McCallum: "They’re full of shit."

"They have so little respect what it’s like for a normal person. I came from a very small town in Missouri and the prospect of getting out was the most driving force for me. Then it seems so impossible to get into, and it has such a huge impact."

"Why limit it to just that process when there’s the opportunity for those who want to explore? There’s the person who just wants to hit play and that’s it, but for anybody else who wants to understand the process and learn about the process, it's there."


SEQUEL TRILOGY

EmpireOnline: He also joined Lucas in emphasizing that those fans hoping for Episodes VII, VIII and IX are in for a long wait.

Rick McCallum: "The 9 films thing, he really was misquoted. He wrote all 6 episodes, but didn’t write them in episodic form. He picked the point that he thought would be easiest to finance and make. That was Episode 4. He never even dreamed he’d be able to do a sequel, let alone a prequel. It had never been done before; it was just a dream for him."


EmpireOnline: For more from McCallum on Lucas' plans, the Star Wars phenomenon and his opinions on the future of Hollywood, check out our interview here.


McCALLUM TV

November 3 2005

source: metro.co.uk


QUOTES:

• "We're starting on the Star Wars TV series. We're planning on doing 100 hours set between Episode III and Episode IV."

• "It'll be about all the characters you haven't met yet, or some that you have but only in the novels or comics."

• "Hopefully, at the end of that, we'll have answered every single question any fan has ever asked. We're hoping that it will go on air by 2007 at the latest."

• "We're hoping to be able to make TV that looks like the quality of film - including the same quality of special effects but at a fraction of the cost."

• "George is executive producer so it's bound to be exciting."