Sun May 08, 2005

source: dailytelegraph.news.com.au

Sydney force to fill gaps in TV Star Wars

By MICHAEL BODY Showbiz Editor

May 9, 2005

GEORGE Lucas is bringing the force back to Sydney. The writer-director of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith confirmed he will bring production of a live-action television series to Sydney.

"I am looking forward to coming back and working there some more," Lucas told The Daily Telegraph.

"We're going to do a live action show based on minor characters in the Star Wars series.

"It's a spin-off, it doesn't involve any of the key characters.

"It's a different world unto itself between episodes three (Revenge of the Sith) and four (Star Wars: A New Hope)."


Producer Rick McCallum confirmed the Australian series was "definite as definite can be", although the timing of it was still to be determined.

"It's a definite that we do it -- the rest we haven't discussed on any level," McCallum said.

"We only finished the film (Revenge of the Sith) last Tuesday. George is thinking maybe we can do a series somewhere between episode three and four because that's the longest break (in the film series), 20 years.

"The Death Star takes 20 years to build so we need to work that out."

McCallum said the move to Australia was mainly due to the Government recently extending its 12.5 per cent refundable tax offset for foreign films to large budget television series.

The intention was to produce 100 hour-long episodes -- that being the number necessary to sell the series into lucrative television syndication.

The series was still a long way from being crewed and cast, but McCallum said it would use Sydney actors and crew -- and a variety of directors.

After the worldwide release of Revenge of the Sith from May 19, Lucas returns this winter for an Australia-wide holiday.

McCallum will also spend time at his Darling Point home.

Awesome, i got some buddies in Sydney that do Extra work, wonder if they'll get a job for some ugly arse alien, awesome

Yea. But this is what got me.



100, hour long episodes. I was thinking they were going to do another mini-series or something with 24, hour long episodes. But there saying 100? wow.

It´s already started. I just say, this shows the Empire can improve and adapt a solid concept in record-time once they get complete control (DS --> DS II)


Yep, I have a good feeling we´ll be seeing plenty of EU references along the way, with all that screentime.

24 episodes - Jedi being tracked down

24 episodes - Unruly systems being forced into the Empire

24 episodes - Leia growing up

24 episodes - New character storylines

Yep...100 is easy

And then a 4 episode long series finale, hey just like Star Trek!