November 7th, 2007
After scoring a hit with the Star Wars parody episode, Blue Harvest, this season, “Family Guy” cast has begun work on a similar parody of “The Empire Strikes Back.”
Apparently actress Mila Kunis, who voices Meg, spilled the beans to IESB reporter Robert Sanchez at the party for the show’s 100th episode.
Seth MacFarlane confirmed that the script for the episode has been completed and the cast has already done a table read for it.
He also suggested that Boba Fett will be played by Peter Griffin’s nemesis, the Giant Chicken.
There is no set air date, but it has been rumored that there will be a teaser trailer for the Empire parody on the “Family Guy: Blue Harvest” DVD expected to be released in January of 2008. So clearly the show won’t air until some months after.
November 7th, 2007
StarWars.com recently published an interesting interview with Kilian Plunkett, the character design for The Clone Wars CGI Animated series expected to find a home on television sometime in 2008.
Two things stood out in the interview, first was Plunkett’s take on drawing Star Wars for thirty years, since he started as a childhood fan:
“I was like pretty much every other kid and just enjoyed drawing for its own sake, but I never really stopped. I still have a copybook from when I was seven that has a bunch of Star Wars drawings in it. There’s a lot of stormtroopers and Vaders in there, as well as some X-wing and TIE fighter action over the Death Star. They’re all pretty crude drawings but I had fun doing them. So not much has really changed between then and now.”
The other, was Plunkett describing the “unique Star Wars aesthetic”:
The universe that George came up with is one of those very rare creations that is different to the world we know but feels like a real place. You need to try and absorb the look and feel of the movies so that you can see the shapes and colors that show up over and over. Watching the movies is the only way to really ‘get it’
Read the complete interview here:
http://www.starwars.com/theclonewars/blogs/f20071005/
Be sure not to miss the second half of the interview here:
http://www.starwars.com/theclonewars/blogs/f20071005/indexp2.html
November 6th, 2007
Boba Fett, the most feared Bounty Hunter in the Galaxy, will be featured in the highly-anticipated Star Wars live action TV series.
Producer Rick McCallum, told fans at the Star Wars Reunion 2 in France, that he is looking for actor Daniel Logan to reprise his role from the Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, where he played the young Boba who witnessed Mace Windu decapitate his father Jango Fett.
Nothing against Logan, who is now 20-years-old, but he hasn’t really done much since the Star Wars movie - I am sure they will have no problem getting him to take on the part.
No other casting announcements have been made - aside from Lord Anthony Hopkins joking that he would consider taking on “the Alec Guinness role” - I guess no one told him that Obi Wan will not be in the series.
November 6th, 2007
On the style of the live-action Star Wars television series, Producer Rick McCallum has stated “It is going to be much darker, much grittier, and it’s much more character based.”
Star Wars creator George Lucas has described the series as “bare-bones” and “action-heavy”, and has stated that it will be for more mature audiences like TV shows Battlestar Galactica and Firefly.
That is the best news I have heard yet! I am sure most Star Wars fans would gladly welcome a darker Star Wars - but part of me has to wonder how much of this is just hype and if they thought the prequels were “gritty” too.
Other insider statements have said the series will be like the Young Indiana Jones series - which I never saw - can anyone tell me what those were like - any good? Maybe I will have to see if I can Netflix them, since these are Lucas’s past television work it might be much closer to the finished product than Battlestar Galactica or Firefly.
(If you have been living in a cave and are not familiar with Firefly by Joss Whedon please do yourself a favor and buy the DVD set of the television series and the feature film Serenity)
November 5th, 2007
The official sneak peek video of the upcoming 3D CGI series “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” was released by Lucasfilm.
The 3D animation of the faces are a little too plastic looking for me - especially Obi Wan’s beard - but the ships and other elements look great. I am much more excited about this series after seeing this clip - it should be a great warm-up for the live-action show that will likely not come out until the animated series has had about a year or so on the air.
November 5th, 2007
I will keep a running tally of all the information for the 3D animated series, The Clone Wars, so you don’t have to read every blog post to catch up:
- Expected to air in 2008
- Each episode will have a running time of 22 minutes to fill a half-hour time slot
- There will be at least 100 episodes produced, 40 are said to be finished already
- Kilian Plunkett referred to the character designs from the 2003 2D series when designing the characters for the 3D series
- There is still no television network yet signed up for the series
- Anthony Daniels will voice C3-PO
- Several show topics have been mentioned: “Episodes with nothing but stormtroopers”, “an episode just about Kit Fisto”
November 5th, 2007
I will keep a running tally of all the information for the live-action series, so you don’t have to read every blog post to catch up:
Show expected to begin airing in 2009 2010
Series to take place in the period between Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV: A New Hope
Lucas will write and produce the first season, and then “hand it off from there”, while remaining executive producer throughout the rest of the series.
Stories will be told from the perspective of minor characters from the Star Wars galaxy - not the main characters of the film franchise (although there are hints of cameos from some of the Expanded Universe characters)
Boba Fett is expected to be in the series!
Rick McCallum will be the Producer, he oversaw the prequels
Show will be one-hour long
November 5th, 2007
In the not so distant future, in a galaxy not so far far away…
Star Wars is coming to television with not one, but two different television series. Both are currently being developed to hit the air waves in the next couple years.
George Lucas, having wrapped up the final installment of the Indiana Jones saga, has started work on a live-action television series set in the Star Wars universe. The series will not feature any Skywalkers, Darth Vader, Han Solo or any of the major characters from the original movie trilogy or the prequels. However, the series may include some Expanded Universe characters at some point.
Lucas of course remains secretive about the show saying only that it’s about “the life of robots” - whatever that means. Hopefully not a revival of the Droid Series.
Meanwhile, a 3D CGI series called Star Wars: The Clone Wars is being produced by Lucasfilm Animation and is expected to debut in 2008. The animated series will be set in the same time period as the 2D animation version that aired in 25 chapters from 2003-2005 on the Cartoon Network.
