Say what you want about the prequels and the subsequent animated series, but I’ve been so impressed with what they’ve been doing with The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network that I was actually really looking forward to the impending live-action television show. We’ve been hearing about this show for some time now; how the scripts were being worked on and how George Lucas was putting this entire thing together without having a home (ie: TV station) for the show.
We’d heard that it wasn’t going to focus on any characters from the previous films, but it would take place during Darth Vader’s reign and that the evil ruler would perhaps make an appearance or two, but from a distance. Apparently the main plot was going to revolve around a family, and based on early reports it sorta sounded a little like The Sopranos meets Star Wars … and I don’t know about you, but that sounds fascinating.
The problem is, though, that according to George Lucas the show is being delayed while they try to figure out how, exactly, to take what are essentially big-screen Star Wars-type scripts and film them on a TV budget. It’s strange that this is coming up now since surely everyone involved knew the stories being commissioned and knew that in order to film those stories it’d cost a considerable amount of money. Knowing Lucas, he doesn’t want to taint the franchise by delivering some cheesy live-action space show that looks and feels cheap.
Will they figure out a way to make it all happen? I hope so, though it may take a commitment from a major television network before they throw tons of money at this thing. What do you think? Are you game for some live-action Star Wars, or would you rather them stick to the animated stuff?
