Though George Lucas has pulled back into the role of executive producer with new motion picture and TV series Clone Wars , he ’s still in the driver ’s seat when it comes to the Star Wars universe . That ’s why I spent the 24-hour interval out at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County , CA , yesterday , see a jam conference with Lucas and interviewing many of the cardinal the great unwashed regard in construct Clone war happen . Though Lucas put Clone Wars in the hands of theater director Dave Filoni ( whom he called his Padawan ) , the man behind LucasArts had a fortune to say about the show ’s direction , animation panache , and why he ’d rather pay engineers than big - name actors .
Once we passed the pondering statue of Yoda and entered the Jedi retreat known as Big Rock Ranch — where Lucas Animation and Lucas Television are located — we got a chance to meet Lucas himself .
He start by saying that one of the best theatrical role about Clone Wars is incur to have intercourse all the characters we never got to spend time with in episode I - VI of the pic , which were fundamentally a character study of “ why somebody get to be malevolent . ” Explained Lucas :
Now we ’re going to find out about Jabba ’s family and what the ringer are like . The series , the epic , is about one human . It ’s very minute . This [ show ] allows us to get out of dealing with the psychological underpinnings of why somebody gets to be malefic .
It ’s too bad [ we jump over the Clone Wars before ] because it ’s like World War II — it ’s a huge canvas tent to be mine . [ With this serial ] I got to fill in a blank and go around in a cosmos that ’s not as restrictive and not as benighted . It ’s more lighthearted . The serial will be more like Indiana Jones — episodic . And we used idea from anime and manga too .
One of the main case in the feature of speech film , a 90 minute introduction to the series that hits theaters August 15 , is Anakin ’s teenage Padawan , Ahsoka . Lucas said :
[ With Ahsoka ] I wanted to develop a character who would facilitate Anakin finalize down . He ’s a wild child after [ onset of the clone ] . He and Obi Wan do n’t get along . So we wanted to bet at how Anakin and Ahsoka become ally , partners , a squad . When you become a parent or you become a teacher you have to become more respnsible . I wanted to pull Anakin into that role of obligation , into that juxtaposition . I have a couple of girl so I have experience with that office . I said alternatively of a guy let ’s make her a girl . teen lady friend are just as tough to deal with as teen boys are .
Another cool grapheme we ’re going to see in the Clone Wars movie , and throughout the series , is Asajj Ventress , an assassin partly - train in the ways of the Force whose pwers are too raging to become a Jedi . She ’s working for Dooku in the serial . Director Dave Filoni excuse :
Ventress was developed for Attack of the Clones — early on on , they thought they ’d have Sidious ’ learner after Maul be a woman . Then they abandon the idea of having Ventress be the next apprentice and used Dooku instead . But the construct art was there [ pictured above ] — they ’d prepare this character . We cogitate , “ That ’s a buff fave character [ from the Expanded Universe ] so allow ’s draw her out . ” So now you have these two new women coming into the story at the same prison term — one is Anakin ’s apprentice and the other is Dooku ’s . That form out very nicely for the account we wanted to tell .
One of the big question a lot of the great unwashed have about the fresh serial is the aspect of the life . Though it ’s CGI , it ’s not photorealistic ; the character reference are made to take care like painted wooden tool ( a reference to the marionette in the 1960s serial The Thunderbirds ) . Lucas address this issue head - on :
We did n’t desire to do photorealistic — photorealistic is what unrecorded action pic are . Animation is prowess . This is an prowess discussion – either you like photorealistic art , or you like something that tries to happen the truth behind the naive realism . To me invigoration is about design and style . Our goal was n’t photorealism — we wanted to use estimator as paintbrush .
Lucas also had a lot to say about how the studio apartment put the animation together on a circumscribed budget :
Art is also a technological sensitive . It has a lot to do with engineering . It ’s a spiritualist prescribe by resource . That was scare off , since we desire to crusade the limits beyond anything you ’ve discover on TV . We wanted to take feature animation to telecasting . usually sport invigoration costs 20 - 30 time what TV animation does . So that was a challenge . We had to build a studio from scratch and develop new proficiency from mark . We also did n’t make it the normal way you make an animate lineament . We address it like live action feature – redaction , rather than storyboarding . It makes a dissimilar sort of animated motion picture , since we rely on cut and redact vs. storyboards . If we can do something that will stand on its own as a feature film , then we ’ve succeeded .
He added , rather flat out :
This series is a test hightail it for the hot action at law series I ’m exercise on . I ’m trying to take Star Wars , which was a $ 50 - million - an - hr adventure , and do it for $ 2 million an time of day . It ’s hard to do that and have them search the same .
Star Wars features are likely more than $ 50 million per minute , though the report budget on Revenge of the Sith is $ 115 million . What Lucas does seem to be enunciate is that each half - time of day sequence of Clone Wars is budgeted at about $ 1 million . Producer Catherine Winder confirmed that Lucas Animation already has a 22 - episode season all over , so Lucas has dip $ 22 million into this series so far . But it ’s likely much more , when you consider startup cost of creating an entire young variance . And with 100 installment planned , this series may end up costing more than a Star Wars movie .
Lucas was also quite blunt about why Clone Wars stars articulation thespian who are n’t handsome names :
$ 200 million is the distinctive license fee on television set series . Major actors make more than that on their coffee berry jailbreak . There are a lot of top actors who are n’t movie star , and I do n’t need to hire a gravid star to publicize a flick . I do n’t involve Angela Jolie to get you guys to come to a press group discussion . That ’s why gravid studios use [ big - name ] thespian for animate features . They ’re paid for pressure stuff not for doing the movie .
So what ’s next for Lucas ? He ’s operate on the springy action Star Wars series , which he revealed will let in more “ about the amusement industry . ” It ’s also rumor to be spirited and dark . He also admitted that he ’s get down study onresearching the next Indiana Jones motion picture . He ’s very concerned in doing idiot box now , and that ’s what his focussing is on , he told newsperson .
After the press conference , Lucas lingered in the hallway talking to newsperson and shoot the breeze with Dave Filoni ( we ’ll post our interview with Filoni later this hebdomad ) . One had bring his five - year - one-time Logos , who had just visualise the Clone Wars feature with the rest of us .
“ Did you like it ? ” take Lucas .
“ Yes , ” the son said very gravely . “ I would like to see it three more time . ”
“ Get that on picture show , ” Lucas joke . But you could tell from his smile that he was genuinely delighted that his late creation had reached his best-loved interview . In the end , Lucas is still doing it for the kids .
George LucasMoviesStar WarsTelevision
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