|
Star Wars, Indiana Jones & Beyond
By Eric Giordmaina | Image property of 20th Century Fox
Star Wars: A New Hope movie poster.
During several interviews with actors and crew members, the juiciest bits of information came from (surprise, surprise) producer Rick McCallum.
McCallum spoke about George Lucas' current and future projects, upcoming
DVD releases from the Lucasfilm archives along with what we can expect from
the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises.
Star Wars Animated Series
The two television series that Lucas was previously announces to be involved in, still seems to be in the conceptual stages…
"The animation is being done right now as we speak," McCallum stated, "[That work] is being done here at the Ranch. A lot of the effects will be done in Singapore. But that won't really start moving forward, I mean it's just now conceptual work and script work now. I think George is trying to get 13 scripts done first before we really get into the pipeline of it. But that'll start happening probably at the end of March."
Lead animation director, Rob Coleman, was asked if he would be involved with the project…
"Rick and I haven't talked about it yet. I am involved in the animated series right now. We're here at the Ranch as Rick said and we're currently working on the project and I'm very excited about that."
Star Wars Live Action TV Series
Plans for the live action series are moving forward
with productions based in Sydney, Australia. Unless "another medium comes
along to replace it," the series will be entirely shot in HD.
Apparently interviews for the writers are currently under way, however Lucas
himself will be writing several episodes. Rick McCallum stated, "There are
100 hours between Episode III and Episode IV which they'd
like to shoot. The live action television series should happen around 2007.
He's [George Lucas] just trying to figure out which direction to go in.
I'm really excited about that actually. Finally, we'll have a chance to
answer everybody's questions."
Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine) was asked if he'd be making an appearance,
he replied. "I always answer my telephone….Nobody really knows the details
of the television series, I don't think that's because people are being
particularly coy. I just think a lot of things haven't been decided yet.
But I know that George's intention is to follow one of the characters who's
been less highlighted up to now, but has been very popular with audiences.
And sure, if it's the period between the movies, the Emperor has to be referred
to. But you'll remember he was referred to often without actually appearing
in the first Star Wars movie. And Peter Cushing was his very effective
representative. So, I suspect there might be a number of very effective
representatives."
Rob Coleman was asked if we would be seeing any animated characters in this series. "Knowing George and knowing the franchise there's going to be animated characters in there, we just haven't discussed them yet."
Star Wars: Clone WarsStar Wars Movies in 3D
In April we learned of the possibility that Lucasfilm
were looking to release all six Star Wars movies in 3D. When McCallum
was asked how the project was going he was quoted as saying that Star
Wars Episode IV - A New Hope was already 20% complete in its transformation
to 3D.
"The major tests we did were really startling because in the process you can literally pick out every visual effect. And you can change them as you deal with each element. Even though the film wasn't planned around the 3-D idea, we can actually take advantage of it.
I think it is going to be a major form of entertainment soon. Peter Jackson is using it. Jim Cameron's next picture is going to be shot on 3-D. Robert Rodriguez is using it, so is Bob Zemeckis. I think finally these big guys are dictating to the studios that 3-D is something very exciting for them. It's not for everybody. It's not for every film, but certainly for big, live action, huge movies it is. I just think you need to differentiate."
McCallum also said that not only was Peter Jackson planning to utilize this
new technology, but that he was planning on a 3D theatrical release of King
Kong, sometime after the film's release.
Another Version of Star Wars: Episode I in the Works?
Changes to Episode I: The Phantom Menace,
are also in the works and will be seen by audiences sooner or later, revealed
Rob Coleman.
According to Coleman, changes have already been made in Yoda to replace him with a CGI version, to match the look and feel of the character throughout the new trilogy.
"We've actually have gone ahead and did that. We did that between Episode
II and III. It was really an exercise to get the team back
into the character. On Episode II I was really stressing living
up to what my friend here created. So a lot of our focus was on that final
battle sequence between Yoda and Count Dooku. We'd never seen Yoda do that
before. But in the process we were learning about acting as animators. So
it was really exciting for me to have the team back again, between Episode
II and Episode III. We used Episode I, as a test
bed, because we really didn't know what was gonna be in Episode III,
and got the team back up to speed and really honed in on our acting. And
using that as springboard we went right into Episode III."
Coleman was also asked if Lucas and co would ever dare go back and tamper with the puppet-Yoda from the original trilogy, to which he sternly replied, "Absolutely not."
Indiana JonesThe Progress of Indiana Jones 4
Rick McCallum also gave an update on the next Indiana Jones film,
which he will be producing.
"George is doing Indiana Jones, the script, which he should finish
by Sunday. He's meeting with Steven [Spielberg] next week to try to figure
out where they are going to go and what changes they want to make on it."
Lucas Arts is hoping to coincide the of Indian Jones video game,
with the release of the film in 2007.
What else is next?
Although George Lucas wasn't able to be at this event, he was playing host to 15 Tuskegee Airmen, as he fine tunes his producing skills on his upcoming documentary titled, "Red Tails", which starts shooting in 2007. McCallum stated that Lucas was exploring ideas that ranged from several documentaries to an animated musical idea he had been tossing around.
Stay tuned for updates.
|
Eric Giordmaina
Sources: Image property of 20th Century Fox
Contact
© 2004 Minds Eye One, All Rights Reserved
The Can Magazine™ is a trademark of Minds Eye One
All movie titles, movie icons, movie stills/clips/trailers/other media... are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of stated holders
CanMag.Com banners contain movie/gaming icons that were created by individual holders
|
|
|
Add to Heffee!
