Should we be worried by one Star Wars film a year?

[JunkMonkey]

and hot conspiracy theory is that Disney intentionally killed it as part of the negotiations with LucasArts...

Do tell. How does deliberately screwing up the marketing for an overly expensive mediocre film (and thus loosing several dozen sh*tloads of money) strengthen your hand in negotiating the purchase of another cash cow?

 

[devilsgrin]

Do tell. How does deliberately screwing up the marketing for an overly expensive mediocre film (and thus loosing several dozen sh*tloads of money) strengthen your hand in negotiating the purchase of another cash cow?

it reassures possibly hesitant LucasArts people that Disney is serious about the future of the LucasArts brands - Star Wars in particular course. John Carter could have been worth a mint, but Star Wars IS worth several already. Disney acquired the licences for John Carter ages ago, and in a move i suspect is similar to FOX releasing even poor x-men movies periodically to retain those rights, Disney decided to sacrifice John Carter of Mars (preventing anyone else using it in the future to challenge Star Wars' space fantasy dominance) in the name of the unparalleled revenue stream owning a cash-cow like Star Wars is.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Don't see it. If I were in LucasArts, all I would see was a company screwing up the marketing of a old, well-loved - though not that widely known outside of SF fandom - franchise. It would make me more than wary about passing over my baby to such people. Well, not until I had added another couple of zeros to the price...

 

[JoanDrake]

If the movies are good they will be watched and make a lot of money. If they aren't, they won't. So what?

Of course, I do speak from the standpoint of someone who saw STAR WHORES as the Thing from Hollywood that set SF back to the late 30's when it was JUST beginning to crawl out from the ghetto that some of the best writers of the first half of the the 20thc had lanquished in for two decades, and in the end actually KILLED the transcendent genius that was Philip K. Dick on the very eve of the success even it couldn't block from him forever.

But what the hell do I know. I only read an article in Psychology Today written 6 months after SW was released that practically OUTLINED the plots of the next two movies. I only remember theatres bursting into laughter when the DeathStar was described, ("being able to Destroy a Whole Planet" )

If nobody ever buys even one ticket to the endless sequels for that camp ass satire that turned into a cash cow because everyone just HAD to see it and Mickey is reduced to panhandling cheese outside of JarJar's mansion I'm not going to feel one BIT bad about it.

I know, I know, it's part of your childhood. So's Dr Suess, but we don't write learned treatises on the mythological significance of The Cat in the Hat, do we? (Actually, I think they do, but they're usually in the back stacks of UCLA, not narrated by Bill Moyers interviewing Joseph Campbell)

Y'know who they ought to get to write the next one? G.W.W Martin. Have it start with Luke ordering the death of all babies in the galaxy so nobody can find out that he and Leia really WERE getting it on.

 

[Dave]

Y'know who they ought to get to write the next one? G.W.W Martin. Have it start with Luke ordering the death of all babies in the galaxy so nobody can find out that he and Leia really WERE getting it on.

We seriously need a Like button!

 

[Bick]

Do you mean George R. R. Martin?

 

[JunkMonkey]

or George R R Tolkien?

Now there's an idea: a Star Wars / Lord of the Ring crossover. There must be a lot of outakes of Christopher Lee from both franchises that are just sitting around waiting to be Ed Wooded into a three hour orgy of CGI special effects (with optional plot).



'Ed Wood' is now a verb, people.

 

[atmobeam]

i am a little worried.. because, well, it's a little too much. overkill.
Star Wars is a huge film. They require thousands of hardworking men, artists, and gazillion dollars. i just cant imagine they have to do that every year.
not to mention that the new films will be "exploring a time untouched by the star wars saga" and not based on anything (novels, comic, etc)
so unlike harry potter or superhero films which have their characters and their story already determined, it would be hard to come up with a new story every year.

What i'm trying to say, i'm afraid they will be 'quantity over quality'.

 

[Alex Mason]

I'm not sure what all you people are talking about. There are only 3 Star Wars movies.

Star Wars was a film franchise from the late 70's and early 80's that is carried on in books and video games along with other merchandise. The last film in the Star Wars universe was "Return of the Jedi."

 

[JunkMonkey]

Cue The Spooky Door music as Alex, blinking in the glare, steps into the 21st century...

 

[JoanDrake]

Do you mean George R. R. Martin?

..yeh...him too

 

[Harpo]

I'm not sure what all you people are talking about. There are only 3 Star Wars movies.

Star Wars was a film franchise from the late 70's and early 80's that is carried on in books and video games along with other merchandise. The last film in the Star Wars universe was "Return of the Jedi."

Either you've seen the other three films or you haven't. Either they're blimmin' atrocious sacrilege or they're not. Just don't pretend to be an idiot about it.

 

[C Of K]

Things to do and not to do when making a star wars story:

Don't center the story on the jedi at the expense of everything else.
Create non-lightsaber wielding characters that are likeable and give them a purpose.
Find plot holes, and extinguish them.
Don't try to explain the force. People know as much about it as they need to by now.
Lets face it, Fans know as much about it as George Lucas does. Try to get too scientific with it
and you just end up stupefying it. Try to get too spiritual/hocus pocus with it, and you risk the same.
Throw in a few surprises...If you do prequels, don't include any characters that must live in
order for previous movies to make sense.(didn't mind this too much in the other prequels, but ya have to be careful with doing this too much in one saga of movies.)
Don't let success ride on the value of special effects. People are numb to special effects these days.
Less and less people are wowed by them.

I'm sure there are more things, but I'll stop here.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I'm sure there are more things, but I'll stop here.

• Don't go for comedy.

• Don't make any prequels in which we get to meet R2D2 and C3PO's components coming off a production line. ("Hello, I'm C3PN...")

• Don't let Toys R Us have final cut.

 

[Dave]

Don't retcon - Han shot Greedo first amongst other things - okay well just don't recon any more!

 

[Harpo]

Allow at least one of the returning actors from the original trilogy to have a death scene. It was done with Kenobi, Vader, Yoda, and others, so why not?

 

[MontyCircus]

• Don't go for comedy.

I disagree with that. Look at R2 and 3PO, it's like the robotic version of Laurel & Hardy. Look at Han & Chewie or the Han/Leia/Luke love triangle. Great comedic moments!

Star Wars is supposed to be FUN!

 

[Dave]

I disagree with that. Look at R2 and 3PO, it's like the robotic version of Laurel & Hardy. Look at Han & Chewie or the Han/Leia/Luke love triangle. Great comedic moments!

And of course, those hilarious antics of the clumsy Jar Jar Binks!

I agree there should be some comedy, but it needs to actually be funny. R2D2 and 3PO were not always very funny.

 

[JunkMonkey]

And of course, those hilarious antics of the clumsy Jar Jar Binks!

Precisely. Play it straight let comedy emerge from the characters and the situations; the Han/Leia/Luke love triangle being a good example. Graft on a comic relief character whose sole purpose for being in the script is to provide 'lighter moments' and you have a recipe for disaster.

Go for comedy and you end up with the Star Wars Holiday Special.

I agree there should be some comedy, but it needs to actually be funny. R2D2 and 3PO were not always very funny.

Yep.

 

[Harpo]

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