Lucas animated about the return of Star Wars
Friday, 15 February 2008
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Clearly, George Lucas can't get enough of Star Wars. The film-maker, who once vowed to leave his lucrative space opera behind and return to his independent film-making roots, is releasing an animated Star Wars film later this year, to be followed by a live-action television series focusing on some of the minor characters from the six feature films.
"I felt there were a lot more Star Wars stories left to tell," he said in a statement announcing the new projects. "I was eager to start telling some of them through animation and, at the same time, push the animation forward."
The new film, called Star Wars: The Clone Wars is being released through the Time Warner company, which is also the parent of two cable television channels, TNT and the Cartoon Network, where the television series will start airing in the autumn. According to the advance publicity, the new releases will explore the period between the fifth film, Attack of the Clones, and the sixth, Revenge of the Sith. In Star Wars chronology – mixed up by the fact that Lucas started his saga halfway in with the first film in 1977 – that means the time period between Episode II and Episode III.
The 64-year-old film-maker will almost certainly add to his considerable personal fortune – estimated to be close to $4bn (£2bn) – but the new projects are also an admission that the once-ambitious Lucas, part of the coterie of young talent in the 1970s that also included Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg, may not be able to break out of the comfortable niche he has built for himself.
This year also sees the release of a new Indiana Jones film, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which will reunite the star Harrison Ford with the director Spielberg. Lucas, who came up with the concept and the characters for the Indiana Jones series in the early 1980s, is the co-writer and executive producer.
One of the attractions of the new cartoon and television series, according to the film-makers, is the first major female Jedi character, to be called Ahsoka.
"It turned out to be an idea that George wanted to explore," the director of the animated film, Dave Filoni, told reporters. "[We] very much wanted to have a female Jedi in more of a lead role because you've had all the boys."
