George Lucas and his new Star Wars T.V. series – the truth

To clarify, the new Star Wars television series has NOT been filmed yet, nor is it in pre-production. The reality of the matter is that Lucas has completed over 50 episodes (2 seasons) in script form. This all started last week when Lucas talked very candidly about his secret-project during an episode of AOTS on G4. What Lucas actually said was that there are over 50 episodes of the television series “on the shelf” waiting for the time to be right.Why is he holding out on us? Money and technology… Yep, believe it or not Lucas is concerned that releasing the show right now would be a very bad idea… and even though money should not be an object, I don’t overly disagree with him (In 2010 the Star Wars franchise made a staggering $510 million in sales). Television is in a weird place right now. Massive networks are holding onto prime time shows that only rake in 1/10th of the viewers they they used to.  Less views still means less money.  Advertisers are jumping ship as millions upon millions of cable subscribers are cutting the cord, and getting their T.V. a-la-cart. Now, could Lucas simply pay for this series out of pocket, and still net a colossal profit? Sure, but Lucas has always been more of a business man than a risk taker. George Lucas is simply waiting for the PERFECT financial opportunity to bring Star Wars into our homes.

So what TECH is Lucas waiting for?

Like the guy or not, movies would not be where they are today without George Lucas. A pioneer in sound, editing techniques, animation, and digital cinema (or at least hires the best in those respective fields), George Lucas has always embraced innovation and technology. According to Lucas, he is holding out for a more “cost-effective” film making technology to be created. Lucas states, that in order for the series to be considered financially viable, it would have to be produced for roughly 1/10th the cost of one of the prequel films…so about 12 million bucks. An “expensive” cable science fiction television show like Battlestar Galactica had a budget of around 1million per episode; whereas ABC’s LOST reportedly had a massive budget of over 2million per episode. So, using this new (uninvented) technology Lucas is looking to shoot Star Wars: The T.V. Show for around 500k per episode.

Just give the series to Dave Filoni and let him have at it..