Rick McCallum Talks ‘Star Wars’ TV Series, Compares It to ‘The Godfather’
Jun 14, 2011 Regarding the proposed ‘Star Wars’ television series, prequel producer Rick McCallum shared further insight on the technological delay hampering its progress, and how the show plans to take its cue from ‘The Godfather’.
After revealing that the
Star Wars television series was sitting on a
hefty backlog of scripts earlier in the month, George Lucas proceeded to tell fans that the proposed show would have to wait until technology (once again) caught up to the ambitious vision for his famed universe.
Now, Rick McCallum – producer on
Star Wars: Episode I, II & III– gives a little more information on exactly what fans will have to wait to see.
Like news of the prequels more than a decade ago, curiosity has quickly built to a fever pitch after Lucas reignited fans’ interest in the long inactive series. After mentioning that work had not only begun on scripting the
Star Wars television show, but that over 50 hours of said script already existed, questions were abound as to what, exactly, the series might entail.
According to an interview McCallum gave to
Czech Position, the
Star Wars television show may be looking to film in the Czech Republic – the same place that
Red Tails, the George Lucas plotted and produced WWII film about the Tuskegee Airmen, was shot.
“[
The Czech Republic]
would be one of the primary places because of the talent.”
McCallum mostly reiterated much of what Lucas said was holding production on the series back. But bemoaning the lack of cost-effective technology wasn’t the only aspect of Lucas’ statement McCallum touched upon.
According to McCallum, the 50 hours of scripts are actually
“50 hours of third-draft scripts,” which suggests that the series has progressed much further than anyone had originally anticipated. While McCallum failed to mention the name(s) of anyone responsible for the scripts, the news served to make the delay in the show’s arrival that much more frustrating.
However, the juiciest bit of information the producer dropped was an intriguing hint of what the show might actually be like – setting and theme-wise.
“It takes place between episodes three and four, when Luke Skywalker was growing up as a teenager, but it has nothing to do with Luke.”
“Basically, it is like ‘The Godfather’; it’s the Empire slowly building up its power base around the galaxy, what happens in Coruscant, which is the major capital, and it’s [about] a group of underground bosses who live there and control drugs, prostitution.”
McCallum’s comparison to such disparate works as the Francis Ford Coppola classic will likely serve to stir more debate and controversy around the disputed quality of the most recent
Star Wars films. What at first sounded like a great exploration into a universe that had once brought a great sense of wonder and amazement, now sounds potentially off-track. Are drugs and prostitution the subjects fans hoping to rekindle their love for
Star Wars are looking for?
McCallum went on to say that the recent state of the television industry may not welcome a weekly
Star Wars program.
“Network television and cable television as we know it are completely imploding, so we’re not really sure that in five years’ time we can release a dramatic one-hour episode because it is all reality TV now.”
I’d be willing to give McCallum the benefit of the doubt (and in fact agree with him) if he’s saying he doesn’t see
Star Wars fitting in with one of the big four networks. However, it’s hard to believe that an individual of McCallum’s position would gloss over the fine scripted programming on FX, AMC, HBO and Showtime – any of which would be a more than suitable home for the persistently on-hold series.
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