Remember that live action "Star Wars" television series that Lucas has in
the works? You know, the one that's supposed to start shooting in 2008? Well,
guess who's reportedly in talks with George about possibly acquiring the
broadcast rights to this program?
You guessed it. Disney.
Let me stress here that these talks are allegedly at a very preliminary
stage. More importantly, that no decisions -- pro or con -- have been made at
this point. But what's kind of intriguing about these negotiations is that Lucas
is supposedly looking to avoid what happened with his last foray into
television, "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles."
For those of you who don't remember: This high profile project originally
debuted on ABC back in March of 1992. And while "Young Indy" was recognized for
its outstanding production values, this edutainment program didn't exactly wow
viewers. Which is why it ended production after only 44 shows were shot. Which
wasn't really enough episodes to syndicate. Which made it next to impossible for
George to recover the tens of millions of dollars he'd allegedly plowed into
production of this program.
So this time around, Lucas reportedly want to shoot 100 episodes of his
new "Star Wars" -based television series. With a deliberate eye toward getting a
massive return on his investment through DVD sales as well as digital downloads
of individual episodes. Mind you, in order to make as big a splash as possible
with this program, George is going to need a network that's really willing to
get behind this new "Star Wars" show.
And this (of course) is where Mickey comes in. The way I hear it, Disney
has offered to throw all of its marketing might behind the launch of this live
action "Star Wars" television series. Key components of their plan reportedly
include introducing the show's cast at next year's "Star Wars Weekends" as well
as agreeing to give up primo timeslots on both ABC & ABC Family. Just so
this live action program can then reach as wide an audience as possible right
from the get-go.
Mind you, the Mouse isn't the only media giant that's supposedly currently
wooing George. My understanding is that News Corp reps have also met with Lucas
and mapped out a similarly ambitious marketing campaign. With both Fox and FX
being offered up as possible distribution channels for this new "Star Wars"
show.
"So who's going to ultimately come out on top here?," you ask. At this
point, I'm not even sure that Lucas knows. From what ILM insiders tell me,
George is still months away from making a final decision about who gets to air
his show. What with production of "Indiana Jones IV" taking up much of his time
these days. Not to mention getting all of those teleplays ready for the start of
shooting next year.
So will it be the ABC channels or the Fox channels? Who knows if any of them
will get the Star Wars Live-Action Series or not. At least it gets us thinking
and Disney is doing a lot of Star Wars things lately. Be sure to read the entire article with information about the Indiana
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