For the past week or so we've been bombarded by emails linking to various news outlets all talking about a "new" Star Wars television show. I've heard some say its exclusive to the UK, 100 episodes, in 3-D, takes place between episodes 3 & 4. While some of this is true, I'd like to try and sift out what is not true, and fully explain to some why we have not posted news on it.

Let's go back to the spring of 2005 and start there. At Celebration III George Lucas was in attendance and at this show, almost a full year ago ( April 23rd, 2005 ) these projects were announced and reported right here at TheForce.net.

At the time, all that was known was what was spoken that day as reported in this story, see the excerpt below.

"THE FUTURE OF STAR WARS
He said there were plans to revamp Star Tours, and how those discussion started with Episode I. He said there were several great things planned, and some awesome ideas.

He also talked about the TV Series! Lucasfilm is now going to move into television. The first series is 3-D animation, a regular series that will last 1/2 hour per episode. He's also working on a spinoff TV series for characters that have appeared in the films. It will be live-action, and based on what he called a "really great idea." They will not started shooting for about a year, and it will be structured much like Young Indy.

They will shoot the first year all at once, which also means writing the script all at once. He will "get it started" then hand it off to others to carry on."

The very next day April 24th 2005 we posted this follow up, read below.

"Here's what we've been told officially about the upcoming live-action TV series from Lucasfilm.

* 100 episodes
* 1 hour each
* based on a spinoff character
* Lucas will direct first season
* write season one at one time
* film season one at one time
* takes place between ROTS and ANH

Then later in the year, George Lucas gave a keynote talk at the annual Siggraph computer graphics conference and tradeshow and revealed the following additional information.

"The first series is a 3-D animated Clone Wars series that will be made at Lucas Animation's Singapore facility. He said he'll start scouring Asia for talent and try to build up 3-D animation there. In his proposed Star Wars live-action series, he said: 'We're going do something that would normally cost [$20 million-$30 million] and try to do it for $1 million.' Lucas said he'll shoot the series on a Sony digital camera system that anyone can buy at an electronics store."

Now last week Rick McCallum stirred it up and got the buzz going again while answering some questions at the Sony Ericsson Empire Awards.

The story has snowballed out of control now to the point where I'm even getting confused. Now on top of Rick's comments add a TIME magazine Q&A with George Lucas to the mix and the snowball gets bigger. In it George Lucas is quoted as mentioning 3-D being used on the live action television series.

"R.C.Do you think audiences are so technically sophisticated now that they know the difference between formats? Virtually every CGI animated feature has been a much bigger hit than any non-CGI over the last ten years. Is that just a coincidence or a better story?

G.L.What happened with Pixar is they made brilliantly creative movies, but they looked different. They had a different quality about them than on television, than Rugrats. When you see a 3D movie, you assume it’s a higher-quality movie and it’s something you don’t see on television. Now the television show I’m working on, the Star Wars television show, is 3D.

R.C.When you said you were going to do Star Wars in 3D, do you mean in the old-fashioned 3D?

G.L.Yeah, with glasses and everything.

R.C.Did you think of this when you were making the movies?

G.L.No, no, no. I had no idea. And that’s what makes it great. There’s a difference, because it used to be a cheap trick, which is you had a 3D movie. Now it’s a movie, but it happens to be in 3D. It’s just a 3-Dimensional way of looking at a movie that doesn’t call attention to itself, it just works. And the quality is higher. I was very much against 3D until I saw this new process and said, hey, this actually works in a way that it should work, which is it doesn’t call attention to itself, you forget that you’re watching in 3D, it’s just a nicer process.

R.C. I have to say that when I saw Spy Kids 3D, the glasses kept slipping down my nose.

G.L.Well, now they’ve got better glasses."

So let's see if we've got all the facts here now.

The Star Wars live action television show will consist of 100 hours ( or 100 1 hour each episodes )

The Star Wars live action television show will feature 3-D ( you'll need glasses )

The Star Wars live action television show will be based on secondary characters ( you will not see Darth Vader )

The Star Wars live action television show will take place between Episode 3 & 4

The Star Wars live action television show will be done at the pricepoint of 1 million dollars per episode

The Star Wars live action television show will start filming in 2008

The animated Star Wars television show will use 3-D animation ( similar to Pixar, Toy Story etc )

The animated Star Wars television show will be based on the Clone Wars series

The animated Star Wars television show is currently under production at both Skywalker Ranch and the new facility in Singapore

I hope this helps everyone figure out exactly what's going on. I predict the animated series will be showcased at San Diego Comic Con this year and will be on television sometime in 2007. As always, stay tuned to TheForce.net for your daily dose of Star Wars!



***UPDATED!

Scott writes in with this :

"Great article!!! I think I have two corrections for you:

*The Star Wars live action television show will feature 3-D (you'll need glasses )

I think Lucas started out talking about the CGI animated series. Then in the middle of the Q&A, I think he started talking about turning A New Hope into a 3-D film (which he has said he'd do before and they've done to bits of the film already). I don't think the live action TV show will be in 3-D.

The other thing was saying that Darth Vader wouldn't appear in the live action TV series. I haven't seen a quote yet saying he wouldn't."

Good points Scott! Thanks for helping out! Thanks to a few others who also wrote in with very similar points!