Wasn't there supposed to be a 7-9 originally after they went back for 1-3? A trilogy of trilogies?

Lucas has said absolutely not. So hopefully when he's dead, somebody with some filmmaking talent will buy the rights and do it the way it should be done.

Honestly though, the real issue is casting. How do you pick up from the end of Episode VI with an all-new cast? How far ahead do you take it? Or, if you were to start in 3-4 years, would it be worth attempting to get the cast together? Hamill would be in, Ford could be convinced, but Carrie Fisher hates everything that is Star Wars. (I think it's trauma from the gold bikini :P)

Originally, yes. Too bad they pace slowed down, and now it seems impossible.

On the bright side, there is a Lucas-sanctioned series ov novels that picks up at the end of Jedi. They're actually pretty good. But now there's like 45 paperbacks that are "official" and like 200 that aren't. Probably the first 4-5 stand-alone novels, and a handful of book trilogies are well worth reading. I have most of those, scattered about with my belongings.

The Thrawn storyline trilogy by Timothy Zahn was excellent IMO; after those were written some of the books were good, some weren't.. quality generally declined.

Agreed. Some of the writers chosen were much more suitable than others. Among the later ones (that I've read) the Han Solo trilogy was pretty cool.

Getting back tot he plot lines that need to be covered in Ep. 3... "The fall of the Republic" is actually covered in Ep. 4 about 10 minutes into it when one of the Admirals says "The Senate is no longer a problem, the Emperor just disbanded them", or something to that effect.

Pretty weaksauce, but technically the Republic isn't gone until *after* the rebellion has started and the Death Star is built, etc.

Actually I look at it another way; Tarkin says "The Imperial Senate" has been dissolved, which implies a different governing body than the old "Republic Senate" - which would mean that the Republic had fallen long ago and different institutions were in place in the time of IV. It's a subtle point, I know, but it's also backed up by Ben Kenobi & Luke's conversations in the beginning of IV too, when he talks about "before the dark times... before the Empire", referencing "Imperial stormtroopers", etc. etc. These other points also imply that the Republic was long since gone and the Empire was firmly established. The Imperial Senate would have just been a largely ceremonial body to let the people keep their illusions of self-government. Even the harshest and most dictatorial of Roman Emperors never completely abolished the Roman Senate, because they knew better - it's a key to maintaining order in the populace.

Or that's my take on it, anyway. :lol:

ummm... what was this thread about again?

Don't forget... "the Governers will have direct control and fear of this battle station will keep them in line!"

Actually, I bet we can't really gleen any real information from that scene since Lucan hadn't hardly thought out any of the pre-story yet at that point... it was just political gibberish to make the audience realize that there were large political issues at hand behind the scenes.. not just space guys blowing stuff up.

As I understand it, Lucas originally did screenplays for all 9 episodes at once, then chose IV-VI to actually film first.

Uber-cliff notes of each trilogy:

I-III: Republic is barely effective, but tame government. Evil bad guy wants to take over. Sneaky political manipulation ensues.

IV-VI: Evil bad guy is firmly in control of the galaxy. Old government good guys want it back. Fight ensues, good triumphs.

VII-IX: Evil bad guy's minions want the government back. More fighting. Dark Helmet's maxim proven wrong.

Something completely different than what we're talking about 1 page later - this surprises you these days? :lol:

I just thought this thread was particularly illustrative of our MO these days. :P

Um no... Lucas didn't even write the screen plays for the 1st three movies.

A New Hope: Written/Directed by Lucas

Empire: Story by Lucas, Screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, Directed by Irving Kershner

Jedi: Story by Lucas, Screenplay by Kasdan and Lucas, Directed by Richard Marquand (although in reality Lucas did a lot of the directing too since Marquand was a n00b)

Lucas had a simple general outline based on his own interpretations of well known ancient myths, but no details until shortly before the movies were made.

"Screenplay" was a poor word choice on my part.

Right, it wasn't fully fleshed out, but the basic events were in place. that's what I understood at least. I'm sure Episode I-III are far removed from his original ideas in some repsects.

Actually, I think we'd be surprised how general the plot lines were before the screenplays were written. From what I've heard, Lucas just did a lot of research about what sort of plot lines make for "good" mythology by studying ancient myths. Stuff like "the unwitting hero" and the issues of lineage (Vader is Luke's father) and the "spirits of the past" guiding the living (aka the dead Jedi). Plus the use of swords instead of guns, and the idea of the Force...

I don't think the political backstory, or much of anything else outside of the basic themes, were really fleshed out until the movies were actually written. Which is also why Empire is so much better... it wasn't really written by Lucas. He told them that the rebels need to get their asses kicked and that Luke needed to find out Vader was his father... the writers were the ones that made the movie rule.

Hmmm... who wrote Episode III? I'm hoping for some guy that GL told "the Jedis/Republic get their asses kicked, and Anakin becomes Darth Vader. Go go go!" :lol:

wow I got in on this too late, the intraweb broke here today.

Nick, I also really liked 'Firefly'

Series premiere tonight!

I watched the Battlestar with my Dad last night at their house.

I liked it.

On Sunday SciFi played the pilot (4 hrs.), which filled in some holes that I missed from the NBC broadcast. But since I didn't tape it, and stepped away for a few minutes, what was the bit about jumping every 33 minutes?

The fleet was being tracked by someone or something on one of the ships, which the Cylons were picking up on within 33 minutes - the number is arbitrary, it's just how long it was taking for the Cylons to find them after each jump.

Thanks Austin.

No problem. I'm here for random Battlestar plot info needs. :lol: