While speaking to Den Of Geek, Producer Rick McCallum was quizzed about this Star Wars tv series we keep hearing about, but never seems to go anywhere. Well he sheds a bit of light on why that is. McCallum explains that although they have over 50 hours of second-draft scripts, it would take a year of prep before any shooting could be done because "they’re all very complex". He also talks about how expensive they would be to produce, and the pros and cons of talking the show to either Network or Cable television. But most interestingly he reveals that the show would be a more adult affair, and even compares it to HBO's ultra violent, profanity laden Western series, Deadwood..
Our biggest problem is that these stories are adult. I mean…these are like Deadwood in space. It so unlike anything you’ve ever associated with George before in relation to Star Wars. These aren’t for kids. I mean, we hope they’ll watch, but it’s not being targeted at 8-to-9 year old boys. The situation we have is that each episode – or if you put two hour long episodes together – is bigger than any film we’ve ever done. It’s on the Avatar level and we’ll only have about $5-6 million we can spend on each episode.
The plot of the series (which last we heard had the working title: "Star Wars: Underworld") is said to focus on the seedier side of the
Star Wars universe - smugglers, bounty hunters etc - so it makes sense that things would need to be a bit grittier, but
Deadwood? I'll believe it when I see it, and hopefully that is sooner rather than later. Click the link back to Den Of Geek below to check out the full interview.