CloakedOne said:
Eliam_Dar said:
if they want to do a Star Wars movie, why not making a new one based on the expanded universe.
THANK YOU! Jeez, would it really be such a crime to make new movies with EU-based characters?
I love Star Wars to death but COME ON!!! It's done! Concentrate on NEW THINGS!
Hard to do for liscencing reasons.
If you've been following Star Wars through the decades you would know that the future of the universe after the end of the movies exists in a real world legal tangle of epic proportions. The reason being is that George Lucas basically sold the rights to the canon on several occasions when he believed it was "done" and he couldn't make more money on it. There was a huge fight with Dark Horse Comics over this back in the day, and another battle with the producers of a series of young adult novels (The Glove Of Darth Vader, etc...) on similar merits when he managed to engage in legal wrangling to get the rights to the canon back. Opinions on who was right in these cases varies, as a lot of people feel Mr. Lucas used his star power to leverage some improbable rulings in his favor.
Right now you have a ton of novels taking place after the movies that are loosely connected to Timothy Zahn's "Thrawn" character and that whole vision of the future. However overall those novels are a giant, contridictory mess that can spawn massive fanboy arguements that can make Warhammer 40k fan arguements about similar things seem mild in comparison.
One of the things George Lucas did to smooth feathers was include some aspects of the various works other people did when they rightfully owned it into the canon. While it went no where "Shadows Of The Empire" was part of a negotiation with Dark Horse Comics for them to insert something into the Canon, however you'll notice it pretty much disappeared after that along with it's definition of what a Sith was (the actual alien race). The rancor riding witches and "lost city of the Jedi" were from the first young adult novels if I recall as well.
The problem is that if someone does a sequel right now, even him, increasingly wary observers are going to be defending the right for their novels to be considered Canon (which is what their success is dependant on) due to contracts and such. with the contridictions involved, along with the complete lack of room for creativity due to how much has been written (which in some way covers everything you could think of, and then some) it makes doing sequels a nightmare.
As a fanboy you might say "well, they could work through that and do it anyway, I wants me some sequels and new material! moar movies! moar!", but if you were a writer who was making money based off of writing canon fiction set after the end of the triology, you have a vested interest in the integrity of your work, not to mention having paid for the right to produce those things to begin with.
Besides which, I don't think there is anyone out there who could do justice to the universe except me (evil fanboy laugh), sentiments shared by many of my fellow fans. Sadly this includes poeople like George Lucas given the travesties he's inflicted, and even writers like Timothy Zahn and RA Salvatore, who came up with some neat stuff, but also some pretty bad stuff as well. There is pretty much nobody out there that would be agreed on as a possible writer for more movies, assuming the problems with the liscencing and determining canon could even be dealt with. After some of the battles, like with "Dark Horse" people are a lot more ready to defend themselves now. George Lucas has an... interesting business reputation for a reason.
