100 Episodes of "Clone Wars" in 2008

[wayshway]

n Part 1 of TV Guide executive editor Steve Sonsky's in-depth Q&A with George Lucas, the discussion encompassed the Starz documentary Fog City Mavericks (premiering Monday, Sept. 24, at 9 pm/ET), Lucas' advice for aspiring filmmakers and why Sean Connery turning down Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull might be a good thing. Here in Part 2, the conversation turns to Lucas' pair of TV-bound Star Wars projects, the power of the Internet and the television series he was distraught to see go off the air.

TV Guide: Can we talk about the two Star Wars television series you're working on...?
George Lucas: There's Clone Wars, and we're in the middle of that.

TV Guide: Tell us about it.
Lucas: Well it's basically like Star Wars [in that it] takes place between, obviously, [the films] Episode II [Attack of the Clones] and Episode III [Revenge of the Sith], but it's the same kind of action. Unfortunately, it doesn't fall into the realm of what animation [typically] is, which is either adult, kind of off-color humor or kiddie stuff. This is, like Star Wars, sort of in between those two things. It's a lot of battle stuff, and it's obviously the Clone Wars, so it's a war picture. So it's kind of a PG-13 animated TV series, which is something that has never been done before and obviously doesn't fit in any of the conventional slots that these things fall into. In that, it's very different, and I think it's very exciting. It's got a very, very sophisticated look to it. It's very much like the features. We're still trying to figure out how to put it on the air.

TV Guide: And you're going to do a hundred episodes?
Lucas: We're going to do a hundred episodes. I think we're on [No.] 40 right now. We'll probably end up with 50 to 60 episodes before we start to put it on the air. We'd like to put it on next fall, in about a year from now, but we'll see what happens.

TV Guide: Where do you see it living? How do you see this playing? Obviously it doesn't sound like a Saturday morning cartoon.
Lucas: Right now, we don't know. It's out there to people, and people are talking about it, but so far, everybody's got the same conundrums — "How do we program it? Where does it live? Where can we put something like this?" You know, it has to go after 9 o'clock and it can't be on a kiddie channel.

TV Guide: So you see it on a more mainstream channel or the Sci Fi Channel or something like that?
Lucas: Well, it's one of those things. Television is sort of bifurcated up into small niches and unless you fit in one of those niches, no one knows what to do with you. And, of course, I'm always outside the box, so it's like, "Uh-oh, we don't have a box for you." [Laughs] But it's Star Wars and it's really good, so I'm sure somehow or another, people will also start thinking outside the box and it will find its home.

TV Guide: What about your Star Wars live-action series for TV?
Lucas: Yes, I'm working on that. We're just going to start writing it in about a month from now, start doing scripts for it.

TV Guide: And where will that live in the Star Wars continuum relative to Clone Wars and relative to the films?
Lucas: Well, Clone Wars has got all the characters in it — Yoda and Anakin and Obi Wan and the Emperor and all that — so it's basically the movie. The live-action [series] is not the movie. It's the Star Wars universe, but it's characters from the saga who were [previously] minor, and it follows their stories. It's set between [movie episodes] III and IV, when the Empire has taken over. It's like Episode IV in that the Emperor and Darth Vader are heard about — people talk about them — but you never see them because it doesn't take place where they actually are. There are storm troopers and all that, but there are no Jedis. It's different, but I think it's very exciting because I get to explore a part of that universe that I haven't been able to explore. Once you have a saga, it's got a lot of requirements because it's about a particular [thing] — in this case, Darth Vader — and so it's his story from the ti