A Double Dose of Star Wars News

Hey gang!  The Bearded Lady here with a double dose of Star Wars related news.

First up in today’s news; Star Wars fans have a lot to look forward to now that the news is out about Ronald D. Moore’s involvement in a Star Wars TV series has been confirmed.  For those unfamiliar with Mr. Moore, a quick look at his IMDB resume shows the man knows his way around genre television.  In fact, if Disney goes forward with his script, Moore will earn himself space opera hat trick due to his work on Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and now Star Wars.  Here’s what Entertainment Weekly has to say about this latest development in the Star Wars saga.

The project was commissioned by longtime Lucasfilm producer Rick McCallum, who enlisted writers such as Battlestar Galactica‘s Ron Moore and swore them to NDA secrecy on the plot details (more on the show’s storyline below). Fifty scripts were written. McCallum once called the scripts the most “provocative, bold and daring material that we’ve ever done.”

The Star Wars show was budgeted at more than $5 million per episode and Lucasfilm wanted to retain ownership. But now Disney has purchased Lucasfilm for $4 billion and Disney owns more than a couple TV networks. The financials for a big-budget TV show are more compelling if the license fee and other income sources stay in the family.

If the show does go into production, what can fans expect in this new chapter of Lucas’ saga?

Sources say the live-action series centers on the story of rival families struggling over the control of the seedy underside of the Star Wars universe and the people who live within the subterranean level and air shafts of the metropolis planet Coruscant (the Empire’s urban-sprawl-covered home planet). A bounty hunter may be the main character. Set between the original Star Wars film trilogy and the prequels, the time period allows for all sorts of potential appearances from classic figures from the Star Wars universe.

Normally I’d be cautious of a show that centers on people living in air shafts, but given Moore’s track record with Galactica, it’s a safe bet that he’s got something pretty amazing planned.  Of course, only time will tell if this actually makes it to air, or is just another in the long line of disappointments Star Wars fans have endured at the hands of George Lucas.

In other slightly disappointing news, the US Government has made it official: They will NOT be starting construction on a fully armed and operational death star.

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

• The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
• The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
• Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

In a response to a petition on the Whitehouse.gov website, the Obama administration handed down a statement that not only closes the door on a potential death star, but also reveals that the current administration is quite possibly the geekiest one ever.  Be sure to read the full response to see just how nerdy Obama and company can get.

Oh, and was I the only one who didn’t know that NASA has a working program called C-3PO?