a Kotor Film Series?

[Ghost]

You know, LucasArts and LucasFilm really brushed the Kotor series, especially TSL, under the rug with little to no mention in the future. Instead of creating an already childish series, why not create a series portraying the time around Kotor? Or maybe a couple of movies related to the Kotor Series. Now I know this sounds cheezy but think about it. It would be nice to see something other than the games reference or relate to the Kotor Time period.

 

I posted a poll to see your opinions.

[Q]

I'd definitely check it out. It would be infinitely more interesting than the Prequel era, which has been done to death, IMO.

[LordOfTheFish]

That would be great!

[Ghost]

It would be infinitely more interesting than the Prequel era, which has been done to death, IMO.

true, but LF and LA will squeeze all juice out of the prequel just to make more money. Penny Pinchers

[Tobias Reiper]

Emotionally: Yes.

Logically: NO WAY. Any time a company makes a movie based on a game or a tv series based on a game they always do either one of three things: They make a cliffhanger, They make it terrible, or they cut so much out of it and make so much new stuff up that it's barely recognizable.

If they do the cliffhanger, chances are the next one is never coming out.

If they make it terrible, well, they make it terrible, and it degenerates interest in getting the game.

If they make up things and take out things it's terrible, just in a different way.

Or maybe they do all 3.

Plus, look at the back of the box: it promises 80 hours or so of game, right?

Thus the cutting part is unavoidable, unless your REALLY committed, and if you were, you'd be doing it for about the rest of your life.

[Q]

I guess that having Uwe Boll direct would fall under "they make it terrible".

[Ghost]

true, most people do things badly, but it would be worth a shot

[True_Avery]

Two conditions and two conditions only:

 

George Lucas is not allowed within the same planet as the movies (he has to stay on the Nasa space station during production), and they get creative freedom over the Old Republic MMO canon and the Bioware writing staff.

 

The movies could be amazing, but we all know what George is capable of and I've since lost my faith in the Austin branch of Bioware's writers. Never thought I'd look back and miss Avelone, but there you are.

 

As a side request, I'd want the movies to be separate from the Comics as well. I'm sure that will p*** a lot of people off, but it'll allow more freedom with the script and characters as well as avoiding the more troublesome aspects of the comics.

[deathdisco]

If it's animated (think TOR's trailer/cinematic), I'm game.

[Ghost]

exactly what I mean, except i would prefer regular looking models instead the models that look like pieces of crap in the CW series

[True_Avery]

No.

 

NO.

 

The dialogue aside, the primary reason the prequels and animated series are look upon with such ire is because just that: they're animated. One of the big reasons why the original trilogy is such a great piece of work is because the world felt real, and lived in. Like you could walk through your screen and live in that world.

 

Animation is sterile. It is without consequences. The more of it you use, the more it is going to hurt your production unless you are Pixar, Disney, or perhaps James Cameron and even he used to have a better handle on it. The first 2 Alien movies are fantastic because he took cues from the realism of the Star Wars movies.

 

If they are animated, I want nothing to do with them. You lose the humanity of the scenes. Still, to date, probably one of the best specials effects scenes in film is the T-rex scene from the first Jurassic Park. This is also Spielbergs admitted hardest scene he has ever had to film because the set was wrought with problems. Problems, obstacles, etc breed artistic ideas. Half of what made the second Spider-man movie a great thing to watch was their special effects budget ran out so they had to dedicate more time to the script.

 

The next Star Wars movies will have to be gritty and real if it ever wants to earn its name back.

[Jae Onasi]

I want Morgan Freeman to play Jolee Bindo.

[Ghost]

well i cant determine it. With Animation you could use the old actors, but with real life looking you need to select an entirely new cast, and personally I liked the old cast

[capnnerefir]

Doesn't sound like a good idea to me, for a couple of reasons:

 

1.) KOTOR lacks the one thing that the films all have in common: Anakin Skywalker. Filmwise, Star Wars is about Anakin and his destiny. And while they may not always focus very tightly on Anakin/Vader (Think TPM or ANH, since at least ESB and ROTJ had a massive deal of character development for Vader), he is still present. He is, ater all, the Chosen One who wiuld bring balance to the force. The films are about him doing that. That is not to say thyey are not about other things, too (all three originals, for example), but Star Wars films without Anakin lack the essential soul of the films. KOTOR tells an entirely different story, and that is precisely what EU is for.

 

2.) One of the things that always made KOTOR so great is that you, the player, are in control. While we have some canon information about Revan such as his gender and some vague informaton about his life before and after the Wars, there is nothing established about him. His personality is up to you. HIs tactics are up to you. No one has ever played KOTOR and said to himself "You know what? My character's just a dick." Everybody loves Revan © because Revan acts how everyone wants him to act. He does what you think is best, when you think he should do it, with whom you think he should do it, and even why you think he should do it. If there was a movie, all of that control would be violently stripped away from us all. Any film would inherently lack perhaps the most important feature of KOTOR: choice.

 

3.) Execution. KOTOR was an amazing game, with a great story, some fun characters (HK FTW) and a mind bobgglingly epic plot twist that, if one is emotionally invested in the game, rivals the revalation of Luke's parentage in Episode V. And unfortunately, I just don't have confidence in LucasFilm to say that they're up to it. It would be just like them to get more wrapped dup in creating Korriban than what happens on that planet, or be much more excited about the battle outside of the Star Forge than on actually getting Revan and co. in there.

[Sabretooth]

The next Star Wars movies will have to be gritty and real if it ever wants to earn its name back.

 

An animation-centric production need not imply lack of realism or grittiness. While there have been plenty of appreciable adult animation films and series that have been realistic, one example I'd cite is 300. Despite being primarily live-action, only one scene was shot outdoors, and most of the movie consisted of stylized special effects. They were deliberately unrealistic and fantastical, but they were also brutal and what you might say gritty.

 

I don't think that special effects were a wrong idea for the Star Wars prequels, they just weren't handled the right way. District 9 is another fine example of special effects done in a realistic way. I think that the right blend of live-action, animation, special effects and motion-capture-based animation (like The Polar Express or Beowulf) can create something that's really spectacular to watch.

[Pho3nix]

I wouldn't be that interested in it, I've always hated the KOTOR time period.

[True_Avery]

I wouldn't be that interested in it, I've always hated the KOTOR time period.

Get out.

 

An animation-centric production need not imply lack of realism or grittiness. While there have been plenty of appreciable adult animation films and series that have been realistic, one example I'd cite is 300. Despite being primarily live-action, only one scene was shot outdoors, and most of the movie consisted of stylized special effects. They were deliberately unrealistic and fantastical, but they were also brutal and what you might say gritty.

 

I don't think that special effects were a wrong idea for the Star Wars prequels, they just weren't handled the right way. District 9 is another fine example of special effects done in a realistic way. I think that the right blend of live-action, animation, special effects and motion-capture-based animation (like The Polar Express or Beowulf) can create something that's really spectacular to watch.

I don't deny that special effects can benefit a movie. I just don't want to see a fully 3D Star Wars anything anymore, nor a fully cartoon.

 

A district 9 style grittiness would be great.

[Astor]

As a side request, I'd want the movies to be separate from the Comics as well. I'm sure that will p*** a lot of people off, but it'll allow more freedom with the script and characters as well as avoiding the more troublesome aspects of the comics.

 

Alek Squinquargesimus. I think that's all anyone need say on that topic.

 

I'd love to see films based on the KOTOR series, but I don't think we can trust anyone at LucasFilm to make it not suck.

[purifier]

I want Morgan Freeman to play Jolee Bindo.

 

 

 

No way Jae, it's got be....

 

 

DENZEL!

 

 

Lol, he even looks like Jolee in this pic.

[vanir]

I like to think screenwriting courses have a module using the Prequels as an example of how not to write. It supersedes RotJ which was the old model of taking something good and messing it up.

 

True Avery has the right idea.

 

KOTOR lacks the one thing that the films all have in common: Anakin Skywalker. Filmwise, Star Wars is about Anakin and his destiny.

 

Dude this was never what Star Wars was about. The original subplot was the story of Luke Skywalker, farmboy on an Outer Rim world who becomes a Jedi Knight. The main plot was an evil galactic empire and a hopelessly outmatched citizens revolt against it. The fantasy element was how Luke Skywalker tied into the main plot, who was no relation to Lord Vader (who's first name was Darth, it's not a title), but he was a terrific concern to the distant Emperor because if the Jedi Knights returned to the galaxy they could help unite the Rebellion as a much greater force and swing public opinion among the Core Worlds.

 

This was specifically the role Darth had played, an ex-student of a Jedi General whom was corrupted by Palpatine's political promises, betrayed the Order and became the instrument of its destruction. This was however backstory never intended to become the focus of the main plot. The Emperor was not a Sith Lord, Vader was the only Sith Lord because Sith were just a backwater species he did war crimes on, which is how he got the name (mentioned once in the original book and then on the original trading cards series). And Vader wasn't Luke's father, his name was Darth and he was just Obi Wan's student. Anakin was another Jedi, he was Obi Wan's friend. The inferrence is Vader murdered him at the very beginning of the Jedi Purge.

 

That was it. Before ESB was made this was the Star Wars backstory, theme and plot.

 

A fantasy writer named Margaret Weiss did an excellent personal rendition of the Jedi Purge and the story of Darth Vader in an original series called the Bloodsword Trilogy, which is a sort of reimagining using new character names and altering lightsabre technology a bit, to avoid intellectual property issues. It's a much better version than LucasFilm's prequels/RotJ abortion.

 

When GL made ESB he clearly stated he was surprised how popular the secondary characters like Han Solo and Chewbacca were among fans of the first movie, and he wanted to concentrate on them a bit more. On one hand you might say he's trying to please fans, on the other you might say he was chasing dollars. IIRC ESB was the largest movie budget to date at that time, also did even better than the first at the box office and attracted a whole new demographic of fans. Clearly it was the lead in to a final sequel which became Return of the Jedi but it was only an abstract at this stage, none of it had been finalised.

 

The cliff hangar at the end of ESB was in fact only ever intended to be a lie Vader was making to manipulate Luke. The whole point about Luke's threat to the Emperor's power was that he represented the Jedi returning to the galaxy, and could inspire further rebellion. Darth suggested Luke be corrupted rather than murdered, as it would ensure all faith in the Jedi Order was gone from the galaxy for all time.

 

GL said when he started work on RotJ he still wasn't sure if he'd change the story completely and make Vader the father of Luke, which obviously is what he wound up doing. RotJ gave some focus on the relationship between Palpatine and Vader, who had now been magically turned into Anakin Skywalker, and became a little bit more about Darth Vader as Anakin Skywalker. It's a bit like when they introduce exactly the same story in a daytime soap (no, your new husband is...your dead husband's brother!!!), inevitably they spend the rest of the episode basically wallowing in the revelation trying to explain it.

Actually this kind of thing is why I can't watch daytime soaps.

 

Again many speculate GL was chasing the dollars on this. After Han Solo and Chewbacca, the next favourite character among the fans of the original Star Wars was Darth Vader.

 

 

Also, what Avery said on doing Kotor movies. Shoot GL or dump him in an asian jail somewhere, and hire some writers who stick to the story.

[Q]

1.) KOTOR lacks the one thing that the films all have in common: Anakin Skywalker. Filmwise, Star Wars is about Anakin and his destiny.

This is precisely why, idiotic comics aside, KotOR doesn't suck. After all that GL did to undermine his character, Anakin Skywalker is dead to me.

[True_Avery]

@Vanir: Nicely put. It really is interesting how much the story evolved over time. Personally I'm fine with the final outcome of the original trilogy, but that's just me.

 

---

 

As far as a movie goes, you could probably avoid a lot of heartache if you avoided the games direct story and attempted to do what the prequels utterly and completely failed to do: Show the growth, physically and mentally, of a character and the introduction of a war time environment. The training of Jedi is only ever described in books and honestly that aspect of Star Wars fascinates me more than any of the politics. The most we've ever seen of this on screen was Yoda teaching Luke, which I thought was one of the more interesting parts of the original trilogy.

 

I would actually love to see, say, the first movie focusing on the training of Revan to a certain extent and the revelation, at the end, that the Mandalorians just aren't going to stop with the movie ending with Cathar being massacred and Revan deciding to take actions into his/her own hands.

 

The second movie could focus on the war itself (unlike the second prequel movie that focused on... I have no idea), which I think could be legitimately enthralling considering this war would have a certain amount of humanity to it. It would actually be people fighting other people instead of the people fighting... robots we've seen for the past 10 years. From the stories from Canderous and TSL, the war could be very interesting with the focus being primarily on the wounds of war slowly wearing on Revan's mind. You know, like the second movie should have been about... or both animated series. It is rather disappointing how... lighthearted war is portrayed in modern Star Wars.

 

Third movie... not a whole lot of idea. At this point you essentially have to decide if you are following the first game's interpretation of the war, the second games, the MMO's, or the comic's. The war itself is accepted by all 4, but it is told slightly differently in each.

 

In the first game it is pretty unknown, Revan was a war hero and strategist, then they disappeared after defeating them and attacked the republic. This, obviously, leaves the most room for growth.

 

The second game goes into much detail, if not a little too much, on the war, particular battles, and most interesting how the war actually ended at Malachor.

 

The MMO, on the other hand, paints with a different brush describing a Sith Emperor, the control over Revan and Malak, the return to make way for a larger invasion, with little to no mention so far of anything mentioned in TSL.

 

Then you have the comics. They can burn in hell.

 

The first Kotor game is indeed interesting, but the story does indeed fit itself more into a game environment than a movie. It could be pulled off, but to do so properly would require more than 1 movie or one very long movie and you'd have to cut an amazing amount. That, and you'd have to either step on a lot of canon, rewrite canon, or make up your own for that part of the story. The mandalorian wars would be a fair attempt since much of it is vague enough to build upon instead of trying to squeeze into.

 

I dunno, that is how I'd do it.

[Te Darasuum Mandalor]

A good Bastila Shan would probably be the actress who plays her in the game! The only problem is, she is like 36 or something, and Bastila was like 24 in the game. They are making an live action series however, and they think that KOTOR would be a possible spinoff. Lucas himself said so! And Jae, I think Morgan freeman would play an exellent Jolee Bindo too. I also think that Russel Crowe would play a good Carth and Johney Depp would be a good Calo Nord. Here's how they should do it if they made Six 2 hour 10 minute KOTOR movies or even a miniseries.

 

Part One: The Glory of the Republic (Endar Spire-Battle with Calo Nord on Tatooine)

 

Part Two: The Maps of the Stars (Arrival on Manaan-Escape on the Leviathen)

 

Part Three: An Identity Reborn (Korriban-Victory celebration)

 

Part Four: A Life of Exile (Ebon Hawk arrives on Peragus-Onderon Revolt begins)

 

Part Five: The Lost Jedi (Trouble on Nar Shadda-Leaving Korriban)

 

Part Six: Betrayal, Pain, Hunger (M4-78-Confrontation with Kreia)

 

I think a good Vrook would be Edward Asner, a good Vandar would be the guy who voices yoda, and a good Nihilus would be James Earl Jones.

[vanir]

Agree with a lot of the sentiments there True_Avery, though of course I've my own idea of what I'd like to see.

 

Only one movie would be needed but a good length, LotR style epic.

If you did the story of Ulic Qel Droma, Nomi Sunrider and any of the events of Tales of the Jedi (the Great Hyperspace War, the Sith Wars, the Freedon Nadd Uprising, etc.), you'd have to get the Dark Horse writers in on it and it's essentially going to be their project. Not such a bad idea, there's plenty of backstory and a movie concentrating on one specific event is going to seem very complex and deep, plus viewers will definitely want sequels to further explore the obvious backstory.

But basically you'd be handing LucasFilm over to Dark Horse as far as creative material goes, and there's nothing to say they won't walk exactly the same road as a template of commercial success.

 

For the story of Revan and the Exile there is the complication of RPG turned epic subplot. Whilst the main plot remains the same, the subplot revolving around the main character is likely to turn Ewok. I think this will definitely turn into a prequels escapade of nonsensical scripting and lasers and lightsabres. In this event it's just going to confuse fans that aren't into gaming and EU, and the problem with Kotor and TSL as far as visual modelling goes is that it's not really removed from the Skywalker era, there's still basically star destroyers, stormtroopers and tie fighters in it, even a Millenium Falcon, the Jedi are no different, there's just more dark Jedi than what we've seen on screen before.

 

Kotor/TSL have superb plot and character development, no doubt about that but visually it's neither original nor creative, it's just a reskin of existing SW material in the Skywalker era, nothing really shows you it's 4000yrs earlier, you have tell yourself or be told (actually until recently I thought it was 1000yrs BBY, and it's not like it would make any difference). At least in the Dark Horse material visually you get a sense of being some 5000yrs BBY, it's in the tech too like hyperspace navigation clearly being different from the OT period (using beacon markers and so on to guide ships, requiring scout vessels to plot new paths, and the ships themselves look more ancient than in Kotor).

 

So I think a new production team should write a completely new story set in the Old Republic era, perhaps taking some cues from the RPG sourcebooks, with all new characters and an original plot line.

Early lightsabres were according to RPG attached to a belt power pack by a chord. Man portable blasters were still new tech and big heavy things, most weaponry was more like Aliens. Really ancient looking starships with awkward shapes and protrusions, oversized and underpowered. Real obvious looking visual changes from classic Star Wars.

The Jedi themselves were more like adventurers and explorers than ascetic monks. They were rough and ready and fostering the galactic expansion from the Core Worlds, they were much more ambiguous than later but it was only the really bad ones who'd take it upon themselves to hunt out sith artefacts and use their power to become dictators.

 

I think this way you could concentrate on the evolution and development of the Jedi Knights, whereas if we take the story of Ulic Qel Droma or Darth Revan what we'll inevitably wind up with is an homage, which completely distracts itself from the purpose of the story as artistic prose to become self indulgence.

 

And for godsakes keep it away from this Old Republic MMO business, it's doing what the prequels did for OT on Kotor.

[Mandalore The Shadow]

Great Idea now someone has to do it