As you already know, yesterday came with it the monumental news that Disney had forked over $4 billion for Lucasfilm, and are launching a new "Star Wars" trilogy, with the first film slated to arrive in 2015. Of course, the internet nearly had a meltdown, and fans have been tossing around wishlists of directors (sorry guys, David Fincher will never come near this) and wondering aloud where the story will go next. In fact, we put together our own list of ways Disney may be approaching the next part of the saga, and also wondered if integrity can be restored to the franchise. Well, this is a step in the right direction.
Marking the beginning of what will likely be a three-year slow drip of information, a couple morsels about that treatment George Lucas has penned have emerged. "It's an original story," a Lucasfilm source told E!. So what does that exactly mean? If you were hoping for an adaptation of the fan-celebrated books in any capacity, guess again. Because it seems Lucas has again expanded things outward, with even more to toss into the already complex "Star Wars" universe.
The Wrap caught up with writer Dale Pollock, author of the unauthorized “Skywalking: The Life And Films Of George Lucas,” and he claims the filmmaker allowed him to read the outlines for his originally planned twelve-part story. So did he get access? Pollock apparently interviewed Lucas more than eighty times for the book, but the two wound up having a falling out. But Pollock's claims about what lies within those story outlines are intriguing.
“It was originally a 12-part saga,” Pollock said. “The three most exciting stories were 7, 8 and 9. They had propulsive action, really interesting new worlds, new characters. I remember thinking, ‘I want to see these 3 movies.’”
However, the part that will get "Star Wars" fans excited is that Pollock says the stories feature Luke Skywalker in his 30s or 40s. “They will need an older Luke Skywalker,” he says. So, sorry, probably no Mark Hamill.
Of course, whether this is accurate or not, or if Lucas scrapped that idea and came up with something else, remains to be seen. But it's pretty easy to see why Disney would be excited by the prospect of Luke Skywalker featuring in a brand new "Star Wars" trilogy. And all of this seems to suggest that the "original story" will indeed be a continuation of "Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi."
Is this the right way for the series to go? Let us know…
