Lucasfilm Animation Adds Brenda Chapman as Consultant

Are big changes afoot at Lucasfilm Animation?  Are they gearing up for new projects?

Word spread via /Film that former Pixar Writer/Director Brenda Chapman has signed on to work as a consultant with Lucasfilm's Animation division.

From /Film:

"That became official this week as she’s now working at LucasFilm, consulting in their animation department on a mystery project. Read more and speculate after the jump.
Chapman’s Pixar to LucasFilm move was first reported by Pixar Portal (via Pixar Planet). The story says she left Pixar at the end of July.
Chapman’s resume speaks for itself, so whether her departure from Pixar was amicable or not, is pretty insignificant. The bigger news is she’s now working at LucasFilm, in their animation department. That department has been strictly devoted to Star Wars: The Clone Wars."

This is news that I first saw on Jedi News, but /Film also points to Lucasfilm Animation's "About" page for some hints at what might be coming down the pipeline from the studio.

"Founded in 2003, Lucasfilm Animation is a digital animation studio launched to produce Star Wars: The Clone Wars - a computer-generated, weekly animated series exploring the further adventures of "a galaxy far, far away." Bringing an unprecedented production quality to TV animation, the series has appealed to an entirely new generation of Star Wars fans, while maintaining the level of storytelling introduced by the live-action films.
In addition to continuing work on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and developing a second Star Wars animated series, the studio is also focusing efforts on feature film animation and other new intellectual properties." ~http://www.lucasfilm.com/divisions/animation/

The second animated series is the Matthew Senreich and Seth Green, who will be discussing and possibly showing stuff from their animated project at Star Wars Celebration VI on both Friday and Saturday at 1pm during the mysteriously titled "Super-Secret Star Wars Panel with Todd, Seth, and Matt (1hr, Celebration Stage (Chapin Theater))."

It would be interesting to see if the Clone Wars series finale is going to get the feature film treatment like it's premier did.

There are a number of interesting feature film animated possibilities within the Star Wars universe.  How about a Dark Times animated Vader film, hunting Jedi and establishing Imperial control while resolving his inner conflicts.  Or what about feature treatment for certain EU or comic tales, even if it is in the direct to video format.  I would love to see Grand Admiral Thrawn in animation.

Hopefully we get some clue as to what Ms. Chapman may be working on at CVI, but it may be a little longer until all is revealed.

To learn more about Brenda Chapman and her impressive career visit her website: http://brenda-chapman.com/ and you can also follow Brenda Chapman on Twitter at @brenda_chapman. 

On Continuity and Accessibility in the Star Wars Expanded Universe

The combination of Star Wars Beyond the Films latest podcast #30 and Eric Geller's recurring feature on Suvudu.com, "Suvudu Gateway Series" had me pondering the accessibility of the Star Wars Expanded Universe to new readers or lapsed readers.

I must confess that as big of a Star Wars and SWEU fan as I was growing up as I got older, sports, politics, life took me farther away from the franchise.  My college years were my Star Wars fandom dark times.  It wasn't until I stumbled upon a used paperback copy of Vector Prime in the book section of a Salvation Army store that I began reading Star Wars books again in 2004.  I missed about five years of Star Wars publishing in total and I was confused by the universe I was re-introduced to.  I was lucky in that the first book i picked up was also the first book of the New Jedi Order mega-series, but I think the results would have been the same if I picked up any NJO book.  Very quickly reading Vector Prime it was like re-connecting with old friends.  I wanted to catch up with these friends and find out what happened in their lives to get them from when last we met to where they were now.

After Vector Prime, I began purchasing the NJO books as quickly and as in order as I could get my hands on them.  But I was just getting started, my appetite for SWEU rekindled I began purchasing books that I remembered liking (that are still sitting in my Mom's house), purchasing books that I had missed along the way, and finally as I caught up began purchasing the books as they where released.  Today I have a massive collections of Star Wars novels as well as some other books, comics and assorted merchandise.  I would probably have none of this and Lucasfilm would probably have much less of my money if it wasn't for the films and the random selection of a novel to read.  I didn't read Vector Prime because it had Luke Skywalker on the cover, I read Vector Prime because it had "Star Wars" on the cover and I knew that I enjoyed stories set in that universe regardless of the cast of characters.

On Continuity:

There has been much talk recently of continuity and the issue of rebooting the Star Wars franchise's storytelling.  I am concerned by comments like those recently expressed by Dark Horse Editor Randy Stradley on the Dark Horse Message Boards,

"I will say this: feedback  from comics retailers and bookstore buyers (the people who actually  order our books) indicates overwhelmingly that they want more titles  that are accessible to casual fans. For instance, Dawn of the Jedi and Legacy, each being at relatively continuity-free ends of the timeline are good fits. The new Star Wars series, which is designed so that readers need know nothing more than what happened in A New Hope is another good jumping on point.
This doesn’t mean that everything  we publish will fall into those kinds of categories, but it is a fact  that the more accessible titles (or those which focus on important movie  characters) sell better than those that require readers to be familiar  with Expanded Universe continuity. We totally get that hardcore or  longtime fans would like more exploration of the “between times,” but  the fact is that sales of those projects don’t come up to the levels of  the more accessible story lines. Every decision we make is a balancing  act between art and commerce. That’s why I have said — and will  continue to say — that telling a good story is far more important than  connecting the dots between existing continuity landmarks. A really good  story is always receive more consideration from me than one that exists  primarily to fill-in the blanks."

While I agree that good storytelling is the key to the health of any franchise long term, and think that slavish devotion to continuity should not be justification for bad stories, I am worried about the logic that Stradley is using here.

How many new fans are coming to the Star War franchise with only the knowledge of Star Wars: A New Hope?  Realistically if a new fan is a child they were likely introduced through the Clone Wars animated series, a young reader book, or by watching the films with their parents.  Alternatively if you are an adult consumer and unfamiliar with Star Wars if you see A New Hope and like the franchise enough to actually purchase a comic book based on that one film, then it seems likely you would first be more likely to watch the other five films.  Guess what happens when you watch the five films, you are not only introduced to a ton of new and minor characters, but you also see an entire trilogy that exists to "fill-in the blanks" of the Orginal Trilogy.

The Prequel trilogy develops out of some throw away lines exchanged between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker, this is where we first get the knowledge that (1) Obi-Wan knew looks Dad, (2) Obi-Wan and Luke's Dad fought in something called the Clone Wars, (3) Vader turned to the Dark Side and killed Luke's Dad.

Did we need to know the story from the Prequel films to understand or find the Original series accessible?  No we did not.  A good writer can craft a story without abandoning continuity and fans are smart enough to be able to find out information by looking for earlier or subsequent works of fiction that answer the questions or explain the references they do not understand.

I still remember being confused by references that Kevin J. Anderson made in his novels that related to the events of the Dark Empire comics from Dark Horse.  I didn't read Dark Empire until '04-'05 many, many years after I had first read Jedi Search.  Did this make The Jedi Academy Trilogy any less accessible to me? Nope.


When a Star Wars novel is well crafted it is a self-contained story that has characters and plots that are fully fleshed out, but also introduce references to events and characters from other novels.  These continuity sign posts kept me hungry to learn more an more about the history of the galaxy far, far away.  Without a comprehensive continuity, these sign-posts are meaningless or like the classic cartoon gag are pointing you in the wrong direction.  Continuity allows stories and characters to connect in a way that makes the universe have a depth and breadth that cannot be matched by any other entertainment franchise.  By ignoring continuity intentionally or by rebooting the franchise you end up destroying the very thing that makes Star Wars so unique and keeps Leland Chee employed.  Changes to continuity are going to be necessary particularly for a franchise that his been rolling for over 35 years, but having to ret-con something to fix continuity isn't a negative, it isn't a reason to reboot the franchise, this creative effort and care that is put into continuity pays respect to both all of the creative individuals that have worked in George Lucas' sand box but also all of the fans that have lived and died with the successes and failures of their favorite heroes.

On Accessibility: 

This brings me to the other issue of accessibility.  Often we here the question from someone who likes the films but has never read the novels, or from someone who wants to introduce a friend to the novels, where do you begin.  The library of Star Wars novels is so vast and continuity so dense that people don't know where to begin.


The great myth of the Expanded Universe is that this vast sea of stories is too difficult to get into without a clear starting point. The reality is that you can begin with any novel.

The beauty of a unified continuity is that no matter where you begin in the novels, you will have a direction to go. If you start at one extreme end of the timeline you can work your way in the other direction, if you start in the middle you can go either direction.  You can even jump around from series to series depending on what tickles your fancy.  This ability to jump in at any point is because of the universe' foundation which was laid in the movies.  This familiarity with Star Wars from the films makes any one of the novels or comics accessible to the fans.  This foundation is also part of the reason why the publishers can publish novels out of in-universe chronological order.  We may already know the fates of many of the film characters, but that does not make the stories less interesting, the setting, story telling style, and characters all combine to make Star Wars so compelling.  Well crafted characters, whether you are familiar with them or not can be just as compelling as the film characters in the same universal setting if told in space opera style of Star Wars.

The exception to this start anywhere rule is that it is generally to better to start in the first book of any series if you are reading a book from a series, and certain books will be outliers in terms of style/content.  It would give a new reader the wrong idea about what Star Wars books are like if you introduced them to Death Troopers as their first novel.

So SWEU fans and SWEU initiates my advice to you is the same, just pick up any book and read. If  you do you will have "taken your first step into a larger world," a world that only exists because of continuity.

LINKS: Star Wars Beyond the Films Episode 30 and Suvudu's Gateway Series #1, 2, 3 and 4. 

New Film from Director Kyle Newman, "Chewie" about the Life of Actor Peter Mayhew

On of Hollywood's top 2011 Black List scripts is finally going into production. In 2011's voting "Chewie" came in at third place with 59 votes.

The film entitled "Chewie" will be devloped by Director Kyle Newman (Fanboys) in partnership with Inferno Entertainment.  The film is based on a script by Evan Susser and Van Robochaux (Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre), and will be produced by  Jess Rosenthal and D.J. Gugenheim.

In December of 2011 the writers sat down with EW's Jeff Labrecque for a wide ranging interview on the script. 

"ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was the spark that made you think this was a story you wanted to tell? 

VAN ROBICHAUX: We had been talking to each other about stories we’d heard over the years about how the making of Star Wars had been sort of a nightmare and had almost fallen apart at every step along the way. So we were trading funny stories about it, and there was a line that we came upon that said, “Peter Mayhew, the British giant who played Chewbacca worked in a hospital before, during, and after the making of Star Wars.” And we just sort of were fascinated by this idea that he was trading his days back and forth between being on the set of Star Wars as Chewbacca and working as an orderly in a hospital. 

EVAN SUSSER: Yeah, especially because we’re young and we have actor friends who are maybe doing guest spots on The Office and then it’s back to their day job as a waiter. And in Peter’s case, the day job was a hospital, which is life and death; and it’s not just The Office, it’s the most iconic film of all time. So we really had a handle on the story from there.
VR: Plus, we really fell in love with the character and the real person of Peter Mayhew, who’s this sort of gentle giant. He’s kind of a hard guy to get in touch with, so this year at Comic-Con, we drove down to meet him. We were about 65 percent of the way done with the script and we just had some things we wanted to fill out. We waited in line to get his autograph and we decided we could probably ask him one question — no matter how weird it was. So we asked him, “What did your father and brother do for a living?” And he just answered without even blinking, and then we figured, okay we’re on a roll. So we asked him, “Where exactly in London did you grow up?” “What was the name of the hospital you worked at?” And that really helped fill it out. Meanwhile the people behind us were like, “Ask about the Millennium Falcon and how fast it can go!” "

"George Lucas, of course, is very protective of his lucrative properties. Have you encountered that yet and do you expect to? 

VR: As we understand it, for this movie to get made, George Lucas is going to have to give his approval. But we hope that’s it’s a loving enough portrayal of him and the making of the movie that they’ll get onboard. So we’re kind of waiting to hear if he says, “I like this, this is okay.” Or, “How dare you make me a character in a film!” We think it’s a very loving portrayal of a guy we really look up to. So we hope he likes it. 

ES: On the other hand, we’re worried that Harrison Ford is going to beat us up."

Stay tuned to LR for more news on "Chewie" as it develops.

SOURCES: THR's Heat Vision Blog and Entertainment Weekly

Upcoming Star Wars Books Facebook Chats with The Holocron Keeper and John Jackson Miller

Del Rey Editor Frank Parisi announced two cool upcoming Facebook chats with Lucasfilm's continuity guru, the Keeper of the Holocron Leland Chee and with comic and novel writer John Jackson Miller.

"We’re stoked as a gaggle of Kowakian monkey lizards on glitterstim to announce that we're hosting a live Facebook chat with the Keeper of the Holocron (Officially, Lucasfilm’s Continuity Database Administrator) Leland Chee on Tuesday, August 14th at 4 pm EST! Be here to get all your continuity questions about The Star Wars answered by the inimitable Mr. Chee. As a reminder, we’re also hosting a chat with Lost Tribe of the Sith (on sale now!) scribe John Jackson Miller on August 8th at 3pm EST. If you haven't read Lost Tribe yet, what are you waiting for?? (FP)"

As a public service if you go to either Facebook chat, please remember a few things.

1) Time is limited please ask quality questions.
2) The chat guests will not and cannot giveaway any top secret info.
3) Avoid text/IM spelling and punctuation.
4) I love the Mandos and Commandos as well, but please limit the Karen Traviss and RC questions to one per chat.

LINK TO DEL REY'S STAR WARS FACEBOOK PAGE: "STAR WARS BOOKS"


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Review: X-Wing: Mercy Kill

Author's Note: The following review contains mentions of some characters appearing in the novel, so it may be a very minor spoiler for those who haven't yet seen the Dramatis Personae.

Leave it to Aaron Allston to get the band back together, no not the Cantina Band, but the WRAITHS.  In the early days of the New Republic Rogue Squadron Commander Wedge Antilles saw the need for a new breed of special forces, individuals that possessed diverse commando skills and secondarily where capable Starfighter pilots.  Of course Wedge ended up choosing a motley crew of individuals that went on to be featured in Allston's 5th, 6th and 7th novels in the X-Wing series, Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist and Solo Command. 

If you have yet to read the X-Wing series, I cannot recommend enough reading that series before you read Mercy Kill.  It would also be beneficial to read the Fate of the Jedi series, as the plot revolves around one of the subplots withing that series.  Mercy Kill is in and of itself a fully self contained story.  Through the use of flash-backs and exposition to provide important back ground and context for the characters involved.  What Allston does that is important to good storytelling is strike the balance between catering to new audiences and returning audiences, you have to assume fans will have read the other books but you can have some touchstones in the story to jog their memory.

Mercy Kill is a return to a cast of characters many years since we have last seen them except in brief moments.  Most people will recognize the obvious skill with which Allston wields humor, especially when writing the Wraiths.  In the original Wraith novels, comedic reprobate Wes Janson was the frequent purveyor of humor.  

Voort

Less well recognized than Allston's comedic chops are his ability to convey emotion and create scenes and situations that force the reader to experience his novels in a very visceral way.  In Mercy Kill, Allston takes one of the more interesting characters created in the Expanded Universe, Voort "Piggy" saBinring, a super-intelligent Gamorrean who was surgically altered not only to be vastly more intelligent than the rest of his species but was also given the ability to talk. 

There is a bit of  Frankenstein's monster in the make up of Piggy, both Piggy and the monster where created in a laboratory, they did not choose their state of being.  Both Piggy and the monster experience extreme social isolation based on their natures.  I am fascinated by the idea that while we consider intelligence a gift, there is a certain bliss in ignorance.  If Piggy was never altered, he could have perhaps led a perfectly happy Gamorrean life with a rubenesque wife and three little piglet off-spring?  It is Piggy's intelligence that both creates this social barrier with the rest of his species and makes him aware of his isolation.

Piggy's story may also ring true with military veterans or people who have known military veterans.  The generation of characters that Piggy is from where born into and lived in constant conflict against the Empire and its remnants.  Piggy found not only his purpose but also what he was good at in Wraith Squadron.  How does one adjust to life outside of that military structure?  How does one handle the emotions of what one had to do during war time when the surge of adrenaline high emotions of combat wane?  How does one adjust to a world that has moved on, when you are still reliving an event or series of events?

I could go on and on about how much I love the choice of Piggy as the emotional backbone of this novel, but I would rather talk about it after you read it.  We need more off-beat leading characters the SWEU, apologies to random human male Jedi A and random human female Jedi B.

Taking place primarily in 44 ABY  it is hardly surprising that we find the Wraiths in various different places in their lives.  Allston provides a nice mixture of returning characters (Wedge, Face, Piggy, Bhindi) and new characters (Trey, Truman, Scut) or semi-new characters (Jesmin and Myri) who are getting their first chance in the spotlight. Taking a step back from Mercy Kill for a minute, the ability to push pre-existing secondary characters into the forefront or to introduce new compelling characters is essential for the long term health of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.  There are only so many times when the big three (Han, Luke, Leia) can save the galaxy as septuagenarians and as the next generation approaches middle age, it almost feels at times that the SWEU has missed the hand off of the lightsaber between generations.  With Ben Skywalker and Alana taking center stage it is really the third generation of the SWEU characters that are coming to the forefront of story telling.  

Without going to deep into the story and spoil elements, jokes or the overall readers enjoyment, I just wanted to highlight two other characters that appear in the novel that I particularly enjoyed.

Myri Antilles will make fans smile.  The daughter of a fighter jock and an spy would seem like the perfect candidate to add to Wraith Squadron, the fact that she also picked up some less then savory skills and contacts amidst the gamblers dens aboard the Errant Venture is just the cherry on top of her characterization.   Myri has some great lines in this book, and if this reader had his druthers she would be a key player in future Star Wars novels.  More Myri please.

Vua Rapuung

The other character that I really enjoyed was Scut.  I don't think it is giving too much away to say that Scut is a member of the Yuuzhan Vong species.  With the exception of the Legacy comic series there has been a rather noticeable absence of the Vong from post New Jedi Order novels.  We will get references to them, we will see the results of the invasion, but the characters and the species themselves seem to be gone and forgotten along with Zonama Sekot.  Scut's very presence provides emotional tension and lets Allston play with some very real world realities in this story.

While the Bantam era of Star Wars story telling often felt like Super-weapon of the week story telling, the Del Rey era has come to feel often like one grand galactic conflict after another.  The beauty of Mercy Kill is that it's plot revolves around a rather minor sub-plot from the Fate of the Jedi series.  In the grand scheme of galactic history, the plot of Wraith Squadron would be but a small blip, but in telling this minor story the characters are allowed to shine.  Allston succeeds in recognizing what to many writers fail to comprehend, it is not the scale of the conflict that creates drama, it is the conflict within and amongst the characters that creates the drama.

After reading Mercy Kill, the best compliment that I can pay is that I adore this novel, and if you are a fan of the Wraiths I think you will as well.