Star Wars Live-Action Series Update 6/10/11: Three to Four Years away?

Hot on the heals of George Lucas giving us a brief update on the status of the Live-Action Series while promoting Star Tours II, producer Rick McCallum recently spoke to a Czech news outlet regarding the series and gave us our most detailed update regarding the status of the show and the plot.  Including the fact that if it reaches the filming stage a lot of the show will be shot in the Czech Republic. Kudos to ClubJade.net and TheForce.Net for spotting this one early. 

We get a Red Tails Release Date:

"a $30 million World War II film about African-American pilots — the Tuskegee Airmen — that will be released to coincide with Martin Luther King Day (Jan. 16) in 2012. Most of that film was shot in the Czech Republic and with a local crew."

 Regarding the 3D releases:

We learn what was suspected if the Episode I 3D release flops we aren't likely to see the rest of the films adapted. 

“We’re doing 3D versions of all six films, one a year, starting in February of next year. We start with [episode] one and go all the way through six, totally chronological,” he said. But the first one is a somewhat of a test. “One a year, if they work. If they don’t, then there will be just one [episode converted to 3D].”

 Regarding the production of the Live-Action Series:

"We have 50 hours of third-draft scripts, but the problem we have is there is a lot of digital animation; we don’t have the technology yet to be able to do them at a price that is safe for television. Since we would be financing them, it would be suicide for us to do this [now]. So we are going to wait three or four years,” he said."

Regarding the plot and setting of the Live-Action Series:

“It takes place between episodes three and four, when Luke Skywalker was growing up as a teenager, but it has nothing to do with Luke,” he said,...“Basically, it is like ‘The Godfather’; it’s the Empire slowly building up its power base around the galaxy, what happens in Coruscant, which is the major capital, and it’s [about] a group of underground bosses who live there and control drugs, prostitution,” McCallum said.

 Thanks to reporter Raymond Johnston of Czechposition.com for talking with Rick McCallum and providing us all with this unfortunate but appreciated update on the Live-Action Series. 

 SOURCES: Czechposition.com, TheForce.Net, and ClubJade.net