Thursday, May 31, 2007

Star Wars: Tales Of The New Republic

Well I said there'd be Star Wars news heading our way for the 30th Anniversary and despite this not being official it's still hot 'n' bitchin'.

It seems like some amateur 3D animators have got together and are creating a "New Republic" (post ROTJ) era Star Wars animated production. I've watched their trailer and seen some of their screenshots and it all looks pretty tight, they even had those idiots at AICN thinking that this was from Lucas. Thus far it will carry my endorsement.

While Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars 2D animated series was superb and God himself is working on a 3D version of the Clone Wars saga (new poster on left) and his live action series will concentrate on bridging the gap between Episodes III and IV; the obvious continuation of the saga after Episode VI has been largely ignored. HoweverI believe this is a good thing because it has allowed prophets like Tom Veitch (Dark Empire), Michael A. Stackpole (Union/X-Wing), Kevin J. Anderson (The Jedi Academy Trilogy) and of course the man second only to Lucas himself as a visionary, Timothy Zahn (The Thrawn Trilogy) to craft the cohesive saga of The New Republic following the destruction of the 2nd Death Star as the alliance reform the Republic under Leia Organa and persue the Imperial Remenant as Luke Skywalker founds a new Jedi Academy to rebuild the lost order.

It's clear from the trailer that these guys know their characters and situations of The New Republic as Mrs. Luke Skywalker - Mara Jade (pictured left), the Imperial Fighter Ace - Baron Soontir Fel and Grand Admiral Thrawn himself make their 3D amimated appearence. As you saw from the screen above we'll not only see characters but craft from the Expanded Universe too as they appear to have expertly crafted one of the most hated Imperial war-machines the Interdictor Cruiser which sucks unfortunate ships out of hyperspace into an ambush with it's gravity well projectors.

That's about all I can tell you at the moment. The animators have not revealed who they are or where they're from. Partly perhaps they fear the wrath of God who has shut down some projects that may affect his own money gathering machine such as the Unreal Tournament modification that turned the game into a better version of Star Wars: Battlefront. However, Lucas' own avoidance of projects in the New Republic setting may be the best plus these guys have. Check out all their work here.

Source: Every major Star Wars news source on the planet.

4 comments:

Douglas Kastle said...

I checked out the trailer. That is an excellent way to go. A lot of 3D work they try to go photo-real every where. If I had one critique (not a criticism) is that the ships look more realistic and they don't match the style of the characters. However a lot of those models are just lying around on the net it would be a shame not to use them.

Anonymous said...

Thats torn it, they've gone an' made uberbabe Mara Jade look like that whiny ginger gimp from ER.

Billy K said...

Did everyone see that skit of Star Wars (Cosmic Wars) in the Simpsons? That's precisely why I'm so god damned tired of Lucas and his bullshit.
"Watch me ruin the art of storytelling by making sets, actors and directors obsolete!"

Major General Creedon said...

@ Doug: Aye.

@ Civvy: Okay she's no Shannon McRandle but they are giving it a cartoon style. Apart from the Expanded Universe Mara Jade has never appeared so it's up to the fans to interpret her likeness.

@ Billy: Blasphemy!!!!