“‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ head writer talks about George Lucas, religion and the show’s lifespan”
HT to @opedr for Tweeting me this link from the always excellent Hero Complex (LAT) hosted by Geoff Boucher:
The third-season finale of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” is coming April 1 on Cartoon Network with the highly anticipated appearance of Chewbacca (an episode that features contributions from Peter Mayhew), but something else has been happening with the animated show — a shift in the overall the tone and more and more intensity. That was especially the case with the recent “Mortis” story arc, a three-episode tale that presented Anakin with nightmarish visions of his future and, in a profound surprise, offered a deep new exploration of The Force and revelations about the mysterious Overlords. The architect behind the trilogy of episodes was writer Christian Taylor, who has since been named head writer on the show. I caught up with Taylor — whose credits include “Lost” and “Six Feet Under” — to talk about the Jedi show’s past, present and future.
An excerpt of the interview:
GB: When fans of a certain age think of “Star Wars,” they think of the films and the past but it must be really energizing for you to see the emphasis that George Lucas has put on “The Clone Wars” and the resources that are behind it. This is the “Star Wars” that matters too, for most youngsters that are aware of the Jedi universe.
CT: Well, Dave Filoni is the genius behind it — as is, of course, George [Lucas] — and he’s such a great guy and such a talented guy. My catch-phrase is that he’s the James Cameron of animation because what they do is phenomenal and technologically breaking down barriers and it’s never been done before. The show as I’ve been on it — my episodes from three years ago just started and they were breaking major technical barriers then — and I’ve seen the latest footage of stuff that they’re going to do for the next season and what they can physically do now is so much better. The thing that is amazing is that George is completely involved in the show. The first time I got invited up, the show had been running for two years and they had never done a writers’ conference before they, they had sort of just got spec work from different writers so there we were, there were like eight of us, working at the main house and you’d come and be sitting there at a meeting with George Lucas. It was two things at the same time: Your head would be thinking, “This is George Lucas!” and it seemed incredibly normal at the same time.
GB: Talk a bit about your working experience with the series.
CT: I’ve been working on the show for the past three years and it is amazing that, due to the complexity of producing the episodes, only now are the first episodes I wrote showing. The first year that I started was actually Season Three for the “Clone Wars.” We have since written seasons four and five. The third season was the first year that “The Clone Wars” had a writers’ room and worked very much like an episodic TV writers room would — but it was crammed into less than 10 days with George steering the stories. For this I helped developed every upcoming story. Cut to three years later and I am the head writer on the show. I am incredibly lucky that I get to play in this sandpit!
Imagine writing episodes that don’t get finished for three years!
For more of the article, go here.
