Star Wars Rules and Film Ideas

Hey, this is Steve Bloom, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. You're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hello and welcome

to Geekcast Radio Network episode 88, our continuing

Star Wars series of top - countdown. So far you

have heard us count down our top ten characters

from the film franchise. You've heard our top

ten Star Wars film moments and our top ten Star

Wars film quotes or lines of dialogue, etc. Hopefully

you've been listening to all those and today

we kind of have something a little bit different,

but I think it's going to be a lot of fun. We're

not going to give you a top ten list today, but

instead we're going to give you two. Count them

two. top five list and to help me out with that,

I of course am Optimus Solo and joining me is

one and only movie revolt Dan. Hello. Hey, how's

it going? Not too bad. Happy to have you here

on some of these Star Wars countdowns. Obviously

TFG1 Mike and myself are on the first one. Fridley

Scent and myself have been on the second and

third one and then my cousin Joe was on one of

them as well. So a lot of different voices we're

hearing from as far as the Star Wars universe

and all our Star Wars content at GeekCast Radio

goes. So definitely looking forward to this one.

I don't know if you've had a chance to listen

to any of the other ones. It's been interesting.

We've had some traditional things, we've had

some more creative things as far as choices go,

but I think we've done a pretty good job. at

least mentioning and talking about all six films

in a roundabout way. Yeah, I did get a chance

to listen to a couple, and I was surprised that

the prequels got their love. Yeah, that's what

I was surprised, especially with the dialogue

and stuff like that. I was like, well, this is

going to be basically all the original trilogy.

And then I was going through, and I'm like, well,

I kind of like that line, and I like this line.

And there was only one prequel that I didn't

have any lines from. I did my best to represent

the films and kind of pick out stuff that wasn't

super bad. I'm talking about super bad, not the

film, but that's going to have something to do

with one of our top five. So we have two different

top fives planned for you tonight. First, we're

going to go over our, I guess you'd call them,

Star Wars rules. or things that we don't want

to see in episode seven or in the future installments

of the Star Wars films that we're going to be

getting here on a yearly basis. So we have our

top five rules for that and then we're going

to flip it and instead of talking about bad we're

going to end on a good note and we're going to

talk about five ideas for films, stories, TV

series, something that we would like to be told

in some fashion. Involving the Star Wars universe

so the the the stories that we most want to see

in some way, so it should be interesting Definitely

is door wide open for a lot of things to be discussed

so anything you want to Preface before we get

into our first list or anything you want to say

as far as your? Relationship with the Star Wars

franchise ah well I guess for me for the most

part I have mostly relationship with the movies.

I've had brief encounters with some of the you

know i've read a couple books and played a little

bit of video games and read a few comics here

and there but i want to get into some of the

more ideas we'll kind of get into that but yeah

mostly my knowledge of star wars comes from the

film i'm not like i was listening to the episode

i think i'm not nearly as knowledgeable as in

star wars as some people like i don't know what

names of all the different ships and planets

by heart nearly as much as i should so hopefully

i don't uh i don't embarrass you in this podcast

No, not at all. I definitely have my strengths

and my weaknesses. I am not nearly as up on my

Star Wars knowledge as I was once upon a time.

I think my high school days were probably where

it peaked. My girlfriend actually got me, Amanda

got me a Star Wars... trivia type of game for

my birthday called, they have a different, they

have a Disney one, they have a Star Wars one,

it's called, I think it's called Pictopia and

it's basically trivia based on, you get a card

with four pictures on it and then the questions

are related to those pictures. And every time

a card comes up with four ships on it, I know

I'm in trouble. Because that's the knowledge

that I've lost the most. I'm like, I don't even

know the name of that ship. So give me four planets

and I'll have a better shot. It's easier when

they're named after the shape of the actual ship.

I'm like, not one I can get. The rebel ships,

yeah. X -Wings, Y -Wings, A -Wings, I get those.

But when you put all these other destroyers and

stuff on them, I'm in trouble. I used to know

them better when I played the video games. Because

I would be, you know, it would actually be. I

haven't played them in such a long time. Then

every time it comes up with four characters,

I know I'm good to go. I know everything about

those characters, no problem. Alright, so we

were going to start with the bad, the rules.

I think this should be fun. I have a couple written

down that aren't going to make my top five. We'll

see if you have something similar to them or

not. But I do have an honorable mention if we

need be. But I'll start off with my number five

rule for moving forward for whoever's in charge

of Star Wars films or kind of looking forward

to next week, something I hope we don't see.

And it's called my, I'm calling it the know your

source rule. And basically what I'm saying is,

please don't directly contradict things from

episode four, five, and six. I think that's a

fair request to make. I mean, it seems like it's

a rule that's so many times broken in Hollywood,

in all different franchises. But it seems like

it's such a simple one. Like, I'm making a film,

either prequel, sequel, whatever you want to

say. sidequel of something else. Like it would

seem like you would have somebody on board like

fact checking or like checking to make sure you're

not completely going against lines or different

characters or what not. And hey, they failed

to follow this rule in a couple of the prequels.

So I'm hoping in these additional movies they

can at least... And notice I said don't directly

contradict things from episode four, five, and

six. I'm a little... More lenient if you contradict

things from episodes one two and three, I guess.

Yeah, but you don't actually say something like

You know Chewbacca was really just you've been

overgrown. He walked this entire time It was

interesting this recent month here when we were

catching up and watching all six of them somewhat

in a row, I mean there was days or weeks in between

a couple of them but relatively close together

and it's like you see some of the especially

like the scene with leah describing her relationship

with her mom or what she remembers to luke and

it's just like ah really we didn't see this scene

when we were making the prequels she doesn't

remember anything about her mom One meme that

goes around where Toby won giving Luke his father's

lightsaber and it's like here's your father's

lightsaber. He killed 30 kids with it. It's like

why don't you give him the lightsaber? He told

me that you should have this when you grow up.

I don't think that's quite how it went down there,

Obi -Wan. You're a liar, but yeah. I think that's

a good rule. I kind of have something kind of

related to that. Maybe we'll get to it. Okay,

so what's your number five? My number five is

maybe... Kind of like the opposite of the way

I think a lot of people are thinking and I know

I was like everyone's Typically the favorite

Star Wars movies Empire Strikes Back and they

talked about you know gets dark and how great

that is but my number five is don't go too dark

because At the end of the day, it's still a kid's

movie. And I feel like, you know, especially

with comic book movies and we're seeing today,

like the push is to go super dark and super serious.

And I think that should be an element of it for

sure. But it should still, at the end of the

day, be enjoyable, should be still have that

excitement that you get from the first film.

And I don't want want to see a Star Wars movie

that's so depressing or so just. Right the mirroring

like looking at like the Batman or Superman trailer

where I don't think the sun shines at all in

that entire movie I still like you still in order

to make that darkness really matter. You need

to have those light and funny moments Obviously,

there's ways of going too far with it, but having

that balance obviously which is Star Wars is

all about really You don't want to have a bunch

of families that take their little kids in there

and then, like, be leaving the theater in silence.

Exactly. Don't make Dark Knight the Star Wars

version of Dark Knight, you know? You got to

keep it PG. Not necessarily with language, but

just, you know, make it... There's a way of doing

it, and I think that's what made the first trilogy

so great. Because I think even with a film like

Return of the Jedi, which I guess you could argue

is the darkest of the... of the three original

ones. I mean, I guess some might make an argument

for Empire Strikes Back, but you still have things

like Endor and Ewoks and RTD2 and C3VO that can

lighten it up as much. I guess I would ask you

one question then as kind of a follow -up to

that. Do you feel like, regardless of how bad

the prequels are and what level of badness they

each are, Do you feel like episode three was

too dark, or do you think that it kind of just

went up to the edge of how dark it should get?

I think that was the best balance out of all

of the films. I feel like the first... One and

two didn't do it enough. They were kind of the

opposite end of the spectrum in a little bit,

where I think three kind of brought it back and

made it seem like, OK, there is a limit here.

There's some stakes. There's some danger. The

first two, I don't necessarily had that too much.

And I think a lot of that, too, is just the use

of CGI with it being so, like the oversaturation

of the brightness and things like that. It just

didn't have the same effect. I think that's a

good one, too. I think finding that right balance

because I think a lot of people are expecting

this to be a little bit grittier, maybe a little

bit more serious compared to... But I think that

it might seem like that just because the last

films we got were one, two, and three. Yeah.

And I think it's, like I said, I don't necessarily

think it should be without that, but it just

should be... There's a limit you should go to.

Right. It should still be accessible to the whole

family. Alright, good one. For my next rule,

I'm calling it the... This is terrible. Some

of my names are terrible. I'm not your man rule.

That could go a lot of different ways. But basically

what I'm saying here is please don't get wrong

who the main character of the film should be.

Or of a series of films should be. Because I

think that is something that... think that was

like the where the prequel somewhat went wrong

and The reason I say that is because they made

the prequels basically all about Anakin Skywalker

Which I can see the argument for but I think

they could have avoided a lot of the pitfalls

that happened throughout that trilogy if instead

that trilogy would have been Obi -Wan Kenobi's

story and I think it would have allowed us to

avoid some of the some of the focuses on some

of the Anakin parts that weren't necessarily

to me as important or necessary like I understand

that we want to see what happens to Anakin and

kind of his growth and what becomes of him but

we see a whole lot of evolution of Darth Vader

in the original trilogy without those films ever

being about Darth Vader and I just think it would

have been a better choice to have the original

trilogy be about Obi -Wan Kenobi and kind of

how he comes into contact with Anakin and you

can kind of get the Anakin progression kind of

as kind of like a side effect of everything else

that's happening. I'm doing a terrible job of

elaborating why but I still need to get the name

of the YouTube video out there that describes

if you make the films about Obi -Wan Kenobi how

Much better everything goes together in that

trilogy and the parts that you can take out and

the parts that you can add It just sounds like

it wouldn't would have made them much better

films That's just one example, but I just I know

they're gonna be throwing a whole bunch of different

characters in here new characters that we've

never seen before obviously we're gonna get the

the reappearances of some of the classic characters

like Han Solo Chewbacca Leia Luke, etc. So I'm

really hoping that they figure out Who should

be the focal point of the film? I guess is my

point there. And I'm hoping it's not something

where we have so many different characters and

we're not sure who to give the time to or who

to give the focus to. So I guess that's a roundabout

way of just saying that I hope the focus is in

the right part. Yeah, and I get to see, like,

don't just go based upon what the name of the

character. Like, it doesn't have to be, just

because it's Skywalker doesn't mean it has to

be the main focus. And I think with episode one,

it would make more sense because... Like it's

hard to root for a character that you know is

going to be the like the most business villain

of all time Especially when he's a kid. It's

kind of hard to kind of like okay This is a cute

kid, but he's gonna be like this awful human

being so how am I supposed to? It's I think that's

where you whereas if you make it about Obi -Wan

then it's like you can see how he meets the child

you can see the Struggles he goes through with

Qui -Gon then taking on this new you know this

new Padawan and then how much it just adds a

lot more that you could do from a character arc

standpoint to see Obi -Wan's you know from his

beginning with Qui -Gon to his failings with

Anakin I just think it would have added a lot

more yeah yeah definitely for sure and I wouldn't

make that I think it would have strengthened

not it would have added more context better context

I would say um, so my number four kind of ties

back into the year first when I said, you know

know your source material my my Part of it is

kind of stay like my fourth and fourth world

is kind of stand on your own And what that is,

I mean don't necessarily Like rely so much on

the past and what came before and this is necessarily

just with the episodes But a lot with the standalone

movies are talking about like Rogue One and things

like that We don't necessarily there's so much

going on in the world of Star Wars and we'll

get to that with the second part of this You

don't need to do like Han Solo origin story or

kind of just touch upon characters We already

know because there's so many great characters

that you could either create or go after. Plus

I think what's great about Star Wars and what's

why it's lasted so long is that it created a

universe and created all these different pieces

of it that people have kind of imagined looking

at like the Rogue One story. Like there's been

so many different adaptations or thoughts on

what that process could be. Because all these

questions are left open enough so people can

hypothesize like what happened. But when you

start answering all those questions, you start

like closing that ability to imagine what the

world can be. And we're kind of just given the

answer. So I think it'd be better if we got,

you know, instead of trying to just repeat what

happened, it started forging its own destiny

in that way. And I think you touch on something

that is kind of part of the magic of the Star

Wars, the original trilogy, and kind of the whole

film franchise, or the whole franchise in general,

you could ask someone, just take episode four,

five, and six, for example, have people watch

those, and then take a poll of who everybody's

favorite character is. You're gonna get a dozen

different answers. For the most part, I mean,

there's gonna be people that are, that feel a

connection, or like... whole bunch of different

characters. It's not like your standard movie

where you're told that this is the character

you should like and this is what the whole movie

is about and this is the person that, you know,

does good things. You have a whole bunch of both

good and bad and in between that a lot of different

people are going to resonate with, their characters

are going to resonate with different people and

I think that kind of adds to the fact that you

don't have to necessarily, like you said, wrap

up every single answer or tell us every single

origin story of every single character or what

happens to every single character. Like you can

do something that stands on its own because people

are going to be interested in that just as much

as they are interested in maybe the main characters

of a trilogy or of a certain storyline. Definitely.

Yeah, I like that one. My third rule kind of

a little bit goes back to what you were talking

about with the how dark and how gritty we can

go or not go and basically I guess I'll call

this the kids aren't stupid rule. And what I'm

saying by this is, obviously this is a franchise,

like you said, that should, that when you pull

it down it's still a kids film, it's still something

that should resonate with an entire family, regardless

of how many adults and stuff love it, it's still,

it's supposed to resonate to all ages. And I

think too many times when People try to make

something a quote -unquote kids movie They dumb

it down to a point where they actually start

insulting the intelligence of the children watching

it like George R. Banks Yes, and I think the

the biggest culprit of that is when the filmmakers

decide what kind of comedy they put in or How

they treat that because obviously kids are gonna

laugh at things and kids like to laugh at things

But my rule here is, please, in any of these

films, do not add a character for the sole purpose

of comedy relief. Because I just don't think

it's necessary. You can have comedy in all of

these films without having someone that strictly

is only there for comedy. I don't want a pointless

character. If you think of the original trilogy,

as much as you could say maybe R2D2 and C3PO

are comic relief characters, they're also important

pieces of the puzzle as far as tying things together

and progressing the plot. And you can still get,

even if you take their parts out of it, there's

enough comedy in there that kids would still

laugh at that comes from characters that aren't

strictly for that. Whether it's Han Solo making

jokes, whether it's Chewbacca doing Chewbacca

things, whether it's what you see with the Ewoks,

whether it's what you see with the different

creatures in Jabba's Palace. you get humor all

over the place whether it's one -liners or whether

it's just little things that they do and i'm

not talking about anything that that was edited

in the special edition uh... versions so i'd

just don't like i feel like that's all jar jar

binks was and i know that's the easy target but

as much as you might try to make the argument

that he helps progress the plot because of the

different diplomatic or functions like that that

could have been done in a dozen ways without

him. Yeah. There's never a moment to take him

seriously or it's just, you know, it's just too

goofy. It's just... Yeah. And if there's a character

that you could take out and the film isn't affected

that much or it could easily go to, you know,

character B or character C could say that line

or do that thing, then it just bugs me. So yeah,

I just don't want them to have something that

is purely in there as comedy or really. Plus

it's just being out of place because I think

about like a character like... C3PR or something

like that. Like, he works well. He's obviously

there for comic relief in some way, but he's

functional and different, right? He works well

within that group. Like, again, Charler is an

easier example, but it just doesn't fit with

anything. Like, even his interaction with the

characters, it just always never worked. It was

just, they almost would be like... Like his goofiness

just didn't seem like to affect him in any way.

It's just, I don't know. It's just bad. Don't

give us another Jar Jar Binks. Basically I guess

I could have called that the rule. No more Jar

Jar Binks. My number three rule is with actually

I think a role they've actually handled pretty

well even in the prequels and for the most part

and it's casting. It's cast based on talent not

based on name. And I think Star Wars is the type

if you're making these movies. Stay away from

big name actors for the most part. I know there's

been some exceptions, but I think Star Wars is

best when the franchise is the biggest thing

within the film. I mean, there's not many actors

that you could say would be bigger than Star

Wars, but don't, I mean, Harrison Ford's an exception,

but. Getting those young actors that are on the

precipice of becoming big or those veteran actors

not necessarily like a prep hit or You know like

a Tom Cruise not that they would do that But

if you're making as many movies as they plan

on making you could run into that where you're

casting people that are Really just huge stars

just to add into the box office, and I think

it looks episode 7 is Great example of how to

do it like an Oscar Isaac for example is I think

for you and me and a lot of Like cinephiles or

whatever you want to call them They know Oscar

Isaac from a lot of different things, but he's

for most part many people don't know who he is

and he's also a really great actor and and I

mean like maybe the one exception would be Samuel

L. Jackson I was thinking that was probably the

closest they came to breaking that rule. Yeah,

he's probably the biggest the one exception input

and I don't know. He was, I think, fine enough.

But I think that's when you're playing it. But

Samuel L. Jackson's also in every movie ever,

so he's just going to get kind of used to it.

He's got to be in Star Wars eventually, I guess,

by role. But yeah, that'd be my one thing. Don't

get away from that, because I think... Go ahead.

No, I agree with you. And I think the exception

with, or kind of the caveat with Harrison Ford

was when he was in the film originally... At

that point, he wasn't as big, you know what I

mean? So it's kind of something that we got used

to and it just seems like he fits in that world

now because of that, regardless of how big he

has been since then. So I think that helps with

him, but I can totally see if you put someone

like Al Pacino or De Niro or somebody like that

in here, it's... It's more so going to take you

out of the movie for a second. Or even someone

like a Simon Pegg, like he's talked about being

in it, but he's in Star Wars, but he's like in

a costume so you don't know who he is. I think

that's a smart thing to do, just getting characters

that, you know, don't get Tyler Perry to play

a famous scientist in your movie because that'd

be weird. Who would do that? Oh, I agree. That's

a great rule. For my second rule, my number two

here, I'm going to call it the time is precious

rule. And what I mean by that is please don't

waste screen time. that could otherwise be devoted

to character development or character arcs or

plot lines or stuff like that, don't waste screen

time with unnecessary and unimportant extended

action sequences. I'm all for good action sequences,

lightsaber duels that have some meaning behind

it, battles, you know, dogfighting in space that

actually, you know, the battle means something.

But I don't need another podracing scene I don't

need a scene of that equivalent where you're

spending a half hour of your movie time doing

something that in the end Isn't that important?

Yeah, it was about buying some parts for a ship.

We could have handled that in a bunch of different

ways I understand it's fun for the kids and maybe

that's where I'm kind of going against the whole

family -friendly and Yeah, family -friendly not

stupid Yeah, it's just we can do stuff like that

like everybody enjoys action sequences But there's

so many ways to do them where they still mean

something to the movie So I don't want them wasting

half hour of screen time on something. That's

not important to the plot Definitely. Yeah. Yeah,

just because you can doesn't mean you should

Exactly. That is probably George Lucas's biggest

flaw My number two is Keep it timeless. And by

that, I mean, sometimes with films that take

place in the future or in space or what have

you, what you see often happen is the technology

that starts getting used starts mirroring the

technology we have of today. Look at any science

fiction film. It looks like everything's touch

screen. They're almost like inverted iPads and

things like that. The issue is that doesn't necessarily

fit with the Star Wars universe, really. Like,

you know, looking at the technology that was

in that world, you don't necessarily need to

make it updated based upon the technology of

today. Star Wars has what it is. It has that

technology. You don't necessarily have to have

them using something like Skype. They can use

those weird video things that they always have

used since we first saw Princess Leia try to...

call for help with Obi -Wan Kenobi. I think an

example of a movie that does that wrong is actually

with the Alien franchise or Prometheus, for example,

which movie I like, but when you look at the

technology that movie has compared to Alien or

Aliens, it's like, okay, this is supposed to

exist in a prequel to what's coming forward,

but the technology is like years ahead of what

they have. And I think there's some... You can

say, OK, well, that's a science ship and that's

like a minor ship. So that's why. But still,

it does kind of make the universe you're trying

to build a little wonky. But also, I think it

just makes it what's great about Star Wars. It's

that timeless quality. So if you start kind of

making things kind of even not just with technology,

the lingo, the conversation, the way people talk,

it starts marrying the way we talk. It's today.

It could it could really ruin film down the line.

I agree. It can definitely. Date it in ways that

it shouldn't be dated. I think something that

Star Wars has always been Again, I think this

is another aspect of why it's has such resonance

with some people or like magic I guess you could

say is because For something at the same time

to feel So much in the past yet so much in the

future is It's just something that that was just

always cool for me about it. It's like they're

Way ahead of us in all this, you know space travel

and spaceships and weapons and things like that

but at the same time it also felt like it was

way before us in you know, kind of the way they

live and The kind of the civilization and the

culture that they have at least on certain planets

in certain ways I think they changed that a little

bit when they got to the prequels by showing

a few more civilized areas, obviously it's a

different time period in the timeline and whatnot,

but I always enjoyed the fact that it was like,

this is supposed to be in the past, but it feels

like it's in the future, and it's just like a

cool balance between the two. Yeah, it's like

a dirty space where things are kind of not, it's

grungy and dirty and everything's kind of, it's

like everyone has spaceships, yet you're still

kind of poor. Exactly. Alright, for my number

one rule for episode seven or any of the future

films, I'm gonna call it the thou shall not kill

rule. And basically all it boils down to, no,

I'm not saying don't kill characters, but please

don't immediately kill off the coolest character

in your trilogy. And also don't do it in a way

that is so anticlimactic that... It just ruins

everything that was cool about that character.

Yes. We saw it with Boba Fett. We saw it with

Darth Maul. Please don't do that again. I can't

take another one like that. I don't want to have

my favorite character in episode seven die in

episode seven. So, yeah. I just... It's just

weird that they somehow did the exact same thing

in the prequel trilogy that they seem to have

done in the original trilogy. I'm not saying

Boba Fett's everybody's favorite character. Much

more minor character, I guess, in the grand scheme

of things than maybe Darth Maul could have been.

But both of them seem like they were gone as

soon as you found out about them. Yeah, that's

just a personal bias, I guess, but don't kill

off characters I love. Any character in episode

seven that you think has potential being that,

like, the Darth Maul fan favorite from being

right away? Yeah, I mean, it seems like as many

characters and action figures that I've seen

on the shelves and stuff like that, that there's

probably gonna be some cool character that dies,

but I just don't want it to be the coolest character

in the movie. Yeah, I'm curious what, like, the...

The character that seals the show. I think it's

gonna be I can't think of it's a silver stormtrooper.

I think it's played by oh, yeah play by it See

I'm so I don't want to say too much because I've

outside of one trailer. I've known nothing about

what's coming Okay, so so I wouldn't well that

one was in the first trailer. I think right Yeah,

I know which one you're talking about and I do

know some of the characters But I don't even

know most of their names at this point because

I've stayed so far away I don't know the name

either. I just know there's a silver stormtrooper.

Yeah Cool. There's a lot of cool looking characters,

I know that much. So they definitely seem like

they got the visual part of the characters right.

So what's your number one rule? My number one,

I guess you can call it the James Bond rule,

or the overexposed rule. And that's, don't overexpose.

The Star Wars I don't want Empire Strikes Back

to be the Star Wars what like Golden or GoldenEye

or what? Goldfinger is the James Bond where it's

like one movie in its string of 26 different

movies It's just to the point where it's like

I can't even remember which one's which because

there's just so many of them or you can't even

say What superhero films I don't want Star Wars

to become its own genre and I know Disney saying

they want a Star Wars movie every year and part

of me thinks that will be great but part of me

worries that then It makes Star Wars less special

when you have so many things. I think there are

other avenues you could go and explore with the

Star Wars universe that we can get to and I think

there's a lot of great ideas but that's my one

worry is that they do too much too soon and before

within the next five years we have like seven

Star Wars movies so that's my biggest concern

is don't ruin it in that way. And it's a big

concern because not only do you get the idea

that it gets over saturated and you get too much

of it, but also if you're putting out that much

stuff and You run that risk of it if even half

of those films are bad You know how much does

it I? Don't know if you want to say really tarnish

the name or tarnish the legacy or something like

that It seems like it's a little grand, but you

know how much does it take away from? how good

or how well received Star Wars is in general,

I guess is what I would say. I mean, obviously

we had a trilogy that didn't resonate too well

with just about anybody. And now everybody's

super hyped again for episode seven and hopefully

it lives up to at least, I mean, I don't think

you can live up to the amount of hype that this

film has, but hopefully, you know, at least delivers

it as far as a quality film that people enjoy.

And it's not, you know, a repeat of episode one

or episode two. But how long, if it is that good,

how long can you keep that up? You know what

I mean? We kind of see that with Marvel a little

bit. You're like, OK, this film's good. Second

one, that one gets good. Third one, you're waiting

for them to take a misstep. And if Star Wars

puts out, like you said, seven films in the next

five years, then four of them are bad? Yeah.

Or do you run into the same issue with Marvel

where it's like, you want to keep doing episodes

70 and 9, but Then what do you go after that?

Do you want to give characters that go away?

Do you want to try to repeat characters? I mean,

I don't know. My hope is that, at least with

the Star Wars universe, hopefully each film that

they do do can differentiate itself enough. From

the others, you know, I mean like you could have

Almost you could see that what you can't do in

the superhero film is you can keep doing Marvel

or DC films There's still always a superhero

film. Yeah, and it seems like you should you

should you could almost do a Star Wars film That's

you know, I mean, it's it's not a genre. It's

it's a it's a universe so you could do you know

Whatever space fighting type of film you could

do more dramatic type of film you could do, you

know You know, I mean it so hopefully that helps

but it all is gonna depend on who's calling the

shots I mean you see you see superheroes trying

to do that with like Marvel and Captain America

is like a spy movie I mean, it's it's still at

the end of day so follows that Marvel formula

and I don't want there to be a Star Wars formula

like yeah That's kind of my thing. It's like

you said make them different make Rogue one simply

like nothing like Episode 7 so right hopefully

that is something that they can pull off So there

are our rules for what not to do going forward.

Hopefully someone important listens to this episode

and Takes note of these If not, we'll be bitching

about these things in a couple weeks or in a

couple years or something like that But we're

gonna take a quick break and then we're gonna

be right back with our film ideas or story ideas,

things we want to see in TV, film, or some type

of format. So we'll be right back after the break.

Hi, this is Greg. This is Chuck. And this is

Dan. And we are Talking in Circles. Because the

world needs another podcast, we are here as Geekcast

Radio's newest edition. And, as the title says,

each week we get lost in conversation about a

wide range of topics, including movies, comics,

games, art, TV, and even occasionally sports.

We play games and discuss pivotal topics like

who would win in a fight, the Kool -Aid Man or

Tony the Tiger, and examine the hot button issues

of the world of Geekdom. We keep things fresh

by taking timeless topics in new directions.

We are simply three friends having a fun time

talking about life's most fascinating foibles.

Stay connected with us every Tuesday on iTunes

or at GeekCastRadio .com. Ideas for stories we

do want to be told so we kind of we're talking

a little bit about this right before the break

of Differentiating itself and all the different

directions you can go and try not to you know

Make it so that there's a Star Wars formula.

So how are we going to avoid the Star Wars? Formula

Dan what's your number five idea for? what you

would like to see them do. I'll preface this

by saying that some of these are more of a joking

manner than serious, but I think it could be

kind of funny. And it starts with my number five,

and it's more of a comedic take. I mean, what

can make Star Wars different if we just did have

a straight comedy, and maybe more of like a parody

comedy, and this could be maybe like an animated

movie or something like that. But it's gonna

be called Jabba's Place, and it's gonna be basically

a cheers... kind of knockoff but in Jabba's palace.

I love that. So it'll you know you have Jabba

and he'll have his different on again and off

again relationships with his different slaves

because that's how he rolls and then you know

you have a lot of things going on at the end

of every episode like with Kenny dying in South

Park, you'll have someone dying in the Sarlacc

pit. You'll have a range of characters. Everyone

will know your name because you have a bounty

on your head and people want to kill you. So

I just think it'll be like a way to kind of give

a variety of different characters every week.

And at the center of it is Jabba. And then you

end up making him kind of like the norm of the

podcast. It's kind of the lovable goof who occasionally

will kill people. I don't know, because he's

he's basically a mob boss. I'm in trouble here

Mine are not gonna be nearly as good as yours

I can have I have a feeling but that is I want

to see that that would be absolutely awesome

I mean who doesn't like all the different Creatures

that you get in Java's world and just not the

one in the the redone of Jedi with her name or

forget that one guy's name that they yeah yeah

that one that one will be the first person to

be killed in the sarlacc pit nice you are the

weakest link sarlacc pit all right for my number

five i'm going to call it the council not the

counselor the council um and basically the idea

for me is to get a little bit of a of a more

in -depth look not specifically at the jedi council

but more so, and this isn't necessarily going

to be an origin story, but more so revolving

around Qui -Gon Jinn and the events that led

to him not ever being on the Jedi Council. obviously

he had a way that was a little bit more rogue

I guess than the rest of the Jedi or he had actions

that or protocol that he wasn't willing to follow

to allow himself to be on that so I just want

to see a little bit more about what that is it's

not necessarily I don't need to his you know

I don't need to see his story from birth I don't

want to see you know his upbringing but maybe

you know from the time that he was introduced

to the Jedi to kind of where he gets to when

we pick up on episode one and kind of what you

know does he does he have some run ins with other

members of the Jedi Council does it have something

to do with Different apprentices that he has

or his apprentice or how did it all work out

that he was kind of the outsider amongst the

Jedi? Yeah, I could see that I thought about

doing something Jedi related, but I I forgot

all about him not being on the council So that'd

be kind of cool again like a Plus more Liam Easton.

So there you go. Yeah another way to get I mean

we didn't get a ton of Qui -Gon So it's another

way to see a little bit more of that for sure.

All right my number four I didn't really know

how to kind of say this, but I wonder like a

movie, what's really great about Star Wars are

the number of different planets and stuff that

go to, and how can you kind of do that in an

intriguing way? And I think one of the best ways

would be something like a chase film, but in

the Star Wars universe, and it's kind of a dumb

name, and I was thinking Star Wars, no escape.

And it'd be a very low stakes movie where basically

just maybe mistaken identity, just a character,

a new character, so it doesn't have to be a well

-known character, is being hunted by. why none

other than, why not Darth Maul? Because we need

more Darth Maul. And for whatever reason, and

it's just him trying to escape that wrath of

Darth Maul going to world to world, trying to

hide out what would give kind of a smorgasbord

of the different worlds in Star Wars, some new

ones, some ones we know. And just him trying

to run away from that of the grep of Darth Maul.

And I think that'd be kind of fun just to see

a movie that, you know, Star Wars is always so,

you know, end of the... so much going on. It's

like this is the stake of the galaxy and this

will just be about one guy or one lady trying

to basically get freedom because this crazy dude

with a double weighted lightsaber wants to kill

him. I think that would be a much better way

of getting a snapshot of all of the planets than

what we did in the redone celebration scene where

they... It's like, here's a planet from the prequel

trilogy. We're gonna insert it into the celebration.

It would have been funnier if they went in just

for one, just for a quick second, the one planet

that got blown up by the dark star. It's like,

oh, too soon, too soon. An empty shot of Mustafar

where Anakin burned, but nobody's celebrating.

All right, for my number four. I'm going more

with I guess what you would call I'm thinking

more of like an anthology series for my number

four and it could be like Short films or something

like that all put together, and I'm just gonna

call this one I guess it's a classic route because

ever this is an easy one to pick but I'm just

gonna call it the bounty hunters and I don't

want to necessarily completely focus on you know

like Boba Fett or Django Fett or something like

that, but just a series of short films about

different bounty hunters because you know you

get that scene in the original trilogy where

you know Darth has assembled Darth Vader has

assembled you know the best bounty hunters in

the galaxy so to speak but we really get nothing

about any of them outside of a little bit of

Boba Fett and I guess in some you know in the

cartoon maybe a little bit more of some of the

other ones but you could pick those you could

pick some other random ones but just kind of

some little bits and pieces of maybe an IG -88

or Bosque or Boba Fett or whoever it might be

and just kind of what part bounty hunting had

to do with in the Star Wars universe and almost

maybe more with like a little bit of a western

type of spin. Yeah, so I mean I just think it

would be like fun, like a little Wild West anthology

series with bounty hunters as kind of the main

roles. Nice, yeah and I think a lot of those

bounty hunters have a lot of great potential

in the kind of Cole characters so that would

be great. And I think you get like a different

director to do each one. Yeah. like that would

be perfect for like the quentin tarantino version

of how he gets involved with the star wars universe

like one of him one of different styles completely

cool and i love anthology movies so we kind of

see them again all right well my uh my next one

is like i said i i've had a little exposure to

a couple of books this is one of the books that

i read uh that i think would actually i know

Disney said they did away with all the cannon

or whatever I don't know what you call it where

they're kind of starting over where although

the books didn't happen this counts that doesn't

count all that so but I think this is kind of

a cool story it's the Bane trilogy and I would

call it rise of the Sith the reason being like

this character Bane not not being from from the

Batman, but he maybe wouldn't need to change

the character. His name is actually really stupid.

They're either call him Bane because his dad

said he was a bane of his existence, so he took

the name, which is kind of dumb, but it's interesting

itself, because he's the guy who kind of started

or revitalized the idea of the Sith, where you

have the Sith Lord and then the person underneath

him, where there are only two, and like the Darth

character, and he's like one of the most powerful

characters of all time, and it's his journey.

is it's cool kind of seeing a story that's based

upon a villain, which is kind of, you don't see

that very often. And he's a very interesting

character in that well rain where he kind of

comes from this dorky kid who's kind of abused

to this powerful character. So I think there's

a lot of potential there. So I would love to

see that story and kind of see the Sith way of

life, which you kind of get glimpses of here

and there, but kind of just seeing how they kind

of mold the Sith into kind of being who they

are. So. It'd be like the opposite of episode

two, you know, one, two, and three where we saw

the Jedi Council. This would be seeing like the

Sith Council and how it came up and how it was

the story. But I have one that's very similar,

and I think it's a similar thought process. That's

why I picked that. So I'm down with that. Yeah,

Bane is definitely one of the more... I think

like one of those characters that even people

that haven't read a lot of the books kind of

know of his existence if you're like a big Star

Wars fan. So I think that would work really well.

I'm going a completely different direction with

my number three and I'm gonna call it Honor Among

Thieves. Is that already the name of a movie?

I feel like it is. Probably. Whatever, we can

adjust. You just put Star Wars in front of it

so you're okay. Star Wars Honor Among Thieves.

This is going to be like a buddy cop movie. And

I don't really need to see the origin again.

I'm not for every spinoff film being an origin

story. But let's see a little bit of some of

the characters that we love. I don't know who

would play them nowadays, but what I'm thinking

is a buddy cop movie based on Han Solo and Lando

Calrissian. that would be awesome early on you

know obviously way before the original trilogy

there was obviously an interaction and Han and

Lando knew each other and they were both seemed

like they're similar characteristics as far as

you know that's where I get like the honor among

thieves because it seems like they are people

that would always you know try to find a way

to one up somebody or to get the upper hand or

to kind of politely or in a non douchebag way

steel or Robin Hood type style and it could even

involve you know some backstory with the Millennium

Falcon and how it they came into you know own

that and how it exchanges hands and maybe how

they meet Chewie I don't know but just some type

of fun comedy involving Han and Lando as they

just be themselves and Go around the galaxy being

hot in Lando. Yeah, I just want to see more interaction

with them. So that'd be cool especially now that

Hanson's words even older and grumpier, but Perfect,

but actually my next one's kind of a comedy to

a different type of comedy though, you know my

in jobless palace was kind of a spinoff of or

kind of a spoof of the different of Cheers and

my next one would be kind of spoof of the college

comedies But it would be Jedi Academy kind of

like the old 80s college comedies of the revenge

of the nerds and one house that type of stuff

But they're Jedi so imagine the type of practical

jokes and things and like With Yoda being the

Dean of the college all the craziness that could

ensue with that going on So I think you know,

you have a lot of potential there. There was

like a cartoon show that had all the different

historical figures wearing in college or high

school. Kind of the same thing, just different

Jedi and stuff like that. They're just in high

school trying to learn the ways of the Force

while still trying to get laid and go to the

next kegger. It's like if you combine Revenge

of the Nerds and all those movies with X -Men

somehow, where you have Professor Xavier and

all the different classes, but these guys all

have crazy powers and whatnot. Exactly. It would

make the climactic basketball scene at the end

so much more interesting. Nice, I'd be down for

that. That seems like it would be a lot of fun.

And you could definitely get some actors involved

in the Star Wars universe that you might not

otherwise be able to do. Like Jonah Hill and,

I imagine Jonah, and what's his name? Like Ossera.

It'd be like super bad, but Jedi. Nice. My number

two is going to be similar to the one that you

were talking about before as we kind of get involved

with the Sith a little bit more. And I'm going

to call this one Master and Apprentice. And I'm

specifically talking about something that is

mentioned in the prequel trilogy when Palpatine

is talking to Anakin. And I basically want to

go back and explore a little bit more about the

journey that Palpatine had with his master at

one point. And, you know, he kind of talks about

how he was able to develop skills that nobody

else had before, and then obviously how eventually

he turned on his own master and kind of took

over, et cetera. So I think it would be fun to

kind of see how that all went down. Like let's

see Palpatine, his journey through the Sith ranks,

I guess, however you want to call it, to where

he gets to the point that... That he's ready

to be in charge and take on his own apprentice

So just kind of something that that tells a little

bit more I think it was Darth Plagueis or something

like that and his interaction with him Just to

get more like you said on your other words get

more in -depth or insight into How the Sith work?

Kind of like we do with the Jedi in the in the

prequel trilogy Yeah, I would like to see that

too and you probably I mean seeing kind of where

that all came from would be kind of cool Yeah,

I mean, it's maybe not as fun as some of the

other ones, but I just think from a story standpoint,

it would be kind of interesting. Maybe not for

the kids. Yeah, exactly. Maybe this is the horror

version of it. I'd actually try to think of a

horror film. There's actually this book, I forget

the name of it, but it's like Stormtroopers that

turn into zombies, but I figure we're kind of

zombie daft by this point. Well, there is that

one character that shows up in the cantina. That

literally is Lucifer, I think. Oh, yeah. Warren's

coming out of his head and I'm like, what is

this guy? They didn't have much money. They were

just, they kind of just went to different sets

and picked that character. He's clearly from

a different movie. You clearly got somebody from

a war movie down the block that isn't... That

actually would be kind of smart, though. Like,

okay, we don't have money. Let's just go see

who's currently in costume and then put them

in the bar. Bring them on. We just need crazy

people that don't look like him. Exactly. My

last one, I had one that was based upon... a

book. I have actually my last one's based upon

my all -time probably favorite video game when

it comes to Star Wars and just when I talked

about, you know, forging your own ground, not

relying on things of the past or characters we

already know. If you did this story, you would

kind of have to do that in The Knights of the

Old Republic, which talks about Star Wars like

thousands of years before the... Settings of

the prequel trilogy and things like that weirdly

the technology is basically the same but hey

But I just you don't necessarily have to follow

the story of the next or the public the first

game Which I think is a fantastic story, but

just I would love to see that world portrayed,

you know Knowing that it'd be completely different.

It would see kind of see things in a different

manner. A lot of planets that haven't even been

founded yet. So it puts you in a completely new

perspective when it comes to Star Wars. So that

would be a movie I'd love to see happen. And

I think the bonus there is that you'd have a

lot of people that are interested in that because

of their experience with the game and whatnot.

So you'd already have like a fan base that's

ready for that story to be told. Yeah, definitely.

I think a lot of people would like that. For

my number one, again, this is more just of a

personal bias choice. I don't... maybe not necessarily

make as fun or as good of films as some of these

other ones but for me it's the one thing that

is within the timeline I guess of the original

or of the six films in the timeline of the film

franchise that I've always wanted to see more

of and I've always wanted to kind of see this

story and I'm going to call it exactly what it's

called in the timeline which is The Great Jedi

Purge. And what I'm talking about is that time

in between episode three and episode four. So

you have episode three where most of the Jedi

are killed, where Yoda and Obi -Wan go into hiding,

and we have kind of that structure laid. And

then by the time you get to episode four, there

really aren't any Jedi left. There's... Yoda

and Obi -Wan who are still in hiding and then

there's obviously Luke and Leia. There were more

than Obi -Wan and Yoda that survived that initial

Order 66. There was a few dozen or so that got

the message and stayed away and survived. So

I think it would be cool on a couple different

fronts. So if we don't get the bounty hunter

anthology film, maybe it would give me a way

to work in some of those bounty hunters as they're

hired to track down and kill the remaining Jedi.

Maybe you take it another route and get to see

Darth Vader actually being a badass, which we

really never get to see in the six films. I mean,

outside of, you know, you get his older self

with his force choke and that type of thing,

which is still a badass, and we get like what

leads up to him being it, but we never kind of

get him in his prime. So you might be able to

get to see some of that. But I think where it

is the most intriguing for me is going away from

the characters that we know and focusing more

on some of those Jedi that we've never seen,

we've never heard of, we've never got to know

them. And people that weren't just the Jedi council

members, but more like I guess Qui -Gon in a

way, like other Jedi that are just out there

that were doing other things that weren't. by

any clones at the time, that type of thing. There's

a cool story specifically about one of them,

and I'm not gonna be able to pull his name off

the top of my head, but there is a pretty cool

story of someone who was in a different area,

did not succumb to the Order 66, and he kinda

took it as his mission to try to confront Darth

Vader. Like, his mission in life was to take

out Darth Vader, because he figured if he did

that, then... maybe there would be some hope

for the Jedi. He really never gets to that. He

gets to dealing with one of Darth Vader's apprentices,

has a battle with him which he doesn't win, and

it's an interesting story for him because he

actually then kind of goes spiraling into, kind

of gives up on his goals and his battle as a

Jedi, and he ends up residing in Cloud City and

being a drunk for a while. and just kind of,

you know, wallowing in the fact that he failed

at what his mission was and then eventually he

gets talked into being back involved with it

and ongoing, but obviously it wouldn't end well

for most of them because they do all eventually

die, but I just think it would be fun to see

who those characters were and kind of the hunt

of whoever it was, the Sith. The bounty hunters

whoever it is. That's trying to track them down

Yeah, and I think that actually kind of corresponds

with my like chase so we can kind of combine

that the better What we're saying is that's the

movie to go with because that kind of combines

a lot of the different ideas for sure That'd

be really cool. I think it I always find that

that and I think of all the prequel moments like

that might be one of my favorite it's a weird

word to say but just seeing like the most impactful

of all the different moments in the Star Wars

just seeing all those Jedi fall, but yeah, there's

certainly more things to go. Plus, I really like

the Jedi. I like to see more. And there's some

cool stories. It seems like based on, I guess,

what's been written in some of the books and

whatnot, like there was those that kind of went

into hiding like Obi -Wan or Yoda. And then there

was those that completely kind of disavowed or,

you know, acted like they were never part of,

you know, threw away their lightsabers and said,

I'm not part of them anymore and I want to go

live my own life. And then there was those that

tried to keep on the fight and tried to, you

know. Stick with it. So I think it'd be interesting

to see kind of a little bit of all of those and

kind of how it all went down to the point where

They all are either not Jedi anymore or killed

or whatever. So yeah, there's a current. There's

a comic Marvel house right now It's like the

last paddle on that follows one of them. I can't

think of his name but yeah, and then I think

that Star Wars rebels as well cartoon series

that I think is as Kind of doing a little bit

of that. Yeah, not necessarily to that extent

though right So I think there's a bunch of good

ideas for the powers that be at Disney to take

and run with. You don't even need to give us

credit for it. Just go ahead and make these films

and we'll be happy to watch them. But if you

want to give us credit in the royalties that

Lucas has, we would not be against it. Exactly.

I forgot to mention before when we were talking

about our rules that my honorable mention rule

was the George Zoukas rule. which is don't let

George Lucas anywhere near any of these films.

Does that mean? Yeah, not anymore. He can watch

them, but yeah, definitely. His comments that

he's been making over the last couple of months

have just not done much. The only thing I saw

that he saw episode seven and said it was good.

That's the only thing I saw. Which doesn't mean

much to me, but yeah. Right. I also had an honorable

mention for our ideas, and I said I didn't really

want to see too many origin stories, but just

for fun, let's see the origin of Django Fett,

and let's just call it Django Unchained. So that

was the only other one I could think of as just

a humorous thing. I was thinking something like

the bounty hunters thing as well, and like I

said, like a horror film, even like a creature

film. you know with like a rain car or something

like oh yeah that would be kind of cool where

there could be like a you know how you had like

the you know attack of the blob or like the yeah

the thing or something like that you could easily

do like a star wars creature just go off with

that That'd be fun. So let us know what you think

of our ideas and feel free to post your own ideas

as to what you would like to see on the episode

post. We'd love to kind of hear what other people

have to say and kind of react to what we think

about that because there is definitely a whole

lot of ideas circulating out there and apparently

if they're going to make a film every year eventually

they're going to need us folks. They're going

to need our ideas. So we look forward to that

as well as it's just another fun thing to do

Star Wars related as we wait the we'll see Just

over a hundred hours that we have to wait more

by the time this is released until one episode

Are you in line right now as your podcast? I

am not If I if I didn't have a job, maybe I would

be yeah, definitely looking forward to that and

like I said If you haven't listened to the past

episodes about the top characters and moments

and lines Please go back and listen to those

and let us know what your thoughts on those episodes

are as well Anything else you wanted to say as

far as anything you didn't get to say? honorable

mention wise or anything about the ideas of the

rules no i just i think i think if they follow

these rules will be told beside me having on

all on mentions i thought for the rules maybe

something about regarding you know practical

or cgi but i feel we have a good one i feel like

that they're going going down that route and

they've kind of that was already been kind of

done to death so but i think it's a good rule

to follow well have to wait now and see what

about a revisiting after either episode 7 or

after the first couple of spin -offs to see how

many of our rules they've broken by that point.

Hopefully not any of them. Alright, I think that

does it for this episode then. As always, you

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you can follow all the different GeekCast radio

handles. You can also follow us individually.

Dan, what is your Twitter? I am at movierevolt.

And I am at Optimus Solo and you'll have to stick

with us because there might be at least one or

two more Star Wars related things on various

Geekcast radio shows including Cinema Geeks and

right here at the Geekcast Radio Network flagship

show. But until then, may the force be with you.