Lucasfilm honcho Rick McCallum has been out drumming up publicity for Red Tails, the elaborate film about the Tuskegee airmen, the African-American aviators who, in spite of segregation, fought courageously against the Nazis in World War II.  Red Tails was financed entirely by Lucasfilm and has long been one of George Lucas’ pet projects, so the entire Lucasfilm crew, including McCallum, is currently out drumming up interest in the film that opens on January 20th. 

Given a chance to ask questions of the reclusive Lucasfilm producer, it was only natural that the subject of the company’s final announced Star Wars project, the long-simmering Star Wars live-action TV series, came up—and there is news.  The series, which takes place in the 20 years between Episode III (Revenge of the Sith) and Episode IV (A New Hope), will be called Star Wars: Underworld.  During the two decades covered by the series, the young Luke Skywalker is growing up, though he doesn’t figure to be anything more than a tangential figure in Star Wars: Underworld, which concentrates on the expansion of the Empire, which is driven by a cabal of shadowy government figures who forge alliances with gangsters, thugs, and corrupt traitors from other governmental units.

As ICv2 has already reported Lucasfilm has commissioned and received 50 completed scripts for one-hour TV shows from some of the top TV writers in the world (see “Life on Mars Scribe Penning Star Wars TV”).  McCallum told IGN that each episode of the ambitious Star Wars live-action series is “bigger than the prequels were… They’re complex, they’re dark, they’re adult.”  But unfortunately we will have to wait until the shows can be produced for $5 million per episode, which will depend on quickly the costs of some of today’s elaborate special effects shots and processes can be reduced considerably.