George Lucas is clearly one of the few filmmakers who needs very little to no introduction. To some, he's revered as a God, and maybe rightfully so, because let's face it, few of us would be such big movie fans if not for the "Star Wars" saga and its geek-level of fandom has spilled over into other realms while growing by leaps and bounds due to the internet. If not for the work done by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to bring Mr. Lucas' vision to life in the six "Star Wars" movies, filmmakers like Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson would never had been able to bring their own creatures and characters to the screen in such a realistic manner. There would never have been movies like Robert Rodriguez's Sin City and Zack Snyder's 300 if not for the way Mr. Lucas pioneered the use of computer-generated background environments for films made on green screen.

Yes, a world without George Lucas and "Star Wars" would be a grey and dismal place for fans of science fiction, action and effects movies, because over thirty years after the big screen debut of the first Star Wars, the characters and worlds created by Lucas continue to find new and younger fans, all of whom will be happy to see him continuing the "Star Wars" saga using the latest technology for many years to come… only this time, on television.

Mere weeks after the announcement that Warner Bros. would be releasing the feature film Star Wars: The Clone Wars in theaters this summer, Mr. Lucas was on hand in Las Vegas at the annual ShoWest Convention to present an extended clip from the movie at the studio's "The Big Picture" presentation. The feature film and animated series fill the gaps between Episodes II and III, but it will also be the first "Star Wars" movie to appear on the big screen in three years. While the feature film looks to be very much in line with the recent movies, the animated series promises to introduce new characters we haven't seen in the previous films and cartoons with stories that will be short episodic mini-movies.

Flanked by six Clone Troopers from the 501st Legion, Lucas introduced the extended clip, which begins with two Jedi carriers departing from a larger Republic starship. Inside one of them, Anakin briefs his young liege Ahsoka on the upcoming battle, telling his young apprentice to stay close because it isn't practice although she's very cocky and self-assured, snapping back that she'll try not get him killed. The battle scene is quite impressive as we get to see Ahsoka in action against a large armored vehicle that's able to climb up a vertical cliff-face, followed by a scene of Count Dooku relaying his plans to his own dark apprentice Asajj Ventress via the normal Jedi hologram communication, their plans interrupted by the entrance of Ben Kenobi, leading to a short lightsaber fight between them, Ventress disarming Kenobi with her advantage of two lightsabers to his one. The animation looked somewhat primitive compared to what else is out there with the characters not being as detailed as some might like, but the battle sequences are still very exciting and impressive.

ComingSoon.net had the rare opportunity to talk to Mr. Lucas briefly before the presentation and then we had more time to sit down with him in a more casual atmosphere afterwards. While there are millions if not billions of bigger "Star Wars" fans, being one of the few online writers who was actually old enough to have seen the original Star Wars when it first played in theaters in the '70s, it was nice to finally meet and talk to such an influential filmmaker.

ComingSoon.net: How much overlap will there be between Genndy's "Clone Wars" animated series and the new feature film and television series?
George Lucas: Well, the Genndy show was an experiment that we did with Cartoon Network that was 5 minutes each, they went sort of where commercials normally go, and it was an experiment, not only in doing five-minute shows, but it was an experiment in trying to translate "Star Wars" into an animated medium, and we felt very good about that. We thought it turned out really well, and we then took it to the next level, which was to do a full-out animated series of "The Clone Wars." There's not much overlap. Genndy did most of the animation and most of the stories for the first experimental series, and this one I'm pretty much following the mythology and the rules of the features, so it's a little bit different, but it's very much like the features except it's in animation. We decided to do it in a slightly different style than Genndy did, still in the anime genre, but we took it a little differently.

CS: Do you see the show going on for a long time? It obviously takes a long time to produce computer animation.
Lucas: We've been doing this for three years. We have one year finished, we're in the middle of the second year. I've written the third year. We expect this to go on for at least five or six years.

CS: And the live action show will go on at the same time?
Lucas: The live action show probably won't start until 2010. We're working on it now, doing the scripts and everything, but it takes too long to get it up and organized, but I think this is a chance for the fans to see the animated series on the big screen. It works great on the big screen and it's kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see it big.

CS: Since the feature is being done specifically for the big screen, where is the movie going to end and the series begin?
Lucas: It's not that episodic. This is a movie but we started doing the episodes and some of the episodes are stand-alone and some are two, some are three, some are four, and there's no cliffhangers. It's not like the current vogue of "24" and "The Wire" and stuff where you actually have to watch the entire series in order to understand what's going on. This is an old-fashioned episodic show. We looked at it on the big screen and it looked so beautiful and great that we said, "Gee, we can make a feature just like this." So we did and got all the people, got all the stuff and said, "Let's make a feature." So we did.

CS: There won't be a "To Be Continued" at the end of the movie teasing those who see it to watch the television show?
Lucas: Well, no, but the show starts in October... October 1st... no, in the fall. They haven't decided yet. We just made our deal.

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