"Star Wars" producer Rick McCallum talked about both the new 3-D animated Clone Wars series and the live-action series in development.

"The animation is being done right now as we speak, it's starting to prep," McCallum said about the animated TV show. "That's being done here at the Ranch. A lot of the effects will be done in Singapore. But that won't really start moving forward, I mean it's just now conceptual work and script work now. I think George is trying to get 13 scripts done first before we really get into the pipeline of it. But that'll start happening probably at the end of March."

He added that "the live-action television series is something we're planning for just at the beginning of 2007 and we're just starting to interview writers and trying to really figure out, you know, which direction... It is going to be much darker, much grittier, it's much more character-based. He envisions somewhere like 100 hours between 'Episode III' and 'Episode IV' with a lot of characters that we haven't met but have been developed in other novels and other things. So, we're really excited about that because I think finally we can have the opportunity to answer everybody's questions once and for all by the time we finish the series."

Asked where the live-action series will be shot and in what kind of format, McCallum said that "principal photography will take place all around the world, probably with a base in Sydney. And, yes, we will be shooting in hi-def. Or, if anything else evolves within the next 12 months, you know, that would replace hi-def. I don't see that happening, but there may be new and more, or less expensive cameras with more optical imagery or optical discs that we record on. But basically it will be hi-def, yes."

Frank Oz, the voice of Yoda in the films, was also present and addressed a question whether or not he and Yoda will be part of the two new series. "Rick and I haven't talked about it yet. I am involved in the animated series right now. We're here at the Ranch as Rick said and we're currently working on the project and I'm very excited about that. The live-action is a little further out, so we haven't had those discussions yet. But knowing George and knowing the franchise there's going to be animated characters in there, we just haven't discussed them yet."

Ian McDiarmid, who played Emperor Palpatine, was asked a similar question about revisiting his character in the TV series. "Nobody really knows the details of the television series, I don't think that's because people are being particularly coy. I just think a lot of things haven't been decided yet. But I know that George's intention is to follow one of the characters who's been less highlighted up to now, but has been very popular with audiences. And sure, if it's the period between the movies, the Emperor has to be referred to. But you'll remember he was referred to often without actually appearing in the first Star Wars movie. And Peter Cushing was his very effective representative. So, I suspect there might be a number of very effective representatives, but you know, I always answer my telephone."

"Speaking of the future, you said the Star Wars TV show is years away...

Steve Sansweet: We're doing it in two phases. The first is Star Wars animation, which is CG 3-dimensional animation, like a Toy Story, that takes place during the period of the Clone Wars that takes place between Episodes 2 and 3. And that we're setting for Fall of 2007. Preproduction is underway, we're doing animation test, people are working on initial scripts. So we're well under way on that. And George is very much taking hand and is very much part of the whole process. I know some people thought maybe he would just hey "hey, go do it," but George is Star Wars and he's always gonna be very closely involved in this.

The other project is live action, and the live action is going to take place between Episode 3 and Episode 4. We're looking at a 1 hour show and [Producer] Rick McCallum has said the ideal would be to come up with 100 hours to really get into the story line and characters, and that's the direction we're going in. So that is really targeted more towards the end of the decade."