{"id":28698,"date":"2013-06-07T11:07:20","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T15:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=28698"},"modified":"2013-06-07T11:07:20","modified_gmt":"2013-06-07T15:07:20","slug":"star-wars-producer-rick-mccallum-signs-on-to-sci-fi-feature-rha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2013\/06\/07\/star-wars-producer-rick-mccallum-signs-on-to-sci-fi-feature-rha\/","title":{"rendered":"STAR WARS Producer Rick McCallum Signs On To Sci-Fi Feature R’HA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RickMcCallum\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rick McCallum, George Lucas’s producing partner for the Star Wars<\/strong> prequel trilogy amongst other Lucasfilm projects, has signed on to oversee the high-concept sci-fi feature R’Ha<\/strong>. Based on a short film (see below), the project is the brainchild of filmmaker Kaleb Lechowski, who is already signed to direct the feature-length version.<\/p>\n

Joining McCallum is Steve Tzirlin, who worked with McCallum as a producer on the animated Star Wars: Clone Wars<\/em> television series. The two will be working with original producers Raymond Brothers and Scott Glassgold. Writer Matthew Graham, the creator of the hit cult British series Life On Mars<\/em> and who has worked as a lead writer on Lucasfilm’s aborted live-action Star Wars<\/strong> series, will be handling the script detail.<\/p>\n

The short film tells the story of a representative of the nonhuman alien race known as the R\u2019Ha, who defend a cluster of solar systems from an upcoming attack. According to the Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision Blog<\/a>, it was the lack of human characters that attracted McCullum to the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat inspires me and our team is that there are no humans whatsoever in the film, and yet Kaleb has come up with a world that is so engaging and so alive and so real that it really is very different from anything else I have seen in the sci-fi world,\u201d said McCallum via email from Prague.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe want to make it as a European film, using VFX facilities from all over Central and Eastern Europe and Asia, and do it for a price that not only allows Kaleb total control of his unique vision, but is incomprehensible in the big-budget VFX world that we now live in!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I know that many of the Star Wars<\/strong> prequel’s detractors, myself included, don’t have a very high opinion of McCallum. It appeared as if he was merely a “yes” man for George Lucas, indulging the director’s every whim, as opposed to original trilogy producer Gary Kurtz, who often challenged Lucas to make his films better. I am sure that he will be bring extensive experience in handling visual effects, which is understandably needed for a project like this. It remains to be seen how else he will affect the film.<\/p>\n