Lucasfilm Opens in Asia

We've heard about it. We've talked about it, and many have speculated as to what would happen, but now it is a reality. Lucasfilm has opened the doors to it's new studio facility in Singapore! So far it seems to be all about Star Wars. That's to be expected, of course, but really impresses, is the lineup of talent on board.

Coming on as exec producer at Lucasfilm Animation in the U.S. is Catherine Winder, who has worked as both an exec and producer in feature films, home video and television animation in both the U.S. and Asia... Her producing career started at Colossal Pictures, where she quickly moved to HBO and set up a studio to develop and produce the Emmy Award-winning animated series Todd MacFarlane's Spawn. She began her animation career at Walt Disney Television Animation, Japan, and went on to work at Turner Films/Hanna Barbera in Taiwan. Winder co-authored the industry handbook Producing Animation.

Dave Filoni, who most recently directed the Nickelodeon animation series Avatar: The Last Airbender, has been hired on as supervising director.

That's just two of the names listed in the article in Animation Magazine. This list also includes Henry Gilroy, who wrote Star Wars comic book series for Dark Horse, and Industrial Light & Magic animation director Rob Coleman, who served as animation director on the new Star Wars trilogy. Now imagine, a new animated TV series coming in at the quality of Avatar: The Last Airbender! Well, we will only imagine because the series is not to be 2D animation. It will be fully digital 3D animation work. Still, with this lineup of talent, it may very well be something to look forward to in 2007.

There's much to be said about not keeping the jobs in the U.S., but we also have to face that we live in a global economy and quality animation comes from all over the world. The sad reality is that in today's market, these shows would likely not happen at all, being prohibitively expensive if done in America. Perhaps using techniques such as those I employ or those of Makoto Shinkai or Yamato Works could make this feasible, but that would require they have knowledge that I am certain the big boys just don't seem to have.

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