The trilogies may have ended, but there is still more to the Star Wars storyline
The cinema legend Star Wars is set to return to cinemas this summer, but this time as an animated feature. Star Wars: The Clone Wars will effectively serve as the opening episodes of an upcoming television series of the same name.
The Star Wars yarn started in 1977 with a box office blockbuster that spawned an entire culture. The original was way ahead of its time in terms of special effects and mixed with a swashbuckling script. This combination ensured that for a long time it dominated US box offices as the top movie of all time. It was only overtaken 20 years later by Titanic.
Two trilogies later, Star Wars creator George Lucas hopes to push the creative envelope once again.
Building on the success and popularity of his Emmy-winning series Star Wars: Clone Wars: Vol. 1, Lucas has taken his characters into the world of CGI animation 'to tell the Star Wars stories that are left to tell'.
The familiar characters from the galaxy far, far away have been reshaped with a signature style - a mixture of video-game realism and ragged fantasy - and animated with state-of-the-art technology. Lucas believes the project will 'push the art of animation forward'.
The original Star Wars created a distinctive world with instantly recognisable features - light sabres, droids and Wookiees. For the animation, designers have had to come up with something completely new to animation, yet still retain the feel of the original movies.