Treks, Gates and Wars

At least it will be better than OTL Voyager, worse you cannot make it.

Hello guys, sorry I've been AWOL for so long. Here's ITTL Voyager's wikibox just to give you an idea of what's in store for the show's future.

Good to see this back and interesting developments. I never really got into Voyager that much but good development of the problems of the series and its writers/producers.

Well i am probably one of those few who liked the OTL version but i do see that some things could be better.

Every Saga Has a Beginning (Part 1) - The Meeting of the Minds


James Cameron's Watchmen had been a rousing success with both critics and audiences. It had reignited the career of Mark Hamill and had sent actor Bruce Campbell and writer Joss Whedon into the spotlight and in a private screening somewhere in California, it had given a legendary filmmaker one of the greatest movie-going experiences of all time. That filmmaker's name was George Lucas.

Lucas had toyed around with the idea of reviving the Star Wars franchise on the big screen for a new years now. Still the latest movie he was attached to, Radioland Murders was savaged by critics and was a box-office bomb despite being penned by his longtime friends Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. He wondered if it was truly a good idea to hand over his masterwork over to other filmmakers when the end result could be something as mixed as Willow or straight up disastrous as Radioland Murders. Was it worth the risk?

In his mind he knew that James Cameron was not Mel Smith, he was a filmmaker on a caliber he had rarely seen in Hollywood these days and he knew that the reason the original trilogy and the Indiana Jones movies were so beloved is because they were a collaborative effort. The original Star Wars might have flopped if he didn't bring Willard and Gloria to polish the script and Marsha, Richard and Paul to edit the film into something not boring. He had to begrudgingly admit that for all the things about The Empire Strikes Back that Irving Kershner chose to change, it was a better movie for it, the best film in the series if the critics and some fans were to be believed and by his own admission he was terrible at writing dialogue, his friend Harrison had said as much. He needed a solid crew of a great director and a great script writer and he would have a truly good movie at his hands, movie trilogy god willing.

Cameron would do an amazing job as the director, that much as sure, if he could recruit him to direct at least Episode 1, just enough to get the prequel trilogy rolling, to inspire other filmmakers that would follow in his footsteps to up their A-game it would be worth it. As for writers, Lucas was less sure, there was this novelist named Robert J. Sawyer that grabbed his attention with a book series called The Quintaglio Ascension which had the kind of narrative depth and complexity that he was hoping to convey in this new trilogy. There was also obviously Watchmen's screenwriters Joss Whedon and Sam Hamm but its possible they might be too busy with other projects to agree, he could always phone Timothy Zahn and ask him to pen the trilogy the same way he wrote his own sequels to the original films and there would also be whoever Cameron thought was right for the project but now he was getting ahead of himself.

He invited James Cameron over to the Skywalker Ranch in early 1995 shortly after the wrap-up of the principal photography for Cameron's latest project, Strange Days, to discuss their respective careers.

"So James, I saw Watchmen the other day and it was just mindblowing." He said as they sat at a table in his backyard. "I'm pretty sure I now know how how people felt whan they were watching the first Star Wars."

"Thank you, that means a lot to me to hear you say it." Cameron replied, for him this was a high honor to be complimented by the filmmaker that inspired him to quit his job as a truck driver and start making films of his own.

"Do you have any plans to follow up this success?" He asked hoping the answer would be 'I don't know'.

"Well, Lawrence has been asking me if I would return for a sequel to Watchmen since it made a lot of money, I'm still receiving fan mail begging me to do another Terminator film, and you know what I really want to do?"

"No I don't." Lucas replied with apprehension. 

"A Titanic movie." Cameron stated.

"As in an epic movie?"

"No Mr. Lucas, as in a movie about the sinking of the Titanic, although now that you mentioned it it probably would be an epic movie." Cameron clarified.

"Well now that you're the king of Hollywood I'm sure nobody will say 'no' to you." George chuckled. "And please, call me George, Mr. Lucas is my dad." He said as he took another sip of tea.

"Yeah, I'm already working on the script." James replied as he took a gulp of his own tea. Before he paused for a second. "I'm not just here so you can thank me for the good movie in person am I?" he asked.

"No and I was wondering when you'd ask what this is all about." George replied. "I was thinking of doing a new Star Wars trilogy."

"Oh really? I was wondering when were you going to get around to those films." Cameron's interest peaked.

"Yes it's going to be a prequel trilogy telling of the origins of Darth Vader and the fall of the Galactic Republic as only alluded to in the original film."

"Yeah, I remember you mentioned something about a 'clone war' or something."

"Yeah I really didn't give much thought to it, it was just backstory at the time, it didn't feel like it needed an explanation but now that the talented Tim Zahn had written a new trilogy of novels sat after Return of the Jedi and they sold like crazy it's clear that the fans want more movies and I want you to help me give them more movies."

"Help you, as in help you produce them?" James asked, wondering just where exactly this was going.

"James I want you to direct Star Wars Episode I." Those were the ten words that made James Cameron's heart skip a beat.

"You're serious?" He asked incredulously. "You want me to direct the next Star Wars movie?"

"I am, and I promise you'll have near total creative control over the project, I'll be the idea guy and I'll offer you some suggestions for who should write the script but otherwise the movie's all yours if you want the job." George declared.

"Well, this is a very interesting proposal."

"And I want you to supervise the entire trilogy in a producer role to make sure it's good to go."

"Wow, that's quite the offer."

"Well you're the only man I trust to do this gob right now." Lucas stated.

Cameron sat in silence for a second before saying. "I still want to do a Titanic movie."

"And your script will be waiting for you to finish it as soon as you complete the Star Wars prequel trilogy, not only that but you'll have my complete support and the support of everyone in Lucasfilm to get it done." Lucas said.

"I do the trilogy and you help me do Titanic?"

"Yes."

Cameron didn't expect such a bomb of an offer when he agreed to this sitdown with Lucas. Directing a Star Wars movie was certainly every Hollywood filmmaker's dream and it was a dream that Cameron would get every once in a while in between his own pet projects like The Abyss and the Terminator films.

"I'll need some time to think about your offer George, and it's a great offer, don't get me wrong. I just need to be sure that this is what I want to do for the next decade or so." Cameron said. The two continued discussing various film making topics and their respective experiences on set before Lucas sent Cameron on his way with Cameron promising that he'll call him back with the decision by the end of the week.

As soon as he was back in his hotel room he phoned up Kathryn Bigelow and asked for her opinion on Lucas' offer. Her response was a frantic "You haven't said yes yet!?".

Cameron and Bigelow's marriage failed for a reason but the two still trusted in each other's opinions when it came to filmmaking, her approval was all he needed to make up his mind. Titanic could wait, Avatar could also wait, he had a Star Wars movie to direct and he would. He phoned up Lucas immediately and the two began working on the film by the end of the week.