Off-TORpic: Sanctuary – A Star Wars Fan Film Set Before The Old Republic

Off-TORpic is our occasional peek outside the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Sometimes it’ll be Star Wars. Sometimes it’ll be games. But all the time it will be Off-TORpic.

We all love Star Wars.  Whether it’s the films, the books, the games, or the universe as a whole.  The original trilogy defined a generation and set the standard for modern day sci-fi movies, fostering the advancement of visual effects to the level of the photo-realism that we have today.

With what could be the last triumph of Lucas’ film making career, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was the closing of the series of Star Wars films; but now fans are left wanting more.  With over 100 novels written in the expanded universe of Star Wars, it is apparent that fans have a strong attachment to the world that Lucas created.

There is a problem, though: where are the films telling these stories?  Will there only be the six movies that take place before and after the Battle of Yavin?  What of the expanded universe that takes place after the demise of The Emperor?  Or more importantly to many of the fans of The Old Republic era, what happened before the time of Revan?

If filmmaker and avid Star Wars fan Brock Chandler has anything to say about it, there will be at least one more Star Wars movie.

Sanctuary is a film actually set thousands of years BEFORE The Old Republic in a time when not much is known.Chandler describes the film as “a story about faith. It is a story about what it means to lead. What it means to sacrifice. It is a story about how the choices we make really matter.” Sounds familiar! It’s clear that story is a very important element of the film he’s trying to make.

Chandler is trying to raise funding on IndieGoGo in order to help him with production costs. Selfishly, we’d really like to see this film get made so we wanted to help him out! You can too.

Brock sat down with us for a quick Q&A after the break.

Ask A Jedi: Tell us what the project is about?

Brock: We’re trying to make a Star Wars short film that’s twenty-five minutes long and that really harkens back to the old trilogy of Star Wars. We’re hoping it revolutionizes what people think of a Star Wars fan film.

Ask A Jedi: Tell us a little bit about the story.

Brock: This story takes place about 24,000 before the original trilogy and hints at the origins of where the Sith begin. Our story follows a group of refugees who have broken off from the Jedi and have formed their own group. The Jedi Order don’t like this and try to exterminate them. The characters decide that they either need to stand up for their faith and what they believe in or they just keep running along the same path and just die out. Think of it as a mixture of Braveheart and Saving Private Ryan meets Star Wars.

Ask A Jedi: How confident do you feel about being able to recapture Lucas’ image in the original trilogy?

Brock: His original trilogy was really made with that spirit of adventure and fun… it was about the characters and the story and that’s what our film is about. It focuses on some characters that are really heart-felt and people the audience can really relate to.

Ask A Jedi: What did you think about the new trilogy?

Brock: The thing about the newer films is they seem way more focused on the special effects rather than trying to tell a great story. In our film, we’ve been inspired by this to do the opposite and have a great story that’s enhanced by special effects… we’ve spent a year writing and re-writing the script and we’ve really come up with something special. We want to show you can make something with a budget next to nothing.

Ask A Jedi: With there being a copy-right on the Star Wars franchise, how do you reward contributors to the project?

Brock: Unless Lucas calls me on the phone and grants me a license, we’ve got a few things that we are doing for contributors that they will find worth-while… you’ll get your name in the credits, we’re giving away props from the film, such as lightsabers, posters and DVD copies of the film.

Ask A Jedi: Have you been following SWTOR?

Brock: Yeah, I think it’s pretty exciting what BioWare is promising, hopefully they can deliver. I think the Old Republic is ripe for that kind of story telling.

Ask A Jedi: Empire or Republic?

Brock: I’m kind of one of those guys that likes to play both sides so going along with the Han Solo’s who might be good at heart but a hard exterior.

Ask A Jedi: Would you somehow be able to fit the line, “ask a Jedi” into the script? Something like, “Hey, can you get me the remote across the room?” “Are you kidding? Ask a Jedi to do it!”

Brock: Well, I’ll do my best, we’ll have to do extensive re-writes to fit that in there. Maybe someone far off in the background.

Ask A Jedi: Haha! Thanks for your time Brock, and good luck with your project. We truly hope we can help get it made!

If you’re interested in helping Brock out and seeing this film get made, please visit Sanctuary’s IndieGoGo site for more information on the film and to donate today.  Act now, because there are only a few days remaining before the funding closes!

And hey – if you’re reading this from inside any of the Lucas companies, send this one up the flagpole!

Be sure to click through here to contribute now!

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