WHAT IS
SEIZE & DELIVER?
THEMES
These statements provide the compass of our stories:
Republics may fall. Empires may rise. The Bounty Hunters’ Guild stands.
On the other side of a galaxy far, far away, bounty hunters take down their marks. These are their tall tales.
We want to avoid anything Empire, Republic, Resistance or Jedi. So that “slogan” for the guild sums up what we love about Bounty Hunters. They go on no matter what everyone else is doing.
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Let’s break down the second statement. We’re on the “other side” of the galaxy -- the side that has not been explored yet. These are the fantastic stories of dangerous bounty hunters successfully capturing their bounties. The stories are Legends.
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Time-wise, Seize & Deliver lives in the 40-year gap between The Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, after Bossk’s murder. Our hunters are loyal to the Bounty Hunters’ Guild headquarters in the belly of level 2685 on Coruscant.
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Now, we know all about Level 1313: That dodgy, super Adult rated game about the Coruscant underworld that Disney squashed as their first order of business when they bought Lucas Arts. We understand that R rated content doesn’t jive with the Disney brand, and to be honest, we find that there is something charming about sticking to a PG rating anyway. We really want to maintain the feel of the original trilogy as much as possible.
We flip Star Wars on its head is by featuring non-humans as our main characters and putting humans in the background. If we’re going to a galaxy far, far away; let’s actually make it different from earth and what we see every day. Let’s explore this thing!
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That sounds expensive, but it doesn’t have to be.
By focusing on the characters more than the world and keeping the storytelling tight (instead of wide and sweeping) - the attention goes into the details: elaborate makeup and smaller sets. We keep our special effects as practical as possible, only using CGI when absolutely necessary. Combine that with a group of talented artists who are passionate about the Star Wars Galaxy and ready to engage their imagination; anything is possible on even the smallest budget. We’ve been able to prove that with the series of 5-minute episodes we’ve created so far. (Click here to watch the teaser.)
STYLE OF DEVELOPMENT
This is episodic. Each episode is about a Bounty Hunter tracking, stalking, fighting, capturing or killing their prey, each in their own unique way. We will be able to get glimpses of their backstories and reveal different aspects of the characters as each hunt will present a different situation for the hunters to handle.
As for structure, that takedown can happen at any point in the story. For example: In one story a hunter might take out their mark right away and then have to deal with some kind of aftermath. We might watch a hunter spend most of the episode tracking their mark right up to the end. Or they might be telling someone the story of a hunt they just completed. Even though we always see a hunter take someone out, the actual structure has room for variety so it never feels predictable or boring.
In our world, there are 3 types of bounties: Direct, Specific and Open. The show focusses on the first two, which are contracted out to specific hunters. Occasionally, an episode will focus on an Open Bounty: all the hunters racing against each other for the same mark. Whoever gets the mark first wins (very similar to “Smokin’ Aces” without the hunters killing each other).
AS A 5 MINUTE WEBSERIES
One hunter per episode, rotating through our lead hunters and occasionally seeing other hunters in the background. We’ll see San Sri, Kier and Sumva more frequently and anchor the series around them, but we want to also go back to Garoux, Ladraal & Hangakura, and the Wookies more than once or twice. For now that Open Bounty serves as a grand finale.
AS A STREAMING ANTHOLOGY
We would still focus on one hunter per episode. We could have a lot of fun playing with the format length. Most episodes would run 5-10 minutes long with the occasional outliers: a couple of 15 min episodes, a 2-minute episode, and a 30 minute finale (just for example). Each episode could be a different length similar to “Love. Death. & Robots.”
AS A NETWORK SHOW
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On a longer format, we can show more than one hunter per episode, each on their own mission, raise the stakes, and weave a more intricate tapestry of everyone’s lives. We can explore in more detail how the Guild works, and how the hunters are all interconnected by the workings of their job; any potential rivalries between or within houses. We can get into some bigger character arcs as well.
WHY US? &
WHY BOUNTY HUNTERS?
WHY US?
As fans of the world that George Lucas created, we agree with J.J. Abrams statement about seeing diversity in the galaxy. However, we want to see the diversity of species that the galaxy offers. To be honest, this is where we feel he missed it - by focusing on a diversity of humans rather than a diversity of non-human species. That’s not to say we’re a group of Star Wars fans who hate the prequels or sequels. We all have varying opinions on the complete works of Lucas Arts, but we all agree as die-hard fans of the original trilogy.
We’re players of RPGs, D&D, and other multi-species universes. As such, we understand that “racial” inequality and diversity extends outside of each species. Races then are not defined by different colors of a species but by the species themselves. So when we talk about “race,” we’re talking about the Human race, the Twi’Lek race, the Marialan race, the Shistavanean race, the Dathomerian race, the Zabrak race, the race of Wookiees, (just to name a few).
WHY BOUNTY HUNTERS?
Ok… So this is where we’re going to really nerd out...
The short answer: In college, Natalie played a text-based, fan-created Star Wars RPG called The Bounty Hunters Guild (or BHG for short). Her character was a lavender Twi’Lek named San Sri.
Not just anyone could join the game. You had to prove that you knew the Star Wars Galaxy and that if allowed in, you would add to the experience of those already playing. There was a 100 question Star Wars trivia test that one had to pass to be allowed to play. Once you passed that, you were allowed to create a character that had to be approved by the moderators, who then assigned you to a “Kabal” (or house). That was so much fun and so exciting that the idea stayed with her: Bounty Hunters would make a great series or film.
The rest of the series creators jumped on that bandwagon and the excitement about playing with other species and characters spread like wildfire. We also recognized that, because bounty hunters have not been widely explored yet, we have a lot of freedom in these stories. Everyone came to the table with new characters and species that ultimately enriched and defined the series that we are creating. That is a testament not only to the plethora of unmined storytelling potential in the Star Wars Galaxy, but also the creators’ level of dedication to the world and fandom.
Finally, we have carried over the spirit of the BHG game by not allowing people to contribute to the story without first proving a certain level of understanding of the universe. That is then “fact-checked” against what is already written in legends, canon, and other role-playing games. We also use Character Sheets to keep track of our hunters' abilities, proclivities, habits, and moral alignment just as one would in a tabletop RPG. That serves to keep us all accountable.