AICN's recrediting rumor and why it is wrong

Today I read someone saying that he was losing all respect for Lucas because of something he might do with the OT.

(Interesting fact about certain kinds of SW fanboys: Every single day they lose all respect for Lucas, but somehow find a lot more so they can lose it again. )

BEHOLD. The part in blue, where Moriarty says he heard a rumor about recrediting ESB and ROTJ's directors.

Moriarty says he "heard a rumor".
Well, Moriarty, I heard a rumor that your mother was ugly, but I don't go printing it in big blue letters on my Web site.

Not only is that a rumor, but it's a nasty, Lucas-bashing rumor from someone who has nothing better to do than whine about George.

Let's review the facts:

(1) Lucas dislikes the Director's Guild. He is not even part of it IMHO.
(2) The Director's Guild dislikes Lucas. They don't want him back.
(3) Lucas is big on directors' rights, and always makes it clear that ESB was more Kershner's film than his, ROTJ more Marquand's. For better OR worse.
(4) The Director's Guild is not big on crediting one directors with one movie. That's why Richard Lester is credited with directing Superman II even though he only directed the second half of shooting.

Whoever wrote that rumor should be ashamed of themselves for trying to slander Lucas, who has the utmost respect for Kershner and for Marquand (RIP).

That said -- since Lucas IS big on directors' rights and crediting and all that, maybe he will give himself a "Special Edition Unit Director" credit somewhere in the scrolling credits, just like a second unit director or something. I could see that happening.


But his work in changing the OT has never been about him being the director.

He's like the powerful producer who has some say over the film. Think of producers in the golden days of Hollywood, like David O. Selznick. (Or think of powerful modern producers like Joel Silver and Jerry Bruckheimer.)


They may have a lot of say in the creative process, but they are not directors.

And Lucas knows this.



So rest easy, kiddies.

Lucas would not WANT to do this...
Lucas would not be ALLOWED to do this by the Directors' Guild rules...
Lucas is not a good enough friend of the Directors' Guild to make them consider BENDING THE RULES for him, even if he did try and get this done.


Your DVD of ESB will say "Directed by Irvin Kershner" at the end, and your DVD of ROTJ will credit the Marquandmeister as the director.

AS IT SHOULD BE.


Shame on you Moriarty for spreading Lucas hatemongering. I have respected Moriarty above most of the AICN crew, and I enjoy his writing, and I can't believe he would print that rubbish.

This goes beyond film criticism, and goes to the level of slandering the name of a kind and gentle man who respects his fellow professionals.



Rick McCallum loves you!

 

adam,
I hope you're right. It certainly doesn't seem like something Lucas would do. If it were true I'd lose a lot of respect for him.

One point tho - according to a Lucas biography by John Baxter Lucas was quietly reinstated into the Director's Guild in 1997.

perhaps someone can confirm this, maybe the Guild is on the net and can be looked up...?

g

 

Even if he was -- which has a ring of truth about it, I'm not sure how things would have gone down with him directing the prequels whilst not being in the DGA...

(EDIT: www.dga.org ... I can't find George in their directory, though admittedly I'm not sure how they have things set up. I'm not a DGA member, alas, so I don't know their inner workings! ha ha!)
(Hmmm... I wonder what sort of a stink they raised when he directed a big movie without being in their club!)


Even if he was a member, I think we can all agree that he has burned quite a few bridges with the DGA, and even if he DID decide to do this, I doubt they'd side with him to do him a favor.

Remember that Irvin Kershner and Richard Marquand are (presumably) still protected by DGA* rules, and nobody -- not Lucas, nor anyone at Lucasfilm or Fox, can take that away from them.

(EDIT: I don't know if Marquand was a DGA member. He's not in the directory, but, then, he's dead. I think he was a Brit, so maybe he was in the British equivalent?)



Now, what MIGHT convince the DGA to bend their rule and change a credit?
If Lucas changed half the movie, maybe.

Lucas is not changing half the movie. Far from it.
(Yes, I know there's a few SE-bashers who say that Greedo shooting first ruined the WHOLE movie... )

The SEs changed maybe 10-12 minutes of the whole saga, even if you include a recomposited matte as a "change".

Lucas would have to make quite a few changes indeed to change half of ESB or ROTJ before anyone could even CONSIDER naming him a director.



Another thing to consider.
Lucas already gave himself a highly prominent Executive Producer credit in ESB and ROTJ to match his other Executive Producer credits. That, I think, tells the world that George was boss on the set.

A third thing to consider.
Lucas VOLUNTARILY gave up his screenplay credit on ESB so that Leigh Brackett (RIP) could get her recognition for helping, and so her estate could get some money off the film.
If he is generous enough with credits to give a shout-out to someone whose work doesn't appear anywhere in the film, I think it's safe to say he's not the sort of person who would elbow out the actual director of the movie.


File this rumor next to the Darth Kimball stories, ladies and gents.


Rick McCallum loves you!

 

I don't think Maruand was in the DGA, that's one of the reasosn why Lucas chose him.

but as I've said - it doesn't seem like something Lucas would do.

g

 

The problem with doing things like Moriarty did, is a lot of people on the net and who frequent sites like aicn and TF.N are really ignorant (meaning in the dark, not stupid) about how films are made.

They don't understand the legalities, the restrictions, costs, or process. Some don't know that films aren't even filmed in basic chronological order. They don't know about the acting aspect, or editing, or SFX aspects. And there's no reason why they should. When you go into a restaurant or clothing store, or what have you, chaces are, you're not considering how everything is ran. You're just interested in how it affects you. That's why people are so quick to lose their temper with a sales clerk, and why so many of you probably don't like the customer interaction part of your job But, that's just how the world is.

However, because of this fact, with ignorance comes people who are willing to feed off it, and try to tell people lies about something, and the populace will beleive them because they don't know any better. Moriarty claims to be in 'the biz' so I would expect he would know how it's ran, yet he feeds off of people's ignorance on the matter to spread this kind of stuff. That's not cool to either Lucas or the readers who really respect Kershner and Marquand's contributions to the saga.

Rick Mc Callum no longer loves Moriarty