Did Gary Kurtz have the wrong job?

Even though it seems that the job of Producer under GL seems to have a lot of creative freedom, as Rick McCallum proves, would Gary Kurtz have been better of in the job of something like Art Director, Ghost Writer, or something like that? After all, whereas GL is a very good brain stormer, Kurtz seemed to have a better vision of how Star Wars should have turned out on screen on a plot and dramatic level.

 

Better yet, why not start an online petition to have GL turn full creative control of Star Wars over to Kurtz?

 

How do you do that? That's one trick that I never learnt. ? Don't say I have to go back to the newbies forum for help?!

 

I wish Lucas had never been born. That way the true geniuses and visionaries, i.e. everybody else, behind Star Wars would have FLOURISHED! and it would be GREAT!



P.S. I'm kidding.

 

Rather Harsh... even for a joke. Kurtz is great though!

 

Uh, how exactly has McCallum proven to have a lot of creative freedom with the "story" of the PT? McCallum handles the business side of things, that's what a producer does.

Kurtz certainly played a part in ANH and ESB being as successful as they were. But in my opinion, his contributions are the most overrated of anyone affiliated with the saga. He couldn't keep the budget for ESB under control. He fought with Lucas over creative direction of the story, which was overstepping his bounds as producer. These are facts, and are a big part of why he was let go after ESB.

 

Even though it seems that the job of Producer under GL seems to have a lot of creative freedom, as Rick McCallum proves,

PPOR.


Rick McCallum loves you!

 

nm

 

He couldn't keep the budget for ESB under control

I'm sure Empire has made its money back. Ultimately, was the extra expendature not wise? Without Empire hitting a grand slam, would there even be a Star Wars saga? I'm sure Kurtz recognized how crucial the situation was.

Personally, I don't know how ESB wasn't more expensive. To me, the massive, beautiful inards of Cloud City are the most realistic looking and most effective fantasy setting of all time. If they had cheaped out on it, I'm sure that would be a different story.

 

The "extra expenditure" almost bankrupted Lucas.

No man wants to lose all his possessions over a movie!

UKS

 

Haven't you all seen the interviews with RM?! He talks about the Star Wars Saga as if he's the creator, not GL! From the way he talks, he seems to imply that he has had a BIG part in the creativity side of the production of the PT (such as it is!), otherwise why interview a man who's simply just a money man? I know what I'm hearing from RM's mouth, and it isn't the words of someone who's simply a walking calculator!

Oh yes, to those who are arguing about his quality as a simple Producer...READ THE TITLE OF MY ORIGINAL QUESTION!!!!!

What the hell does PPOR stand for? ?

 

The "extra expenditure" almost bankrupted Lucas.

If Kurtz wants to almost bankrupt me in order to make me a billionaire, than I'm all for it.

 

That's making the huge assumption that you know you'll be a billionair afterwards. If I saw some guy squandering away my money, I'd have a thing or two to say as well.
Innards of cloud city beautiful and realistic? Realistic, maybe. But beautiful? It's all white and sterile in the O-OT. I never liked it... The outsides were nice though.

 

Remember the 70's SFX limitations.

And art has a price.

 

Kurtz always had a problem keeping a project organized and on budget. Considering that's what a producer's job is really about, it's not surprising his career ended not long after Lucas cut ties with him.

Kurtz did not leave SW out of his own free will, that's a lie perpetuated by Kurtz since 1999. He actually begged Lucas after ANH to let him produce ESB because he knew Lucas' confidence in him as a producer was shaken by their experience making that picture together. Lucas had to double as producer and director in a miserable shoot because Kurtz was terribly non-confrontational with the British crew, ILM, Fox executives, etc...

Look up Kurtz in IMDB. Two films of merit since leaving SW. THE DARK CRYSTAL and RETURN TO OZ, with the latter film requiring Lucas to bail the production out of disaster(sound familiar). His career in Hollywood was over after that.

Anyone who thinks Kurtz was a "no-man" needs to do more research. Lucas had no interest in Kurtz producing even EMPIRE, after the difficulties of ANH's production. The process of making that film almost killed George, and he put the blame squarely on Kurtz. The fact is, Kurtz was considered a non-entity in regards to his handling of the British crew, Fox liasions, ILM communications. The guy was just not confrontational enough to handle a big show like a SW film, and it put a lot of pressure on George to pick up the slack. Lucas basically had to pull double duty as the producer and director, which was insane for such a crazy project like the first SW film.

On the eve of the sequel, Lucas was ready to terminate their relationship right there and then. But when Kurtz got wind of this, he BEGGED for another shot at producing a SW film. Although Lucas was dead set against it, he gave him one more shot.

And Kurtz blew it.

Everybody knows how ESB went seriously over budget and how much stress that caused Lucas at the time. He couldn't get any more money from the bank as budget overages were piling up. He actually had to go back on his *hand and knees* for an assist from Fox----which pissed him off royally. Kurtz already had a strike against him going into this second SW film, and Lucas had every reason to blame him for the out-of-control budget. Kurtz just wasn't doing what a producer is actually supposed to do on a film production:

Keep it organized and on budget!

Contrary to these ridiculous over-estimations of Kurtz's involvement on a storytelling level, it was his failure being an influence on a Production level, which killed his career.

SIDENOTE: Lucas was instrumental in allowing Walter Murch the chance to finish "Return To Oz" (another Kurtz production), when Disney got furious over budget concerns (sound familiar). Just another example of how a Kurtz production almost fell apart, if not by the power of the flanneled one:

MURCH:......Anyway, on top of all that, the studio was so unhappy with the material that they were seeing, and the fact that we were falling behind schedule, that after five weeks they fired me off the film.

INTERVIEWER:That I didn't know.

MURCH:Yes. I only got back on board because George Lucas, who's a friend, heard about what happened and flew to England from Japan, where he was at the time. He met with me and looked at what I had shot, then met with the Disney executives and said ?No, this is going to be great, you guys just have to be more patient with this process, let's see what can be done to facilitate it.? And he guaranteed the rest of the production?he said that if something else happened, he would step in and take control. That was enough to make the executives at Disney feel more confident about what was going on, and I was back directing again after a few days. It was a fantastic act of generosity and commitment on his part.

Wow, George doesn't just TELL stories about Honor, Loyalty, and friendship.

 

It stands for Post Proof or Retract.


He talks about the Star Wars Saga as if he's the creator, not GL!

I'd like to see a more clear example of that.
If he's asked questions about the story, he answers them. So?
And he is an important part of the moviemaking team, so if he uses "we" to mean a decision that GL will end up making on his own, so be it.

otherwise why interview a man who's simply just a money man? I know what I'm hearing from RM's mouth, and it isn't the words of someone who's simply a walking calculator!

Reasons to interview someone in McCallum's position...
(1) Has been with the movie since the beginning, knows all sorts of things about its production
(2) Part of McCallum's job concerns the marketing/promotion of the film; why shouldn't he plug it? Producing is more than accounting -- it's about resources, it's about networking, people skills, dealmaking.
(3) Is an interesting person to talk to / probably enjoys doing interviews more than Lucas
(4) If you say "We're interviewing the producer of SW", it sells magazines


Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Lucas choose to finance ESB with his own money, he had to excpet hte risk of it going over budget and not making his money back, otherwise he wouldn't have done that.

I can't believe people are now arguing ESB should of been made for less money.

 

Agreed -- it would've been exactly like the Planet of the Apes series, with each subsequent installment's budget getting scissored down further and further.

Empire's $35 million allocation is all up there on the screen, and at least Lucas had the fiscal cojones to question where the major funds were being spent by Kurtz and the director.

Artistically, this pretty much ensured that a happy medium was reached between what Kershner was wanting to achieve, and in pleasing the loan officers at the banks from where he borrowed a good chunk of the production budget.

 

I'd prefer spending $35 million on ESB as we now see it, than say $25 million on a film that would turn out as just another crap sequal that would be a flop and be forgotten about in a few years. How old is ESB now? It's 23 years old! Just imagine what would have happened if corners were cut on the budget? It's way too terrible to contemplate! But let's just say this, if he was to have cut corners on the expense of the production, I very much doubt we'd be sitting here now!

But getting back to my original question. I still think Kurtz had the WRONG job. From what I've read, Kurtz was more interested in the creative aspect of the Star Wars films, rather than the budgeting side. So in that case, he really should have had a job concerning a more creative arty roll in the films' production, rather than merely being in charge of the purse strings. I just don't think it was his big thing in life. Better yet, maybe he should've been made Director of ROTJ!

 

Mecha-Superior - I bet you're also going to blame Kurtz for the mysterious fire that destroyed a number of sets on Empire. When a set is destroyed that hasn't been used for its purpose, you have to rebuild it which cost money! Are you going to blame the injuries and illnesses that happened to the actors on Kurtz? When actors are ill and are hurt, usually that requires filming to be pushed back which also cost money! And what about crew members dying while in production. Is that Kurtz fault as well? Lets also blame Kurtz for mother nature haulting location filming.

Oh and can you imagine Lucas coming out w/half-ass FX shots in the PT. No. You and just about everybody else would give him hell for producing such crappy FX. Kurtz did care about the FX in ESB and how they came out while Lucas just shrugged them off.

And if you look at a lot of movies today, lots of movies go over budget from even the MOST experienced producer. Stuff happens all the time behind the scenes that nobody can control. They're not all the producer's fault.

And just because Kurtz isn't producing much doesn't mean he's a failure. He didn't like how the business in Hollywood was going and decided to leave. Many people have done that. He prefers the smaller European stuff. And you can still continue to work on movies and such in pre-production for many, many years and have it go nowhere.

Lucas took the risk of spending his own money. He should accept the consequences. And with all the merchandising wheeling and dealing he was doing, Lucas knew he was going to make more money there than w/the box-office from the movie.

Pain is temporary, quality film is forever. Or at least some of them are.

 

Kurtz wanted to kill off Han, have the princess a sad lonely woman & have Luke leaving them as a hermit to hide away on Dagobah

i don't know about you but picturing the end of ROTJ like that give me shivers, just plain Horrible

he wanted Episode 1 to be the formation of the Jedi Knights, so that would mean the Jedi came together for like 10 years, then would all be broken apart by the Empire, doesn't sound too groundbreaking does it ?

no offense to Kurtz but he's just a bitted old man taking advantage of the Media's GL Bashing

 

And ESB is FOREVER!!!

I can't believe the answer from Obi_Frans! What, I guess you'd prefer Star wars to be all sugar coated "happy ever afters"? That attitude really sucks! I think Kurtz was more interested in old school Shakespearean style drama, rather than the Disney style rubbish that GL seems to prefer. And no, Luke wasn't supposed to just hide away on Dagabah for the rest of his life. In Ep. VII he was to go in search of his real sister (Leia wasn't originally supposed to be his sister). In Ep. VIII he was to find her and train her to become a Jedi, and in Ep. IX they were to both confront the Emperor. Yes, I'd call that ground breaking and interesting stuff.

 

Actually, Luke´s sister was supposed to have been trained already by another Jedi Master on the other side of the galaxy.

Star Wars is what it is and I love it, end of story!

Maybe Kurtz should have more creative positions in filmmaking, but in Star Wars, it makes no difference for me, since he can´t go back in time and change his job.

 

Very true. It's sad really that he got the wrong job on the Saga. In another position, such as being Director of ROTJ, I think he would have made an average film into a stonkin' fantastic and dramatic film that would have equaled or ever surpassed ESB!

On the subject of Luke's sister, I didn't realise that she was to have been trained already! I always thought that Luke would have found her leading a normal life (as Luke was during ANH) and he would have done all the training himself after telling her about her parents. Hmm...very interesting.

 

but how can that be, when as soon as George started writing ESB he knew it would be Anakins Story, & Star Wars is a fairytale consisting of 6 movies wich should be watched in chronological order so offcourse i want a happy ending after 6 movies, what else have i been building up too ?? what happened to the Hope in a bad ending ?? isn't that what we have Episodes 2,3 and 5 for ?

keep the bad endings for storys that really happened