Saga George Lucas retiring from SW films (What does this mean for the future of SW?)

... "Why would I make any more when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?"

Wow, it looks like he took all the criticisms to heart. Anyway, more on topic, what effects do you guys think the Maker's departure from Star Wars will have on the franchise as a whole?


Mod Edit: Changed title.

 

Its about time. He's an artist. He deserves better than Star Wars fans.

 

The biggest revelation here is how much he took the bashing to heart. The fact that he is done making canon Star Wars movies (duh!)has been a known fact for years. Ever since the prequels were in production he has been saying that the story ends at part 6. He is still producing the CW series, plans to move ahead with the live action TV show at some point, make small experimental films, and isn't ruling out a 5th Indiana Jones film. This is all known and obvious stuff.

 

One-- I'll believe it when I see it.

Two-- If it's legit, I'm glad, and that's a bonafide Prequel fan speaking here. More than anything, I'd like to see Lucas actually commit to doing all the "small, personal art films" he's talked about for decades. "Red Tails" getting off the ground was the first sign that might happen, but if he puts his money where his mouth is, I'll be glad. I'd rather see another movie in the vein of "THX 1138" than another "Star Wars" trilogy. Even if it winds up like Coppola's botched "Twixt" experiment, I'd like to see Lucas blossom in his late period like Malick has or Kurosawa did, back in the day.

Three-- Even if he retires from the mainstream, I'm sure he'll still maintain some kind of oversight on future SW works in television, or whatever. At least, I hope he doesn't just give free license to the Lucasfilm corporate side to do whatever they want, as they might just as easily sell their souls to the OT-purist fanboy crowd faster than Simon Pegg can spout off bad dialogue.

Four-- Still, I'll believe it when I see it.

 

I came to this board as soon as I read that quote.

I'm sure he's somewhat kidding with his comment there, but he also reveals a surprisingly amount of personal feelings in it. I'm sure this hasn't actually made him hate star wars, or even the fans, but he just sounds... exhausted with everything, which i can't truly blame him for. It's been 35 years, nearly 40 since he began writing the saga. Whatever the critics say, it's a franchise that takes a ton of effort to maintain.

I wonder if this'll affect either the 3D release or Clone Wars though?

 

What's up with that thing in the article about how innocent and naive the Star Wars prequels are? I'd like the author of the article to clarify what was meant by that, precisely.

It's superficially true of TPM, I suppose, but AotC and RotS strike me as rather grim, bleak films.

Then again, this could just be another example of a reference to the prequels that is grounded only in a perspective gained from a cursory viewing of The Phantom Menace.

 

So does this mean he'll stop tinkering with the OT, or does he class that as one of his 'personal' projects?

Anthony Hopkins announced his retirement from films after 'Meet Joe Black', as did Liam Neeson after TPM. Neither stayed away for long. I think this is much the same situation, GL probably just wants to take a bit of a break & get out of the spotlight. I imagine he might be waiting to see what happens to cinema & TV on a technological level in the next few years, as well. Some radical development might bring him back, possibly for the SW live action TV series (as CGI did for the SE's & PT).

 

I didn't think he was making many movies anyway? He has only ever made two films besides Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and now Red Tails. I am interested to see how his art films will be though.

Reading the article I feel a little sorry for him, but this just confirms again that he doesn't care about what the fans think. He's making it a lot harder for himself than necessary with the fans in the last few years unfortunately. Most people aren't telling him he can't change his movies to be how he wants them, they just want the originals too.

I genuinely hope that Red Tails is good though, and that it could kick off some quality movies from Lucas.

 

The interview is very good. Really hits home the reality that George Lucas is, after all, only a human being. I hope the part about him taking some of the harsh criticisms to heart (?You raped my childhood? and the like) from a very small minority of "fans" is just him being a little sarcastic. I hope he does realise that 99.9% of the Star Wars fanbase don?t think he?s a terrible person. Only Internet ?Comic-Book Guy-Syndrome? nerds with no lives outside of Cyberspace think that.

Plus, wasn't he going to retire in 1983?

 

I agree that it's kind of sad that his skin may not be as thick as many had assumed, when he says things like, ?Why would I make any more, when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?? and seems to mean it. I don't mean that he's pathetic, but that he's human and a lot of his so-called fans are very unappreciative of the fact that none of this would exist in the first place without him.

Having said that, though, I can see how some can see it as not as huge news as others are making it out to be... that he really just means he's not making any other blockbuster movies after Red Tails and his part of the next Indiana Jones movie. As far as SW movies go, as noted, we've known that since ROTS. But I see a bigger statement than that being made with this:

'?I?m retiring,? Lucas said. ?I?m moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff.?

He was careful to leave himself an out clause for a fifth ?Indiana Jones? film. But otherwise, ?Red Tails? will be the last blockbuster Lucas makes. ?Once this is finished, he?s done everything he?s ever wanted to do,? says Rick McCallum, who has been producing Lucas?s films for more than 20 years. ?He will have completed his task as a man and a filmmaker.?

Lucas has decided to devote the rest of his life to what cineastes in the 1970s used to call personal films.'

He doesn't just say "big movies", he says "the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff.? That to me does indeed sound like LucasFilm and Star Wars is what he is really referring to, and the quotes from McCallum seem to support that.

So it should be interesting. I wish him luck, and I'm sure this isn't an easy thing for him to do. I think TCW will be completed as planned, and that Lucas will probably still drop by from time to time to give his opinions to Filoni. As others have said, I doubt the Live Action series has much real hope of coming to fruition. And I hope the 3D conversions and theatrical release plans for the remaining five films have enough behind them already to continue as planned.

 

First off, it's common courtesy to provide a link. I didn't initially know if you were joking, mistaken or what. Here it is: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/magazine/george-lucas-red-tails.html?_r=2&smid=tw-nytmag&seid=auto

Second, y'know, even as PT fan, I don't particularly feel sorry for Lucas -- not, at least, when he expresses hurt with a whiny, boorish remark, when he could just be a man and suck it up. I also dislike how that remark appears to be used as some kind of butthurt rationale for not making any more Star Wars movies. Why not just SAY you've satisfactorily completed the saga with the six films you've already made and be done with it? This is a new development in his discourse; and it leaves me feeling rankled. On the other hand, given Lucas' campy, offbeat humour, it could also be an ounce of hurt wrapped in a pound of comedic bacon. He has been resolute about not making more Star Wars feature films -- those remaining three "sequel" movies he's been less and less keen to talk about in every new decade -- since 2005 and the completion of ROTS. A final trilogy would truly cement Star Wars as some grand cinematic experiment, though the PT and the OT have, arguably, done that already. I'd just love to see what the mind of George Lucas, using 2012+ technology and techniques, could come up with. I'm sure George has a few ideas knocking round that ever-jiving brainbox of his.

Third, this is obviously a political move by Lucas: bash the Hollywood system to promote your new film and announce you're retiring for good measure. Well, okay. Lucas considers himself a film-maker, and he only has six feature films that he has explicitly directed, in forty years of making movies. Obviously, one shouldn't be too harsh on the guy, as he has, of course, spent years overseeing other projects, building film companies from the ground up, and raising kids as a single parent. Kudos to George. He's a man I admire greatly. But this whole retirement drive is getting a bit rich, now. Either make those small independent movies or don't. If his health holds out, he's got one decade of creativity in him; maybe two. A person who's allegedly bursting with ideas should be champing at the bit to turn them into reality in their favoured medium. But Lucas is diffident. In this sense, I am glad he is apparently no longer using Star Wars as some kind of safety net. C'mon, George. Your safety net is (partially) gone. Walk the tightrope and make those esoteric, small-time movie projects come true, if you dare. And if you don't dare, then make one final return to that galaxy far, far away.... OT = Departure; PT = Initiation; S(equel) T(rilogy) = Return. End. ?

Fourth, well, from the trailer, and from Lucas' comments, here, "Red Tails" looks like an infuriatingly plastic movie: drenched in CG and digital technology (e.g., digital cinematography), full of stock cliches, loaded with video-game-like action, and geared to a not-too-sophisticated movie crowd. In general, that could describe the Star Wars prequels, of course, but Lucas also mixed and matched what he was doing there with many classical elements, to bring a rich fantasy world to life, imbuing the films -- in my opinion, anyway -- with genuine heft and lyrical beauty. Plus, given that Lucas was, ultimately, transcribing a made-up universe, he did not really have the same obligation of fidelity to reality. But "Red Tails" ostensibly documents real history. Yet it appears stuffed to the gills with banal digital ornaments and ropey, cartoon-like characters and situations. It isn't some grand art statement, but a fairly generic blockbuster that just happens to have a lot of black faces in front of and behind the camera. "Colour" me impressed

 

^ Great points, and well said.

 

I hope he sticks around in the Star Wars department long enough to insert Jar Jar into Episode IV or V. It'd be funny to see the internet collapse reality itself.

 

Thanks, eht.

For the record, I just want to make it clear, with these comments...

...when I wrote, "slightly-above-average set to market so far", I was referring to the extant Blu-ray set, which lacks the original versions of the first three Star Wars movies, of course, and not to the 2006 DVDs, where the original versions were ported to the DVD format from a series of out-dated Laserdisc transfers, which I would classify as below-average in quality (with respect to the 2006 home video market, to say nothing of the 2011/2012 home video market).

 

Wow, Cryogenic, I wouldn't have expected you to make a post like that before. Great post. GL generally seems like a nice guy and I agree that's he's underrated, at least in his potential and real genius. Even if I didn't like the prequels, I thought that Indiana Jones IV was great fun. But he's always had a terrible attitude towards critics and fans, which is nothing new. Just watch his 60 minutes interview from 2005.

"They haven't liked any of them really, and they especially haven't like the last two. Hey...you know...it can't get any worse." Most critics loved the first Star Wars, and The Empire Strikes Back had some mixed reviews at worst, but he ignores this.

"It hurts a great deal. But part of making movies is you get attacked."

"You seem to be saying they're just going after you." George: "Well, they are."

He's also said in another interview, "The other movie, it's on VHS, if anybody wants it. ... I'm not going to spend the, we're talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore. It's like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it."

Your point about the Blu-ray set is exactly right, at least for me. If he just released the originals in HD, I would be a very happy fan.

And yeah, Red Tails, looks generic and maybe even boring. Hopefully not a sign of things to come.

 

Yeah, that's disappointing, how shallow the reading of the Prequels are in that Times piece. Especially while comparing it to a set of fantasy films that are almost medievalist in their mindset (everything will be okay once we have a King who can beat back the foreign hordes and/or a prophesized chosen one who makes good on their mission rather than subverting their messianic expectations). I'd like to think that the 3D rerelease of TPM will find a new audience more open to how it's talking about taxes and trade wars leading to political upheaval, but I'm not exactly expecting it.

I am more hopeful for "Red Tails" than a lot of others here, though, because I can see what it's aiming to be a little easier, trying to give the Tuskegee Airmen the John Wayne moment they never had, a throwback to the corny good ol' days of B-movies. That might be an outdated concept, but I'll bet there's an audience for it. And if not-- well, at least it'll be a more admirable bomb than "Willow" (politically speaking, anyway-- I do like that movie).

But anyway. I don't give a damn if he ever releases the unaltered OT. I do give a damn about him making good on all his "small, personal art film" promises.

 

Thank you, Drewton.

Well, I have my moments.

The last "Indiana Jones", to me, is, perhaps, the Indiana Jones film I always wanted to see -- but I didn't realize that till I saw it.

Bustling with classic Americana, intrigue, mystery, humour, exorbitant antics and amusement-ride-like dilemmas, tack-sharp editing, stunning compositions and camera motions, great, vintage swashbuckling music, and a story buffed to perfection with a clever shading of Sci-Fi, tinged with grandiosity, it is, basically, one of the best pieces of escapist cinema I've ever seen.

I can well imagine another Indy movie delivering classic thrills and spills, but I can't imagine one ever topping it. For this viewer, anyway.

I wouldn't deem that a "terrible attitude" towards critics and fans. What Lucas says there, in response to what's put to him, seems pretty clear-headed and rational, to me. Notice how his former statement -- "But part of making movies is you get attacked" -- is actually a general statement, and could be said to apply to all movie-makers, at all times. Only when a subsequent statement is issued by the interviewer, baiting Lucas to confirm it's of a more personal, anti-Lucas nature, does he assent. And even then, the wording he's responding to is rather barbed and reductive. "You seem to be saying they're just going after you" clarifies an internal meaning in Lucas' former statement -- i.e., he is attacked merely to be attacked -- but in a fairly direct, inelegant way. To this, Lucas appears to simply say, "Yes, I am just getting attacked". But he just said a moment earlier that part of making movies is that one gets attacked. The interviewer turned his objective statement into something more localized and personal. She over-simplified it to get to the nub of what she presumably thought he really meant or wanted to say. So an important point gets lost there, I think. What Lucas was hinting at, in my view, is that critics do not understand the message, so project their frustrations straight at the messenger. And he was also saying this happens to all artists. They put a part of themselves out there and they get derided. And Lucas represents a particularly big target, owed to the nature and popularity of his films. Those ideas are positioned, I'd say, to lead to a sort of axiomatic statement or instruction by Lucas: i.e., "Don't pay attention to critics; think for yourself". By his own admission, he has always distrusted and hated authority, group opinions and the status quo. His subsequent house-painting analogy seems to express the measure of aggravation felt to those who chide him for his artistic choices; and who, by extension, also pour scorn on his hard-won freedom to make those choices.

 

I find it disturbing, as well. Especially since I believe he doesn't deserve it. But I doubt that he will retire. Steven Soderbergh made the same announcement, last fall. So far, he has not shown any sign of retiring.


Reading the article I feel a little sorry for him, but this just confirms again that he doesn't care about what the fans think.

Why are you making this all about the fans?


It wreaks of commercialism, not art. To me. Lucas, these days, is the sort of guy who takes calculated risks, but not huge ones. By making this new film so darn blockbuster-y, he appears to have neutered the underlying potential of the endeavour, by a whole order of magnitude or more. Also, he wasn't technically directing it, but he stepped in and shot some material after the director finished, and he oversaw the effects. Shades of ROTJ (that said, I love ROTJ, these days). Really, I just don't think it is very aesthetically inspiring. It looks drab and plays like a lesser Micheal Bay movie. At least, going by its trailer, it does.


Wow! You've posted your review of "RED TAILS" and yet, it hasn't been released in theaters yet. Aren't you jumping the gun? Or trying to convince yourself and us that it's not worth watching?

 

His quote about Spielberg still making films is quite funny, but also quite grim and cynical, I think. Likening him to a kid playing a really engrossing video-game, then having an adult (Death, maybe?) rudely interrupting him and saying ?Its time to go home now?. Maybe I read it wrong, but it almost seems as though Lucas is saying that by still directing films and working as hard as he's ever worked at the age of 65 Spielberg is running away from the inevitability of retirement and Death.

I don?t know. I just found something quite profound about that portion of the interview, if a little depressing.

I don?t think the interview says that at all. If anything, the opposite. Lucas doesn?t owe the fans anything.

 

Good catch, Krueger -- and well said.

That is something I also wanted to comment on but forgot. I think you have more or less summed it up.

Ironically, it sort of connects with a comment of Lucas' under discussion in my last post: "Part of making movies is you get attacked."

Attacking his best buddy Steve? Poor form, poor form. Well, schucks, I'm only kidding.

I think there's also a strong degree of affection -- affectionate bewilderment, perhaps -- from Lucas for Spielberg. He's saying that Spielberg has a sort of child-like hunger and enthusiasm that he doesn't feel. Which is also very revealing! But that's kind of what I get when I wipe away the morbid overtones. Lucas is acknowledging that, for all their closeness, they're also different people. Spielberg has an insatiable appetite for making more movies, while Lucas is more chilled out about starting a new project. In former pieces over the years, Lucas has called himself lazy, and during the making of the PT films -- AOTC and ROTS, at least -- there seemed to be a certain reticence on his part to get going and to actually commit (but, in large part, that was maybe because his initial reluctance was centered around writing, which is Lucas' self-confessed weak spot; and I think Lucas may have been bluffing a bit, too). He has all these great ideas, but it takes him a while to get fired up about one thing or the other and set the pieces moving. Apparently, it's not a problem Spielberg has. Yes, some admiration for his friend there, I think, expressed with classic Lucasian dryness.

 

Frankly, I'm relieved that Lucas has something of a (well-justified) chip on his shoulder. It might induce him to leave the franchise altogether, make those esoteric films, and prove his obnoxious critics wrong.

Ever see Ran or Before the Devil Knows You're Dead? Those old gents can knock 'em out of the park like anyone. Go at it, George!

 

As a fan of all 6 SW films, for the life of me I will never understand why anyone take what is said on the internet TOO seriously. Now our creator George is taking this stuff to heart??? I don't get it??

If this board was populated with 100% of the people who hated the movies, I wouldn't be swayed, as the internet will never give a true representation of the whole SW fanbase because I know so many people who have never posted on any SW board.

Mr. Lucas has the best selling BluRay in the history of BluRay, the Prequels grossed over a billion dollars, and he is set for life from what the fans shelled out of 30 years and is the CEO of Lucasfilm.

If I were him I would focus on that fanbase and be grateful as to what the fans have given him that none of us here have as we have to go to work everyday and make a living. The last thing I would do if I were Mr. Lucas is worry about what a few people on the internet said about me???? Talk about being insecure.

 

please lucas let someone else take over the star wars movies. you know somone who is actually good at directing. i'd kill to see a movie about darth maul or jango fett. heck i'd take anything i can get, as long as lucas has nothing to do with it.

 

"Dear Mr. Lucas, oh my gosh you suck so bad. I just have one request. Please make my dream picture come true, only don't direct it. Because you suck. okthnxbye"