George Lucas retiring...

True. That much is admirable as of the 21st century.

Not literally but when you say something that admits frustration from being criticized by many people (or not many), you may as well. This was an interview and he chose his words inconsiderably and irresponsibly.

So you do agree he could do better?

Can you rephrase that? I honestly don't know what you mean.

 

Yeah, as other have said, Lucas has already said this stuff before back when ROTS was coming out. I don't have an exact quote, but he said something to the effect that he was going to make smaller, more artsy movies that probably wouldn't be so successful (I believe he speculated that himself).

Lucas doesn't direct TCW as is, so him making an exit from being involved in "blockbuster" movies doesn't mean that looking over and approving/rejecting Star Wars scripts will change.

As for the Star Wars quote, criticism toward him has been there since - as the article itself acknowledged - back when he was re-working the originals. So I don't know how seriously I should take that quote. He pushed on ahead with the prequels, and with TCW, and now with Seth Green's show, and possibly the LAS. Also as he says, he set out to make the films, etc. that HE wanted to, despite what anyone else was saying. So if he really wanted to work further on Star Wars, he would do it for himself. The comment about the fans criticizing him came off as sarcastic to me. If he doesn't intend to make anymore Star Wars shows/movies, its because he doesn't care to anymore. To sincerely blame it on the fans is completely inconsistent with how he describes things. The shift to "more personal art films" is probably going to go largely unappreciated too, but he still does it because it makes HIM HAPPY.

 

That DASTARDLY Lucas! How DARE he say such TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE things to the fans!

What did he say again?

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

...the NERVE!

Yeah, you got that backwards, Fistofives.

What do you know about the burden of fame.

Good grief.

 

It seems like he's pretty much saying "If they don't like it my way, I'll just go elsewhere." I can understand his attitude, and sorta respect it. Still, lots of people in these forums may criticize Lucas, but don't lots of people here defend him and agree with his vision too?

 

Yes, I'm sure things are hard all over for Mr. Lucas.

 

I would go as far to say that the majority of the fans who like what GL puts out over exceeds the minority, so he doesn't have to worry about what anyone says. He made not be perfect, but the man is still a genius.

 

Good. It's time he moved along into idiocy where you belongs. He is NOT the same man he was while making the Original Star Wars Trilogy and THX-1138, THAT was the Lucas I enjoyed and admired. Not this gestapo corporate button up shirt fanatic who does nothing but milk Star Wars to DEATH over and over. In my opinion, he has turned into the very thing he fought against all those years ago. This is one of the top 50 richest men in the USA and he says he cannot "afford" to make a Live Action Star Wars series. lol. It just makes me laugh. This coming after the PROFIT of the just released Blu-Ray sets and the coming release of the 3D versions (more milking) of the same movies we have already seen 10000 times. And why in living h*** would you go pay to see it in the theater in migraine inducing 3D when you can just watch it at home in 1080p off the Blu-Ray? It's called MILKING!!! Yes, somehow, he just can't afford it, but he keeps milking and milking. I just wonder were all this money goes.....

It's time for new blood, and hopefully YOUNG blood. People with real imagination and vision. People who will bring The Old Republic era to the big screen and give us the Star Wars we have been missing since the early 80's. People who don't make atrocities like The Phantom Menace and Indiana Jones Crystal Skull.

And while he is retired, maybe he could go on a diet instead of trying to become Jabba the Hutt. His daughter too.

 

[image=http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/554/facepalm.jpg]

 

When I read that quote, I thought he meant it in kind of a tongue-in-cheek way. As in, yes, he's very much aware of all of the criticism that he gets in his fandom these days, not "Well, I WAS going to make more movies, but now my feelings have been hurt so badly that I just won't." I mean, I'm entirely aware that I might be reading it wrong, but it really did strike me as him ribbing the fans, not him being deeply hurt by people disliking his decisions.

 

Hey GG, if you've got something clever to say, just do it.

Oh right, you posted a silly picture, so you don't.

 

Humble, calm down. This is a dividing topic, but there's no point in getting written up over it.

 

For the last time, he isn't leaving Star Wars.

Star Wars on the big screen is over and done with.

 

Wow, lol. The reaction to this on theescapist forum really makes me feel sorry for Lucas.

 

Um, yeah. How dare he. It might be fault of the fans but we're reason he is even one of the richest dudes in the world. The least he could do is supply more to his universe with heart rather than what Darthvengeant said about "milking".

Sound like nerve to me and nerve isn't something that looks good on an interview......unless you're a proffesional wrestler or something....

Unless this is like "Inception" where the movie is a major brain-twister, I believe all of this is pretty straight-forward.

What do YOU know about the burden of fame? Look at my first quote of this very post.

 

I'll be the first to admit I know nothing about the burden of fame, which is why I'm not as quick to judge.

You can twist and turn this every way you want, but what Lucas said 'to the fans' isn't 'terrible', and doesn't even compare to the amount of baseless bashing this man has been subject to for the past two decades. That's what's backwards about this.

It's one thing to critique his work, it's another to blame Lucas for all sorts of things you can't even prove. (I'm talking about people in general here, not anyone specifically)

And the reason why I'm peeved by that image GG posted, is because it wasn't just a post in general, it was a direct reaction to a conversation I'm having with Fistofives. It doesn't tell me anything about what GG thinks, and it might as well have said 'LOL RETARD'. Congratulations for successful baiting. It's not that I dislike silly images, silly images is my middle name.

 

"Inception" is pretty straightforward.

 

The Sith have succeeded in taking over the galaxy and we are now entering the Dark Times.
All we can pray for now is a new hope to restore freedom to the galaxy.

 

I'm a bit surprised how the comments about fans are being treated like some revelation. Even assuming his comments weren't mostly in jest and segments of public opinion have finally irked him to a slightly higher degree than the norm--still seems like old news. Around Crystal Skull he said something along the lines of that film pretty much being TPM in that he suspected from the start that in general it would never be embraced as its predecessors were. Certainly I don't see how anything he said qualifies as "being terrible" to the fans. I didn't see him throwing around anything like "man-children," "grow up," "butthurt," etc, and likewise it's not like he read some Amazon comments then suddenly canceled an already-announced VII-IX trilogy as retribution.

As for the retirement at large--can't wait for the personal films (hopefully Lucas does indeed release some of that stuff), but at the same time here's to Lucas returning to direct another Star Wars episode when the live action series hits. I think it'd be even cooler if it happens at least a decade from now and kind of in an under the radar manner, where all of the sudden we're getting some trademark (for good and for ill) Lucas flourishes where previously they weren't to be expected.

Oh, and one more Willow story, please.

 

Hey, another Escapist. I actually sent them the interview. Buggers didn't credit me. What's your username over there?

 

He should leave Star Wars frankly. All he does is degrade it each and every time he milks it again. I know he will still be around for The Clone Wars CG show and possible the Live Action TV series, which he lies about saying he cannot afford.

And, you aren't clairvoyant. You have no idea if there will be SW on a big screen in years to come, it wouldn't be from the OT time, more like TOR era. Lucas will die someday and he wont be around to "control" it anymore. I bet we'll see it again, just in a different era.

 

George has been talking about making small, esoteric and experimental films for 30 years now.

But he hasn't done it.

I really hope he means it this time and he walks away from all the corporate biz that is now Star Wars.....












.....but I'm not holding my breath.

 

I'm not old enough to have been around when Star Trek originally aired, nor am I familiar with Gene Roddenberry aside from stories I've read from the people that knew him. But as some people say in regards to Lucas, I think Star Trek outgrew Roddenberry. From what I've heard about him and Star Trek is that he established the universe, but then was pretty uptight about just what could happen in the universe and what is "true Star Trek." Then when The Next Generation came out, apparently Roddenberry was very involved in that show for the first couple seasons, but then died. After his death the series kind of took off, and IMO TNG was really quite boring before its 4th season (which was after Roddenberry died). Then Deep Space Nine came out and IMO was the best of the Star Trek series, and I've heard that had Roddenberry been alive to see it, it probably would have turned out very different, since war was a big element of Deep Space Nine's later seasons, and Roddenberry was against the idea of war in the utopia vision he had for Star Trek.

I realize that I'm posting this on a Star Wars forum, and so anyone that is not also a fan of Star Trek probably won't know what I'm talking about. I do not wish death on Lucas at all, nor am I pleased that Roddenberry died. But Star Trek after Roddenberry was better (it still had its ups and downs), but a lot of the best things about Star Trek occurred when he wasn't involved. Similarly, Lucas laid the groundwork, and the original trilogy was excellent. But his inability to let others "share" in his universe I think makes it suffer a little bit.

I know Lucas said nothing about giving up on Star Wars, but I do think that he personally needs to let up a little bit and not come into TCW dictating stories to Filoni, and being stubborn about things like calling the planet "Mon Cala" as opposed to "Dac" or pretty much dictating the existence of Ahsoka, when Filoni himself challenged Lucas as though that didn't make sense. When Lucas does finally stop involving himself in Star Wars due to age or death or whatever, it very well may suffer, because you might see the flood gates open to more milking and turning out crap movies with the expectation that the franchise name will carry it. On the other hand you might see something like what happened with Roddenberry; an upswell of new ideas in the Star Wars universe that might appeal to people more than what Lucas himself regards as "true Star Wars."

 

Some interesting comments in this thread. Personally after reading that article I felt like giving Lucas a hug and letting him know there are people out there who get and appreciate what he is doing. People saying Lucas should get out of the way of Star Wars that is really just silly to me, it seems like some just want to wallow in fanboyism having their ice cream sunday served up on a silver platter. When I see stuff like the promo videos they do for the games, with the slowed down bullet time action, everyone superpowered beasts, obsessed with badassery sorry but that is just not Star Wars to me. This is just feeding the fantasies of a bunch of 14 year olds or those who haven't grown up since then. I'm in this for Lucas vision, which I consider the real story. Not some random watered down EU derivative version with knock off characters and knock off plots. I want him giving the stories for the Clone Wars and supervising the show because I want to know what HE thinks the Clone Wars were that we have been thinking about for so long. If I am challenged by his vision sometimes with the politics, etc. I am fine with that.

 

I don't actually have an account on The Escapist. But I follow some of the content on there alot. I sometimes click on threads that interest me to see what's being talked about.

lol, the thread on there people were like. -- "Now we just got to wait another 50 years for him to die." -- Holy hell...