Discussion How Much Influence Will Lucas Have on ST? Here's a possible answer...

I doubt Disney would pay 4.5 billion dollars not to have total control over their new acquisition. I think Lucas just knows the folks at Disney and trusts them to do a good job with the universe he's created. And I'm sure they are taking his advice into consideration while making VII. But a contractual obligation to stick with his treatments? No.

If they follow Lucas' original story it'll be because they wanted to, not because they had to.

 

11.38% is a good estimate, but honestly, with JJ Abrams now directing, you can expect George's influence to rise to 47%.

 

I'm hoping he will as much influence as possible

 

I have no doubt that contractually speaking, Disney owns these characters 100%. They are not going to spend $4.5 billion only to have Lucas maintain creative control. This is a recipe for ugliness.

I also have no doubt that everyone involved is going to listen very closely to anything Lucas says and completely respect his wishes, follow his ideas, etc.

 

Looks like almost nothing. I hope its almost everything.

 

How did you get that impression? We know he at least came up with the story idea, and IMO that's more than "almost nothing."

 

I too hope GL has some serious input on these movies. Otherwise, they just won't have the same feel to them. Lucas' vision is where his genius lies. His vision carries through all 6 movies. That is what Disney invested in with their 4.05 billion dollars. Regardless of the PT shortcomings, it was GL's vision that still held our interest and why they still 'felt' like Star Wars to us(or at least most IMO). Great directing, acting, and dialogue will not mean anything unless Abrams and Disney utilize Lucas for what he does best.

 

I don't understand the Lucas hatred here. If you hate Lucas, why are you on a message board discussing Star Wars?

Star Wars was his creation. I get that he's not the greatest film director ever, he's not the greatest writer of dialogue, he's not great at managing acting, but what he is is a creative genius.

One of the largest parts of this deal with Disney is his story outlines that he sold with the deal.

I for one hope his contributions factor in significantly. He doesn't have creative control, but we'll feel his creative touch over the next several films. If I preferred Disney to Lucas I'd be on a message board discussing Pirates of the Caribbean, not on a message board discussing Star Wars.

 

We thank Lucas for making the greatest movie Saga ever but some of his changes over the years are questionable. Also while he made Star Wars, SW is bigger than him. We could like the characters/actors, books/comics etc and not have to like Lucas. I'm not going to blindly follow him like some others on here would. We are on the boards for Star Wars. Not for Lucas. For POTC and Disney I would be on the boards for POTC and not Disney. Yeah Lucas will have involvement but don't have him go overboard. He has pretty good ideas but don't go overboard while executing them.

 

I'm eager to see the behind-the-scenes Blu Ray documentary on the making of Episode VII and hope it has Lucas explaining how he decided to go forward with it, how he conceived it, and how much of it was his ideas.

 

I don't understand this sentiment. I'm sure it's born of the thought that you didn't care for Jar Jar Binks and the prequels as a whole, but the universe created here is a masterpiece and there is so much rich material to mine that can be made into movies (or other projects). I get the sense that a lot of people think Lucas is that crazy uncle at family functions that no one pays any attention to anymore but in reality that uncle made the family what it is today.

 

Jar Jar isn't my most favorite character ever but he has some good moments in TCW. I also love the Prequels. Not as much as the OT but still like them so try again. His story is engaging even though some of his ideas are not to my taste. His changes to the movies after they have come out aren't good either. Make sure the story is to his vision but don't micro manage every single thing.

 

I think the primary influence will be the basic story arc which is how this new trilogy even exists in the first place. Further influence may depend on whatever that is. If it deeply involves the Force, Jedi, and Sith, Lucas's input may get sought more often or at least might have been in the planning stages. Lucas might not be that into every stylistic detail, but STAR WARS is influential enough to where Abrams or any director would try to do what they think would be what Lucas would do storywise.

 

Don't forget Crystal Skull.

Awful isn't it having those relative handful of fans backlashing on you and all you can do is count the billions the movies made to console you.

Tough times!

 

Are the standalones based on ideas by Lucas?

 

I'm thinking GL probz won't have much (if any) influence on the story, but I'd imagine he passively haas lots of influence on the feel and visual aspects-mainly because it's his creation and that is what people love about SW. Disney knows that. Im inclined to believe they will gravitate to elements/feelings he created. So in a roundabout way, GL has quite a bit of influence.

 

In the Colbert interview from the Tribeca Film Festival GL revised "they went off and did their own thing" to "they're doing a kind of different story". I believe he took himself out of the loop and doesn't know exactly what the final film is going to be but I also believe he's giving them his support by distancing himself from the production and letting them have the spotlight. My feeling is that they might have put his script in a blender but it is based on a lot of what he handed over. I guess we'll learn more in time.

 

I don't believe for a second they did away with even the basic structure of his story

Regardless of even the most egregiously stereotyped PT flaming, a lot of those people will admit that George is a master at telling a store, though they hold the opinion that he doesn't execute it well

Aside from that, I get the feeling George is sort of a control freak. Chances are if even a few small subplots are changed up, he'll say "I don't know anything about it."

It isn't necessarily a bad thing. TESB's original treatment barely resembled the final product, and ROTS was drastically changed during pickup shots

 

You definitely have to wonder how literal these statements he makes are. Apart from outright fibbing he's done to throw fans off his trail - like flat out denying EpVII on Oprah while he was busy (secretly) writing the stories and courting the original cast - he also said at Tribeca that he's just "screwing around in his garage" with his experimental films. Seriously, does anyone really believe Lucas is fiddling with an off the shelf video camera and doodling with the results on a PC in his garage, lol? He's a very serious filmmaker. It really could be that while he's happy to chat at events and meet fans, he just doesn't want the intense attention and scrutiny he's been receiving since American Graffiti came out. It just might be that the man wants to create in peace, like he did before fame caught him. He also said recently that he was going to use actors in his experimental films and was working on 2 different screenplays. I don't really believe he's going to shoot them in his yard and edit them in his garage. He might make them very discreetly and complete them in some kind of small workshop environment but I doubt Lucas is actually cobbling stuff together in his garage. You have to take GL with a grain of salt sometimes.

 

Let's not forget that he once said, and I highly doubt it wasn't serious, that he was tired of people constantly bashing him and telling him how horrible he is

I think he's predicting that, no matter what, a good deal of people are going to flame the ST. I feel the same thing will happen. I wouldn't blame him if he just didn't want to continually face even more hate

 

...I personally would anticipate that these immediate sequels would be influenced by Lucas' vision of Star Wars. But as time goes on, I would anticipate that Star Wars would deviate further into a number of paths, similar to the Star Trek franchise or the James Bond films.