ST Is it still Star Wars if it is not in line with the vision of Lucas?

Well, at the least the franchise would hit a major hiccup and waste years figuring out how to make a "good" Star Wars film. Look at Superman Returns, which essentially force the company to spend years thinking how to make a proper sequel, before abandoning it and rebooting the series. With Star Wars, it's a little hard to reboot the OT.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if he worked on outlines to last another three trilogies honestly

 

Who gives a hoot? Either way its Star Wars. Enjoy it. Its just a buncha damn movies anyway, none of this is real. We are about to get Star Wars movies once a year for 6 years. Its all Star Wars!

The only way ep 7 will suck is if some insufferable fans cant go into the movie with a clear mind & wont let go of what they think the movie should be. There will be no EU characters. Some of yall cant come to terms with that. No Plageius, no Mara Jade, no EU solo children, no thrawn, etc... Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose Go in with an open mind & expect new characters that will develop their own stories in the coming years. Have some fun with it.

I love the original trilogy, I love the prequels and I have no doubt that I will love the next 3. Why? Because I love star wars.

 

I used to be a big believer in this this idea of Lucas' "vision" but IMHO the PT showed the man is fallible. If it resonates, that's all I care about.

I'll never forget Jodorowsky's comment about myths, how the author is merely a vessel who must surrender his identity to this larger force. If Kennedy et al are doing their jobs, these films will tap into the same source that Lucas did at his best, and if that happens, Lucas' opinion is irrelevant.

And besides, he'll never say anything negative--he's not the massive ego that some imagine.

 

Look to Star Trek for your answer. Roddenberry signed control over to paramount before the first movie. The first ST movie was his "vision". After that they took it away from him. If you read any of the behind the scenes books, he was constantly butting heads with the studio from Star Trek 2 until he died. You can't find anybody that doesn't consider the movies after The Motion Picture to be "not star trek" because they weren't Gene's vision.

And Deep Space Nine and Abram's Trek movies are as far away from Gene's vision as it gets. Are they not Star Trek?

 

I will not say EU but yeah, it is possible to create star wars without Lucas.

 

Not really. It's a new Star Wars film... off the back of 6 incredibly financially succesfull ones. Ep VII will do well finanically, regardless of its merits. However, that doesn't mean that interest will be maintained if Ep VII is just seen as 'ok' or gets a mixed reception. Indeed, it's not only VIII and XI that feel the effect, but the spin offs too.

I don't actually think for a second that Ep VII will be that bad it kills the franchise... but I'm sure it could prove not as relevant that it could damage its future (for a myriad of reasons discussed before). Using Star Trek as an example... the Star Trek films (originals and Next Generation) were popular enough to span circa 20 years... and although Star Trek 09 was popular enough, JJ and co (IMHO) failed to move the concepts forward enough to justify its existence beyond the next film (or even existance in cartoon or TV format). I'm sure the next Star Trek film will be the last with that particular cast and crew... and that's not because of the limitations of the concepts and characters, but rather it's reflective of what JJ did with them.

 

I think we need to separate it a little because there is a yes and a no to it.

The Saga is his vision.

Each individual movie afterward (assuming he didn't supply the story) isn't - BUT - at the same time it is his vision for the SW universe.

In the intro to "The Splinter of the Mind's Eye" 1994 re-issue, Lucas states that as he developed the 9 episode saga about the Skywalkers and Jedi Knights, he realized it was only 1 of a thousand stories that could be told in the universe, by others. So, all other movies made fall into THIS vision of Star Wars that Lucas had. Meaning that they are part of his vision for the universe he created.

 

I think Star Wars going forward will still be George's vision, but the vision will grow and take on new life. As long as Star Wars lasts it will have some connection to George.

On a side note I think the general perception of the PT being a let down and under performing kinda lowers the bar for the ST. A lot of people will have lower expectations for the ST and hopefully Episode 7 will knock everyone away and take them by surprise.

p.s. I love the PT.

 

I trust Disney will preserve Star Wars to its truest form. For the most part they have done that with other properties like the Muppets and Marvel superheroes.

 

I am not under the impression that Disney is shutting Lucas out of his creation. Lucas is still there. He'll still get Executive Producer credit. He doesn't have final say now, but his contribution is more real than a bunch of supposed 'notes' that we'll never get to see, unlike say, Dune.

That said, Disney has their best people working on this. They've given Lucas a LOT of money, more than the GDP of a lot of third-world countries. Only time will tell for sure, but I think they will stay true to Lucas' vision satisfactorily with Lucas. And if they don't, well Lucas can wipe his tears away with hundred-dollar-bills, so to speak, but Disney has the final say now. It's not all that bad an arrangement, if you ask me.

 

From a story viewpoint, I will be most interested in learning what were the differences between GL's outline, Ardnt's draft, and the final JJ/Kasdan version.

My guess the big 3 went from supporting characters in GL's outline to then Luke's role beefed up a bit, only to have Harrisoin Ford make some demands to the script so he has the biggest role of the big 3. Thats my guess.

 

If it isn't his vision, we'll never know, because he's not going to come out and hurt the new movies by saying so.

 

Lucas is a very smart man. When he started to think about retiring he put K. Kennedy (a friend of decades) into power over at Lucasfilm. This move just wasn't about retiring, it was about much more than that. Like Palaptine in the PT, Lucas had a plan. Once Lucas hired Kennedy, they decided to start firing up the Star Wars machine again for the ST, this happened before any negotiations with Disney. Lucas wanted to leave LFL in good shape financially and the best way to do that was more Star Wars. So Lucas and Kennedy fire up the Star Wars Machine, Lucas starts his story treatments, etc. It is finally at this point, that Lucas approaches Iger at Disney about the sale. During the negotiations Lucas tells Iger that he should really think about keeping LFL intact, (much how Disney handled Pixar).

So Lucas convinces Iger to keep LFL intact, so now do you see the plan? Lucas puts Kennedy in charge of LFL before he sells to Disney, Kennedy is a personal friend of Lucas. Lucas convinces the Mouse to keep LFL, with Kennedy at the helm. Why do you think Lucas wanted Kennedy at the helm of LFL before the sale? Well obviously because Lucas still wants some say in Star Wars.

In fact there was some friction between the two parties during negotiations about this very issue. Lucas at first refused to hand over any of his story treatments to Disney, basically telling them they would have to trust him (Lucas). Lucas however finally caved and let the big wigs at Disney look at the treatments, after signing gag orders. Then Disney must have realized what Lucas was up to with LFL and Kennedy because the next friction point came with Disney making sure that it had final say over Star Wars and not LFL:

So with all this said, I tend to think in the future we might see a pissed off Lucas speak out against Disney Star Wars. It looks like Lucas took steps to retain some kind of control within the LFL structure, and Disney pushed back.

For me, I will always side with Lucas!

Source Material: http://www.businessweek.com/article...ught-lucasfilm-and-its-plans-for-star-wars#p4

 

I don't think Lucas will get Exec Producer credit - that goes to KK.

Perhaps he will be credited as Executive Consultant like Gene Roddenberry was from Star Trek II - VI. For sure he will get the story credit.

 

He has control & final say. So yes it will be the same.

 

Final say? I don't think so.

 

Some might argue the prequels would be great proof of this.

 

I mean, if it's really good then I'm gonna consider it in my head real Star Wars, but if it sucks I"ll probably brush it aside as EU.

 

Were all the EU novels Star Wars? They definitely aren't part of Lucas' vision.

 

I think the biggest threat to the SW franchise is burn out. The films will have to be of a pretty decent quality for people to stay hungry if they're coming out at one per year.

 

Of course... some would even argue the catering wasn't as good on the prequels as it was on the OT... and that the sun shone more in the 1980's... But of course the figures show that the PT maintained its popularity to provide substantial box office. Cinema is full of popular franchises where audiences/box office slumps when the films lose appeal. To date, SW hasn't done that.

 

Heheh. I think the catering would have been much better on the PT.

 

George's "vision" for Eps 7-9 changed so much between ROTJ and now, I don't think it really matters.

 

GL has always changed his mind about everything. Look at all the last round of needless additions he plastered on the OT. Moreover, a GL that has total control gave us a Prequel Trilogy that hinged on everyone suffering from collective stupidity and gross immorality to the point where the entire series lacked narrative credibility (really Yoda, Obi-Wan... you're not going to ask questions as to why you have a clone army at the exact moment you need one? And you're all okay with creating an army of disposable people? Shouldn't the very idea of creating life solely to use as canon fodder be anathema to the Jedi?).

So, frankly, I don't care what his opinion is. The interesting GL of the 70's, the guy who had a rebellious and artistic streak of his own has long been gone. The version that remains isn't someone whose opinion I care about.