Discussion Rick McCallum

I think you're confusing "facts & logic" with "opinion".

 

The most collaboriation on ROTJ? I have read numerous accounts were Marquand was basically "directed" by Lucas as he tried to direct the film. In fact, Lucas was on set almost the entire time for ROTJ while he was barely around for TESB. In addition, ANH went through numerous script revisions with Spielberg, Coppola, and Lucas which was not the case with ROTJ.

As far as I know, the new making of ROTJ back hasn't even been released yet.

 

Correct. It's slated for a Fall 2013 release.
http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2012/07/24/interviewing-george-lucas/ (end of the story). I believe Rinzler has talked about it some, but the book isn't out yet.

 

Thanks for the clarification on the release date.

 

You know, I just don't think that response had heart.

 

I respect your opinion.

 

Or in the case of the PT....the films had the words but not the music.

 

Ah you are correct. I was thinking of blog posts Rinzler (sp?) has made about the book, or something.

The story of GL directing it over Marquand's shoulder are pure oral tradition. According to Marquand, and to others, he contributed a lot. The whole opening sequence with everyone in disguise was Marquand's idea. There are some interviews with him floating around on the web & youtube. Listen to him: he completely understood SW and how it worked. He's been kind of written out of the story for no good reason, probably because he died young and people prefer ESB. He made two seriously good films and was a very creative, talented filmmaker. Lucas being on set is actually a collaboration. They made the film together. Ian McDiarmid says that Lucas did not direct the great climactic scenes on the DS2, he was there, but Marquand directed those scenes. Kersh went off on his own and Lucas didn't interfere much. Marquand participated from the start of RotJ. Also, at the time, Mark and either Carrie or Harrison (I'll have to check) said they preferred Marquand to Kersh (I have some old Starlogs with interviews).

I don't think there was anything like that on the first two. Lucas had help before & after shooting ANH but there was no one on set collaborating with him as a director, and he appears to have let Kersh direct ESB as he wanted. I've never heard Lucas say anything disparaging about Marquand, or claim to have directed over his shoulder. There isn't any evidence that this actually happened, only urban legends.

 

I hear a lot of people crying about how much they hate midichlorians, and I don't understand why. I fail to see how midichlorians negatively affect the force or how they change anything what-so-ever. People need to get over the fact that there was a paradigm shift in the Star Wars universe, and it wasn't a bad change it was just a change. Midichlorians did not ruin anything about, nor take the mystery away from, the force.

 

Darn. You beat me to it.

 

I feel the same way. You still need to train and hone your skills. It doesn't take away from the metaphysical or spiritual aspects of the force. Just added a little of DBZ to Star Wars. His midicholirins are over 9000!!!!!

 

In the old video, "From Star Wars to Jedi", you do see Lucas on the set with Marquand, and it some situations talking "over" him. Such as in the Ewok village, when Luke lifts up 3PO with the force, both Marquand and Lucas weigh in with their take. On Jabba's sail barge too, Lucas was right there. But overall I think Marquand was directing things.

As to Rick, I don't think his departure has much real bearing on the quality of future movies. Disney will certainly find a more than capable producer to bring the movies to life. The true keys are: story, director, and screenplay.

 

One of the most interesting parts of the TPM Bonus Features (DVD release) was the footage of the first viewing of the rough cut by Lucas, the Producers and Department Leads. After the screening, Rick McCallum had this look of sad disbelief on his face, like he had just witnessed the death of his dog. It was beyond disappointment. It was almost fear- fear that his very reputation was going to plummet down the drain. Of course, they didn't show the entire conversation, but it appeared he didn't say a word to Lucas. The only one to speak up was Ben Burtt, who criticized the pacing and acknowledged that much more work had to be done in editting. Lucas' reply was essentially, "Oh well, we've gone to far in some places, but we can't go back and change anything at this point" (not verbatum).

 

Honestly, I really liked Rick. Any time he appeared at celebrations and such, he was a really down to earth guy - very willing to talk to anyone. As for being a yes man, sure. He didn't actively try to change George's mind (as far as we know) but as said before, that wasn't his job. I'm kind of surprised that his departure was so quiet after being such a vocal presence for so many years...

I know it's an unpopular position around here, but I'd love to see Rick back for the ST. F-bombs, spoilers, over-hype, and all.

 

That clip has been so overworked. He *does* talk "back" to Lucas. And he's saying, "Calm down buddy, it's just like ANH." It's Lucas who says, "I get that but I got so caught up in the details and the stylistic content that it doesn't hang together." Watch it, that is exactly what is happening. They all looked keyed up; they probably all got carried away with how much they could do, and were probably all shocked by how overbearing the film was cut together. He doesn't look afraid to me. In the screening room he's watching footage he's seen umpteen times for the past year, looks like he's concentrating, maybe a little distracted since he knows the movie by heart. In the next "scene" he's arguing to keep it as it is, not the opposite. It's Lucas who says, "If we found it intense the average viewer will go crazy, we can at least try to lessen that effect." And he was right - it did drive the average viewer crazy. But it's still one of the most successful movies ever made.

If Lucas didn't like McCallum he'd've fired him, like he did Gary "Overbudget" Kurtz.

 

Yeah you could be right, only speculating. From experience of acquisitions (not on the scale of the Lucasfilm acquisition) there tend to be a lot of structural changes, Disney will take a look at the structure of Lucasfilm and see where they have synergies within their own structure and look to either bring their own people in or move others on, that tends to be standard practice but who knows.......if you'd have asked a month ago if Disney would pay > $4bn for Lucasfilm I would have said no. Whoever stays and whoever doesn't, I'm just happy It's happening

 

and this is from someone raised on the OT that loved the PT. They could have been so much *better* and that was frustrating for me - seeing the potential wasted. And then hearing Hype-machine McCallum gushing over the films, sidestepping any critiques, and lavishing praise on every Lucas decision...no thanks. Something just sort of rubbed me the wrong way, I guess.

I have also never seen a franchise that spotlights and celebrates the producer to such an extent. How many hours on the SW BluRays are Rick's screentime?

 

Well let me clarify, I wrote that quickly before. Sansweet has stated that Howard Roffman, former LFL President, who JUST retired, is coming back. Sansweet himself has hinted at his own return. Pablo Hidalgo sounds very confident about his position. What it seems to suggest is that their getting into war mode for a new trilogy.

The one weird thing about Rick retiring is that it leaves questions about the status of the Live Action Series. Rick was very much at the center of that project.

 

I don't see how ANH had more collaboration than ROTJ when Lucas directed it himself and was the sole credited writer (he got some help from the couple that worked on American Graffiti but their role was more limited than that of Kasdane). If you mean people like Ben Burtt, Ralph McQuarry, John Williams - they (or their replacements) still contributed to the prequels in the same manner. Although I do wish Ben Burtt was kept far away from editing

 

Honestly -- I am glad to see him go. In my opinion he failed at being the stopgap in preventing what I believe were many of the faults with the PT.

He was a Yes Man when we needed a different perspective offered.

Just my opinion -- but I was never a McCallum fan.

 

I think it was Kershner who said that ROTJ would have been better had Lucas directed it himself. By the way, he was offered to direct it but turned it down. So did Spielberg and David Lynch.

Please, no revisionism. Bouncing off some ideas with friends doesn't make them co-writers the way Kasdane was. Coppola, for instance, was surprised to find out Lucas was writing the second draft when he thought the first draft was perfectly fine. It's a good thing GL didn't listen to him!

 

I met Rick in London during Celebration Europe, a really nice guy. Its sad he's gone but maybe he just wanted to call it a day,

 

Kersh wasn't offered RotJ. Lucas didn't want to deal with the DGA so he hired a Brit.

Kersh wd've ruined RotJ. Way overrated.

 

Really? I thought he refused it himself.

Overrated, yes. But he did work with the actors better and added some nice touches to the Empire.

 

Not only was he not offered it but I think he really wanted it!

There was some brou-ha-ha with the SWG and DGA and Lucas tore up his membership card (although he quietly rejoined in the 90's) and found a British director, the talented Richard Marquand, who has been completely forgotten and written out of SW history. I guess he should have gone with Star Trek looking masks, underlit sets, tons of smoke pouring in everywhere, silhouettes, and actors looking faintly annoyed all the time. The idiot put images on the screen, lit his sets beautifully, even had the audacity to have a color palette, and forced everyone to look engaged and emotionally invested, what a dunce! I guess someone told him that SW was supposed to be a fun fantasy or something!