Discussion Rick McCallum

Indeed. But you would have to agree that the reaction, among critics, film geeks, and the public, was QUITE different. I was particularly astounded by the acceptance of Cameron's mixture of science and spiritual, with the philosophies of the humans and the Na'vi. Not to mention that the public has undeniably accepted CGI-fest movies in the years since TPM (especially ironic, considering how much of TPM was actually model work).

 

Avatar got pretty mixed reviews, it's a 3 star movie at most. That's about the same rating as the Prequel movies receive, and what they deserve (you can push ROTS to 4 I guess). The SFX in the movie were ridiculously good also, far better than anything SW has managed.

Avatar to its credit did do what the original Star Wars did, it wowed people. The PT I think didn't really do that for many who saw it, enjoyable as it might have been.

But it's not a great movie, unlike ANH & ESB.

 

What Kurtz do you have a lot of time for? He hasn't done anything.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0476030/

Since being fired for not being able to control production on ESB, that is.

One of his movies is even about some kids going to see the original SW!

In that same period Lucas (stupid idea man) did:

Raiders of the Lost Ark
Return of the Jedi
Temple of Doom
Kagemusha (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
Mishima (dir. Paul Schrader)
Tucker (dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
Droids & Ewoks animated series (both very good)
Dreams (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
Last Crusade
Young Indiana Jones (one of the best tv series ever produced)
Shadow War Chronicles (1500 page fantasy epic written with Chris Claremont)
The Star Wars Prequels
Clone Wars (5 seasons)
Redtails

That's just a few things. Besides revolutionaizing entertainment technology, ushering in digital cinema, and inspiring millions. The resume of a man who lives for cinema.

Here's a show Gary's working on, "Resistance":

"The fate of humankind is in the hands of a small group of teenage resistance fighters. Armed with technology beyond the cutting edge and trained by a mysterious billionaire, they're our last line of defense against Alien invasion."

If that was the description of a Lucas series the net would be buzzing with snarky condemnation.

I've really gotten sick of hearing about Gary Kurtz, who went over budget on three films in a row, and seems to have barely been able to squeeze out a few low budget movies in 30 years. Roger Corman, schlockmeister though he is, managed to make hundreds of films in as many years. Whatever you might say about his taste, that's a man who loves movies. Orson Welles, with no money, made several beautiful Shakespeare adaptations (MacBeth, Othello, the Chimes At Midnight). These are people who love film and get films made any way they can, the way Lucas got "Redtails" made.

Enough with Gary Kurtz already. It's about time he proved himself. He's been riding Lucas's coattails for decades. Step off and prove you've got it, Gary, any ol' time...

 

Avatar may not be a great film, but it's certainly a step above the prequels with their nickelodeon level acting(obi wan and palpatine aside) and grade school level of maturity. Rottentomatoes has it at 83% from critics and 92% from the audience, better than any of the prequels.

 

The audience is hardly a good judge of movies, lots of people go to see Michael Bay's movies which is why studios keeps asking him to make more despite the fact they have sucked for ages.

Critics can have their prejudices against certain kinds of movies, although I find if they generally all tend to agree something is good or bad it usually is.


As for Kurtz, he did ANH & ESB so he has nothing to prove to anyone ever. Just as Kershner had nothing to prove to anyone despite ESB being the only really good movie he ever did.
Kurtz did two movies that beat anything McCallum has done or likely ever will do.

 

Stay on target!!! Folks, you are off topic. The thread is about Rick McCallum!!! From what I gather Rick is onto other ventures. He was a good producer and produced Ep1-3 plus he produced the "special editions." I believe that George Lucas is a very forward thinker, I believe that he left his "empire" in the hands of perhaps the most qualified person for the job, Kathleen Kennedy. That is not to belittle Rick McCallum, he is well spoken and articulate in his way of speaking, however, he seems to come off to some as arrogant. I am sure that is not the case, he is just more educated than many of the dunderheads want to acknowledge. If he messed up on the "special editions" then people would have a point, but he didn't, he just did as George asked and made those decisions a reality.

 

If that holds true, though, then why do people constantly lay into George Lucas? He was Academy Award-nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Director for the original film, after all. Yet that has not stopped heavy criticism nor constant denigration of his abilities as a writer, director, etc.

 

ESB, was the "meat and potatoes" of the OT. It was dark and complicated, I wish he had directed more SW films. But let's stay on target, Rick McCallum.

 

It wasn't Lucas idea to say "I know", it was Ford's & Kershner agreed. Lucas actually wanted "I love you to".

 

It was not at all complicated (which is actually a good thing). And not really dark - no one close to the main characters even dies there. "Serious" would be more appropriated.

 

His presence or absence won't have an impact on the films. With the prequels, Lucas did what he wanted. Mcallum was just a yes man who made sure all the numbers were in order.

 

Avatar was basically Dances With Wolves with blue aliens... only Dances with Wolves was original when it came out... Avatar? Not so much.

 

Wasn't a huge fan of Avatar. More so now because its the sole reason everything has 2 be 3D now. Some movies even go as far as putting the word "3D" in its title. Unless the images are coming right at u(which they aren't), then its basically no better than looking at a hologram. A huge waste of money, along with 6-7$ popcorn & drinks.

 

Wow this is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read. Especially comparing GL work on the PT with Tolkien... GL's "Visual Language" of the PT as you call it is the equivalent of a fart joke. Tell me about your interpretation of: Jar Jar stepping in Poo, Boss Nass throwing saliva everywhere, an Eopie farting in Jar Jar's face, Jar Jar on the Federation Tank hurting his non- existant Gungan Nuts, Yippee!, Wizard!, Angel!, Sand get's everywhere!, 3PO in Droid Factory, R2 on Dooku's ship, Vader: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I am sure nearly everyone in this forum could add to this list and would love to hear your transcendent interpretation...

 

3d action is very difficult to follow. In 2d, the background is not as much of an eye draw, in 3d everything wants to draw in your eyes as much as possible making it hard to distinguish the actual action happening.

 

I heard that two people called Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck (sp) did some "dialogue" rewrites on ANH. Lucas is a fine story creator but he's poor at bringing them to life a lot of the time which is why all hsi best work other than ANH has been directed and co-written/edited by other people such as Spielberg and Kasdan.

And yes, arguably ANH alone is enough to give Lucas credit as a director, but he had a lot of help with the OT and it works much better than the PT which he had mostly total control of. Lucas did the second best SW movie, he also did the worst ones. Kurtz produced the two best & McCallum oversaw most of what was poor with the Saga (aside from the 97 SE)

 

Thank you! I was under the impression that Rick was also heading up the Live Action TV series having heard him speak about it on several occasions. I even remember him mentioning that they were "planning" 400 episodes! His IMDB page (which is obviously not reliable at all) has him producing the series. Of course we don't know what's really going on, but it always seemed to me like he enjoyed working on the films and wanted to be a part of the Live Action series, which is why I was a little surprised to learn that he retired and wasn't going to try and produce the ST.

 

Though you have to give him American Graffiti, which is also all him. He had the skills, somewhere deep inside. But he only managed to make it work when he was really up against the wall and had something to prove (with AG and ANH). Otherwise as a director he has been in a place where he could do what he wanted, no limits, and it hurts. By the way, it hurts Cameron, too. Why anyone on earth thinks Avatar is any better than the PT is beyond me. RotS is definitely better than Avatar.

 

He's moved onto denser frames...

 

I agree with you.....I think his comparisons are an extreme stretch at best which is being kind. However, different strokes for different folks.

 

I fell asleep during Avatar, and groaned every time someone opened their mouth during ROTS. Both films miss the mark.

 

You can cherry pick from anything. Fellini's films are filled with excrement, flatulence, and the grotesque, and yet they are beautiful. Have you read The Canterbury Tales, Gulliver's Travels, Gargantua and Pantagruel, Don Quixote? They are filled with grotesque images, and yet they are layered and contain beauty and meaning. There's plenty of stupid humor in ESB, but you overlook it. TPM has a whole lot more going on as cinema. If you dig deeper, it's all there, if you have the patience. I recommend you broaden your frame of reference.

 

Get real. Of the prequels, I like Episode I the most, but it's no Empire. You might be just as guilty of seeing what you want to see.

 

what recent 'making of' book is this ?

ESB looks like a tv movie ??! are you serious ?

 

I am real, aren't you? TPM is crammed with intentional elements like character and story duality, "rhyming" images, images that work in the same way a text does, with references, quotations, paraphrases and puns, which is profoundly Joycian. The historical, literary, mythological, and psychological parallels and references are intentional. The intentions of the director to try certain experimental ideas are real, even if some people don't like them. The "world building" is real. The densely layered images and intricate editorial scheme, editing dozens of images individually within each frame, is real. The film is many-layered and brilliant.

At least there is something "to see" in TPM, as opposed to ESB: