Why George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney ?

There's supposed to be a companion piece coming to HBOMax

 

He definantly still has a connection to the francise and still had ideas, but TCW is different from three big-budget films; based on what he's said, he definantly seems to have become a bit jaded regarding that kind of endeavour after the way peaple treated the ST (not to mention he's pretty old and given the choice between time with his family and years of work on three big films I'd imagine it would'nt be very hard to pick the former at this point)

I am too.

Speaking bluntly (and completly from my own perspective), it seems somewhat odd to me that peaple act as if it would be better if we got nothing; we went from no SW films and a steadily drying well of new content to plenty of SW films and regular content, and as it stands peaple who don't like the new stuff can simply...not consume it and make do with the old content, which still exists. It's a win-win that plenty of peaple neverthless seem to treat as if it's a lose-lose.

So...lingering shots of American flags, Megan Fox showing off her legs and a lot of explosions and bro humor?

I think that's what he did do, it's just that the hate got to him in the end. You can not care what other peaple think but still have your feelings hurt when they s*@# all over you for no good reasons.

It's a movie by Denis Villeneuve with a pretty solid cast, and the trailer actually looks pretty good. Granted, my only exposure to Dune is the Lynch film, which put me to sleep, and the Dune 2000/Emperor: Battle for Dune video games, which I found extermely fun but have been told played fast-and-loose with the lore, so what do I know.

But as Tina said there's supposed to be a TV series coming out as well.

 

At least I'm happy that now he can enjoy his life without having to deal with Star Wars fans.

He also gave us Lucasarts which gave us the best Star Wars games and lots of great video games.

George was really ahead of his time.

 

As of yesterday, someone was still trying to tell me that Lucas sold the company because some people said mean things about the prequels. He's bigger than that – Star Wars is bigger than that. Lucas just wanted to tell his story. But with each trilogy came a great cost to his personal life; with a newborn daughter, that was the point where Lucas finally gave in.

People say ESB and ROTJ were great because they DIDN'T involve Lucas, but that couldn't have been further from the truth. The appointed director was still given the final say, but Lucas was still there to provide the story elements and even give direction on set. The idea that the prequels were simply Lucas surrounded by yes men is a fallacy. It was under much similar conditions of the originals – you just didn't like the outcome.

But back to the original point, Lucas had a mistaken belief that Disney would even build off of his treatments when they didn't. He was looking for someone else to maintain continuity and tell his story in some form or another. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

 

Yeah, that whole "surrounded by Yes Men" is a complete lie.

1.Lots of Lucasfilm staff didn't like the idea of 9-10 years old Anakin during the production of TPM.

2.I remember Lucasfilm staff criticized AOTC for not having a scene where Anakin and Obi Wan aren't arguing. That persuaded Lucas to add that elevator scene.

3.Even the actors discussed their character with Lucas a lot. For example Christopher Lee managed to persuade Lucas to not beg for his life at his death scene since he believed that it didn't fit his character.(On the otherhand Lucas didn't give in to the demands of Harrison Ford to kill him off in ROTJ and he also didn't give in to the demands of Mark Hamill to make Luke fall into the darkside)

 

With the way ST turned out(2 directors, 3 movies that are inconsistent with each other) I'm convinced that George was the main reason that OT told a consistent story even though that each one was directed by a different person.

 

Lucas did oversee ESB, but I think Kersh tried new things that other directors didn't or wouldn't.. It was a collaboration, but there was also much creative tension between the two. (Not in a bad way)The result struck the perfect balance, as Lucas wanted more action, and Kersh was focused on the character development. An oversimplification I know.

 

The idea of the "yes-men" comes basically from people not understanding that when collaborators give public interviews they're selling a film. They're not going to express their disagreements with Lucas. What Rick McCallum said to the public while promoting the prequels doesn't give us access to the nature of his collaboration with Lucas.

The idea of Lucas being challenged by his collaborators in SW/Empire comes from comments made decades later by those collaborators about their (current) opinion. That doesn't mean they challenged Lucas while they were making the films.The opinions Gary Kurtz expressed on interviews more than a decade after leaving Lucasfilm don't give us access to the nature of his collaboration with Lucas.

What matters is what those collaborators said DURING the time of making the films TO LUCAS (or in internal conversations).

 

Not only that, but it's a fallacy. If Lucas was surround by "no-men", Star Wars would never get made. People are not hired to say "no" and not do their job. They are hired to do their job, to say "yes" to the tasks they are trusted with. Their job is not to question the creative decisions of their boss, even though they could and have done that, both in the OT and the PT.

 

I half-agree with that, but not entirely. Of course, when you are hired by someone, you are supposed to do what you are asked. But also (and moreso when it comes to performing creative stuff), you are hired to give your imput, question what you are told and try to offer better other alternatives. That's what collaboration means.

 

I also hate those "Star Wars was saved in the edit" fallacies. If the movie is bad no amount of editing can save it.

 

Saying a movie is saved in the edit is like saying a meal is saved in the oven.
Editing is just an essential part of filmmaking. Without editing there is no movie.
You could say that SW was perfected through a long process of editing (just like every movie is, on the other hand).

 

Give input? Yes. Offer alternatives? Yes. Question what you are told? No. That's not their job. That doesn't mean that they couldn't question, since they did.

People use McCallum as an example, but if a producer becomes a hurdle to the filmmaker and questions every creative decision, then he's not doing his job. Producers aren't creatives. They aren't hired for creative input or output.

 

Lucas does at least seem fairly chilled about his status in the ST production now, or least because, kudos to him, he wants to spend his remaining years focusing on his family.

 

Could fan bullying of Katie Lucas have been a factor in George’s decision to sell?

 

Agreed. The best editor in the world can't make a bad movie good. You could make a very good movie great. You can improve the pacing. But you can only work with what is already filmed.

 

4. what Sam Jackson wanted, Sam Jackson got.

 

Many years ago I watched an interview of Lucas by Charlie Rose. I remember Lucas saying something like this: "I always knew that if I were to sell Star Wars, it would be only to Disney. And Disney for a long time had made no secret of their desire to buy. When I made the prequels, I made them for an audience of one person: me. And afterwards I thought that maybe that wasn't fair to all the people working at Lucasfilm, so I was thinking again about approaching Disney. Then by coincidence Disney contacted me to tell me that they were still interested, and I said, OK. I'm ready to sell."

Keep in mind that the above is from a memory of something that aired many years ago. I don't doubt that I have many details wrong. My favorite part of that interview is Lucas's answer to what he wanted on his tombstone: "That he was a good father, or at least tried to be." I have much respect for that.

 

Yeah, I seem to also recall from that time (either from that same Charlie Rose interview, or from other interviews/articles) that Lucas felt some responsibility for all of the Lucasfilm employees. Yes, it was his company he founded and it is a part of his legacy, but as retirement drew closer, he was thinking a lot of the fate of all of his peers. He felt the Disney purchase could help keep the company moving forward with projects and help keep people employed.

 

He thought Disney could take care of it better than he could.

 

He is Old and dont wanted to be on Star Wars forever maybe he lost some Passion i think Lucas only wanted to do his Version of the ST and then he was done

 

What’s funny is he seems to have regained his passion after selling the company and not having to worry about the business for a few years. I remember his wife was FaceTiming with a class of kids to teach them about business or something and George came on and tried to get them interested in midi-chlorians

 

Wait, what? Dude. That is so awesome.

 

I think it's more like, considering what ended up happening with Disney, he's trying to spill the beans at every chance he gets about what was going to happen. He did it with James Cameron, Paul Duncan, and even that live stream. Preaching the gospel of the Whills.