Rick McCallum. what are your thoughts about him?

What are your thoughts/opinion on good old Rick McCallum who was the producer of Star Wars since the 1996 VHS Special Edition treatments and the start of the prequels with The Phantom Menace?

Do you think he did a good job back then?

 

his reaction when watching TPM edit is priceless in the making of doc.

 

He's a good man..

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From the few glimpses that we got of him, and the fact that all the projects kept on schedule and on budget under his control, he seemed like a capable producer who allowed his director to fulfill his vision. Which is exactly what a producer is there for.

Bonus points for the great memes and quotes he gaves us

 

The ultimate hype man. Call him a yes man if you must, but perhaps nobody else is more responsible to helping Lucas achieve his vision for the prequels.

 

This is a great way to frame the response to the thread's question. Apart from seeming to be a generally nice guy, this dude is a solid producer. I loved how you stated this Oissan.

The prequels are obviously what he is most well known for, but beyond that, it must be emphasized that McCallum has played a very important role in Lucasfilm history. He was instrumental for the success of the company throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. I mean, he produced The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. That's about as complex and as ambitious television show you can get for the time period--heck, even today. It was a beloved property, it was a show with location shooting in like over 35 countries, it pioneered a variety of new filming techniques through ILM, and it had a pretty solid cast spread out across the series. You need a pretty organized and talented producer to take on a project like.

Then of course there was the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition, which went concurrent with the production of the prequel trilogy, and the other assorted projects Lucas had been wanting to release for decades, such as Radioland Murders and Red Tails.

With Lucas retiring and the company being acquired by Walt Disney, I get why McCallum retired from the company, too. I've been meaning to catch a couple of the projects he's been working on in Europe over the past few years, but I just haven't had a chance.

 

According to Howard Kazanjian, producer of Raiders, Jedi, and (partially) Empire, Lucas wanted to hire him to produce the Young Indiana Jones series, but he convinced Lucas to hire a producer who was based on the UK. That's why Lucas went for McCallum.

 

McCallum did a great job hyping the prequel movies and keeping them within budget. He probably could have been less of a “yes man,” but he worked for Lucas so you can’t really blame him.

 

All I know about him is from what I’ve seen in the Making Of documentaries. He seems like a good guy who believed in what GL was doing.

 

He's the Rick-est McCallum that I know of.

 

Why do you say he was a "yes man"? What are you basing that claim on?

 

I met him once in Berlin, he was super nice.

 

Insightful, I’d never have known GL hated Mara Jade without his recounting of history.