George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola

I don't know if anybody else felt the presense or nod to Francis Ford Coppola. It may just be me, but I swear Palpatine/Sidious looks very similar to the Dracula from FFC's Bram Stroker's Dracula. Right after the battle with Mace, when Anakin pledges himself to the Sith. The hair, shadow and dress is really creepy, just like in Dracula.

 

They are very good friends, and Lucas might not be where he is if it weren't for Coppola.

 

i didnt think of that, good eye! same sort of clothes and style. GL definitely using other monster movie type imagery throughout too.

 

Actually, Coppola would've ripped off of Lucas, since Palpatine's makeup was first designed long before the 1992 version of Dracula was made.

 

but I swear Palpatine/Sidious looks very similar to the Dracula

Yeah he does look similar to Dracula. Too bad he didn't look similar to the Emperor from ROTJ.

 

Really? Even the RotS style makeup?

The RotS one looked much creepier and unsettling.

 

Well, the crew were quite studious about basing the ROTS make-up on the ROTJ look, as this article on the OS explains.
The ROTS make-up - to all intents and purposes - is a recreation of the OT Palpatine, it is not an intentionally different design.

If it looks any different, it is simply because we have never seen Palps without the hood before.
Once he puts the hood up, I think the make-up looks just like the face we know and love from the OT (or as close as is possible, taking into account the fact that the face beneath the make-up is 20-odd years older).

As DS points out, it is more logical to presume that the look of Lucas' character (inspired by literary and cinematic villains from across the board) had an influence on the look of Coppola's Dracula.
You could say that there is a bit of Dracula in Palpatine, and in turn, Coppola's Dracula has a bit of Palpatine in him...

 

"They are very good friends, and Lucas might not be where he is if it weren't for Coppola."

WOULD not is more accurate. Coppola is world class. Luca$ is below that.

 

Coppola is world class.

Yeah right. Anybody that saw JACK
with Robin Williams knows Coppola
hasn't been at the top of his game
in years.

 

The Conversation is amazing.
As much as I love Star Wars and Lucas' work in general, he'll never do anything to touch that.
But it's chalk and cheese - I like Star Wars in ways that I'll never like my other favourite films and vice versa.
You can't really compare such different ways of making films (although there are clearly many, many similarities between Coppola and Lucas' approach - even if the subject matter seems, on the surface, to be wildly different).

Lucas has been tied SW for so long, it would be interesting to see what he would do if he ever did direct again... something really different, a straight thriller for example.

 

"Coppola is world class.

Yeah right. Anybody that saw JACK
with Robin Williams knows Coppola
hasn't been at the top of his game
in years."

And what would you call THX-1138, or whatever it was called, a blockbuster? LOL

Though I agree both their works are from two different generes. But for overall directing ability, Coppola wins hands down, IMHO.

 

Yeah he does look similar to Dracula. Too bad he didn't look similar to the Emperor from ROTJ.

There is an obvious explanation for that: Palpatine had liposuction sometime during the more than twenty-year interval which separated his appearances in "Revenge of the Sith" and "Return of the Jedi." Either that or he decided to join an intergalactic fitness club.

While Palpatine's robes (particularly in the aforementioned transformation scene) resembled some of Gary Oldman's costumes on "Bram Stoker's Dracula," I actually believe that the idea behind the Emperor came (at least in part) from Ingmar Bergman's image of Death (played by Bengt Ekerot) in "The Seventh Seal."

[image=http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/5684/pdvd0047us.png]

As for the connection between Lucas and Coppola, many have observed that one of the prominent themes displayed in the "Star Wars" saga, which chronicles the various relationships between a master and an apprentice, is actually emblematic of the (reportedly tumultuous) rapport between the two cinematic figures over their 30-year friendship. There may be some truth to that, especially when one considers the querulous behavior exhibited by Anakin in Episodes II and III, particularly in regards to his master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, in addition to the palpable feelings of impatience and frustration that are contained within the rebellious Luke Skywalker during the OT storyline.

 

"When I worked as Production Assistant on Finian's Rainbow, I was but a learner - Now I am the master..."

 

According to Ian McDiarmid, Palpatine's transformation resembles Lon Chaney in Phantom of the Opera.

 

Lucas did say that part of the idea of father figures and the Master /Apprentice relationship came from his time with Coppola.

And enough with the $ in Lucas name. People have been warned and banned for it. Please, do not do that anymore.

 

...or I'll start writing "Franci$"



$ is good - when it's in my pocket
/LM

 

"Lucas did say that part of the idea of father figures and the Master /Apprentice relationship came from his time with Coppola.

And enough with the $ in Lucas name. People have been warned and banned for it. Please, do not do that anymore."

Awww spanked again...... But at least you said please.........

 

No, but it wasn't supposed to be one. I'm not sure what point you were trying to make with that remark.

Based on Coppola's early work, yes. Latter work, not so much.

 

I thought it was a tribute the late great Red Skelton myself. Dig him up and I'll bet he looks just like Sidious.

*my appologies if anyone finds this offensive...I of course, do not. *

 

The worst part is that people think it's cleaver/amusing/original to write his name that way. Sad really.

Coppola and Lucas are friends, but I think it's a stretch to say that Lucas was somehow influenced by the make-up job that one of Coppola's characters had. (not really even Coppola's character anyway)

 

it would hav been cool/funny if GL added that 'shadow moving independently of the body' effect coppola used with his dracula.

also, it was pretty nice for GL to include that 'tip of the hat' to coppola, i didnt know that their relationship was a little bumpy. it was a pretty quick image before sidious put his cloak on and pulled down his hood.

 

The Emperor's appearance in ROTS and ROTJ probably has many influences, like everything else in SW. Ingmar Bergman's Death may well have been one of them.

According to Ian McDiarmid's video interview, available on Hyperspace, when he first was hired to play the Emperor, he had no idea what the character was going to look like, and Lucas only had the most general idea -- they just sort of went with the idea of making him an old crone. McDiarmid was only about 38 at the time, but he'd recently been in a play where he played a very old man, under much makeup, and he theorized that the casting director for ROTJ, Mary Selway, saw him in the play and so suggested him.

Lucas and Coppola have been friends for longer than many people on this board have been alive (including myself), so I'm not surprised they've had a somewhat tumultuous relationship. Any relationship that lasts that long is bound to have a few twists and turns.

 

"Too bad he didn't look similar to the Emperor from ROTJ."

His face just looked a bit thicker. Or I guess you could just see his forhead a little more. But that was mostly because of the way he wore his hood. (Also, it wasn't as pale as ROTJ, but that would make sense since he got older.)

 

Eh, Shredder, people want everything to look EXACTLY how they imagine they should look, so they'll find any reason to pick apart the PT as being "inconsistent" because something/someone looks different after/before the passage of time.

"The thing about science-fiction fans and "Star Wars" fans is they're very independent-thinking people. They all think outside the box, but they all have very strong ideas about what should happen, and they think it should be their way, which is fine, except I'm making the movies, so I should have it my way."

--George Lucas

 

He isn't going to look exactly the same 20 years earlier.