Saga Would you be fine with George Lucas "regaining" Star Wars and the rights to the franchise again?

I would love it, but only if he would want to. After creating a masterpiece and then taking so much flak for his creative decisions during the PT era, I think he has earned the right to retire and do what he wants to do.

While I don't think that there is any possibility of Lucas buying Lucasfilm back, I do think there is a possibility, however remote, that we may see an adaptation of his treatments for the ST someday. My dream would be an animated film series, but comics or novels could also work. If they adapted Lucas's early drafts of Star Wars into a comic series, I could see this happening.

 

I'm happy with Disney in control, but I would love to see George direct one more star wars film.

 

No, mostly because I doubt his heart would be in it. He seemed pretty understandably deflated after the reception the Prequels got.

 

It looks like this is being given serious consideration....

 

George as producer and ideas man, separate director, separate screenwriter. Essentially a showrunner. He’d never do it.

 

Uh, "Maclunkey" owns. I thought everyone was on the same page on this.

 

He's a terrible director.

 

He is not a terrible director, it's many of the SW fans that are terribly unfair to him. Seriously, look at the balance of his work and all of his movies but one were huge hits with audiences. Only THX-1138 wasn't, because it was such an experimental film and the studio didn't know what the heck to do with it.
I rewatched all the older SW films last week as part of the 9-movie marathon. There's nothing I would change about the movies he personally directed. They're perfectly fine just the way they are. He's not just a master filmmaker, he also happens to be friends with most other master filmmakers of his generation. They completely transformed the film industry with their seminal work in the 70s and 80s in a way no generation of filmmakers ever had before - and probably never will.
Lucas also personally revolutionised theatrical sound systems and digital editing. The guy's an American genius!
So just because you have a pet peeve all of a sudden he's not one of the most talented filmmakers of our lifetime? As Obi-Wan would say, "I don't think so!"

 

He was good with stories though, Indiana Jones, SW, AMerican Grafitti, etc.

 

I think he was good in a lot of ways. But he was such a visionary, studio heads still doubted him after the huge success of American Graffiti. All studios originally turned down the "Star Wars" script - he was only able to eventually make it for Fox because of his personal relationship with Alan Ladd Jr.
Just imagine, Star Wars might never have gotten made if not for the son of a 1950s matinee idol!

 

This isn't me having a 'pet peeve all of a sudden', don't be so ridiculous. I acknowledge that he is an excellent wealth of ideas. Nobody can knock his creative ability, nor his pioneering work with the technology required to bring his visions to the screen. And yes, his established franchise which is ingrained in popular culture has meant that he had huge hits with his follow up prequel trilogy.

But none of that makes him a particularly good director. I don't think that he got great performances out of his prequel cast, the often monotone dialogue was toe-curling in parts, the love scenes were infantile and many of the scenes were literally pedestrian. If you look what Irvin Kershner was able to do with the material, they are worlds apart in my opinion. George's passion is the technology, but it is pretty much acknowledged that he isn't the best director of actors especially.

 

I'm not sure I entirely agree with this. Sure, tech is a huge part of what made him the filmmaker he is, but I think at the end of the day his love for cinema is even greater than his love for technology - he just sees technology as a way to advance cinematic art.
Also, I stayed awake for almost 27 hours last week for the 9-movie marathon, and I have to be perfectly honest - the prequels were by far the highlight of the marathon for me. There's nothing wrong with the acting or with the direction, in any way shape or form, it's as good as any reasonable person could expect them to be. There isn't a single weak performance, unlike the case with the OT, which unfortunately does have a few lazy performances. The sequel trilogy is weakest in many regards but it does benefit considerably from watching it immediately after watching the first six movies.
In all honesty, I will never understand why people claim that Lucas didn't do an excellent job with the prequels, they've really stood the test of time magnificently, and in hindsight only highlight how weak the directing and producing is for the movies made under Disney. They're not horrible, but they lack the passion for the material that was abundantly clear with Lucas.

 

Given that this will be a subjective matter, we'll have to agree to disagree. I find them virtually unwatchable. So who is right?

 

Fair enough. MTFBWY!

 

Me.

 

Are you trying to develop a sense of humour or am I going deaf?

 

Its somewhere in the middle.

The prequels were fun and I enjoy watching them - for a lot of people though there are serious problems with them. In my (and a lot of people's) opinion, the acting is significantly weaker than the other star wars films - there are some good performances but most of the worst acting in the saga takes place in the prequels. I would also disagree that they have aged well - for me they have aged very badly. The cringe bits didn't seem too bad at the time but seem far worse on repeat viewings and all of the light sabre battles involving Yoda or Palpatine were fun at the time but again on repeat viewings are horribly cartoony and out of place with the rest of the saga.

I don't think its a great idea for Lucas to direct another Star Wars film although ideally you would want him involved in the creative process if he was up for it. Both the sequels and the prequels could have been amazing and both were a missed opportunity for different reasons although the issues with the prequels were more damaging.

 

I just find them very plodding, with the characters delivering lines in a monotone fashion as though they are bored and reading them from a card.

 

I do think they are amazing in their own peculiar ways. And yeah, there's no question in my mind that the ST, as well as the spinoff movies, have been a rush job with 5 movies released quickly one after another. But there's still some fun to be had.
And if you're really not having any fun with SW any more, it may be time to find another hobby that's more to your liking.

That really doesn't sound like any SW movie I've ever watched.

 

I can't fathom how anyone who's seen Revenge of the Sith could contend that Lucas is a terrible director. In most respects--framing, composition, thematic presentation--his 2005 magnum opus is nearly peerless. (Only George Miller's transcendent Mad Max: Fury Road bests his efforts, but then that was the best damn movie of the past decade.)

His Achilles' heel, sadly, lies with his detachment from his actors, and this in turn undermined TPM and particularly AOTC. The delivery from Lloyd, Christensen and Portman is undeniably stilted, even embarrassing at times. By the time ROTS rolled around, Lucas at least had the foresight to hire Coppola's dialogue coach and, more importantly, bring the operatic qualities to their apex, so that we were no longer watching awkwardly-staged chamber dramas but rather Wagnerian spectacle.

 

I agree with you about Mad Max: Fury Road, which was indeed the movie of the decade.

 

Lucas original draft for Star Wars was absolutely horrible and saved by smart people and edited by his wife.


When he got full control the result been the prequels. He also writes horrible dialogues and was challenged about that in the very first Star Wars. Sadly not so much in the prequells again.
Tha said he certainly has some good ideas but in no way I want Star Wars back in his hands.

 

That's precisely the reason I'd give anything if GL could be back in full control.

And though I get that there's some folks under the impression that there's something wrong with the PT, I have yet to hear a convincing explanation of why they think it's "wrong" beyond it being purely a matter of personal taste - and I certainly don't mean to fault anyone for their taste in movies.

The odd thing is that their suggestion for something better invariably involves doing things that are less unique to SW.