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George Lucas Struggles to Reinvent Himself
GuyMannDude writes "Wired has a lengthy article about what lies ahead for George Lucas. Originally a member of a maverick group of young filmmakers who were at odds with the thinking and methods of the major studios, he has now become the most financially successful director in history by marketing the ultimate popcorn fodder. With the Star Wars saga ending, Lucas now struggles with how to reinvent himself." I imagine it will be hard to get away from Star Wars, given that he's producing television shows set in the fictional universe.
and He estimates that he gave two decades of solid work to Star Wars, not including a hiatus to raise three adopted kids as a single father.
Obviously the time has come for payback from his fans.
How many young Star Wars couples would be willing to raise their very own George Lucas Love Clone?
Come on, George. Donate some nuclei. Leave the midichlorian, er, mitochondrian DNA to the egg donor.
Face it -- its the right thing to do.
Bit serially, this guy has done a lot for digital cinema and his accumulated capital seems most appropriately put to use cultivating young talent. The academic cinema schools where he and his contemporaries got their start just aren't what they used to be but he could certainly help advance the state of the art in home "home schooled" digital movie production.
This would get kids in the hinterlands producing movies from their own myths, starting from the same age Spielberg was when he first got a hold of a movie camera.
Probably the best way to do it would be to get together with someone like John Carmack and define a series of prize awards for technologies that are critical to bringing the cost of movie production down.
Seastead this.
Now that his first group of fans has grown up, there is a whole new area of filmmaking that he hasn't explored yet: Star Wars porn. I mean who wouldn't pay good money to see a wookie getting it on with a bunch of ewoks?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Must ... Reinvent ... Self ... ;-)
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
He should start his own space-flight company.
Have you read my blog lately?
He could always reinvent his movies.
Will the new George Lucas shoot first still? Or will he dodge and return fire?
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
"given that he's producing television shows set in the fictional universe."
GL is working for Fox News?!
Personally, I'm waiting for a sequel, video games, and action figues for American Graffiti.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Lucas should have stuck to what he was good at: having a fertile imagination, having the knack of transferring the detailed worlds he created to the big screen and being a very successfull business man in terms of negotiating with the big studios merchandising rights and so on.
Unfortunately he made the huge mistake of trying to be director again, instead of just a producer. IMHO, the best Star Wars movies where episodes V and VI, both of which he didn't direct.
Maybe he could come up with something totally new and awe inspiring with SOME story this time. Gone are the days where eye candy was enough to make a great hit.
Certainly in five or ten years we'll get new, blu-ray hi-def versions of I thru III, with Lucas saying in interviews "I added the new scenes to get the movie I really wanted, which I didn't get back then."
He isn't a great filmmaker. He isn't even a passable mass-market filmmaker. He's a guy who made a cult hit that happened to be a global hit.
And then he made a series with Spielberg.
My Photography - http://ian-x.com
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For starters, he could make the fourth Indiana Jones movie that the fans have been waiting for years. And he doesn't have much time left, given Harrison Ford's age...
George Lucas is backing the development of a 350 million dollar studio that will combine the functionality of movie special effects with the equipment for video game animation and design features. By combining these two very closely related fields into one mega-location, G.L. is going to ultimately have an impact on entertainment that goes well beyond the scope of "Star Wars" - but even with that titanian accomplishment, there is little chance he will be remembered as such. Ultimately, the innovation that gave him his status is the same innovation that will be tagged to his name inside every electronic wikipedia of the future, and he can't do anything to change that. While many of us rightfully bashed Lucas' work on the first and second (fourth and fifth) Star Wars movies, myself included, he deserves the credit he has earned as a producer and financeer of special effects. Jar Jar sucks, but G.L. will always be a hero in my book for the contributions he has made to computer animation and special effects over the course of his career.
Saw him doing CGI, for a character that looked like mucas,
M-U-C-U-Mucus...
I saw the obese fuck in his valley of fog,
Asked him his name and in a raspy voice, he said "Lucas".
L-U-C-A-Lucas,
Lu-Lu-Lu-Lu Lucas...
Well I've been around, but I ain't never seen,
A guy who raped all our childhoods in a manner obscene,
Oh, George Lucas.
Lu-Lu-Lu-Lu Lucas...
And I'm not dumb, but I can't understand,
How Jar Jar and the Ewoks came from Emperor's Hand,
Oh, George Lucas.
Lu-Lu-Lu-Lu Lucas...
Well, I got hired just a week before,
And I've never ever been a marketing whore,
But Georgy-porgy set me straight with force,
Told me "do water specials, with MonCal boobs, of course!"
I know George Lucas has me really annoyed,
But remember, if you kill him then I'll be unemployed,
Oh, George Lucas.
Lu-Lu-Lu-Lu Lucas...
Episode 5's how I want it to stay,
But I need to feed my family, so to the Sith I will pray,
For George Lucas,
Lu-lu-lu-lu-Lucas...
(Thanks, Weird Al, for that second-last verse.)
I would just DIE to see a prequel of America Grafiti. Imagine a series about young Ron Howard and company.
Gator/Claria is Spyware.
"I've earned the right to fail, which means making what I think are really great movies that no one wants to see."
This is in contrast to his previous strategy of making really bad movies that everyone wants to see.
> Trust me George... you can only go up from here if you follow
> these simple instructions.
This is getting annoying.
George Lucas doesn't read Slashdot, and he probably never will.
We're all sorry he did not use your saliva-encrusted fan fiction as the basis for his script for Episodes I-III, but millions of people enjoyed the movies anyway.
Comments such as yours and of the two dozen other minority ranters on Slashdot are getting irritating to no end. If you don't like the movies, fine -- click on Preferences, then click on Homepage, and de-select Star Wars. There! wasn't that easy?
I hope George Lucas makes Jar-Jar a freakin' Jedi Master in Episode III just to piss off the "George Lucas killed my childhood" crowd.
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
Everyone's so quick to bash Lucas, but seriously, have you people been paying any attention to his media campaign lately? He's really coming off like he's sorry for ep 1 & 2, and the whole special edition thing... I mean, ep is gonna be PG-13?!? He's said it'll be "Star Wars goes to Hell," for chissakes. That doesn't sound like the words of a man milking some cash-cow for all its worth... If it were, he'd be coming with more furry little ewaks.
Say what you want, but Lucas has always stuck to his guns over the years, creating HIS vision on the screen, not kowtowing what to a bunch of acned sci-fi dorks want to see. That takes integrity. Only time will tell if he can withstand the onslaught of attacks from lesser "fans" who probably never even filmed so much as a school play!
He could always reinvent his movies.
Looks like you'll get your wish! Greedo firing first in 3D! Maybe the new version will have Solo dodging the shot in Matrix-esque bullet time!
GMD
watch this
No, Lucas was a film-school hack who's never made a really imaginative movie. His one claim to serious filmmaking was American Grafitti, which has some technical highpoints, but made no real attempt to tell a story. Then Joseph Campbell taught him how mine the mythological tradition -- which in practice came down to finding cool movies and ripping off their better scenes. The result was Star Wars, which I've always seen as the cinematic equivalent of a theme park ride. Which a lot of people seem to like -- but it's not an achievement that qualifies you as a "Maverik Filmmaker".
Star Wars was/is a great idea, but the Empire Strikes Back was the best movie of the series in my opinion. It was directed by Irvin Kershner, screenplay written with Lawrence Kasdan and produced by Gary Kurtz, Lucas had a lot of creative help in making that film which turned out to be wonderful.
To reinvent oneself, you have to create yourself in the first place. Star Wars was a culmination of his story ideas with actors and movie techniques that have never been seen before. This is the key to its success.
Unfortunately, time and time again when directors/actors/musicians get older and have kids, their creativity is geared toward kid-friendly productions that their own kids can watch or sing along with them. This G-rated kid-friendly mindset sometimes kills creativity. He needs to get back to his 1970s mindset where he had to create something that has never been seen/done/heard of before - and not worry about what his audience thinks. (easier said than done) The upcoming 3D Star Wars is a start, but it is still cashing in on an old idea. Anyway, good luck George!
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Howard the Duck II, Revenge of the Fowl
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
He just needs to digitally remaster himself, that's the key to the future right there
Comments such as yours are even more irritating. Just because someone has a negative opinion doesn't mean they should not post. The poster clearly has an interest in Star Wars, I don't think he seriously expected Lucas to read it, he simply wanted to express how he felt about his latest works. Cripes, dissent is half of nerd commentary, give the man a break.
Originally a member of a maverick group of young filmmakers who were at odds with the thinking and methods of the major studios, he has now become the most financially successful director in history by marketing the ultimate popcorn fodder.
isn't this just the way it goes?
the counter-culture becomes the over-the-counter culture.
Maybe we could get those hinterland kids to produce Jar-Jar cups for taco bell, or Obiwan Bobble heads for your car..
Starsucks
I'm still waiting for Howard the Duck 2!
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
Maybe Lucas could refocus his energies on becoming a universal first poster to Slashdot forums.
M
blah blah blah, Lucas ruined my childhood, blah blah blah Episode 1 sucked, blah blah blah more money for his Yachts blah blah blah.
Meanwhile, your hypocritical asses are the FIRST ONES IN LINE to shell out $$ to see the new movies... and you do it multiple times.
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
...he'll do what he did with all his other characters. Replace himself with a CG model.
"This is how I always intended to look, but I didn't have the technology back then to make myself 7ft tall and partially translucent."
In several interviews, although strangely not really mentioned by the Wired reporter, he says he has several ideas for small independant films. Not in the Woody Allen sense indy, but REALLY indy, like a guy with a camera and a couple actors go out and do stuff on budgets of under $1M.
These would unlikely be sci-fci (his words not mine) and likely be dramas and, again in his own words, have exactly zero mass appeal. So, really niche films that are very unpopular or have radical thoughts or ideas wrapped into the narrative.
I don't know why he's chosen to do this. Unlike Speilberg and Schindler's List, he has no political or epic historical story to tell. I would say Schnidler's List is not exactly a mass market movie either.
If small indy film is where he wants to go back to, I think he should do it. He should become a professor at USC's film school. That is really what I think would give him the most happiness. Imagine the wait list for that course.
One really interesting part of the article in Wired was the mention of another release of the 6 movies - this time in 3-D. Someone want to guess what he will add/subtract from the movies this time?
Recursive pot, meet recursive kettle!
Well, he's been doing mostly Star Wars for the last decade or so. But before that he helped write Indiana Jones, and a lot of people thought that was pretty good. He also did the story for Willow, which a lot of people liked.
And as another poster mentioned American Graffiti was quite good, with the very, very young Harrison Ford. Maybe what he needs to do is rewatch American Graffiti, which is a very different movie from everything else he's done. That's a whole non-scifi/fantasy career track he abanandoned 30+ years ago he could revisit. Perhaps he should stop trying to tell big stories and tell little ones instead.
I suggest to Lucas that he target the Slashdot audience directly by making Natalie Portman naked on screen. That is if they can still stomach her after she turns evil.
-Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety deserve neither. -Ben Franklin
He could fall into some lava and then come back as a mask-wearing, rich and powerful overlord who used to be noble but now only does things for his own personal gain.
Well, at least the MASK would be new.
There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
He's going to make episodes 7, 8 and 9. Yeah yeah, he said he wouldn't, but when has anyone in Hollywood ever left a franchise to rot on the vine when there's a dollar left to be squeezed out of it?
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
"I've earned the right to fail, which means making what I think are really great movies that no one wants to see."
Does this bother anyone else? If _no one_ wants to watch the movie, how can it be said to be great? Who cares if he thinks it's great?
I've seen people with really bad ideas who insist that they're great. It doesn't make them right.
Well then this seems to be a good starting point.
I don't expect you to answer this here but the question becomes, "What are the common characteristics of these 'details' that suck up the most time and energy?"
Computers are good at being indefatigable -- so where can they help with detail work? It seems they could help a lot if you could better characterize it.
Seastead this.
You know, before I answer any more questions there's something I wanted to say. Having read all your posts over the years, and... I've spoken to many of you, and some of you have traveled... y'know... hundreds of miles to be here, I'd just like to say... GET A LIFE, will you people? I mean, for crying out loud, it's just a movie!
I mean, look at you, look at the way you're dressed! You've turned an enjoyable little job, that Lucas did as a lark for a few years, into a COLOSSAL WASTE OF TIME! I mean, how old are you people? What have you done with yourselves?
You, you must be almost 30... have you ever kissed a girl? I didn't think so! There's a whole world out there! When I was your age, I didn't watch movies! I LIVED! So... move out of your parent's basements! And get your own apartments and GROW THE HELL UP! I mean, it's just a movie dammit, IT'S JUST A MOVIE!
I think that sums it up.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
He needs to do more things like the incredible Star Wars: Revelations
Kevin
"It's not the cough that carries you off, it's the coffin they carry you off in" O. Nash
I, for one, will believe that statement well after he's:
released the E1-E3 DVD Box Set
released the E1-E3 Collector DVD Box Set
released the E1-E6 Super Collector DVD Box Set
released the Remastered E1-E6 Super Collector DVD Box Set
released the E1-E6 Ultimate-Jedi DVD Box Set with Extra Wookie
dead and buried
Even then, I would hesitate to purchase a box set on account of him screwing me over so many previous times.
What does that leave? Producing. You give the cash and some ideas, let others do the work.
Actually, you've missed what he's really good at and what the article hints at - editing the film into something that is very watchable.
Lucas has an amazing ability as a visual and audible story teller. He has the ability to place the viewer in the middle of the scene and make them feel as if they are a part of it. It is important to note that he worries about the sound just as much as the picture and they do merge seamlessly together.
He's the anti-Kevin Smith. Lucas has saddled himself with a story that everybody knows how it is going to play itself out, but he has managed to create some visually entertaining pieces of film along the way. Smith is the opposite, when he's at the top of his game you don't know what to expect at the end, but you know you'll be entertained by the dialog and bored by static cameras four to six feet from the talent.
The idea of Lucas being the anti-Kevin Smith got me to wondering what you would get if they were to collaborate. Smith would provide the story, dialog and characters while Lucas would make the movie visually and aurally interesting.
Hmmm... Kevin, if you're reading this, have your people talk to my people and we'll talk.
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Best "Matrix: Revolutions" review 3var!!!
Also, did you notice that the shot of Neo being carried off by the machines was a frame-for-frame rip-off of the Ohm hoisting up Nausicaa in Miyazaki's vastly superior work, "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind"?
Not to mention the final Neo vs. Smith showdown mirroring another superior film: "Dark City"... only without making sense in the context of the story.
Comment on Lucas to avoid the "offtopic" mods:
The man is a genius when it comes to the industrial side of film-making, but any artistic sense he ever had has clearly atrophied. Every frame of "Attack of the Clones" is a pig's breakfast of poor composition and brain-dead cinematography.
So thanks, George, for you and your people coming up with idead like robotic-controlled cameras and radically new methods of creating sound effects, but it's time for you to fade out. Be a producer for the great young minds of film on the rise. (I would love to see what Darren Aronofsky could do if he had access to Lucas-type resources.)
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
With those kind of bucks, why invent yourself: just buy yourself.
Do you know what "Maverick" means? Hint: It has nothing to do with how good his films are.
Lucas is a maverick because he snubbed the studio system *and* the various Hollywood unions, including the Actor's and Director's Guild and made big-budget blockbuster *independent* films. (Lucas paid for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi from his profits from Star Wars; no studio backed him.)
The closest modern director would probably be Robert Rodriguez, especially considering his recent fight with the Director's Guild over Sin City's credits.
Comment of the year
Lucas now struggles with how to reinvent himself.
He's struggling now? He should have started that struggle a long time ago, like before making Phantom Menace.
I thought the saga had 9 chapters. We saw 4,5,6,1,2 and soon we'll see 3. What about 7, 8, and 9?