All things STAR WARS~!

[Casey]

What were Lucas' ideas?

[Dolfan in NYC]

According to the Charlie Rose "white slavers" interview, whatever his ideas were... Disney told him they were not interested.   That's when he took the $4B buyout. 

[Raziel]

It probably involved at least 50 minutes of Space C-SPAN giving up exposition of the last 30 years.

 

About 20 people would've loved it though.

[EVA]

Not much is known besides the old characters were going to have significantly smaller roles and the focus was going to be on the next generation (likely all their kids), possibly with the kids being much younger than even Rey and Finn, which apparently gave Disney flashbacks to Jake Lloyd and caused them to balk.

I imagine George is less irritated by them throwing out his ideas than he is that they threw out his ideas to make a fan service movie with a script CNP'ed from ANH that undid half the character arcs of the OT. I mean, I probably wouldn't be thrilled about that either.

[stro]

Pretty sure Lucas was given a writing credit for TFA, which means a fairly big chunk of the movie was directly attributed to him.

[EVA]

Never try to make sense of WGA credits.

EDIT: Also, he was not given a writing credit. Abrams, Kasdan, and Arndt are the credited writers. Although the above statement is still applicable to Arndt getting a credit, considering his draft was famously binned.

[Jingus]

I don't get all the hatred and contempt for Lucas. First of all, never forget, we wouldn't have Star Wars if he hadn't invented the entire thing. And secondly: gee, you think a guy MIGHT have regrets when auctioning off his entire life's work? He MIGHT feel like a sellout, a failure, a bad parent, to have taken the big payoff and forever given up all rights to the franchise which he'd spent over forty years of his life working on? Go easy on the poor bastard. He's a guy who's always been very proud of his status as a creative storyteller, and he's suddenly finding himself in a position where he's got no story to tell and unfortunately few people willing to listen.

[EVA]

I don't get all the hatred and contempt for Lucas. First of all, never forget, we wouldn't have Star Wars if he hadn't invented the entire thing. And secondly: gee, you think a guy MIGHT have regrets when auctioning off his entire life's work? He MIGHT feel like a sellout, a failure, a bad parent, to have taken the big payoff and forever given up all rights to the franchise which he'd spent over forty years of his life working on? Go easy on the poor bastard. He's a guy who's always been very proud of his status as a creative storyteller, and he's suddenly finding himself in a position where he's got no story to tell and unfortunately few people willing to listen.

I'm in agreement with you on this. "Lucas raped my childhood" has been a thing for a long time now, but the villification has really kicked up a notch lately, even before he made the slavery comments.

Yes, the prequels were shit (I don't like any of them at all). Yes, his policies regarding the OT are ridiculous. And, no, I would not have been excited at the prospect of another Lucas-helmed trilogy. It probably would've sucked as bad or worse than the last one.

But he did make STAR WARS. And I'd wager pretty much everything you first loved about it came from his brain and his brain alone. Sure, he got old and lost it. So what? To paraphrase the great David Milch by way of Al Swearengen, he's no more fool now than time shows us all. Cut him some slack.

Somebody earlier said Lucas created a "product" in STAR WARS. No, he made a film (back in probably the absolute last moment when there was at least some discernable difference). He was a weirdo experimental director who was making a film that nobody really understood and basically nobody in Hollywood wanted to touch. He created this world and these characters because they meant something to him, not because it was his ticket to billions 40 years later.

So, yeah, I cut him some slack if he's a little bummed that his expectations for Disney's handling of his creations weren't met.

And he's allowed to have remorse. Seller's remorse is a thing. And the legitimacy of your remorse does not decrease in inverse proportion to the amount of money you received in the transaction.

[Dolfan in NYC]

He compared his selling off an intellectual property for $4,000,000,000 to selling a human child into slavery, a life of torture, rape, and forced labor for the rest of their life.

 

Fuck him. 

[EVA]

BREAKING NEWS: Unheard of! George Lucas first senior citizen in history to stick foot in mouth and make everyone in the room uncomfortable by using an outdated reference that was once acceptable but now considered deeply offensive!

Definitely not saying it was an okay thing to say, but come on. Basically everyone over the age of 70 is an endless fount of anachronistic impropriety. It's just your average MiMaw doesn't get the opportunity to run off at the mouth to Charlie Rose.

Old people are a mess. God, let me die young(ish).

[Jingus]

It obviously wasn't meant to be taken literally. He didn't say "my experience is just as awful as a parent who forced their own child into a horrifying life of prostitution and agony, and I'm not even kidding about that". He just made a lame joke at the expense of Disney's infamous corporate practices.

[piranesi]

And let's not forget that good dialog has never been his strong point. "Evil Empire" was RIGhT THERE!

[AxB]

But he did make STAR WARS. And I'd wager pretty much everything you first loved about it came from his brain and his brain alone. 

 

"This is the story of Mace Windu. a revered Jedi-bendu of Opuchi who was related to Usby C. J. Thrape, padawaan learner of the famed Jedi."

[odessasteps]

But he did make STAR WARS. And I'd wager pretty much everything you first loved about it came from his brain and his brain alone

Except the stuff from Kurosawa, Riefenstahl, Joseph Campbell, ...

[EVA]

But he did make STAR WARS. And I'd wager pretty much everything you first loved about it came from his brain and his brain alone

Except the stuff from Kurosawa, Riefenstahl, Joseph Campbell, ...

An artist had influences????????? YOU DON'T SAY.

[Mister TV]

 

But he did make STAR WARS. And I'd wager pretty much everything you first loved about it came from his brain and his brain alone

Except the stuff from Kurosawa, Riefenstahl, Joseph Campbell, ...

 

Don't forget Edgar Rice Burroughs and the John Carter of Mars books.

[EVA]

This is exactly the stuff I'm talking about, too. "George just stole all this stuff from his influences!" is probably the lastest, worst way people have come up with to discredit Lucas.

YEAH, HE'S LIKE....EVERY ARTIST EVER, MAN. FUCK HIM.

Literally, every artist is a product of his influences. But what makes the successful artist different from anyone else who likes all the same stuff, is he can take them and synthesize them into something unique and endearing that stands out as its own thing.

Which STAR WARS obviously did, or else we wouldn't be here talking about it nearly 40 year later.

"HIDDEN FORTRESS + Flash Gordon + German propoganda + Burroughs + an exegesis on historical myth (+ anything else you can think of)" is not some artistic algorithm that reliably spits out "space wizards fight with lazer swords via this specific cast of indelible characters." No, it was George's weirdo brain that made that calculus add up to the piece of art that you love. And on one else could do it, or they would have. Lord knows they've tried since.

[RandomAct]

Honestly, I think what would hurt my feelings most if I'm Lucas, is that it seems like all of TFA was made as a big "fuck you " to him.  It was a fan service film that basically said "this is nothing like what the crazy old man was doing".  I say this as someone who really liked the movie, but I'd have major seller's remorse if I were in his shoes.

[AxB]

This is exactly the stuff I'm talking about, too. "George just stole all this stuff from his influences!" is probably the lastest, worst way people have come up with to discredit Lucas.

 

People have been accusing Star Wars of being nothing but a pastiche of previous works for as long as there has been a Star Wars. Tarantino got the idea of just making movies that were Frankensteined together from other movies from George Lucas.

 

No-one else could do it, you say? James Gunn.

[Zheroen]

This is exactly the stuff I'm talking about, too. "George just stole all this stuff from his influences!" is probably the lastest, worst way people have come up with to discredit Lucas.

YEAH, HE'S LIKE....EVERY ARTIST EVER, MAN. FUCK HIM.

Literally, every artist is a product of his influences. But what makes the successful artist different from anyone else who likes all the same stuff, is he can take them and synthesize them into something unique and endearing that stands out as its own thing.

Which STAR WARS obviously did, or else we wouldn't be here talking about it nearly 40 year later.

"HIDDEN FORTRESS + Flash Gordon + German propoganda + Burroughs + an exegesis on historical myth (+ anything else you can think of)" is not some artistic algorithm that reliably spits out "space wizards fight with lazer swords via this specific cast of indelible characters." No, it was George's weirdo brain that made that calculus add up to the piece of art that you love. And on one else could do it, or they would have. Lord knows they've tried since.

 

Spoken like someone who has obviously never read Dune.

[EVA]

This is exactly the stuff I'm talking about, too. "George just stole all this stuff from his influences!" is probably the lastest, worst way people have come up with to discredit Lucas.

People have been accusing Star Wars of being nothing but a pastiche of previous works for as long as there has been a Star Wars. Tarantino got the idea of just making movies that were Frankensteined together from other movies from George Lucas.

No-one else could do it, you say? James Gunn.

Well, I'd love to see him try. But making an entertaining Star Wars homage based on a pre-existing property is hardly the same thing as inventing your own universe of characters that would transcend their genre and redefine popular entertainment in America, and therefore the world.

[AxB]

 

Making an entertaining Star Wars homage based on a pre-existing property is hardly the same thing as inventing your own universe of characters that would transcend their genre and redefine popular entertainment in America, and therefore the world.

 

[J.T.]

He compared his selling off an intellectual property for $4,000,000,000 to selling a human child into slavery, a life of torture, rape, and forced labor for the rest of their life.

 

Fuck him. 

 

No offense, Lucas, but after watching Artoo sprout rockets that he shouldn't have and fly when he shouldn't be able to, enduring child killer Anakin's cringe worthy 'THE JEDI ARE THE ONES THAT ARE EVIL~!" horseshit, and then enjoying the brilliance of Force Awakens, I can safely conclude that the franchise is better of on Disney's hands than yours.

 

I can at least count on the Disney money making machine to keep shit consistent.

[The Unholy Dragon]

Making an entertaining Star Wars homage based on a pre-existing property is hardly the same thing as inventing your own universe of characters that would transcend their genre and redefine popular entertainment in America, and therefore the world.

That's not what Jack Kirby looks like.

[elizium]

Or Ditko.....