logo Sign In

New Gary Kurtz interview! — Page 2

Author
Time
Thus proving my point about reading comprehension...

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

Author
Time
I could tell it was made up. He would never do that. I wanted to know if the 5-25-77 screening happened, and if anybody had any details about it. I guess nobody here has seen anything tho.
It was funny.
Author
Time
Originally posted by: MeBeJedi


"I guess I was the only one who caught it."

"Gary Kurtz angers me."


I guess you weren't.



http://www.59texas.org/webapp/images/usergallery/1051.jpg
Forum Moderator
Author
Time
LOL

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

Author
Time
Originally posted by: MeBeJedi
Thus proving my point about reading comprehension...


I don't think you fully comprehended my last response. I put a wink there for a reason, you know.
Author
Time
Adam, everything you say has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Someone could say, "I love Lucas, he's my bitch."
And you would respond with a plethora of obscure emo-cons and AIM speak.


"LOL "

What the hell, Adam?
"I am altering the movies. Pray I don't alter them any further." -Darth Lucas
Author
Time
"I don't think you fully comprehended my last response. I put a wink there for a reason, you know."

Says the kid who has accused me of being sarcastic...

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

Author
Time
Originally posted by: Invader Jenny
Adam, everything you say has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Someone could say, "I love Lucas, he's my bitch."
And you would respond with a plethora of obscure emo-cons and AIM speak.


"LOL "

What the hell, Adam?


AIM speak is below me.
Author
Time
There's room?

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

Author
Time
Hehe, I must admit this is getting funny, although I can't figure out why people would think that was real. But the ensuing comedy has been worth it, so... tee hee. I generally hate dysfunctional families, but they can be amusing at times. ^_~

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

Author
Time
We put the "FUN" in dysfunctional.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

Author
Time

I like Gary Kurtz and grateful to him that he helped produce two of the greatest and two of my favourite films of all time, and do wonder sometimes what Star Wars would have been like if he and Lucas didnt part company.
Author
Time
Originally posted by: MeBeJedi
Thus proving my point about reading comprehension...


Reading comprehension, though, deals with understanding what the text is saying, not how similar it is to another piece of literature. That's more like reading comparison.
Author
Time
Originally posted by: Mr Bungle
I like Gary Kurtz and grateful to him that he helped produce two of the greatest and two of my favourite films of all time, and do wonder sometimes what Star Wars would have been like if he and Lucas didnt part company.
i know it sucks

Author
Time
"Reading comprehension, though, deals with understanding what the text is saying, not how similar it is to another piece of literature. That's more like reading comparison. "

I think I'm going to cry.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

Author
Time
Originally posted by: Mr Bungle
I like Gary Kurtz and grateful to him that he helped produce two of the greatest and two of my favourite films of all time, and do wonder sometimes what Star Wars would have been like if he and Lucas didnt part company.


Well we would have had awesome 9 part sage. With not ewoks or gungans. DAMN
Author
Time
Actually, I think Kurtz' influence on the films is highly, highly overrated. He was terrible at his job and ruined his career through his inability to do it right, which is why he hardly ever worked after the mid-80's. On the Star Wars films he nearly ruined Lucas financially and physically, and although its obvious the films were stronger with Kurtz around, Lucas had every right to let him go.

American Graffitti was mostly produced by Coppola and was such a small film that it would be hard to have any kind of catastrophe. Star Wars' budget ballooned quickly, and was fortunate that the American Dollar was worth more than the pound at the time it was filmed, otherwise it would have been a fiasco, and the film was so badly scheduled that Lucas was shooting up to three scenes at once at the very end; the stress made Lucas admit himself into the hospital! I know some elements are out of any producers hands but when the director nearly has a heart attack from filming a low-key medium-budget film, something is seriously wrong.
Flash forward to Empire--Lucas finances the film himself, and puts all of his personal fortunes into the film. The budget is set at 15 million. The show quickly gets behind schedule and the budget increases week by week. Kirshner takes way too long to film scenes and Kurtz, the producer and the man responsible for moving the show along efficently and smoothly, lets the budget DOUBLE to 32 million, all the while getting more behind schedule. A bank loan has to be taken out by Lucas to cover the film, which also goes over budget. All of Lucas' personal funds are invested in this disaster of a production, and the finger is pointed squarely at Kurtz. The film was a success, luckily, and Lucas made his money back and thensome, but for all the grief and incompetance Kutz caused, it is no wonder they never worked together again.

THEN, Kurtz goes on to direct The Dark Crystal, another flop. He returns to producing, and makes Lucas' friend Walter Murch's directorial debut Return to Oz--which, surprise, surprise ALSO goes overbudget! Lucas has to bail out Murch himself, thanks to Kurtz' incompetance. It would be one of the last time Kurtz ever worked.

So was he a good producer? Abosolutely not. Although he obviously cared about the content more than, say, McCallum, he was negligent and incompetant in his role, and despite the fact that he lached on to Lucas when Lucas was still young and creative, Kurtz' status as "Savior of the OT" is a complete fabrication by the meer coincidence that ANH and ESB are better than ROTJ. McCallum is a million times the producer Kurtz was, though unfortunately associated with poor material, the opposite of Kurtz--but the fact is that the man did his job. There were no scheduling or budgetary issues on any of the PT, even when the script for AOTC was completed until the week before filming. Despite the fact that Lucas may have lost his touch, if i were making a film i would definitly want McCallum and not Kurtz with me!
Author
Time
Originally posted by: zombie84

So was he a good producer? Abosolutely not. Although he obviously cared about the content more than, say, McCallum, he was negligent and incompetant in his role, and despite the fact that he lached on to Lucas when Lucas was still young and creative, Kurtz' status as "Savior of the OT" is a complete fabrication by the meer coincidence that ANH and ESB are better than ROTJ. McCallum is a million times the producer Kurtz was, though unfortunately associated with poor material, the opposite of Kurtz--but the fact is that the man did his job. There were no scheduling or budgetary issues on any of the PT, even when the script for AOTC was completed until the week before filming. Despite the fact that Lucas may have lost his touch, if i were making a film i would definitly want McCallum and not Kurtz with me!


Text

No doubt ESB went over budget and Kurtz is responsible for that, but so did Titanic. Now James Cameron was in total control of the movie and staked his career on it, but does anyone remember that Titanic had a budget of 200 million in 1997, which was truly outrageous at the time. But the film was a hit, and made a boatload of money, so no harm no foul.

I do remember reading in the mid 90's that Lucas thought he could make each prequel for about 65-70 million each, but in the end turned out to cost about 115 million for each. I just think whenever you are making a special effects movie, whether it is Star Wars, Jurassic Park, or Titanic, going over budget seems to be the norm, cause it isn't like a drama where you are paying the lead actor huge sums of money and thats it.

I do agree that Kurtz gets too much praise sometimes, but you can't deny that SW & ESB seem to be the only two of the 6 that hold up or will hold up as classics in the future. Now is Kurtz the reason for that? Is Kershner the reason ESB was so great? Lucas wrote, directed, and produced the original SW, and that was a classic, so how did he go from that the director of my favorite movie of all-time to directing an underwhelming prequel trilogy 20 years later?

I think OT fans latch onto Kurtz cause he seems to be the last defender of when SW was great. I mean, growing up I watched the OT hundreds of times, and I never knew who Gary Kurtz was, even though his name was at the end credits everytime I watched them. I just really started reading about Gary Kurtz in the past 5 years, cause he seems to make alot of sense about how Lucas changed after ESB, and that just give the public enough for a SW movie, and it doesn't have to be a classic and they will come. Sadly, wasn't George right?
Author
Time
I agree with CO. As much as I agree with some of the bad choices Kurtz seemed to help Empire avoid, he doesn't sound like he runs a smooth production. McCallum can do this in spades, but the conent SUCKED. I wouldn't want George in the hospital, but I don't like movies that suck either.
Author
Time
I wasnt debating the quality of the movies. Titanic went overbudget--whether or not it is a good movie is debatable and irrelevant.

My point was that Kurtz never once did his job right, and Lucas' parting with him is more than justified.

As for the PT being overbudget--not so in the least. At one point, yes, it was surmised that perhaps each episode could be made for 60-70 million, this was around 1993 or 1994, after the success of Young Indy. By the time they actually got to production in 1997, that naive projection was no longer relevant--the budget alloted for TPM was 120 million and it was brought in for 115 million. McCallum really is a great producer, its just a shame that he is responsible for the best-made dissapointment of the decade, while a good-for-nothing hack like Kurtz gets kudos up his ass for tagging along while Lucas was at his peak.
Author
Time
it was though a mutual parting, kurtz wasnt fired, he simply didnt like where the story of jedi was going so he quit to do dark crystal instead. btw i dont care how much money mccallum saved lucas, the prequels suck to me thats more a crime
Author
Time
Yeah, but to be fair, you can't really blame McCallum for the prequels sucking. He was just doing his job. It's not as though he was a big driving force in the direction of the story.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

Author
Time
Yeah, that's one thing McCallum does well. He would be an excellent butler. I mean, as long as you pay the guy, he'll kiss your ass no matter what.