logo Sign In

Lucas: I can make just as much money with less effort

Author
Date
Author
Time
 (Edited)
Post link

Sums it all up really.

Gary Kurtz:

‘George and I had many, many discussions about that [Raiders of the Lost Ark], but it boiled down to the fact that he became convinced that all the audience was interested in was the roller-coaster ride, and so the story and the script didn’t matter anymore.’

‘Now Raiders is not a bad film, but the script actually was much better than the finished film […] it’s just that this idea that somehow the energy doesn’t have to be put into getting really good story elements together. One of the arguments that I had with George about Empire was the fact that he felt in the end, he said, we could have made just as much money if the film hadn’t been quite so good, and you hadn’t spent so much time. And I said, “But it was worth it!”’

From the IGN interview with Gary Kurtz, Star Wars producer:
http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/376/376873p2.html

Thanks to whoever posted it earlier…

 

Mod Edit: a working link to the above article can be found below:-

‘An Interview with Gary Kurtz’ - https://www.ign.com/articles/2002/11/11/an-interview-with-gary-kurtz - 2002 article

Darth Lucas: I am altering the trilogy. Pray I don't alter it further.
Author
Time
Post link
The more I learn, the more I think Lucas was masquerading all those years as a director who wanted to make quality movies, when in truth what he wanted to make was a cheap, commercial, and ultimately forgettable product.

In a recent interview when talking about the "abstract" films that he wants to make, he said he's earned the right to fail. Earned it? Hell, George, you failed a long time ago. Amazingly, most of your directorial catalog is comprised of artistic and directorial failures that succeeded financially only because of an entire generation's affection and memories for a thirty year old trilogy of movies...your greatest creative successes, which you view as the ugly stepchildren to the dreck you peddle these dark days.
Author
Time
Post link
Yeap, reading Mr Kurtz's remarks is very interesting, he is a lot more modest and reasonable and honest than Mr Lucas, and it seems fairly apparent that he was a lot more than just a producer in the modern term (financial/project manager).

More reason to transfer most of the remaining respect to the other people involved. George Lucas an auteur? Don't make me laugh!

It was particularly galling to read about the original plans for Return of the Jedi - very bittersweet and adult. God, that could have been a great film.

Darth Lucas: I am altering the trilogy. Pray I don't alter it further.
Author
Time
Post link
God, that could have been a great film.


It's still pretty good.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

Author
Time
Post link
shows how greedy he is lolz
May the force be wth you .........
Author
Time
Post link
I also liked this part:

KURTZ: ...I've felt that what's happened is that the working producer's job – basically, of being the director's partner and being his mirror and sounding bound – has disappeared and the producer's job has primarily turned to deal making. Most of the people whose names you see up on the screen don't have anything to do with the making of the film, which is a shame, really, because it leaves the director kind of totally on his own – and it means also that there's no one to say "Wait a minute, that's terrible, don't do that!"

IGNFF: There're no 'no-men' anymore.

KURTZ: There're no 'no-men'. Yes, exactly.
Author
Time
Post link
Great interview. I also love this quote:

"A movie is what it is because that's what happened at the time – that is one of the reasons why I rail against this idea about changing movies all the time. This is a very common practice now, which I really don't like – on any movie. I don't like the Special Editions of Star Wars and all these other movies that have come out with a super-duper director's cut like the special edition of Close Encounters. You name it. Practically every movie now does it, because they can do it for DVD."


George Lucas was seduced by the dark side. The OOT ceased to exist in his mind and became the Special Editions...." "They're more maching now than movies. Twisted and evil."
Author
Time
Post link
And this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"IGNFF: You're the person to ask about this – when you're talking about these kind of special editions and changes and are they due to an original vision or changing sensibilities – I have to ask you about your thoughts regarding the infamous redo of the scene with Greedo in the cantina.... the whole shooting first thing.

KURTZ: Yeah, I really was livid about that one. I think it was a total – it ruins the scene, basically. The scene was never intended that way. Han Solo realized that Greedo was out to get him and he had to blast him first or he would lose his life. It shows you how much of a mercenary he is. That's what the point of the scene was. And so the way they've changed it around, it loses the whole impact of that whole aspect of it."
George Lucas was seduced by the dark side. The OOT ceased to exist in his mind and became the Special Editions...." "They're more maching now than movies. Twisted and evil."
Author
Time
Post link
I like how, when he explains the Greedo scene, he says they shot it that way because that's what happend in the script. It wasn't his "original vision" to have Greedo shoot first, there were no "techinical limitations". If they had wanted it that way, they would have shot it that way.
Author
Time
Post link
That is downright depressing. When was this interview conducted? How much clout does Kurtz have? We could use someone like him, and the simple fact that he produced Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back means that he must have some contacts. This whole situation wit the September DVDs seemes to have done the exact opposite of what Lucas intended and instead of shutting up the fans of the OOT, it seems to have blown the doors wide open on the wole situation. Lucas lowered his defenses. Lets rush him. If we can't fight Lucas, perhaps other billionares can help us out. I know someone in contact with Jerry Bruckheimer.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

Author
Time
Post link
I think the interview was conducted between TPM and AOTC, based on the discussion.

I love this part:

KURTZ: .....I just don't like changing whatever a film is like when it's finished – good, bad, or indifferent, that's the way it was it released and the way the audience perceives it. To keep fiddling with it, long after the fact... Jean Renoir said in a documentary interview that we did with him when we were all film students, that something that he learned from his father was that, for an artist, the most important thing is to know when you're done, and leave it. Of course for a painter, it's absolutely crucial, because you put too much extra paint on and you've ruined the painting. With a filmmaker, you have a certain amount of recourse and you can change it again, but the principle is still the same – to know when you're done, and when it's over, and when it's finished – and you walk away. It's critical, because you can be like Kubrick, and you can work on it forever, and it's still not going to get any better.

IGNFF: At least one can say Kubrick didn't go back 25 years later and add a scene to Dr. Strangelove.

KURTZ: No, he didn't; or 2001, or any of those early films. He at least accepted that they were finished, and that was it.

IGNFF: And wouldn't allow others to tinker with them, either.

KURTZ: No.

Author
Time
Post link
I had wasted way too much time thinking of what Star Wars might have been if the direction things were put in with Empire was continued in Return and a prequel and sequel trilogy were also made using that same direction. It almost brings a tear to my eye with the beauty of it and the fact it will never, ever happen now.