What you think Lucas is going to admit making the prequels to get rich and not caring about the material. Never going to happen.
Although he had admitted it gave him financial independence.
He was nearly broke based on the monies he owed marcia after their divorce and the success of the oot.
Also in the late eighties and early 90's according to him ILM was now no longer taking in enough money or working on enough films to keep Lucasfilm afloat.
Desperate for cash the games devision probably in the 90's also brought in necessary capital. Then you have the special editions. The books, and the comics, and action figures being reintroduced.
Lucas decided to diversify his portfolio and take full advantage of the star wars brand. He made several wise financial decisions, maybe not wise for arts sake or creativity sake but he is the chairman of the board of Lucasfilm companies above all and not a filmaker.
Only recently when he realized with the Success of Indiana Jones IV is he now going to do the same thing with the Indy brand that he so recently did with star wars.
Young Indiana Jones, the novels and Games, as well as the comics earlier on were less than sucessful in the mid nineties. They figured their was a small interest in the indy franchise, and a niche fanbase who only liked the first 3 films. Well some of the games were sucessful earlier on like fate of atlantis, and the super nes game was sucessful. But the Dark Horse Comics did not sell so well. Young indy was bounced between 2 or 3 networks before being cancelled despite some critics praise and emmy noms. The networks thought Lucas pulled a fast one on them they thought they were getting an action tv series like the movies not a historical educational piece.
Also Lucas was unhappy with the Marvel Comics for star wars and Indiana Jones. The only Star Wars work he liked was the AL Williamson stuff. So of course when those properties were revived in the comics and Lucas saw what they were doing at Dark Horse for the alien and predator stuff he gave them the license.
There were several missed opportunities for Star Wars and Indiana Jones in the Late eighties and Early nineties and Lucas seems to be rectifying that now. The one exception would be the smash hit in 1989 for Last Crusade. Temple of doom was a missed opportunity and a dissapointment despite being a hit in terms of gross box office receipts. The middle to later eighties also gave us the dissapointing to George and most fans 2 ewok tv films and droids and ewoks cartoons. Of course people know that the star wars sequels did not happen or the prequels in the decade of the eighties. Lucas all but became a producer and dissapeared from Public Life.
He had Willow, Howard the Duck and Radioland Murders and Young Indy. But nothing exactly like his praised early works.
Now Lucas has the Clone Wars animated show and the live action star wars show in the works as well as Indiana Jones V in the Planning stages. New Indiana Jones Novels, and comics. Lego Game, legos and new action figures and childrens graphic books. The one missing item is the next gen indiana jones game that seems to have been cancelled and was being developed by the same people who worked on force unleashed who have since been laid off.
Now that Lucas is well aware of Hunger for anything new Indiana Jones or Star Wars he will milk these two properties for all they are worth.
Coppola believes making movies is an art form Like writing good literature or painting a craftmens art. Lucas truly believes It is a assembly Line process that is why he has replaced traditional effects and actors with CGI. This way he can keep everything the same quality and put out the same product again and again.
"I am not a fan of sequels, cause essentially it is the same movie, and the studio want's the same movie. It is OK to keep reproducing a can of Coke on the assembly line, but that is not good for movies, cause each movie should be original." when Coppola said this does anyone else thing he is referring to the George Lucas way of making movies. It totally reminds me of the prequels and Indiana Jones IV. and how carelessly they were produced. I guess it would not be a bad metaphor if the coke was the same as the original coke, instead if copola was talking about new coke then it would make more sense when applied to Lucas.
Fans are so desperate to fill that need or void in their lives they will accept any kind of star wars or indiana jones.
As triumph the insult dog said "Lucas table scraps".
People want to be entertained, people want to escape and such escapism is a good outlet. I know i used to be the same way going to the comic shops to drop all my money on all the magazines and comics and graphic novels, which i enjoyed at the time.
These newer installments in the franchise will be forgotten as the current generation of kids they are marketed to grow up and latch onto other things. and Lets be honest that is normal and healthy.
I would hope that peoples entire lives don't revolve around a space fantasy called star wars, any more than peoples lives should revolve around science fiction called Star Trek, or a fictional arkeologist and his adventures.
But i'll be the first to admit i am one of the ones who would be told to "get a life" because i have such a hobby,lol.
