zombie84 said:

I guess the bottom line is that for a mulit-billionaire to be so concerned about profit when the show is guaranteed to be at least modestly profitable, it just smacks of unnecessary greed, and it frustrates me that this is really what the bottom line has come to mean for Lucas and his projects.

But what does Lucas see as the bottom line?

He wants to make feature film quality "Star Wars" on a TV budget. That's his goal. Really it's been what he's been working on for decade. If his goal is to make something that's "literally Star Wars" for television, consequently opening doors and pushing boundaries for all filmmakers, is that so unworthy?

The guy with a hand in developing virtual sets, HD filming, CGI, EditDroid, THX sound and all these things, has a goal he wants to achieve in the technology of filmmaking, if that's the "challenge" he's facing is it fair to say "Greedy jerk should just throw more money at it and stop being a jerk."

In his own words:

"I love television. It's a lot more fun than features." Elaborating, he said that he felt in film, there was too much risk involved, and that you give three years of your life to a project, in a medium where only 10% of projects break even, and even less truly are deemed successful.

"TV isn't like that. It's lots of fun," "If one show doesn't work, oh well, next week you're on to the next!"

"For me, the future is in television."

Note he never says TV's a lot more profitable than features, because TV isn't, even on a TV budget.

And as for Lucas's profit motivations, I wouldn't claim to know the man's soul, but somehow I doubt "Red Tails" is going to be the year's biggest blockbuster, but if it does make money, it will be largely due to the work Lucas has done in facing the challenge of making huge screen epics on modest budgets using technology.