skyjedi2005 said:
Lucas also liked the Famous Funnies covers done by Frazetta, the Buck Rogers covers. He wanted to use some of his favorite fantasies of his youth in a way that was not silly.
Make a be movie in an with an A movie budget and create a believable secondary world or universe.
Yeah he liked larry buster crabbes Flash Gordon serials, but if he really wanted to recreate that sillyness star wars would have not even broke even.
He expected it to do no better or worse than planet of the apes, but hoped it would not bomb like 2001 and take a long time to recoup costs and investment.
From what you wrote it looks like the prequels turned out like he was afraid the original would. Yet he praises the prequels! Maddening.