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George Lucas discusses letting go of Star Wars — Page 2

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This sounds like a repeat of the stories about how he treated Marcia after she left him. I think he really expected the film to underperform and the public to come rushing back begging for forgiveness and putting the Prequels on a pedestal like he does.

I have a hard time giving him sympathy for the criticism. Had he released the OOT alongside his preferred versions in equal quality, there would have been less grief over the past decade. People could make their choice. He was too much of a control freak to do that.

This interview made me sad. You don’t bite the fans’ hand like this again. You don’t intentionally try and piss off Disney, when they have been civil to you. Maybe this will give JJ the push to tell us his real feelings on the Prequels and SEs.

It seems like people are really embracing the new characters. In fact, the big question people ask me now about Star Wars is, “Are Finn and Poe gay lovers?” And really how the f*ck would I know? My second husband left me for a man, so my gaydar isn’t exactly what you’d call Death Star level quality. ----Carrie Fisher

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What puzzled me about selling to Disney was that Lucas has always been against Hollywood and anything coming out of the Los Angeles Studio area. He had done business deals with Disney such as getting Star Wars rides into the Parks but when it came to filmmaking he was totally independent.

All of the prequels were financed by Lucasfilm and the toy merchandising deals. Lucas kept a tight reign on those budgets as well as McCallum which may account for those digital sets. He was paying for everything and the OT was the same way.

The white slavers remark, even though it was a snide joke, was from a viewpoint he shared for 30 years. He views all of the studios in hollywood as slavers of some kind. Not true artists like himself (or how he sees himself as still that 70s film radical).

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SilverWook said:

It’s a conversation starter to be sure. Is that the real deal or someone’s recreation?

A faithful recreation based on stills.

If I still have the official HTD 1987 calendar stashed away, there are some nice stills in that I could frame and hang on the wall. 😉

Forum Moderator
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Lucas has jumped the shark with his “white slavery” comment. He lost credibility long ago in my opinion by his choice of Hayden Christensen for the role of Anakin. That decision alone has demonstrated his poor judgement and unsuitability to criticize other filmmakers.

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Hayden was fine, it was the dialogue that was the problem. Natalie Portman is a good actor and look how she did in these movies.

If you want to complain about his casting choices, you better start with Jake. Just watch the TPM doc to see the other choices.

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He’s just upset that TFA is going to blow Avatar out of the water for highest grossing film. He was obsessed with beating Avatar in the prequel extra features.

And I’m sure there was a clause in the Luasfilm sale about not badmouthing Disney or Lucasfilm projects, hence the apology.

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Nobody wants to get roughed up by Mickey and Goofy, or wake up with a Taun Taun head in their bed. 😉

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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Why do I have this image stuck in my head of GL and the Buena Vista people popping champagne corks between these interview takes?

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woofermazing said:

He’s just upset that TFA is going to blow Avatar out of the water for highest grossing film. He was obsessed with beating Avatar in the prequel extra features.

Wait, what? Avatar came out four years after Revenge of the Sith. Do you mean Titanic?

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joefavs said:

woofermazing said:

He’s just upset that TFA is going to blow Avatar out of the water for highest grossing film. He was obsessed with beating Avatar in the prequel extra features.

Wait, what? Avatar came out four years after Revenge of the Sith. Do you mean Titanic?

Err, yea.

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So did Lucas not really have any input into how 7 would be? I thought Lucas was going to send Disney a rough story outline and then Kasden would write the script and JJ would direct. Empire is considered the best Star Wars movie and it’s because Lucas had just the right amount of influence.
It sounds like Lucas wasn’t involved once production started, which was not the impression I had of the deal with Disney. Then again, I’m sure lots of lawyers on both sides looked very carefully on the agreement before everybody signed off so I’m sure Lucas knew what he was getting into.

Take back the trilogy. Execute Order '77

http://www.youtube.com/user/Knightmessenger

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Lucas’s story treatment was discarded and a new story was written instead.

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I hope that treatment – or at least Arndt’s draft crafted from it – gets leaked soon. I really wanna know what that version of Ep. VII would have been like.

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I’ve heard conflicting reports of Lucas’s treatment and how much of it was used.

Way back when, I thought Arndt’s draft was based off the Lucas treatment, and then Abrams and Kasdan’s draft was based off the Arndt draft. But then I soon learned that Abrams and Kasdan pretty much jettisoned Arndt’s draft and started from scratch. Until very recently I was sure that was the way things went down, but now I don’t think was the case at all. My first hint was that Arndt got screenwriting credit on the film, which meant that at least some of his draft made it into the final film. Then I also noticed he’s listed as an associate producer in the end credits, and he did a Q&A about the film with Abrams and Kasdan where he talked about the development of the script and it sounded like his version wasn’t too far off from what we got. Now, after skimming through The Art Of book, it appears much of what was in the Arndt draft made it into the film in one way or another, and that Arndt and Abrams were very much working together for a good stretch of time to develop the story. Some things are more or less the same, though a lot of things in the final version have simply been developed out of ideas in the Arndt draft. It sort of leaves me to wonder why Arndt left at all (since I had thought it was just because his version was completely different), and I can only imagine it was a too many cooks situation with JJ wanting to write and also to bring in Kasdan.

But where does this leave the Lucas treatment? Well it seems like LFL threw it in the trashcan right away. I don’t know if it was terrible or what, but it sounds as if the Arndt draft had nothing to do with it.