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It's Official: George Lucas hates his fans :P

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Hi Everybody! Long time viewer, first time poster. I just found an interesting interview with the New York Times that Lucas has done recently, wherein he claims he won’t do any more Star Wars movies because:

“Why would I make any more,” Lucas says of the “Star Wars” movies, “when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?"

Once again it seems Mr. Lucas is king at completely missing the point of just why people are so angry at him, as he also said:

On the Internet, all those same guys that are complaining I made a change are completely changing the movie,” Lucas says, referring to fans who, like the dreaded studios, have done their own forcible re-edits. “I’m saying: ‘Fine. But my movie, with my name on it, that says I did it, needs to be the way I want it.

The full article is here: George Lucas Is Ready to Roll the Credits

Skip to page 3 if you want to read his comments on Star Wars specifically. It really is amazing that after all this time Mr. Lucas seems to be completely oblivious to the fact that no one is saying he can’t edit his movies, but just that he should release the originals as well!

Obviously it is genuinely horrible what some people say of him (raped my childhood, worse than Hitler etc.) but I mean come on.

 

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

https://web.archive.org/web/20181212150402/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/magazine/george-lucas-red-tails.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&hpw

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^ Agreed.

He isn't worse than Hitler, but he's as thick as two short planks.

<span style=“font-weight: bold;”>The Most Handsomest Guy on OT.com</span>

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STENDEC said:

the fact that no one is saying he can't edit his movies,

We both know that that is not true at all.

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What I understand from this article is :

1 - The official releases are the way he wants them to be, no matter what fanboys says. (no news here)

2 - He will retire from doing blockbusters movies and focus on more experimental little movies (heard that before, a long time ago... no news here)

3 - If you want to make a fanedit of his work, then "fine", but be sure to remove his name from the credits. (big news!)

Thanks George!

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Oh, cry me a river, George.

His final cuts will only remain "final" till he finds another way to wring some cash out of his oh-so-annoying fans.

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He doesn't hate his fans, he just hates fans of Star Wars.

Since they're like poetry, what with the rhyming and all, I find that I only need to watch three out of the six films.

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But my movie, with my name on it, that says I did it, needs to be the way I want it.

In that case, he needs to learn the fact that the word 'did' is in the past tense and leave the GOUT well enough alone.

 Spoiler free for the ST

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Hold on

There are two issues. There's the lack of the originals-release, and that's stupid of George, etc etc.

Then there's the prequels being terrible. With the prequels, George made the movies he wanted to make. And everyone yelled at him (even before the SE-only-released issue). Why would he make more movies like that if everyone yelled at him for it?

So what he says is true, from a certain point of view.

ROTJ Storyboard Reconstruction Project

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Alexrd said:

STENDEC said:

the fact that no one is saying he can't edit his movies,

We both know that that is not true at all.

I've never met anybody who cares about the changes he has made or even future changes he might make. Doesn't mean everybody likes the changes, but if he'd release the original along with his new version, everybody would be happy.

Ray’s Lounge
Biggs in ANH edit idea
ROTJ opening edit idea

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ray_afraid said:

Alexrd said:

STENDEC said:

the fact that no one is saying he can't edit his movies,

We both know that that is not true at all.

I've never met anybody who cares about the changes he has made or even future changes he might make. Doesn't mean everybody likes the changes, but if he'd release the original along with his new version, everybody would be happy.

I think this belief stems from the ambiguity of the word "should".  I certainly say "he shouldn't make changes to his movies" all the time, but I really mean "It's not advisable that he make changes to his movies (because he always makes them worse)".  But certainly some could misinterpret such a statement to mean "It it morally wrong for him to make changes to his movies"  This is compounded by the fact that people (including me) definitely feel it's morally wrong for him to suppress the original films.  A "should" in one statement right next to a moral issue in the next sentence is pretty much asking for a misunderstanding (and that's if you even bother to separate the two issues into two distinct statements, which most people don't).

So I can see how Alexrd (and perhaps Lucas himself) thinks people are saying he can't edit his movies.  It's a sad fact that language is ambiguous, and that leads to misinterpretation.  They are still wrong, but I can understand how they got there.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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“Why would I make any more,” Lucas says of the “Star Wars” movies, “when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?"

I laughed so hard when I read this ...

TMBTM said:

3 - If you want to make a fanedit of his work, then "fine", but be sure to remove his name from the credits. (big news!)

So... George wants Adyway to replace his name in the credits with "Alan Smithee"?

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How'd he go from "9-12 movies" to "there's no story to tell after 6" to "I was gonna make more but fans don't want it"?

6 is more than enough, but just sayin...

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The DGA officially retired Mr. Smithee when the pseudonym became widely known. Then again, George quit the DGA, so maybe his official alias should be used? ;)

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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“He will have completed his task as a man and a filmmaker.”

Good old Rick is always good for a laugh.

 

“It is only through interaction, through decision and choice, through confrontation, physical or mental, that the Force can grow within you.”
-Kreia, Jedi Master and Sith Lord

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Whenever I read quotes of Lucas pissing & moaning over stupid things, I imagine a big fat man with glasses, beard, and a great head of hair sitting on his ass in a great big diaper, wailing like a banshee.

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Thanks for that mental image, I need to go bleach my brain now...

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Where were you in '77?

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I will never understand George Lucas????  The SW BluRay saga set are the highest selling BluRays of alltime, the Prequels grossed over a billion dollars, SW itself has made Lucas a Billionaire and Lucas is mad at a small minority of people that rant and rave on the internet????

Talk about sour grapes.  Give me a billion dollars and a company like Lucasfilm, and the last thing I will be worrying about is what people say on the internet.

Talk about insecure!

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On the Internet, all those same guys that are complaining I made a change are completely changing the movie,” Lucas says, referring to fans who, like the dreaded studios, have done their own forcible re-edits. “I’m saying: ‘Fine. But my movie, with my name on it, that says I did it, needs to be the way I want it.

LMFAO!!

My answer to George on this point would be:

"100% agree George.  You DID have the right to do this, however on three occasions in 1977, 1980, and 1983, prior to each film being designated as 'in the can' ready for duplication and presentation throughout the world.
After these periods of time have passed, is NOT when you have that right, especially when you're trying to change history and erase the past. Alternatre cut yes by all means, but not 'my new new new cut' etc. whenever you feel like it"

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CO said:

I will never understand George Lucas????

Are you asking us???

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STENDEC said:

Obviously it is genuinely horrible what some people say of him (raped my childhood, worse than Hitler etc.) but I mean come on.

I think that's the sad part. So many Star Wars fans (admittedly, myself included) have said immature, stupid things and I think that's soured the thing and the perception of us (which we do deserve to some extent), so I understand George's feelings about his fans in that sense. But at the same time, if I just had the OOT properly remastered to watch, I'd never have anything to complain about in the first place! OK, I might be critical of the prequels, but so what? Lucas is entitled to make the films he wants to make, but he has to accept that not everyone will like and agree with it. That's fine, no one gets universal acclaim, buy George, you're a billionaire. If you want to say "fuck you" to the fans, fine, by all means. Obviously, I don't like it, but hey, you own them and if you don't care about our opinions, then you don't have have to.

But if you do, then release the OOT properly to placate them. Doesn't really matter which it is (well, it does to me), but you CAN'T have your cake and eat it too George. You CAN'T. When EVERYONE, EVERYONE is saying this, don't you think you should maybe think about it? Doesn't mean you have to agree. Doesn't mean you have to do anything you don't want to do. Doesn't mean you can't put a big picture of your middle finger on Twitter if you'd like. But you did something people didn't like, you've had the opportunity to fix it for a decade and a half, and you've chosen not to. That's fine. It's your choice. But accept that people aren't going to like it. And either fix it, or move on and ignore us. It doesn't work both ways.

“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

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Lucas doesn't hate all his fans.  He just hates the ones that don't kiss his ass.

My outlook on life - we’re all on the Hindenburg anyway…no point fighting over the window seat.

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Ziz said:

Lucas doesn't hate all his fans.  He just hates the ones that don't kiss his ass.

 actually he hates those too, but he's willing to tolerate them.  what he does like is their disposable income.  and thats the only thing he ever liked going back to 1973.

thats why it was critical for lfl to keep cascading the talking point "most important thing is story and characters" for the 10 years prior to tpm.  if we knew the pt was nothing more than the police academy sequels, it wouldn't work.

click here if lack of OOT got you down

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Guy is delusional beyond comprehension.

http://movies.msn.com/paralleluniverse/george-lucas-talks-star-wars-critics/story/feature/

Sure, George. Mean critics killed your future movies. It had nothing to do with your inflated ego, greed, and arrogance.

Poor guy's feelings have been hurt. :(

The sad thing is that this is just a ploy to convince SW fanboys to shell out more cash for TPM 3D so that the Flannel One will keep "making movies" i.e. tinkering with the same three movies over and over again and selling them to people as something new

“Grow up. These are my Disney's movies, not yours.”

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SilverWook said:

Thanks for that mental image, I need to go bleach my brain now...

Just don't imagine the back hair, and you'll be fine.

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georgec said:

Guy is delusional beyond comprehension.

http://movies.msn.com/paralleluniverse/george-lucas-talks-star-wars-critics/story/feature/

Sure, George. Mean critics killed your future movies. It had nothing to do with your inflated ego, greed, and arrogance.

Poor guy's feelings have been hurt. :(

The sad thing is that this is just a ploy to convince SW fanboys to shell out more cash for TPM 3D so that the Flannel One will keep "making movies" i.e. tinkering with the same three movies over and over again and selling them to people as something new

George has had movie critic issues for a long time. There's a reason one of the villains in Willow is named "Kael", and a two headed monster is called an "Ebersisk".

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Where were you in '77?