George Lucas Struggles to Reinvent Himself 370
GuyMannDude writes "Wired has a lengthy article about what lies ahead for George Lucas. Originally a member of a maverick group of young filmmakers who were at odds with the thinking and methods of the major studios, he has now become the most financially successful director in history by marketing the ultimate popcorn fodder. With the Star Wars saga ending, Lucas now struggles with how to reinvent himself." I imagine it will be hard to get away from Star Wars, given that he's producing television shows set in the fictional universe.
Not for the first time, either (Score:5, Insightful)
Its the sad truth (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately he made the huge mistake of trying to be director again, instead of just a producer. IMHO, the best Star Wars movies where episodes V and VI, both of which he didn't direct.
Maybe he could come up with something totally new and awe inspiring with SOME story this time. Gone are the days where eye candy was enough to make a great hit.
Name something good by Lucas (Score:5, Insightful)
He isn't a great filmmaker. He isn't even a passable mass-market filmmaker. He's a guy who made a cult hit that happened to be a global hit.
And then he made a series with Spielberg.
Bring back Indy!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Name something good by Lucas (Score:3, Insightful)
The funny thing is, I watched the originals while growing up and thought they were fantastic. Now I think they're just crappy films that are fun to watch.
Maybe I'll think the same about the first three in 20 years time. No surely not!!!
Re:Name something good by Lucas (Score:3, Insightful)
American Graffitti
Re:Step One... (Score:5, Insightful)
> these simple instructions.
This is getting annoying.
George Lucas doesn't read Slashdot, and he probably never will.
We're all sorry he did not use your saliva-encrusted fan fiction as the basis for his script for Episodes I-III, but millions of people enjoyed the movies anyway.
Comments such as yours and of the two dozen other minority ranters on Slashdot are getting irritating to no end. If you don't like the movies, fine -- click on Preferences, then click on Homepage, and de-select Star Wars. There! wasn't that easy?
I hope George Lucas makes Jar-Jar a freakin' Jedi Master in Episode III just to piss off the "George Lucas killed my childhood" crowd.
I say give the man a chance. (Score:5, Insightful)
Say what you want, but Lucas has always stuck to his guns over the years, creating HIS vision on the screen, not kowtowing what to a bunch of acned sci-fi dorks want to see. That takes integrity. Only time will tell if he can withstand the onslaught of attacks from lesser "fans" who probably never even filmed so much as a school play!
Re:re-invent (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Its the sad truth (Score:4, Insightful)
Bull. Look at how much the "cleaned up" rereleases of IV-VI grossed. Look at what Ep2 grossed and how many people were all OMFG YODA LIGHT SABER FIGHT!!!!!!!!! The mere idea was fanservice. Pure eye candy. Straight up conceptual bullshit.
Oh, and that fanservice piece of CRAP grossed $649,476,740 worldwide.
Yeah, that doesn't beat Titanic but I'll be damned if the movie had anything I'd consider "redeeming" from a non eye-candy perspective. And Lucas is still rolling in dough.
Re:Name something good by Lucas (Score:5, Insightful)
THX-1138?
These were not good movies? Or do they just not count because they were made before you were born?
I'll admit, Lucas has had some real stinkers (Howard the Duck, Willow). And I've been less than impressed with Eps I and II. But I wouldn't write the guy off completely just yet. He did have some real talent once upon a time. Hopefully he can rediscover it.
reinvent a good idea (Score:3, Insightful)
To reinvent oneself, you have to create yourself in the first place. Star Wars was a culmination of his story ideas with actors and movie techniques that have never been seen before. This is the key to its success.
Unfortunately, time and time again when directors/actors/musicians get older and have kids, their creativity is geared toward kid-friendly productions that their own kids can watch or sing along with them. This G-rated kid-friendly mindset sometimes kills creativity. He needs to get back to his 1970s mindset where he had to create something that has never been seen/done/heard of before - and not worry about what his audience thinks. (easier said than done) The upcoming 3D Star Wars is a start, but it is still cashing in on an old idea. Anyway, good luck George!
Re:Step One... (Score:3, Insightful)
Maverick young film-makers. (Score:3, Insightful)
isn't this just the way it goes?
the counter-culture becomes the over-the-counter culture.
Maybe we could get those hinterland kids to produce Jar-Jar cups for taco bell, or Obiwan Bobble heads for your car..
Re:Clones, Myths and Prizes (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean, like a DV camcorder and a PC?! Or custom flash animations? Or Machinima? Or an Intel 'Play' ($100 or less at toy stores everywhere)?
Seriously, someone emailed me a 1-minute, 20-frame animated gif that made me laugh myself silly (google 'lord-of-the-rings really-really'). Napoleon Dynamite (a so-so flick) cost $60,000. 401-the-movie (or whatever that homebrew flick was called) was done by two guys in a garage. Whether you go gonzo and buy old gear (early video toasters are STUPID cheap on ebay, for the capability they have) or buy new consumer/hobbyist gear (toys or personal gear), you can create stuff easily nowadays. And once done, between burnable discs, torrents and viral marketing and websites, good material can be distributed more easily than ever, too.
The difference between a damn-funny personal movie and commercial cinema isn't in the creativity (the writing, editing, acting, etc). It's all the details. I judged a regional film fest last year, and the judges instinctively 'cut slack' to beginner projects. If the content is good, everyone tolerates cut corners. But, once there's money to be made, you have to go back and reshoot, paying attention to the details.
Until the goal is truly going commercial, people can do amazing stuff just using COTS gadgetry and a PC. The capability is there sixteen different ways to sundown. Hell, people can do cool stuff in freakin' Powerpoint, as David Byrne demonstrated last year.
I'm sure there are technical hardware improvements possible. But they're not the barrier. Competitions or websites giving these airtime/attention, busted copyright laws (it should be legal/cheap (via compulsory licensing?) to co-opt content like LOTR RRSE does) and desire and experience are about the only impediments.
Re:Name something good by Lucas (Score:5, Insightful)
Started the outfit that later spun off from his empire to create Pixar.
Owns the company that does sound work for most movies.
Say what you will about George and the Star Wars movies, He's actually made more of a contribution to filmmaking outside of the Star Wars franchise than within it.
Here we go, another "Lucas" bitchfest... (Score:3, Insightful)
Meanwhile, your hypocritical asses are the FIRST ONES IN LINE to shell out $$ to see the new movies... and you do it multiple times.
George: Tell Smaller Stories (Score:5, Insightful)
And as another poster mentioned American Graffiti was quite good, with the very, very young Harrison Ford. Maybe what he needs to do is rewatch American Graffiti, which is a very different movie from everything else he's done. That's a whole non-scifi/fantasy career track he abanandoned 30+ years ago he could revisit. Perhaps he should stop trying to tell big stories and tell little ones instead.
Re:Step One... (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, before I answer any more questions there's something I wanted to say. Having read all your posts over the years, and... I've spoken to many of you, and some of you have traveled... y'know... hundreds of miles to be here, I'd just like to say... GET A LIFE, will you people? I mean, for crying out loud, it's just a movie!
I mean, look at you, look at the way you're dressed! You've turned an enjoyable little job, that Lucas did as a lark for a few years, into a COLOSSAL WASTE OF TIME! I mean, how old are you people? What have you done with yourselves?
You, you must be almost 30... have you ever kissed a girl? I didn't think so! There's a whole world out there! When I was your age, I didn't watch movies! I LIVED! So... move out of your parent's basements! And get your own apartments and GROW THE HELL UP! I mean, it's just a movie dammit, IT'S JUST A MOVIE!
I think that sums it up.
Re:Step One... (Score:1, Insightful)
I liked them both. Then again, I am not a starwars zealot. They were cheesy sci-fi. LIKE THE FIRST 3.
Lucas made the original starwars to be cowboys in space. It is cock smokers like you who have turned it into a religion.
Why is his universe called "fictional"? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Its the sad truth (Score:3, Insightful)
Are you freaking serious? ROTJ was easily the worst movie of the original trilogy. In fact I'd say it battles it out with TPM for the worst movie in the series. The best thing I can usually say about it is that it resolves the series nicely, and episode III makes it much better.
Re:Step One... (Score:3, Insightful)
Best "Matrix: Revolutions" review 3var!!!
Also, did you notice that the shot of Neo being carried off by the machines was a frame-for-frame rip-off of the Ohm hoisting up Nausicaa in Miyazaki's vastly superior work, "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind"?
Not to mention the final Neo vs. Smith showdown mirroring another superior film: "Dark City"... only without making sense in the context of the story.
Comment on Lucas to avoid the "offtopic" mods:
The man is a genius when it comes to the industrial side of film-making, but any artistic sense he ever had has clearly atrophied. Every frame of "Attack of the Clones" is a pig's breakfast of poor composition and brain-dead cinematography.
So thanks, George, for you and your people coming up with idead like robotic-controlled cameras and radically new methods of creating sound effects, but it's time for you to fade out. Be a producer for the great young minds of film on the rise. (I would love to see what Darren Aronofsky could do if he had access to Lucas-type resources.)
Re:Lucas already said what he'll do... (Score:3, Insightful)
The comparison to Vader in TFA seems to be an appropriate one. In the movies, Vader can't find redemption until his son comes along. In real life, it may be the heirs to his legacy who can redeem him from high-budget schlock.
No better way to court heirs to his legacy than by teaching.
Re:It's obvious what he's going to do (Score:5, Insightful)
But I don't believe it.
Look at the way he lives. Watch any of the biographies on him. He has never been someone in it for the money. See Donald Trump for an example of how someone in it for the money lives. George could afford a wildly lavish lifestyle. But he doesn't live it.
All the money goes back into the process. ILM. THX. Skywalker Sound. LucasArts. Etc. He likes the job. He likes creating stuff. He likes being a part of new filmmaking technology. That's what he is in it for.
I'll readily agree that he isn't necessarily very good at making movies. At least, not at making good movies. But he hit it big with Star Wars (ANH), and has leveraged it to continute doing what he likes. Fox studios would do anything to get 7-9 made, but it isn't their decision. They gave that right to Lucas back in the 70s.
Re:Clones, Myths and Prizes (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Maverik Filmmaker? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Clones, Myths and Prizes (Score:3, Insightful)
I fully agree with your summation here. I am doubtful, however, that he'll succeed in this effort. This is the dream of any aged artist. Oh, if Metallica could record another album of the caliber of "Kill 'em All"!! Or if Slayer could create another "Reign in Blood." Or the Beastie Boys could revisit "Paul's Boutique" again.
They can't. Maturity and success has fogged their third eye. It's only a very rare breed of successful artists who can maintain the vision of their youth to create a whole life's worth of interesting works. In this category, I'd put Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Rick Nielson (Cheap Trick), Dave Grohl, Steven Speilberg, Martin Scorcese, Robert Rodriquez, and I don't know who else.
Success has affected Lucas probably worse than maturity. Maturity is what made him revise his earlier films to be more "kid-friendly" (Greedo did not shoot first). It's what inspired him to create Jar-Jar Binks-- to him, that's what would appeal to kids. Through maturity, he lost touch with the child mind, and instead projects the parent ideal of the child mind.
But these are problems he has making kids' films. Even if he were to attempt an adult film like THX1138, he'd fail because of how success has tainted him. He's got too much money to throw on the screen and he doesn't know when to hold back and let the audience's imagination fill in the blanks. As a storyteller, he is compelled to spoonfeed it with explicit detail. How could he recover?!? Give him a budget of only $1 million and someone else's R rated script. The slim budget will force an economy on his storytelling that will inspire creativity within Lucas. He'll have to figure out other ways to get key points across rather than sweeping 3-D CGI landscapes. The R rated script will keep him in the mind of the adults who grew up watching his earlier works.
Oh well. What do I know. I've never made a movie longer than 5 minutes on anything bigger than super 8 film.
Re:It's obvious what he's going to do (Score:2, Insightful)
Now, whether Lucas has made the right decisions or not... I don't think he has. But there are probably as many opinions as there are fans. He can't "listen to the fans", because "the fans" is really millions of people with different opinions!
See what I'm saying?