George Lucas has been a man forever driven by the conflicting desires of making massive, technically groundbreaking blockbuster entertainment, while also pursuing more experimental avenues (or at least talking a lot about it). And this week perhaps marks the most obvious clash of those ideologies. On the one hand, the animated musical "Strange Magic," produced by Lucas, is opening cinemas nationwide, while on the other, he has revealed during the press run for the film that he’s working on two new movies….that you’ll never see, as they will find him indulging in his more adventurous filmmaking tendencies.
"The way [the films] are, they’re not really movies that can be released," Lucas told Hero Complex. "They’re movies more for myself and maybe I’ll show them to some of my friends." The filmmaker cites the cost of distribution these days, but of course there are plenty of other viable avenues (particularly in the streaming world) that would make getting his brewing projects out there much more affordable, but for now it looks like he’s not entertaining those options. But what will these movies be like? Well, they definitely sound interesting.
"They’re like things I did in school or movies I produced, like ‘Koyaanisqatsi,’ ‘Powaqqatsi,’ things like that,” Lucas said, noting he hasn’t yet started shooting. “But it’s different because they’re dramatic films. It’s very hard to explain because it’s never been done yet.”
Meanwhile, Lucas made headlines last month when it was revealed he hadn’t yet seen the trailer for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," but it seems he’s since corrected that mistake. He tells Page Six he has now seen the tease for J.J. Abrams‘ film. His thoughts? He liked it, "it was intriguing."
And since we’re talking about ‘Force Awakens,’ some word has emerged over the last couple of days that the film might have a female Stormtrooper. Consequence Of Sound has the details, but basically, an actress named Amybeth Hargreaves (who might just be a stand-in for Gwendoline Christie) has been credited as a Stormtrooper in the film, in a CV listed by her agency. We’ll leave the speculation to you about what that really means. And one more thing: Yahoo has revealed that Leanne Best ("Home Fries," "The Woman In Black 2: Angel Of Death") is also part of ‘Star Wars 7.’
i mean we actually have one malcontent on here that has embraced the mantra of other disgruntled (in the minority but obnoxiously vocal) revisionists that the first Star Wars film is just "pretty good". I\’ve also recently read "overrated", "badly written" and "amateurish". That is just unreal.
whether he\’s pledging money for education endeavors, attempting new filmmaking ventures, speaking highly of other filmmakers or even making positive comments about the direction of the saga he\’s moved on from, or even when he got married, rabid psycho fanboys crawl out of the woodwork just to trash Lucas. This board is no exception.
@jeff
"a figure of speech, in various phrasings, to indicate that a person\’s overly frequent or vehement attempts to convince others of something have ironically helped to convince others that the opposite is true." nope, i think i got it right.
"but it seems he\’s since corrected that mistake" ….. Cthulhu Christ, Playlist, really?
Jeff, Lucas did write treatments for all the Indy films, and he convince Spielberg to direct based on Steven\’s previous penchant for wanting to direct a 007 movie. Know your history.
And your opinion of Star Wars is not shared by all. The objective stance of box office standing vs. the subjective view of a career\’s quality doesn\’t equate the use a a term like "hack". All you\’re left with is conjecture.
"but it seems he\’s since corrected that mistake"
Cthulhu Christ, Playlist, really?
Anyone else kind of feel sorry for him ? I mean this is one pathetically pompous individual. Is he so ensconced in his own shit that he doesn\’t realize people knowingly laugh at his ideas. He doesn\’t have distribution because he burned his bridges with the awful prequels and single handedly killed any further Indy pictures with his own idiotic ideas. Even Terrance Mallick and Terry Gillium who\’s films barely scrape a profit, can wrangle some distribution, that\’s how far this guy has fallen in Hollywood. By the way Mr. T – the guy is a hack, his empire was created on the backs of other geniuses in the field – without ILM there would be no George Lucas, he\’d barely register under Coppola with the rest of forgotten directors of the 70s.
Mr. T.,
Financial success has no relationship to quality and isn\’t an indicator of Mr. Lucas\’ direction abilities. He did not write or direct any of the Indiana Jones films, so I don\’t know to what extent he is "responsible" for their quality. The man directed four Star Wars films. One is pretty good, three are unbearably awful — incompetently written and directed. American Graffiti is an enjoyable piece of pop entertainment, directed by an idealistic young person over 40 years ago. Can you imagine Lucas directing it today?
I\’m also not sure you understand the correct context for the "protest too much" quote. It implies protest to divert suspicion from the truth about the protestor.
I\’m sorry but "It’s very hard to explain because it’s never been done yet.” just sound pretentious.
tell me again, Look4r, how a man who has billions in his bank accounts and is responsible for a handful of the greatest, well, most fun, films ever in the history of filmmaking – star wars, indiana jones, american graffiti, – classifies as a hack? methinks thou protests too much.
he seems desperate to convince everyone he\’s not a hack.