george lucas

Unpopular Fandom Opinion #3 Trillion

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fuckyeahgeorgelucas:

snipsskyguy:

Would it be maybe possible – just MAYBE – to have Star Wars love without feeling obligated to regularly backhand its creator?  To continuously woe over how “if only” Lucas wasn’t such a dictator/moron/incompetent/etc… Star Wars/Hayden’s acting/the prequels/[insert beloved aspect here], would be soooooo much better?  Would it ever be possible to, perhaps, concede that Star Wars’ success is actually not totally in spite of said creator, but rather in large part because of him?  Really starting to feel alone in this department.

(Sidebar: I think Hayden’s acting was excellent and spot-on for the Anakin character, FWIW.  Did Hayden feel creatively restrained?  Maybe.  But even he has admitted Lucas was right to hold him back in certain aspects of Anakin’s personality in AOTC, realizing that ROTS was where those traits ought to be let loose.  And frankly, when you sign on to a movie like SW – that should come with the awareness that you are ultimately a cog in a much larger wheel, that it’s not ultimately about you, that it’s about contributing to someone else’s creation.)

There’s a difference between saying you have issues with his execution of the story – and personally insulting the man.  Personally, I think Star Wars and Lucas are creatively brilliant.  If he’d only created ONE movie that inspired such widespread, lingering devotion and passion, you might chalk it up to a fluke – but SIX movies?  (Or even just three, if that’s your preference?)  That’s not someone just BS-ing his way through everything, who just “happened” to get lucky.  Sit down and watch his excellent interviews with Bill Moyers about Joseph Campbell and mythic structure – the guy knows his storytelling, whatever you think of his ability to execute said story.  I’m sure someone has posted these interviews on YouTube.  In fact I’m tempted to look them up myself.

No movie or director is perfect, including SW and GL, but there’s a difference between admitting something/someone isn’t perfect – and forever blowing up said imperfections to tar them as complete garbage.  (I personally find the Battle of Hoth, and some Endor parts of ROTJ, kind of a snoozefest and have been known to fast forward through them more than once.  Ditto the Obi/Jango fight in AOTC, which I use as my bathroom/snack break.  Does that mean I think those films, or their director, are complete and utter shite?  OF COURSE NOT.  The good far outweighs the bad.)

I see this stuff calling him dictator, dumbass – seriously?  God help any of US who have the fortune to successfully sell a brilliant/popular story – we’ll have no shortage of other people telling us how we have no right to touch our own creation.

I love Tumblr – at least, I love all the artwork and creativity I see as a result of perusing it.  But if I can’t get it without getting splattered by bashing every day, I don’t know that it’s worth it.  I’ve had to move on from a number of places because of the nastiness directed at Lucas/the prequels/Hayden etc., and it would really, really stink to have to do it yet again.  Seriously, TPM was SEVENTEEN YEARS ago – over half my life.  When are we going to move past this bullshit?

Yes, I’ve harped on about this before.  And will continue to, FYI.

Meanwhile, Roman Polanski gets standing ovations.

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Well, um, I always thought I wasn’t going to do any more. That’s true…I’m not going to do anymore. But that doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to turn it over to Kathy to do more. I have story treatments of  7, 8, and 9, and a bunch of other movies and obviously we have hundreds of books and comics and everything you could possibly imagine. So, you know, I sort of moved that treasure trove of stories and various things to Kathy, and I have complete confidence that she’s gonna take them and make great movies.

George Lucas in 2012

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​George Lucas next rose to salute, however, it was his unlikely
tale that was perhaps the night’s most touching. He told how when his
daughter was 10 she was a huge Angelina Jolie fan “because of her
humanity, fighting for what is right.” (As he launched into the story,
from the Lucas table, daughter Katie, who had just sat down, was heard
to moan “Oh no!”) So Lucas asked Jolie to lunch to meet her admirer. “At
that point we sat down, and she’d adopted a son, and I’d adopted three
children by myself and it was two basically single parents talking about
children. And I said, children are the pathway to a meaningful life and
to happiness, and this is the one true thing you can do, to have
children.” He paused. “Little did I know she’d take me so seriously.”

[source]

Katie Lucas’ heartfelt forward found in Dark Disciple:

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quixotichamster:

“

For as long as I live, I will never forget the times when my dad and I would sneak into the back of a darkened movie theater just as John William’s unforgettable theme trumpeted from the speakers, holding hands while the crowd roared, raising their lightsabers into the air as the Star Wars logo flashed across the screen. I’ve never seen, my dad happier. May the Force always be with you.” –Katie Lucas

This got me guys. She and George would sneak into viewings of the prequels! This just made my week. 

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Showing how much Anakin and Padmé care for each other is one of my weak points,” Lucas admits. “Expressing that is hard to do. It’s really hard in the end to express the idea, I’m so in love with you that I would do anything to save you; I’d give up everything – friends, my whole life – for you, and make that real – make that stick – and say it in two minutes, which is all the time this film has for it. If I had a whole movie, I could probably manage it. But I can’t go deep into the psyche of these people beyond a certain stylistic reality I’ve created for myself. It wouldn’t work.

From The Making of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

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Liam seemed born to play the role of Qui Gon Jinn. He’s very quiet, he’s very big, he’s very powerful, but he’s very contemplative. And Ewan is very witty and enthusiastic and young and impatient. Those things come through. Natalie is very intelligent, has a lot of presence and is a very strong person. At the same time, she’s very young. I needed somebody to play a 14-year old girl who basically could be elected to rule a planet and make that believable. Jake was this wild little Tom Sawyer kid, which was exactly what I was searching for in the young Anakin Skywalker.

George Lucas on casting for The Phantom Menace

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Meet one of the most overlooked canine contributors to cinema: George Lucas’s dog, Indiana!

This big furball not only gave Indiana Jones his name (obviously) but was the inspiration for another iconic movie character: Chewbacca.

“I had an
Alaskan Malamute when I was writing the film. A very sweet dog, she
would always sit next to me when I was writing. And when I’d drive
around, she’d sit in the front seat. A Malamute is a very large dog—like
a hundred and thirty pounds and bigger than a human being and very
long-haired. Having her with me all the time inspired me to give Han
Solo a sidekick who was like a big, furry dog. Not quite like a dog, but
intelligent.”
[x]

Sadly nothing is known of what became of Indiana after her owner shot to fame, but still WHO’S A GOOD GIRL, YOU ARE YOU ARE YOU ARE

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bakerhood:

George Lucas’s office in his former home in San Anselmo, CA, where he wrote the first drafts of Star Wars. Lucas made the desk from three doors.

“I grew up in a middle-class Midwest-style American town with the corresponding work ethic. So I sit at my desk for eight hours a day no matter what happens, even if I don’t write anything. It’s a terrible way to live. But I do it; I sit down and I do it. I can’t get out of my chair until five o’clock or five thirty or whenever the news comes on. It’s like being in school. It’s the only way I can force myself to write.” – George Lucas

Source: The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film by J.W. Rinzler

bits of behind-the-scenes star wars trivia i’ve picked up over the years

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  • anthony daniels and kenny baker (c3po and r2d2) mutually loathe each other and haven’t seen each other for years, not even on the tfa set. occasionally they snipe at each other in interviews [x]
  • natalie portman and keira knightley looked (and were dressed) so alike on the set of the phantom menace that keira’s own mother couldn’t tell them apart at first [x]
  • warwick davis was 11 years old when he played wicket. he only got the job because kenny baker (who was meant to play him) was ill that day [x]
  • and mark hamill, eternal pure cinnamon roll, welcomed him to the set by buying him all the star wars toys he didn’t have [x]
  • nute gunray was (probably) named after newt gingrich and ronald reagan (gunray = raygun = reagan) because george lucas wanted to give the finger to both i guess [x]
  • nicolas cage enjoyed hayden christensen’s acting in star wars and praised his performance [x]
  • peter cushing’s feet were made so uncomfortable by tarkin’s too-small military boots that he ended up doing most of his scenes in his slippers [x]
  • after having his darth vader voice dubbed over with james earl jones’s, dave prowse publicly claimed to be a victim of ‘reverse racism’ [x]
  • chewbacca was modelled after lucas’s dog. that dog was called ‘indiana’ and indiana jones was also named after him. i hope lucas paid that dog royalties [x]
  • samuel l jackson has ‘bad motherfucker’ engraved on the side of his purple lightsaber [x]
  • perhaps unsurprisingly considering the ‘reverse racism’ thing, dave prowse is banned from official star wars conventions. might also be because he leaked rotj’s ending to a newspaper [x]
  • steven spielberg’s e.t. species are part of the star wars universe. their leader is called ‘grebleips’ which is ‘spielberg’ spelled backwards [x]
  • yoda’s name was originally ‘buffy’. no really [x]
  • ray winstone was considered for the role of bail organa, but showed up drunk to the audition. unsurprisingly he didn’t get it [x]
  • more practical miniature effects were made for each one of the prequels than for the entire original trilogy [x]
  • carrie fisher fought with harrison ford about how much dialogue she should have in the ‘jabba’s palace’ scene. it ended with her saying ‘why can’t I talk, suddenly? because I’m in a bikini?’ which makes me love her all the more [x]
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