George Lucas: 'No more Star Wars'

Not to worry.

Pretty sure there'll be a (cough) reboot along presently.

I don't get it...

...if he wanted Greedo to shoot first in the first place why didn't he film it that way in the first place?

I'd like to see more Star Wars movies... just as long as GL wasn't calling the shots. It's time to hand over the franchise to new talent.

There are dozens and dozens of officially sanctioned books set in the world after RotJ and some of them have decent plots and deal with the aftermath of the Emperors death... or what about the 18-20yr gap between ep 3 and 4.

I'd like to see a new trilogy with a slightly darker tone to it, not so child orientated... leave that for the animated cartoons and TV and let the original fans having something they can relate to again.

As for Red Tails... is this telling the same story as the film 'The Tuskagee Airmen' starring Laurence Fishburn that's just getting it's bluray release this month.

I'm grateful for the memories George and I do understand that you think messing with the films 30yrs later is still ok, but don't whinge when fans of your original work complain that the 'additions' don't actually add anything and actually change the tone of characters... Han shot first... it's as simple as that... it explains exactly who he is in a split second and it's the change in his character over the course of the movie and it's sequels that makes you warm to him... and that's what good character development means... Making Greedo shoot first turns him into a pussy and makes Greedo look like a total moron (for not being able to hit his target at 3ft) rather than over confident and inexperienced who under estimates the true nature of his foe.

No more Star Wars.

That's a shame. I was really looking forward to the ultra-super-high-definition 4D remasters on Ocatrine-Ray disks.....

None too soon.

Al I can say is "midichlorians"!

Good riddance.

The guy retired pretty much after 1983.

Nothing really of note since then.

He got lucky with the first Star Wars movie and had a lot of people around him keeping him under control and telling him in no uncertain terms "George, that's a load of crap!" and therefore it was a vastly better film for that. By RoTJ things are starting to go astray and mistakes of judgement are being made.

Since then no one has ever dared tell him to his face when he's going wrong. Except the 7 billion that don't work on his payroll.

If he had kept a few strong personalities around him and listened to a few folks then it may have been very different.

It's just so sad to watch those making of scenes on the prequels where you see talented actors running around empty green draped hangers for sets giving no emotion or depth to them. Whilst Lucas sits a few feet away looking at a monitor with a latte in hand. No wonder all the performances are totally flat. Must be soul destroying for an actor.

I remember Terrence Stamp summed it up nicely when he said that at first he was quite excited to appear in a Star wars movie till he realised he was just in a glorified toy catalogue.

Ah George!

Your philosophical contradictions come flying out again! Your statements are Objectivist: It's mine, I'll do with them what I like, and if you don't like them fine, but they're still mine and I'm happy if you like them but that isn't why I made them.

Your angst is Kantian.

And your movies? Well the first 3 where when you saw the world much more clearly obviously. The next 2 are a philosophical mess, which is why, if it mattered, people hated them. (but couldn't help but watch them because of the greatness of the first 3!)

And the last one? You just threw in every philosophy you could think of and said it was more deep. Except it wasn't. It was just contradictory and sad.

But I think I see a glimmer! I think that you're shrugging Ayn Rand style! Good for you! Do what you want and the rest of the world be damned! Did you re-read Atlas Shrugged? It sure sounds like it! If you didn't, it's time George, it's time.

Toys > Pram

For a guy with buckets of cash and a supposedly unshakable belief in his vision for Star Wars , seems to me to sound a lot like a big baby who had his toys taken away and now he's spitting the dummy. "People shouted at me so I'm not going to make any more films ever!". Like all children we should simply call his bluff (and hope to hell he's not bluffing)

Star Wars films were absolute guff in the grand scheme of things - yes, we all loved them as kids and had the toys etc and he created a fantastic universe (galaxy?) for us to play in but as proper pieces of film-making they were fairly pap. And he only directed the first one before the studio took them off him and said "come now George, we have some pretty pictures for you to colour in". The man cannot direct, write dialogue or create a believable relationship on-screen so why should we give a rat's ass that he's not going to make any more shit films? Prequel films were beyond pish and should NEVER have been made, but kids still love them so who cares.

I just keep thinking of that line in one of those piles of drivel where Annakin says "Every time I see you, I'm in agony" and I said "You and me both mate, I'm in agony watching this pish". That got more laughs than the whole film. (and it wasn't even that funny!)

So, humour of sorts:

http://www.cracked.com/article_19612_star-wars-vs-star-trek-objective-analysis.html

I think the phrase "Star Wars: Retroactively Shit-On Edition" does a reasonable job of summing up my feelings on the matter...

Good, now sod off Lucas you hypocrite!

“On the internet, all those same guys that are complaining I made a change are completely changing the movie,” Lucas remarks. “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’.” ~ George Lucas, 2012

But....

"These current defacements are just the beginning. Today, engineers with their computers can add color to black-and-white movies, change the soundtrack, speed up the pace, and add or subtract material to the philosophical tastes of the copyright holder. Tommorrow, more advanced technology will be able to replace actors with "fresher faces," or alter dialogue and change the movement of the actor's lips to match. It will soon be possible to create a new "original" negative with whatever changes or alterations the copyright holder of the moment desires." - George Lucas, 1988

"People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians" ~ George Lucas, 1988

"In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be "replaced" by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten." ~ George Lucas, 1988

Guess enough money will change anyone's principles, eh? Now, I don't think anyone can deny that Star Wars is part of western cultural heritage and could even be classed as a work of art, so again I say good riddance to Lucas (who, lets be honest, wrote/directed almost NONE of the original Star Wars trilogy.).

Good

Our long national(*) nightmare is at an end.

(*) - Geek Nation, as it were.

Wrong audience

The problem was that he was creating the prequels for the wrong audience. The kids of the 80's that loved the originals and played with the toys are all grown up. They remember the fantasy that ignited their imaginations - but no longer needed the toys.

Lucas should have been focusing on creating gritty prequels, catering to a more mature audience. No we don't need to see Jedi sex scenes, but we do need something more intelligent than Jar Jar Binks and a terrible poorly contrived romance.

One of my all-time favourite RPGs was KOTOR. You pretty much knew which side you wanted to be so the trick was if you want to be Dark Side you simple go around treating everyone like an asshat - even if it didn't seem like a natural response - just so you could max your DS points.

In the same way, Hayden Christensen must have reasoned to himself - "Hey, my character is going to go DS", and so basically acted every scene in the same way. Sadly what works for a highly playable game, doesn't always translate to the big screen - especially if you try to keep these types of game dynamics.

Imagine if Batman Begins and the Dark Knight was followed up with Batman and Robin... that's what you have here. No depth to the characters, no tension - just massive reliance on special effects to make up for inexcusable lack of story and poor script.

Shot first?

Han shot Nanny Ogg's cat first?

Or am I missing something?