George Lucas Continues to Milk Franchises

Published by Jeff Leins on May 9, 2007

So a “reporter” from Fox News bothered George Lucas at a Time Magazine event and was able to get very little out of him. I’m going to split this post into two sections because I feel the need to rant. If you want just the George Lucas stuff, skip to the second half, where I will continue to rant.

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First let me say it’s difficult to find the Lucas quotes among the drivel that is this article. Roger Friedman is a perfect example of not only the worst of Hollywood celebrity news, but of the kind of biased quality we’ve come to expect from Fox News. Roger Friedman is either a Special Olympics competitor or a 14-year-old girl. This article reads like a teen diary.”And then I said this. And he said, ‘Oh no you didn’t.’ Then I said ‘What about that?’ And Lucas said ‘I can’t tell you anything.’ And I said, ‘So, like, nothing?’ And he said ‘Well, let me tell you something.’ And we laughed and laughed.”Could you be more up the ass of these celebrities? Lucas is an “affable genius” because he gives you two half-hearted quotes between bites of steak that is worth more than you. That is if you can find those quotes among the myriad of awful jokes and him actually listing every single person at the party. Roger Friedman is an ass.

See, I can name drop too.

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And despite Friedman’s almost unreadable take on the event, he was able to coax George Lucas into barely telling him anything.When asked about Indiana Jones 4, Lucas coyly side-stepped anything of substance, but did say that Sean Connery still hasn’t agreed to be in the movie yet, despite being in the script.Fantastic. Especially since the film is supposed to start production next month and released just about a year from now. But Shia Lebouf is attached now, so fans of Indiana Jones can rest easy knowing that Indy will be dragging around a kid on his next adventure.

Lucas’s digital effects company Industrial Light and Magic does just about all of the computer graphics you see in movies today, but didn’t work on Spider-Man 3. So Lucas responds to that by telling the inept Friedman that “It’s a silly movie.” That’s real adult of you.

Then he goes on to say that he will be making two live-action direct-to-TV Star Wars movies. This is on top of Clone Wars, an animated TV series based on the Star Wars universe and characters and possibly a live-action TV series that takes place between episodes III and IV. Trot that cash cow in and milk it dry, baby.

Lucas is a one-hit wonder. There, I said it. A successful businessman? Absolutely? An “affable genius” and a brilliant filmmaker? Not exactly. George Lucas lucked into the Star Wars franchise thirty years ago with borrowed ideas and a ground-breaking supporting crew and has been milking its fan base ever since. Sure, he knows how to sell action figures, but his work as a director is horrendous. The best movie of the series is Empire Strikes Back and he didn’t even direct it. And the Indiana Jones trilogy was made successful by THE Steven Spielberg.

America fell for the idea of adding three more Star Wars movies and they were mediocre at best. Now he’s making an animated series, a live-action TV series, and considering two more movies. His production credits read like a dialogue between Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Even the spin-offs he did were in some way related to those, like Ewoks and the Adventures of Young Indy.

Let it go, George. Go run ILM out at Skywalker Ranch (see what I mean?), and leave the filmmaking to people with new ideas.

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