www.nytimes.com

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MOVIE MAKING RETIREMENT

“I’m retiring,” “I’m moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff.”


LUCAS IMAGINARY BATTLE WITH STUDIO

“Isn’t this their job?” “Isn’t their job at least to see movies? It’s not like some Sundance kid coming in there and saying, ‘I’ve got this little movie — would you see it?’ If Steven or I or Jim Cameron or Bob Zemeckis comes in there, and they say, ‘We don’t even want to bother to see it’ ”


"They say, Now, who are you making this for?”
“I’m making it for black teenagers.”

“And you’re doing it as a throwback movie? You’re not going to do it as a hip, happening-now, music-video kind of movie?”
“No, that’s not a smart thing to do. There’s not really going to be a lot of swearing in it. There’s probably not going to be a huge amount of blood in it. Nobody’s head’s going to get blown off.”

“And you’re going to be very patriotic — you’re making a black movie that’s patriotic?”
“They have a right to have their history just like anybody else does,” Lucas said. “And they have a right to have it kind of Hollywood-ized and aggrandized and made corny and wonderful just like anybody else does. Even if that’s not the fashion right now.”


“I can’t make that movie” “I’m going to have make this kind of ... entertainment movie.” “I said, ‘There’s no reason why that idealism, that kind of naïveté, can’t still exist.’ ”


INTERNET

“I think there are a lot more important things in the world” “If the movie doesn’t work,” “it’s going to be my fault.”

“On the Internet, all those same guys that are complaining I made a change are completely changing the movie,” “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.’ ”

“Why would I make any more” “when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?”


RED TAILS

“I’m a fan of fast things” — “If it’s a popcorn movie” “it needs a lot of corn.”

“that Spike Lee’s gonna make!” “And we can get somebody else — Lee Daniels — to do the sequel!”

“an hour’s worth of fighting,”

I’m Easy!” “No, I’m Easy. You’re Lightning!” “The ultimate line was to have a bunch of 10-year-old white boys say, ‘I want to be like those guys" ” “Which is what you get with sports. Which is what you get with music. I wanted to do it just with being an American citizen. Again, that’s corny.”

““it’s kind of like ‘The Color Purple’ only they’re in airplanes. It’s sort of like a Tyler Perry movie, only without jokes.”

“If we can get over $20 million in our first weekend” “we’re kind of in the game. We’re in ‘The Help’ category.” “If it gets $30m the first weekend” “then those guys get to make their movies without even thinking about it.”

“If it does ‘Twilight’ business” “then, gosh, all movies will be black.”


INDIANA JONES & THE NUCLEAR REFRIGERATOR

“It’s not true” “He’s trying to protect me.”

“The odds of surviving that refrigerator — from a lot of scientists — are about 50-50”

“Steven is a born director, which is why he’s such a genius” “He’s truly a cinematic genius. But he’s like a kid with a video game. It’s like: ‘C’mon, we’re going. We’re leaving now.’ Death comes ... And then Steven goes ‘I got one more game! I got one more game!’”

“One day,” “they’re just going to unplug it and say, ‘You’ve got to go home now.’ ”


BLACK TAILS

“I’m a ’60s West Coast liberal, radical artsy dyed-in-the-wool 99 percenter before there was such a thing.” “And she’s an East Coast, Princeton grad, Wall Street fund manager, knows all the big players, works in the big world. You would never think that we would get together, have anything in common. But when we did, we realized we had everything in common. It was the most unlikely coupling.”

“I was attracted to her,” “because she’s really, really smart ... If you’re more beautiful than I am and smarter than I am and you’ll put up with me, that’s all it takes. I’m there.”

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Apparently Red Tails really soured his view of Hollywood. The story tells of Lucas screening the film for the big studio execs and one didn't even show up to watch it! He then goes into the sheep crying about him ruining the OT.

Lucas then admits it was his idea to put Indy in the fridge.

He sounds tired of all the shit and he's basically taking his toys and going home.

Well it's not like his "best work" is yet to come....

Royalty checks keep coming in and he can probably afford top quality senior management at all his businesses sufficient to retire.

Yes. Good. About time. He's been saying he would do this for how long? It's time to move on from Star Wars. That horse is dead.

That's a great article, too.

What Topeka quoted. It seems to me like the guy will finally get back to real (personal) film-making rather than literally retire.

I hope he still has enough energy left in him to see those experimental films through. He probably won't be able to rely on huge crews of people to help him anymore.

It doesn't look like it.

Star Wars will be dead when people stop talking about it.

Lucas' involvement with it is, absolutely. Or at least should be. The man has spent the better part of 37 years working with the same story, with little detour. Albeit a story that I love, but at some point it is just time to move onto something new. Red Tails is a good start. I want to see these personal films he's been talking about since the early 90's.

Again, it doesn't look like it. See 'The Clone Wars', for example.



Should? Why? Who are you (or anyone except him) to decide what he should or shouldn't be involved with?

Initial post has been updated with all Lucas quotes from the Red Tails Promotional article.

What we have here is a content creator making outrageous comments right before the release of their product. Madonna and Spike Lee used to do it 1980's and 1990's when they were relevant. In recent times there was Megan Fox and Shia LeBeouf then Joe Johnston invoking Boba Fett movie before the release of Captain America. McCallum's (Lucas-approved) Live-Action Series interviews during Red Tails premieres are no doubt press bait for the film also.

If there was any reluctance by studios to back Lucas' Red Tails it would be over profit, licensing, and production issues. Despite Lucas being a self proclaimed liberal we are dealing with someone who is farming out digital to his South East Asia studios and used Fox Studios Australia to get away from the Hollywood's high labor and production costs (Lucas' own words).

so basically he's not retiring. He has Indy 5, he's involved with the clone wars cartoon, the live action tv series, the 3D re-releases, plus whatever art films he's thinking about. Uncle George is just stirring shit to get his black film noticed with a good weekend.

Clone Wars has at least two more seasons of scripts finalized. If I remember correctly, Underworld has around three seasons written. So, at minimum, there’ still five years’ worth of Lucas sanctioned Star Wars to enjoy.

So he's (allegedly) quitting mainstream film because he's sick and tired of people whining about everything. Nice job, assholes.

I think Lucas should go check his bank account if he needs to gauge fan support.

When you hit the billions, and people want to theme weddings, birthdays or funerals after the world you creatively command, you would think one would become immune to the rantings of the vocal minority. Have I said that certain parts of the PT were lousy? Sure. Did I still go out and buy a bunch of associated crap and multiple versions of the films? Yep.

As irritating as some of Lucas' moves post ROTJ have been, he's still had me since 'hello' and shit :'(

Don't retire George! Just hire me as a consultant and you will be fine.

Very cool. Thanks for posting this.

My reaction when I heard the news.

A few days too late for me. Curious about that special.