You Hurt George Lucas' Feelings And That's Why He's Not Doing Star Wars Anymore
Today is "Feel Bad For Filmmakers Who F*cked Up" Day.
If you thought George Lucas was deaf to your rants about the prequel trilogy because of the walls of money he's built around himself (thanks to the four versions of the original trilogy you bought and the fact you have every incarnation of Boba Fett merchandise ever), you were wrong. In a brief Q&A with Vanity Fair's The Scene, Lucas discusses what it was that finally drained him of his enthusiasm for those historic, distant wars...
You go to make a movie and all you do is get criticized, and people try to make decisions about what youre going to do before you do it. Yknow, its not much fun, and you cant experiment; you cant do anything. You have to do it a certain way. I dont like that, I never did. I started out in experimental films, and I want to go back to experimental films, but of course no one wants to see experimental films.I think a lot of people would be dissuaded by almost an entire global fanbase sh*tting on nearly ten years of your work for the next ten years afterward, so it doesn't surprise me that Lucas felt that way. Equally, the argument is probably going to come from the distant corners of fandom that he wouldn't get criticised if he actually made halfway-decent movies - but then people will bitch no matter what, so I think Lucas has a point. Really it's going to come down to how much of that fan hate you can carry on your shoulders, because it'll be there one way or another - here he simply decided he couldn't or shouldn't have to deal with that, and who's to say that he's wrong? So he walked, and that's fine (and fans the world over probably breathed a sigh of relief). As for his comment about experimental films, I think that's codswallop. Experimental indies get made every year (i'm looking at you, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night) and although they might not make Star Wars money, they are still seen by an audience. In any event, check out the video Q&A, look out for the surprise appearance of a certain somebody, and try and ignore his comment about Jar Jar. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is released on 17th December in the UK and 18th December in the US.