Did you know that, for a hot minute there, it looked like George Lucas might direct Apocalypse Now? It's impossible to conceive of, with the story of Francis Ford Coppola's troubled production of his Vietnam epic almost as famous as the film itself, but Lucas was actually gearing up to helm it. Because, like Coppola, he'd lived through that period in American history where they went to war with a small South Asian nation because....Communism, or something. We think. In fact following his graduation from film school he was drafted by the Army for military service in Vietnam, but rendered exempt after medical tests showed he had diabetes, the same disease that killed his grandfather. Which isn't a sign of insanity because, well, we know a bunch of people with diabetes, and only half of them are crazy. Maybe three quarters. What is an early warning sign is the fact that Lucas had previously, voluntarily attempted to join the United States Air Force as an officer. He's since lived out his idealised view of dogfights and the like in the Star Wars films and recent historical drama Red Tails, but back in the day Lucas was turned down as an actual pilot because of the amount of speeding tickets he'd accumulated in his youth. In fact he'd been quite the rebel (read: total jackass) on the roads as a kid, and had nearly died during a wreck at an underground drag race back in the day. What an idiot.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
