I saw an article about George Lucas retiring and I was gonna post it as "Lucas retires from sitting all day getting fat", but it was actually pretty interesting. It said he's had trouble selling his new movie (he produced it), but it also actually looks pretty interesting.
Lots of The Wire talent there (including the director).
If news filtered through of a movie director who made some astounding films in the 70s declaring that they were hanging up their megaphone, then you’d suspect they might get a sympathetic hearing, and a degree of appreciation for their work.
It'll be interesting to see what happens in the case of George Lucas,
In a new interview with the New York Times, ahead of the US release of his next project, Red Tails, George Lucas has said “I’m retiring”. He added that “I’m moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff”.
Appreciating that the Star Wars prequel trilogy has left a bit of a sour taste, as has the continual tinkering with the films themselves, George Lucas is an immense force in modern day movies. Without him, there’s no THX 1138, there’s no American Graffiti, there’s no Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Howard The Duck or Willow.
The news of him moving away from the blockbuster film business, albeit with an out clause for Indiana Jones 5, comes off the back of the battle to get Red Tails to the screen. According to long-time producing partner Rick McCallum, “once this is finished, he’s done everything he’s ever wanted to”.
Will Lucas be gone from movies altogether, though? No. Instead, he wants to spend the rest of his film making days on smaller, personal films. Not commercial movies at all, by the sounds of it,.
Interestingly, Lucas also commented on the negative reactions he gets when he changes his films. “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.’ ”
He added, talking about making more Star Wars films, “why would I make any more when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?”. He also noted that Steven Spielberg’s admission that the nuking the fridge in Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull was down to him, not Lucas, was false. “He’s trying to protect me”, Lucas said (before talking about why the fridge nuking was more plausible than people gave it credit for).
