News > Geek > George Lucas Takes His Jar-Jar and Goes Home

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FRIDAY OCTOBER 6 2006 9:00 AM

George Lucas Takes His Jar-Jar and Goes Home

Submitted by WilWheaton

Edited by WilWheaton

Tags: George Lucas, Star Wars, movies

According to a story in Variety, George Lucas, Executive Producer of Howard the Duck and Willow, and creator of Jar-Jar Binks and the Midichlorians, is calling it quits, and trading the film business for television.

"We don't want to make movies. We're about to get into television. As far as Lucasfilm is concerned, we've moved away from the feature film thing because it's too expensive and it's too risky."

Lucas said that the secret to success is "quantity." Surprising nobody who has seen Star Wars Episodes I-III, Lucas made no mention of "quality."

All betrayed-geek snark aside, I actually agree with Lucas' reasoning on expensive, huge studio films versus smaller, less-expensive films.

Spending $100 million on production costs and another $100 million on P&A makes no sense, he said.

"For that same $200 million, I can make 50-60 two-hour movies. That's 120 hours as opposed to two hours. In the future market, that's where it's going to land, because it's going to be all pay-per-view and downloadable.

Firefly fans may understand the reasoning. How many episodes of the series could have been made and distributed via DVD or online (if no network was interested) for the cost of Serenity?

Lucas is not leaving the huge movies behind just yet, though. Indiana Jones IV is in pre-produciton, and he has a project or two that he's had in development for over a decade that he wants to put out.

He calls himself "semi-retired" but reiterated his plans to direct "small movies, esoteric in nature," after his other projects are launched. He expects to serve as exec producer on the two features and the TV shows, including a live-action "Star Wars" skein.

He also has some changes in mind for special editions of his existing movies: The Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark will be replaced with Care Bears, and Willow will be turned into one 90 minute shot of a walkie talkie. The updated version of Willow is expected to be more enjoyable than its box office counterpart.

(via Slashdot, where one astute commenter observes that Lucas got out of movies three films too late.)

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Comments

zyryx

Tyler, TX

April 2004

OCT 06, 2006 10:57 AM

NinjaTech said:

sportbikepilot said:
but while 'Firefly' sucked all kinds of ass (IMO), after renting 'Serenity' I found myself wishing I had seen it on the big screen. bigger is better only failed for Lucas

At first I was a bit apprehensive against Firefly as well, but in the end it felt like their was more good than bad.

I typically dislike sci-fi but the "no alien" aspect to it, coupled with the show's antagonist of the future capitalistic powerhouse of the United States and China was incredibly non-cliched for a typical space romp. It was also mind blowing that Fox would air something like that. Also the viewpoint of a group of people that were on the losing end of a civil war was another thing you rarely see irregardless of the genre.

In addition to the dialouge being at times genuinely witty and Joss Whedon taking the time of the entire season to flesh out the majority of the characters (who were, for the most part, actually three dimensional.)

I personally feel you would hard pressed to find a better crafted sci-fi series that has aired on television. Firefly wasn't anything mind blowing, but the conceptual design behind it wasn't the typical B-rate shit that sci-fi is composed of.

I'm simply allergic to anything with a "country/western" feel to it, (except the spagetti westerns; ala 'The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly'). the whole "cowboys in space" feel to it made me break out in hives. most of that seemed to be striped out of 'Serenity'...

as for a better sci-fi on TV show, BSG is a billion times better...

aden_b

United Kingdom

September 2006

OCT 06, 2006 10:57 AM

k bimbed was the wrong word and to be fair if he brings out anything else in the cinema its pretty low risk really, it will make money as he has a lot of die hard fans, its like saying the next quentin tarrantino film wont make any money, i think hes just got lazy and with tv work he can basically not be there and get McCallum to do it all for him

SouthernDJ

Duluth, GA

September 2006

OCT 06, 2006 11:08 AM

ANYBODY who enjoys todays movies and the technology behind them needs to show more respect to George Lucas. He CREATED brand new ways technics in special effects, which are now the standard in movie making. That goes for old film style effects with blue screen, models, and layering; as well as digital and computer generated effects. He was also the FIRST to produce an entire feature length film on digital media.

He also is solely responsible for THX Sound - the standard by which all recording and playback in the WORLD is judged. He also created PIXAR, long before Disney purchased the company. Many of the best video games around are made by Lucas Arts (including "Mercanary"). Keep in mind also that many of your favorite creatures and aliens were created by Industrial Light and Magic, a company created by Lucas, for Star Wars.

So, before you give him a bunch of crap, stop and think of who you are talking about. Next I suppose you'll use your windows XP to bash Bill Gates.

NinjaTech

Minneapolis, MN

November 2003

OCT 06, 2006 11:18 AM

sportbikepilot said:
as for a better sci-fi on TV show, BSG is a billion times better...

Actually BSG is quite cliche and embarrassingly horrible. From the very first episode.

Lets have the robot dudes come back as a hot chick just so we can toss some TnA around! Yeah!

Wordwill

Chicago, IL

November 2004

OCT 06, 2006 11:54 AM

Spielberg's the fella who took the guns and Nazis out of E.T., Wil. Lucas gets into trouble for adding gunplay into his Star Wars movies, not removing it. (See "Greedo Shoots First" in the Encyclopeda of Tired Geek Gripes and Other Chestnuts That'll Get You Punched in the Neck By Folks Who, Like Me, Are Tired of Your Bellyaching.)

WilWheaton

Los Angeles, CA

June 2005

OCT 06, 2006 11:55 AM

SouthernDJ said:
ANYBODY who enjoys todays movies and the technology behind them needs to show more respect to George Lucas. [snip]

It's hard to argue with your point that George Lucas contributed heavily to the technological advances in film making, and I agree that we owe him and his technical partners a huge debt.

But suggesting that he did it singlehandedly, without acknowledging the contributions of people like Dennis Trumbull and Tomlinson Holman isn't exactly the most honest thing in the world. And conflating the technological advancements with Lucas' dubious dramatic decisions seems to miss the the point, in my opinion.

punksnotdead

USA

October 2003

OCT 06, 2006 11:56 AM

He also is solely responsible for THX Sound - the standard by which all recording and playback in the WORLD is judged.

In all fairness Tomlinson Holman (Tomlinson Holman Crossover or THX) had a little bit to do with the standardization of theater audio.

WilWheaton

Los Angeles, CA

June 2005

OCT 06, 2006 11:58 AM

sgwrit said:
Spielberg's the fella who took the guns and Nazis out of E.T., Wil. Lucas gets into trouble for adding gunplay into his Star Wars movies, not removing it. (See "Greedo Shoots First" in the Encyclopeda of Tired Geek Gripes and Other Chestnuts That'll Get You Punched in the Neck By Folks Who, Like Me, Are Tired of Your Bellyaching.)

Wait. There were Nazis in E.T.? (See "Snarky Geek Responses" in the Encyclopeda of Tired Geek Gripes and Other Chestnuts That'll Get You Punched in the Neck By Folks Who, Like Me, Are Tired of Your Bellyaching.)

mydogfarted

Oakland, NJ

June 2003

OCT 06, 2006 12:20 PM

I'm soo torn here. Hate Lucas for Episodes 1-3 or love him for the original "Holy Trilogy" and one of my favorite movies EVER!

Reemooooo

Astoria, NY

September 2006

OCT 06, 2006 01:29 PM

Episode 1 of star wars sucked, yes. However, the guy still made Episode IV & V - two of the best movies of all time. Willow was a great movie, besides the comic relief pixies. And all 3 Indiana Jones movies are fantastic. THX 1138 is also a pretty great film. The guy has done more for the sci-fi genre than Isaac Assimov. I think sci-fi geeks need to leave him alone and start talking about how rediculously bad every Star Trek movie is.

aegies

Oakland, CA

June 2004

OCT 06, 2006 04:47 PM

NinjaTech said:

sportbikepilot said:
as for a better sci-fi on TV show, BSG is a billion times better...

Actually BSG is quite cliche and embarrassingly horrible. From the very first episode.

Lets have the robot dudes come back as a hot chick just so we can toss some TnA around! Yeah!

did you even watch the show after the first episode?