"Big Pics Are Doomed" - George Lucas

Borsk

Borsk

Administrator
Staff member
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Leave it to "Star Wars" creator George Lucas to pronounce the death of the Hollywood blockbuster.

"The market forces that exist today make it unrealistic to spend $200 million on a movie," said Lucas, a near-billionaire from his feverishly franchised outer-space epics. "Those movies can't make their money back anymore. Look at what happened with 'King Kong.'" The portly Lucas, whose "Star Wars" sequel was nominated for the Oscar in makeup, was clearly in Yoda mode at Saturday's Weinstein Co. party — Harvey Weinstein's first Oscar bash since he abandoned Miramax to Disney last year. "I think it's great that the major Oscar nominations have gone to independent films," Lucas told me, adding that it's no accident that the "small movies" outclassed the spectaculars in this year's Academy Awards. "Is that good for the business? No — it's bad for the business. But moviemaking isn't about business. It's about art!"


Was that a smirk? "In the future, almost everything that gets shown in theaters will be indie movies," Lucas declared. "I predict that by 2025 the average movie will cost only $15 million."


You heard it here first.



Lloyd Grove - NY Daily News
 
Darth Boru

Darth Boru

Celtic Sith
There could be some truth there.

Lets face it, most of the 'establishment' are all about sequels and remakes, whether there is plot material or not. A huge range of sequels that should never have existed have been made, purely because some exec thought it was a good idea.

Movies are indeed about art, about weaving a tale that engages the viewer and carrying through in a new, possibly never before thought of manner.

SW has acheived this. Remaking things like 'Willy Wonka' or 'The Pink Panther' do not. IMHO they had no merit and provided nothing new to the art, but rather merely served as an attempt to make money by people incapable of original thought. My 2 cents.....
 
Stevetrooper

Stevetrooper

Galactic Groundpounder
I agree. Although some movies can use a good updating (like King Kong or the upcoming Logan's Run) most are needless and are just a way to try and get new money out of reused material. Thank goodness for the occasional Crash to see us through. I seldom see films at the theatre any more. They are getting too greedy with ticket prices so I try to reserve it for the good stuff and/or things that I think lose a lot on the small screen (like King Kong.)
 
Darth Boru

Darth Boru

Celtic Sith
In previous posts, I mentioned that many current sequels are made without any real plot or reason to be made, other than an Exec thinking "we could make money with a sequel". In the case of SW, there's a ton of material to work with. Yes, some novels have been published covering the third trilogy, but thats no reason not to make them. There's a whole arguement around the characters and whether new actors would be accepted or if the original cast could be regrouped, but thats an academic point that GL could no doubt address if he had a mind to.

IMO, a third trilogy is an inevitabiliy. No matter what kind of legal barriers GL puts in place, eventually someone will do it. There are copyright laws etc, but to my knowledge they eventually expire. Even if it takes over 100 years or more to actually expire, someone, sometime will make them.

If I was GL, I'd make sure they were made under his guidance at the very least.

Lets face it, almost every poll puts ESB as the fave movie and there's every reason to beleive that the right director could be found, guided by GL and a great trilogy produced. Maybe the TV series is being used as an 'apprentiseship' to check out directors for this very purpose?? ;)
 
Borsk

Borsk

Administrator
Staff member
Darth Boru said:
In previous posts, I mentioned that many current sequels are made without any real plot or reason to be made, other than an Exec thinking "we could make money with a sequel". In the case of SW, there's a ton of material to work with. Yes, some novels have been published covering the third trilogy, but thats no reason not to make them. There's a whole arguement around the characters and whether new actors would be accepted or if the original cast could be regrouped, but thats an academic point that GL could no doubt address if he had a mind to.

IMO, a third trilogy is an inevitabiliy. No matter what kind of legal barriers GL puts in place, eventually someone will do it. There are copyright laws etc, but to my knowledge they eventually expire. Even if it takes over 100 years or more to actually expire, someone, sometime will make them.

If I was GL, I'd make sure they were made under his guidance at the very least.

Lets face it, almost every poll puts ESB as the fave movie and there's every reason to beleive that the right director could be found, guided by GL and a great trilogy produced. Maybe the TV series is being used as an 'apprentiseship' to check out directors for this very purpose?? ;)
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...after he makes the "all-cg version" of the Original Trilogy.
 
Buzz Bumble

Buzz Bumble

Furry Ewok
Oh dear. I knew I shouldn't have mention that silly "third Trilogy". :(

There is NO "third Trilogy" - Anakin is redeemed and dead, the movie Saga is over. A "third Trilogy" makes zero sense and would only be done as you said by greedy, money grubbers. It would be a total ill-fitting mess done by others. Just look at the disaster of the Star Trek franchise to see what happens when fools do that. If some idiot does decide to do that, I hope I'm LONG LONG dead.
 
AmShak

AmShak

Senior Moderator
Staff member
Buzz Bumble said:
Oh dear. I knew I shouldn't have mention that silly "third Trilogy". :(

There is NO "third Trilogy" - Anakin is redeemed and dead, the movie Saga is over. A "third Trilogy" makes zero sense and would only be done as you said by greedy, money grubbers. It would be a total ill-fitting mess done by others. Just look at the disaster of the Star Trek franchise to see what happens when fools do that. If some idiot does decide to do that, I hope I'm LONG LONG dead.
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um... lucas has changed his mind before. i don't think i would rule out anything ... done by lucas or by someone who follows in his footsteps. you sound kind of like .... say, you're not george in disguise are you?:)

when i was much younger and these movies were coming out, i NEVER heard them refered to as the story of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader.

with all of his other projects and his age, i would be very surprised to see a 3rd trilogy under lucas' direction ... but i would never rule it out.
 
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