Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Pre-release)

I'm sure when the movie comes out George will be happy to go see it and happy for the people involved. If he doesn't want anything to do with the future of Star Wars then I really don't blame him. People have been very nasty towards him in recent years and I'm sure it's taken its toll on him.Sure I'm annoyed with the special editions and was let down by the PT.I don't hate George for that though. Infact I kind of feel for the guy coming from the top of the world to being criticized for everything he does.Again I'm sure he's happy for the new films otherwise he wouldn't have sold the rights but at the same time who could blame him if he isn't interested.


Ben
 
gizmo -- Pretty much how I feel. My biggest "beef" with him this past eighteen-to-thirty-two years has been his developing a blind spot to what he used to know about himself -- his strengths and weaknesses, focusing on his strengths, and bringing in people to shore up his weaknesses. He's a great idea guy, but he needs to get them out of his head. The spitball/brainstorm sessions between him, Larry Kasdan, and Richard Marquand during story sessions for Return of the Jedi make for fascinating reading. The rapid evolution over a few minutes of talking things out is essential for him.

And I honestly blame Rick McCallum for a lot of what went wrong with the Prequels. He's the one who reoriented the story for George from being "From the Adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi" and "From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker", as in his notes, to being the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker.

And since he never planned things out past the deaths of the Emperor and Vader, and since the Powers That Be seem to be listening to his older edicts about his universe, I imagine George is as curious and excited as we are to see where the story goes from here. I, frankly, want him to be excited about Star Wars again.

--Jonah
 
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@gizmo -- Pretty much how I feel. My biggest "beef" with him this past eighteen-to-thirty-two years has been his developing a blind spot to what he used to know about himself -- his strengths and weaknesses, focusing on his strengths, and bringing in people to shore up his weaknesses. He's a great idea guy, but he needs to get them out of his head. The spitball/brainstorm sessions between him, Larry Kasdan, and Richard Marquand during story sessions for Return of the Jedi make for fascinating reading. The rapid evolution over a few minutes of talking things out is essential for him.

And I honestly blame Rick McCallum for a lot of what went wrong with the Prequels. He's the one who reoriented the story for George from being "From the Adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi" and "From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker", as in his notes, to being the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker.

And since he never planned things out past the deaths of the Emperor and Vader, and since the Powers That Be seem to be listening to his older edicts about his universe, I imagine George is as curious and excited as we are to see where the story goes from here. I, frankly, want him to be excited about Star Wars again.

--Jonah

Considering GL always planned (before sw was released in 77) to have a different directors do subsequent episode in different ways (like an anthology but with generally the same characters) this is actually a throwback to his original plan. Sw would be a the commercial arm to fund his 'serious film" projects like non-commercial art/experimental films.

Of course when SW broke all records, made a bazillion dollars and became the synonymous with million (now billion) dollar movie blockbusters, he pretty much abandoned those ideas. Interesting to see the concept return, though maybe not the way GL intended.
 
@gizmo -- Pretty much how I feel. My biggest "beef" with him this past eighteen-to-thirty-two years has been his developing a blind spot to what he used to know about himself -- his strengths and weaknesses, focusing on his strengths, and bringing in people to shore up his weaknesses. He's a great idea guy, but he needs to get them out of his head. The spitball/brainstorm sessions between him, Larry Kasdan, and Richard Marquand during story sessions for Return of the Jedi make for fascinating reading. The rapid evolution over a few minutes of talking things out is essential for him.

And I honestly blame Rick McCallum for a lot of what went wrong with the Prequels. He's the one who reoriented the story for George from being "From the Adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi" and "From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker", as in his notes, to being the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker.

And since he never planned things out past the deaths of the Emperor and Vader, and since the Powers That Be seem to be listening to his older edicts about his universe, I imagine George is as curious and excited as we are to see where the story goes from here. I, frankly, want him to be excited about Star Wars again.

--Jonah

What proof does everyone have that Rick McCallum was the evil genius behind everything? Everything I've read (up to and including Dave Filoni on TCW) was actually the opposite, that Lucas was always willing to hear everyone out on ideas. In the end though it's his movie to make so he can take or ignore those ideas. Maybe he just writes bad dialogue and they kept it in?
 
What proof does everyone have that Rick McCallum was the evil genius behind everything?

Interviews with Rick in the span from '97 to '05. I'd need to fine it down, but somewhere in there I remember reading multiple times him saying that was how he saw he arc and that was what he suggested to George, who went with it. Kind of a twisted version of...

Everything I've read (up to and including Dave Filoni on TCW) was actually the opposite, that Lucas was always willing to hear everyone out on ideas.

...that. Ironically. But, in the end...

In the end though it's his movie to make so he can take or ignore those ideas. Maybe he just writes bad dialogue and they kept it in?

...there's that. By the time of the Prequels, he was a victim of his own success. The people who stood up to him over and over to point something out as being out of place or poorly written or a bad idea or whatever gradually got burnt out and left. Marcia and Gary leap instantly to mind. Most of the people around him for the Prequels were afraid or reluctant to challenge him on anything because of his mystique. He was George freaking Lucas, man! George said in an interview after TPM that if anyone during pre-production, or even production, had said "Jar-Jar is a bad idea", he probably would have rewritten or removed the character.

George has also said he doesn't like writing. He'll scribble down notes, but he doesn't like having to flesh things out, fill in the gaps, and create all the dialogue. For the original film, Harrison had no problem rewriting Han's lines to be deliverable, and his comment to George on the matter is somewhat famous.

So, given that, I'm not sure how much anyone gainsaid him or Katie for the episodes of the Clone Wars they wrote. They were probably almost entirely enthusiastic and supportive of anything he suggested/handed in to be animated. I haven't seen anyone involved in production, not Dave nor any of the story editors, say they told George his notion of how the Force works is stupid. I haven't seen any of them say bringing Maul back was contrived as hell. Et cetera. I've been wanting to see, since the Star Wars Special Edition premiered in 1997, someone say to him what Larry and Richard did during those spitball sessions: "That's a good idea, George -- but how about we do this take on it?"

One of the things I like as a writer, something that's made me stronger in that craft, is having people challenge what I've written -- tell me something doesn't work, or a line is clunky, or have me justify why something is a particular way. The process of thinking through it and explaining it over and over, I'll either see how I could have done it better, or more smoothly, or catch a blind spot where something doesn't work and I missed it. I like the challenge of finding my way out of corners I've painted myself into without just ignoring the problem.

--Jonah
 
Maybe this is the kid in me, but it makes me sad to know that George is no longer involved.

Kinda like your favorite band swapping out members
 
Maybe this is the kid in me, but it makes me sad to know that George is no longer involved.

Kinda like your favorite band swapping out members
To me, George Lucas will always be Star Wars. I think folks are a little too keen on JJ right now and are forgetting that JJ has his faults, too... and I think JJ's faults are much deeper than George's. I hope that there was some truth to the info and rumors that these stories have some root with Lucas and that he is consulting on some level.

It's too easy to take potshots at a man we barely know based on rumors, conjecture and personal bias...

I'll just say this Prequels > JJ Trek. :D
 
Well, I thought the PT was generally terrible but I'll always respect George for bringing us SW in the first place. Nothing can take that away from him. I've always felt like he was a good ideas guy but was better served leaving the execution and fine tuning to others. I wasn't crazy about JJ being selected as the director of Ep.7 but I do have hopes that he can get good performances out of his actors. Having Lawrence Kasdan on board also gives me hope too that this one might be decent at least. I will say I was under the impression GL was more active in his "advisory" role than it sounds like he is. I would've assumed he would've been given an advance copy of the teaser for viewing pleasure in his own personal theater. The negative part of me still wonders if there was a falling out somewhere along the way.
 
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I've always had the feeling that GL listened to criticism because he knew it was good for his work, but absolutely not because he enjoyed it.

He probably staffed his PT years with uncritical people just because it made the PT trilogy experience easier & more enjoyable for him at the time, not so much as a conscious concerted effort to avoid all criticism. But that's pretty much the effect it had.
 
Did anyone see Carrie on Craig Ferguson's show last night? She was scheduled to be on - I DVR'ed it but haven't had a chance to watch yet, and was wondering if she said anything about Ep. 7.

Thanks,
M
 
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