"It opens doors, I'm telling you."
Posted on 12/23/2019 10:14:23 AM PST by powermill
George Lucas “felt betrayed” by Disney‘s initial plans for the Star Wars sequel trilogy, according to Disney CEO Bob Iger.
Iger has recalled the early meetings that Disney held with the creator of the acclaimed sci-fi franchise ahead of the making of The Force Awakens, which hit cinemas in 2015 as the first part of the sequel trilogy. •Read more: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – what we know so far about the final film in the trilogy
In Iger’s new memoir The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, he describes how Lucas felt “upset” and “betrayed” upon learning that Disney intended to “go in another direction” from Lucas’ original ideas for the sequel trilogy.
“Alan Horn [Co-Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, Walt Disney Studios] and I read George’s outlines and decided we needed to buy them, though we made clear in the purchase agreement [of Lucasfilm by Disney in 2012] that we would not be contractually obligated to adhere to the plot lines he’d laid out,” Iger writes in the memoir (via Comicbook.com).
“[Lucas] knew that I was going to stand firm on the question of creative control, but it wasn’t an easy thing for him to accept. And so he reluctantly agreed to be available to consult with us at our request. I promised that we would be open to his ideas (this was not a hard promise to make; of course we would be open to George Lucas’ ideas), but like the outlines, we would be under no obligation.”
The poster for Star Wars: the Force Awakens, which precedes Star Wars episode 8 Poster for Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Remembering an early meeting he held with Lucas, screenwriter Michael Arndt and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy at Skywalker Ranch, Iger says that “George immediately got upset as they began to describe the plot and it dawned on him that we weren’t using one of the stories he submitted during the negotiations.”
“The truth was, Kathy, [The Force Awakens writer-director] J.J. [Abrams], Alan and I had discussed the direction in which the saga should go, and we all agreed that it wasn’t what George had outlined,” Iger writes.
“George knew we weren’t contractually bound to anything, but he thought that our buying the story treatments was a tacit promise that we’d follow them, and he was disappointed that his story was being discarded…I’d been so careful since our first conversation not to mislead him in any way, and I didn’t think I had now, but I could have handled it better.”
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Iger adds that Lucas therefore “felt betrayed” in one of their first meetings about the future of Star Wars. “And while this whole process would never have been easy for him, we’d gotten off to an unnecessarily rocky start.”
Avatar was the movie Cameron was dreaming of making while driving a truck for a living...
Started rooting for the Empire as soon as I saw the Ewoks.
Maybe George Lucas should get together with President Donald J. Trump and build a new movie franchise called, er um, uh, uh,
“Space Force”.
Sorry, I could not resist.
Disney made Lucas’ prequels look good. That billion dollar buyout cushioned the blow, at least.
The Kiss of Disney. Somehow they managed to ruin the most beloved movie franchise in history. Well done lab rat brains. Iger won’t have the guts to fire that fool, Kathleen Kennedy.
so true. the greatest movie series of all time ruined at the alter of wokeness
Then there’s nothing about Star Wars that’s Star Wars because Williams knocked off Gustav Holst for the soundtrack. Lucas told Williams to follow Holst’s “The Planets”. The Darth Vader theme sounds just like a rip off of “Mars”.
If you’re serious, give Rick Beato a listen about the whole thing
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8IX1jSVmaAs
He explains the whole Star Wars/Holzt comparison in detail.
Williams didn’t plagiarize Holzt. The music world wouldn’t stand for it if he had.
It's what's wrong with theses movies, "writer-director".
How Kennedy has a Job is beyond me... if ANYONE should be fired, this woman has proven repeatedly its her....
I sat down and watched the Prequels not that long ago, and they are a mighty mess.... but I think Lucas’ issue there is he should have farmed out the script to an actual script writer.... The dialog just doesn’t work.. and Anakin Actor clearly wasn’t up to snuff either.. no chemistry on film between him and the leading woman as well...
But stepping back and watching them, I could see what he was TRYING to do... and I think had he been humble enough to recognize his weaknesses, the films could have been far better. What he was trying to do wasn’t really bad, but the execution was poor.
As to the last 3.... the fact Kennedy has a Job is just unfathomable... You take the cash cow that is Star Wars, and utterly destroy it.....
Ewoks are the Jar Jars of the second half of sw6.
I would have preferred these movies be without unnecessary comic relief.
The Holiday Special built the door and the Ewoks opened it. No one should be too surprised or upset when Jar-Jar walked through it in TPM. They already knew what Lucas was capable of.
the holiday special was a standalone made for tv thing, not a full budget full length feature movie.
and after empire who knew ewoks were coming?
i suppose never umderestimate anyone’s ability to make a bad decision...
Yes, Lucas was such a poor decision-maker that his creation was only worth $4 billion when he finally sold out. I’d love to walk away from my mistakes if I was paid that much to go away! :-)
George Lucas: I’m going to sell Lucasfilm to Disney
Luke Skywalker: Biggest mistake you’ll ever make.
Retard we are talking about storyline decisions, not the financials. You know that you just want to argue.
Have a nice day.
Especially when the reason he sold out was specifically to commit tax evoision (especially so when you remember that he essentially begged for Obama to implement those tax the rich tax hikes). As far as I’m concerned, he had that coming, and doesn’t deserve to complain for that sheer idiocy and selfishness.
To be fair, it’s also speculated that the Founding Fathers were also involved in freemasonry.
"It opens doors, I'm telling you."
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