Posted on 05/04/2005 7:14:23 AM PDT by dead
Ask George Lucas about his hopes for the closing instalment of Star Wars, Revenge of the Sith, and he replies that he expects it to fail.
In an interview with TIME magazine, Lucas says that like everyone who makes movies, he is "always convinced the next one will be a flop".
"So right now I’m thinking it probably won’t make any money and will be considered a failure."
But in spite of his fears, he concedes he is very satisfied with the final product. "I think it turned out as well as I could have hoped, and at the same time I'm very glad that I finished it."
Others may be less glad the saga has finally come to an end. In the first published review of Revenge of the Sith, filmmaker, Kevin Smith described the film as "so satisfyingly tragic, you'll think you're watching 'Othello' or 'Hamlet'".
"This is the 'Star Wars' prequel the haters have been bitching for since 'Menace' came out, and if they don't cop to that when they finally see it, they're lying," added the maker of Clerks, Chasing Amy and Jersey Girl.
Despite the staunch enthusiasm of fans of the original Star Wars, Lucas said he never really entertained the fact that there would ever be more than one film. "I expected it to take me a year, year and a half to make, and then I expected to move on to other things."
Lucas considers the Star Wars storytelling format very stylised, and "very much in opposition to what my natural inclinations are".
He now hopes to explore more abstract forms of filmmaking that interested him in his days at film school. "It's vaguely in the land of music videos, I guess, but I don't even know how to describe them. I know they won't be mainstream movies. I'm sure they'll be just as criticized as Star Wars films are," he said.
Lucas also has a hankering to work in television principally to shift away from doing anything that may considered "important". He said television offered the chance to do "really great work" without all of the "megillah" that surrounds film.
Revenge of the Sith is being released around the world on May 19.
Yeah Right!
I wish something would bite me in this ass like that. Lucas has more money now from the Star Wars empire, than he's ever had. He has all the people who loved the originals plus the next generation.
According to Boxofficemojo.com, The Phantom Menace is #5 on worldwide all time best seelers. Attack Of The Clones is #22.
There are always going to be people who look for the cloud around every silver lining. Recently, people like that seem to like to visit star wars related threads, and pre-judge a film that debuts in two weeks time, regardless of all the evidence that contradicts their opinions.
http://www.millenniumfalcon.com for instance has TONS of information about the film. Pictures, clips, soundtracks, the script, etc. I bet if they visited that site and looked around a little bit, they'd change their minds.
I told you to never call me on this wall...
If this one is better than halfway decent - I'll gamble that it will be #1. Right now it's Titanic - yyyyeeeeecchhh!
??? I'd like to get "bitten on the arse" to the tune of a billion dollars or so.
I just think people are skeptical after shelling out at least $20 for the last to flicks that did not live up to the hype. There is nothing wrong with prejudging this flick because the previous two attempts by Lucas in this genre were less than good.
It was originally released simply as "Star Wars". Only after its completely unanticipated commercial success (and nomination for Best Picture, but losing out to an absolutely horrid "Annie Hall"), that Lucas signed on the main cast members to do two more films and then re-released the original with a retitled "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope".
This one is going to do well. Its' not centered around stupid characters, and is dark. The way the original ones were. The last two could not have sucked enough. But, given the subject matter of this one, I don't see how he could possibly screw this one up.
Does it have Chewbacca or does it have wookies?
I'm looking forward to it, and my 9 y.o. and 5 y.o. are too. Oh yeah, and my hubby can't wait. He's relived the first three starting at 6 y.o. through our sons, lol.
We've already got the new light sabers. Lucas will get our money.
Nonsense. Empire Strikes Back was a far better film.
according to boxofficemojo.com the second film grossed $302 million. that is hardly no one. I would venture to guess that even though you complain, you spent money on it, too.
Advance sales for Episode III are selling out all over the country.
Yea, it does looks geriatric, doesn't it? If anything, I wish Lucas would have "revised" that scene, intead of doing the other hokey scenes.
If I remember right, it always said Episode IV in the opening crawl thingy.
There is a large sequence of the films devoted to the invasion of the wookie home planet, and chewbacca has a role in the battle, as does Yoda.
No sir, the title has ALWAYS been Episode 4, A NEW HOPE.
Only if you didn't see it in its initial release. The "Episode IV - A New Hope" was added as a retitled rerelease just prior to the release of The Empire Strikes Back.
Does your Sith hang low...does it wobble to and fro'...can you tie it in a know...can you tie it in a bow...
The original theatrical release said "Episode IV" right above all the text in the beginning that explained the background of the story. I remember it distinctly; when I first saw the the original in the theater as a kid, I was quite puzzled: "What's this Episode IV business? There's no other episodes!"
Nope
that is what he is doing with the upcoming TV series. If you saw the clone wars cartoons on the cartoon network, he essentially gave complete control over to Tartkovsky for the series, so long as they were able to lead into the third film, which they did.
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