Regards, Ivan
Posted on 05/15/2005 11:11:55 PM PDT by MadIvan
STAR WARS director George Lucas brushed off critics of the last three installments of his genre-defining series last night as he attended the glittering world premiere for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in Cannes.
Critics have hailed his new film as a vast improvement on the first two prequels, but Lucas said he paid little heed.
"I see it all as one movie and I don’t pay much attention to whether people like one chapter or another," he said.
"We have two fan bases - the over-25s and the under-25s. The over-25 fan base is loyal to the first three films, they are people in their 30s and 40s now and they are the people in control of the media and the web. The films those people don’t like are fanatically adored by the under-25s."
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is the last of three prequels to the original trilogy of movies, which creator George Lucas made between 1977 and 1983.
Lucas was joined on the red carpet last night by stars from the film, including Samuel L Jackson, Hayden Christensen and female lead Natalie Portman. Fans of the Hollywood beauty were shocked by her new skinhead haircut, which Portman unveiled at a photocall for the new film. The 23-year-old actress is shaven-headed in preparation for her next role in the film V for Vendetta, when she plays a freedom fighter.
As the stars paraded down the red carpet last night, a live orchestra played the Star Wars theme. Their path was flanked by white Stormtroopers, headed by Darth Vader.
Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, who plays Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi in the film, was the only leading member of the cast to miss the Cannes premiere. He was tied up with rehearsals in London for the West End musical Guys and Dolls, in which he will be playing gambler Sky Masterson.
In the US, celebrities and die-hard fans paid up to $500 (£268) to get a sneak preview of the film over the weekend. The charity screenings - which were held in ten US cities, including Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC - raised money for organisations including The Children’s Health Fund and Artists for a New South Africa.
The film will have its UK premiere tonight at the Odeon in Leicester Square, London, where Hayden Christensen, Anthony Daniels and Peter Mayhew are expected to walk down the red carpet.
In the nearby Empire cinema, 1,000 fans will sit through the other five Star Wars films before seeing a preview of the new film. Tickets for the event, which starts at 7:00am, sold out only five minutes after going on sale back in April, priced at £50 each.
After a photocall in Cannes yesterday afternoon, Lucas was presented with the Festival Trophy. He said: "Star Wars actually began here in 1971 when I came to the Festival as a first-time director. So I think it’s fitting that the final episode should be shown here. Cannes has always been a special place for me."
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
I have yet to meet any of these younguns who vociferously defend Episodes 1@2. Seriously.
ping
You won't. Episodes I and II were only there to set the stage for III - as such, they're limited in their uses.
Regards, Ivan
Star Wars "mattered" from 1977 to 1984, and only in a cultural sense - the movie itself is pure fluff.
Anything after that, however creative, was/is nothing but a Hollywood cash-grab.
I've heard a bit about this movie drawing parallels to Bush. At first I thought it was just liberals not being able to distinguish between a real dictatorship as opposed to a president they disagree with, but George Lucas's comments here http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=337337 seem to back up that suspicion. He says that it came out at the time of Vietnam, but that there are striking similarities between Iraq and Vietnam. I can't tell exactly what he means by that. Is he saying that Star Wars was based on Vietnam? It seems alot more based on WW2.
Can anyone make sense of this?
You mean THIS???
You have to remember, in episode 6, we hear the phrase, "Let go of your hate". Pure psychobabble.
What is that a picture of? Darth Moore practicing with his saber?
Should read:
"I see it all as one paycheck and I don’t pay much attention to whether people like one chapter or another," he said.
You are in luck on the direction. Lucas called in Spielberg to help with some difficult sections. He admitted it in an interview awhile back.
I am staging one-person boycott, because the suggestion the movie contains gratuitous anti-Republican digs has not been dispelled (yet).
Episodes I & II were sort of corny, imho.
I've have long felt that none of the sequels rose to the level of the original Star Wars. The storyline of that movie never was adequately pursued.
It's a shame.
Maybe someday Lucas can get serious about doing a sequel to Star Wars. (Now THAT would be a blockbuster to have Lucas say, "It's time to admit that all those other sequels were fluff. Here's an alternative that makes sense.")
Episode I is one of only four movies I've walked out of in my life.
BTW, seen the article on Drudge that suggests Episode III is a reaction to President Bush in the same way that the original Star wars was supposedly a reaction to President Nixon? I certainly never got that about Star wars but it could explain why they are going nuts over the new movie at Cannes... I doubt President Bush has a lot of fans there.
They exist, but I have yet to MEET them. lol
Internet personas, perhaps. Some even love the prequels MORE than the originals!! How, I have no idea.
Bush the dark emperor, huh? LOL -- the media elites will never quit, will they?
Which one introduced us to Metaflourians or Metaclorians or whatever....talking about taking the wind out of your own sails. Just what they needed to do was undercut the mystical Force by turning it into a fuel line additive.
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