George Lucas has Potential to Shock according to Francis Ford Coppola
Comments(9)
- By Venkman
If you have seen Star Wars creator George Lucas’ earlier work, then you know the guy was a very creative and imaginative man who really had a talent for story telling, characters and direction. Just look at ‘THX1138′, ‘American Graffiti’, and the first ‘Star Wars’ film. All of them showed a director who was on his way up to becoming one of the great filmmakers. Then I don’t know what happened. He should have been doing so much more other than Star Wars. He always talked about going back to his roots and doing these independent experimental films. I’m not sure why in the hell he hasn’t done that. It’s sad to see this guy waste a talent that deep down, we know he has.
Francis Ford Coppola also believes that Lucas still has this creative fire within him. George Lucas was Coppola’s assistant in the 1970’s and he produced ‘American Graffiti’ for him as well. In speaking about Lucas and his other contemporaries like Spielberg with MTV, Coppola says:
“Well I think that all my contemporaries and certainly George and Steven are like younger brothers… all were stimulated by film in the same era more or less, the great films of the Japanese, the French, the Italians, and the Sweds. The International and the english. Film was so magical that all of us were given the desire to make films from that, not only the great Hollywood films.”
He then goes on top talk about how filmmakers like Lucas may have gotten stuck in a rut.
“It’s hard to understand how people get as they get a little older and more set in their life. You know there is also when your so centered in the film business, there is kind of a brainwashing that goes on where you really think there is only one kind of film, and that has to be the type of film that certainly makes money and has a popular audience. It’s wonderful to make films that just millions of people come and see. The other way making a film no one comes to see. It is like making a beautiful dinner and everyone comes and says oh this is terrible, we don’t like this food, we’re never gonna come back here and eat your dinner again. Nobody would like that.I know that some of the people we spoke of are going to make beautiful personal films. I wouldn’t be shocked at all if anyone of them comes up with a film that just everyone is so knocked over by, because it’s new and it’s fresh, and it comes from a part of them that is really exciting”
Now here it is, this is where he gives Lucas a huge vote of confidence.
“The one that probably has the most potential to shock is, I think George Lucas because I knew him as an experimental filmmaker.”
I have to say I agree with him. If George Lucas ever decides to come out of his shell and do something new and original that is not ‘Star Wars’, I have a feeling it will blow people away. The guy just needs to let go and get crazy again.
What do you think about it?
Most def he needs to be making all kinds of films
He definitely needs to branch out a little and hand the reigns of star wars to some other directors. I would love to see a darker tone in the star wars universe, What about the the title star wars indicates more than an hour of senate footage yeesh.
- The Leonardo of Larceny
I'm always gonna defend George no matter what – I can't stand the bashers. If it wasn't for him we wouldn't have half the movies, talent or technology we enjoy today. I can understand him being reluctant to hand his universe over to someone else, but ultimately it would be the best thing for him to do. Red Tails is a step in the right direction, his Roman Empire plans got nixed when 'Rome' got made, but I am sure, like Coppola says, that he will suddenly spring a small, personal surprise on us – can't wait. As for Star Wars being darker – early reports seem to suggest that the live action series will be fulfilling some of those wishes.
i look foward to red tails. but lucas has also done a lot of producing films as well.
true enough – lucas has now branched more into the technical wizardry of film making. eg. the Industrial LIght and Magic, the Star Wars franchisee etc.
i really do not think he'll be making a personal film of depth anytime soon. mainly cuz its been too long, and if he hasn;t managed to get beyond the star wars fascination (cool as it is) by this time….. i really don't think he'll do it without any huge stimulus.
You can tell that Mr. Lucas isn't as passionate as he used to be about his films, evident by his attitude about the latest Indiana Jones. I would venture to say he nearly despises the latest releases of Star Wars and Indiana Jones and made them almost out of grudging necessity. Mr. Lucas definitely needs to make a film that HE is passionate about. If he does, I think we'll all be able to benefit.
If you have not watched any of the documentaries on the Star Wars prequels, I suggest you do because George has stated numerous times that he loves all of the SW films and he made the prequels because he WANTED to. Nobody put a gun to his head and forced him to make them. Everybody knows that Lucas is very stubborn, for he made the films he wanted to make, not the films that people wanted to see, (which would have been impossible anyway since nearly everybody wanted to see something different).
He's right. I was completely shocked at how skin-peelingly awful The Phantom Menace was!
I don't know about everybody wanting something different…and there some good things about the prequels: Darth Maul, Kit Fisto, Jango, Palapatine and I really like the design of the droids and vehicles, they have that fifties era sci-fi touch which helped make them seem like the past compared to the orginal trilogy's 70's early 80's influenced designs. I still like the prequel trilogy because I am such a huge SW Nerd, but all the sweetest characters and Conflict between them took a backseat childishness of episode I, The over-indulgent love story of episode II, and the Incredibly bad dialogue and acting of Hayden Christianson in Episode III(who has talent see Broken Glass – where it was during these films is anybody's guess) but I digress… It just seems like some of the most interesting stuff and characters got the shaft, but at least it spawned the samurai jack guy's mini-series, which as a whole, is as good as any of the prequel films. Also it gave way to the 3d Clone Wars show which i'm about 60/40 on, It just depends on the episode some are great some are not. The Episode "Rookies" is incredible, it has a lot of adult themes Individualism, Self-Sacrifice, and Great Action.