George Lucas Defends "Star Wars" Changes in New Interview

[JamesG]

Star Wars Creator George Lucas Fires Back at Fanboys
1/18/2012
by Erin Carlson


Following backlash from fanboys over his Star Wars prequels and other tweaks to the sci-fi saga, George Lucas is ready to throw in the towel on his career as a blockbuster filmmaker.

"Why would I make any more, when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?" Lucas told The New York Times in an interview.





Fans of the sci-fi blockbusters started turning against the Star Wars creator in 1997 when he re-released a special edition that included a big tweak: a scene was altered to have alien Greedo firing at Han Solo (who shoots back, and kills him), rather than Han shooting the first bullet in the original 1977 version.

The objections continued last fall as Lucas introduced a series of new tweaks with the Blu-ray release of all six movies in the franchise. Changes included blinking Ewoks and adding dialogue to a Return of the Jedi battle scene wherein Darth Vader yells "Nooo!"

Then there was the negative reaction toward 1999's Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace and the subsequent prequels.





"On the internet, all those same guys that are complaining I made a change are completely changing the movie," complained Lucas, referring to online video re-cuts of his films.

"I'm saying: 'Fine. But my movie, with my name on it, that says I did it, needs to be the way I want it.'"

"I’m retiring. I’m moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff."





George Lucas is also reeling from the studio snubs of Red Tails, his new film about the Tuskegee Airmen, which he financed himself -- spending nearly $100 million -- after rejections from executives.

The film hits theaters Friday. "If we can get over $20 million in our first weekend, we’re kind of in the game. We’re in ‘The Help’ category," Lucas told The Times.

"If it gets $30 million in the first weekend, then those guys get to make their movies without even thinking about it," he continued.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hea...d-tails-282905

[catlover79]

Yeah, whatever.

[UMFaninMD]

He should have stuck to the wise old saying: If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[Reverend Jim]

Originally Posted by UMFaninMD

He should have stuck to the wise old saying: If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[Vahan]

It's often assumed that Lucas didn't start going back and changing the original movies until 1997. But in fact, he had actually been doing so since the early 1980s'. The words "EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE" were added to the opening prologue in early 1980s' prints.

[MrCleveland]

Maybe if Lucas would remove Jar-Jar Binks from the I-III Films.

Just let someone else be the genius....

[dakert]

George, dont let the door hit you on the way out

[Sterling Holobyte]

George, George, George. I appreciate you for Star Wars(at least the original three films of the 70's & 80's), American Graffiti, THX surround sound, and for your part in the Indiana Jones' films.

But c'mon! When you took out the original elder Anakin Skywalker in the funeral scene and put in Hayden Christenson's version in his place, you really put your foot in it! Stupid.
That's not the only example, but it is one of the dumbest, in my opinion.

[Sophia's Wrinkles]

Star Wars is garbage anyway. Bye.

[James28]

What was the point of these alterations (such as the removals and additions) of the original films like the original Star Wars trilogy and Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extraterrestrial?

[robyrob]

he was a lot better before he went senile and decided to start changing things, but if he wants to leave Hollywood he can - as soon as he gives us back the 32 billion dollars we gave him...

[Mr. Television]

Originally Posted by Sterling Holobyte

George, George, George. I appreciate you for Star Wars(at least the original three films of the 70's & 80's), American Graffiti, THX surround sound, and for your part in the Indiana Jones' films.

But c'mon! When you took out the original elder Anakin Skywalker in the funeral scene and put in Hayden Christenson's version in his place, you really put your foot in it! Stupid.
That's not the only example, but it is one of the dumbest, in my opinion.

Yea I pretty much agree with you. I appreciate all he did for Star Wars as well as those other movies but I think time has passed him by. A Classic doesn't need to be fixed all the time. Leave it like it is.

[MrCleveland]

Originally Posted by dakert

George, dont let the door hit you on the way out

[JamesG]

George Lucas On The Controversial Star Wars Changes
2/9/2012
by Alex Ben Block


In this 3-D conversion of what is Episode 1 — The Phantom Menace, were there any changes made to any characters or the plot, or was it just a conversion?

Changes are not unusual — I mean, most movies when they release them they make changes. But somehow, when I make the slightest change, everybody thinks it’s the end of the world.

That whole issue between filmmakers and the studios with the studios being able to change things without even letting the director of the movie know …I’m very much involved in that [so that’s not happening here]….

My job is to try and make the best possible movie it can be – and the current version is the Blu-Ray version. That’s the one that’s been made into 3-D. But it’s just a conversion. We haven’t made any changes other than the 3-D.









People can get fanatical about the movies — how does that make you feel? The puppet vs. CGI Yoda ruckus, and the who-shot-first, Han Solo or Greedo furor come to mind.

Well, it’s not a religious event. I hate to tell people that. It’s a movie, just a movie. The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo [who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original] to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t.

It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down.

It’s the same thing with Yoda. We tried to do Yoda in CGI in Episode I, but we just couldn’t get it done in time. We couldn’t get the technology to work, so we had to use the puppet, but the puppet really wasn’t as good as the CGI. So when we did the re-issue, we had to put the CGI back in, which was what it was meant to be.



If you look at Blade Runner, it’s been cut sixteen ways from Sunday and there are all kinds of different versions of it. Star Wars, there’s basically one version — it just keeps getting improved a little bit as we move forward….

All art is technology and it improves every year. Whether it’s on the stage or in music or in painting, there are technological answers that happen, and because movies are so technological, the advances become more obvious.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hea...terview-288523

[Torgo]

Just watched The People vs George Lucas and I highly recommend it. As it is directly about the fans reaction to all his changes, and their reactions to the new trilogy.

Lucas was never happy with the original Star Wars and said so many times long before he re released it in 1997, most of the changes are unnecessary....my only beef is Lucas refuses to release the original unchanged version of the the first 3 films, at least Speilberg let's you have the option of watching both versions of ET.