UPDATE! Disney didn’t Use George Lucas’ Ideas for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
George Lucas’ latest creation is a fairytale musical about fairies, goblins, and elves. This is his first full-length animated feature, and he’s been working on it for the last 15 years. Strange Magic opens in theaters next week and George is doing the rounds, promoting the movie. In several press conferences Lucas also talked about Star Wars in general, shared his opinion on the Oscars and revealed that he has finally seen The Force Awakens trailer, but that’s all he knows about the movie. Hit the jump for more.
(January 17, 2015)
The most interesting interview was with Screen Rant where the Star Wars creator revealed that he doesn’t know anything about The Force Awakens.
Here’s a direct quote:
“I haven’t seen anything; I mean I saw the trailer, it looks great, it looks interesting. But as I’ve said before: one thing I regret about Star Wars is that I never got to see it, you know? I never got to be blown away by the big ship coming over the thing, or anything. But this time I’m going to be, because I have no idea what they’re doing.”
It’s great to hear that Lucas finally has seen the trailer and he likes it, but many people expected that he would be more involved with the new movies. We know that they are based on Lucas’ treatment and it was announced that he will be a consultant on the future installments. Also even before filming started, Lucas’ son Jett, mentioned in an interview that:
– Disney will use George Lucas’ guidelines.
– Lucas is constantly talking with J.J. Abrams.
Scrren Rant added that “Lucas also said that he isn’t actively involved with building the new Disney-owned franchise, though he’s no doubt still available to Abrams and co. for consultation.”
So I really doubt that Lucas is that clueless about the new Star Wars movies, but obviously something has changed. It appears Lucas’ involvement was bigger at the beginning of the production, and now he keeps his distance. Whether it’s his decision or Disney’s, remains a mystery.
In another interview with Business Insider, Lucas was asked he would turn down working on more “Star Wars” movies to focus on an animated feature about fairies. Here’s what he replied:
Well, originally I had two daughters, and eventually, another daughter. ‘Star Wars’ was for 12-year-old boys. I figured I’d make one for 12-year-old girls. You know, the 12-year-old boy one worked for everybody from eight months to 88 and boys, girls, dogs, whatever. It really worked. So, I said, well, maybe I can do one like this, but it’s slightly more female-centric. [In ‘Strange Magic,’] we still have sword fighting, we still have things, but truly a story that hopefully will work for everybody. But, what’s really something, I said, well, maybe I’ll do this.
And, I just wanted to have fun. I was directing ‘Star Wars’ while I was doing these. I’d go out and shoot and this movie we’d put it on the shelf for awhile, and the guys would kind of work. I had a little group of guys and girls that were working on this thing.
Also while speaking with LATimes, Lucas revealed that he currently is writing two new features which he will release only for his friends:
“The way [the films] are, they’re not really movies that can be released, they’re movies more for myself and maybe I’ll show them to some of my friends.”
“It costs more to put them out there than it does to make ‘em,” he continued. “These are movies that are never going to make any money or anything.”
“They’re like things I did in school or movies I produced, like ‘Koyaanisqatsi,’ ‘Powaqqatsi,’ things like that,” Lucas said. “But it’s different because they’re dramatic films. It’s very hard to explain because it’s never been done yet.”
“I’m busy on things, but I’m not quite sure when I’ll actually get to start shooting some of these,” he said.
And finally see in the video below what is George’s opinion on the Oscars:
We couldn’t agree more. 🙂
UPDATE!
(January 20, 2015)
In an interview with Cinema Blend, George Lucas revealed that Disney actually didn’t use his ideas for Star Wars: The Force Awakens:
The ones that I sold to Disney, they came up to the decision that they didn’t really want to do those. So they made up their own. So it’s not the ones that I originally wrote.
So all the theories based on previous interviews with Lucas and Mark Hamill about the future of Star Wars are really off. It appears that we’re going to get a very fresh take on the Star Wars franchise. Which is a good thing, we hope . . .
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
So he’s seen the trailer now? I thought he was keeping himself pure for the cinema experience in December? I guess he couldn’t resist…
Lucas had said he wanted to see the teaser in a theater. He’s old school like that.
“Looks interesting” thats what I say to my students if I want to convey that I completely hate it.
True, but, you’re not George Lucas.
I wish we could have learned this 1000 days before release, not 330.
I’m not usually that interested in George’s philosophies but I like what he’s trying to say when it comes to diversity.
He doesn’t even consider race as a qualification, he’s more concerned with talent and actual achievement.
I’m thinking his point [which no one at the table caught by the way] was that the issue with racial diversity was nothing compared to the amount of overall oppression period.
Interesting point that I haven’t heard before.
It looked like the reporters were about ready to ask him to stop talking. Tense interview.
Maybe he should release the films he is talking about. They might actually be good?
That’s what Youtube is for…if he does not want to release them in the theater.
Did you type that up on a phone with gloves on? he he
my understanding is the current story conducted by JJ and Kasdan is very much different from original treatment by Lucas which Michale Arnt script is based on. At that point , Lucas lost the interest for the movie.
Asuming JJ didn’t want to go into the production unless major revisoon has been conducted, and Kenedy allowed that . I hope this turned the film to better, but somehow I am not sure so. The current story line , accrdimg to the rumer, seems rather dark as the first of the trilogy. It might not be the tone , originally conceived by Lucas.
Shut up George Lucas!
Where did you read that the treatment is different from Lucas’s outline?
He might be referring to this.
http://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2014/01/rumor-michael-fassbender-hugo-weaving.html
Wow, I hadn’t seen anything on Strange Magic before but that looks very, very bad. Isn’t that a Heart song? Faeries having sword battles while singing Heart songs? Cringe.
I saw it SM it’s beautiful and the loosest, most organic feeling, fun movie GL has made in ages. It’s a future cult classic like Princess Bride, Labyrinth, and yes, Willow.
Strange Magic looks horrible no 12 year old girl will want to see that. With star wars it ranged anywhere from little kids to people in their 60’s and it was a HUGE HIT. This movie will be nowhere near that.
It was only a few weeks ago that he was quoted as saying this… about The Force Awakens trailer… ‘I don’t know anything about it. I haven’t seen it yet,” Asked why, he replied: “Because it’s not in the movie theatre. I like going to the movies and watching the whole thing there. I plan to see it when it’s released.”
Ha ha. right! As much as I love the guy and all his achievements he does talk a load of balls sometimes.
He’s still being a rebel till the end. Still doing things his way.
I mean his surname is Lucas. What does that sould like, hm? Luke ass. Have you every thought about that – hmm – Luke ass -hm. Get it?
Wish there was a George Lucas Trailer reaction VIDEO, COME ON!!!!!!
There was 2 of them made… I could only find one though. It’s not as funny as the other one I saw which seems to have inexpicably disappeared from youtube, though I did like the added touch of desktop folders labeled “presigned autographs” & “Grooming coupons” !!!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auZzm_eHD1s
I see the part about “movie for 12 yo girls” colored blue as though it is relevant to EP7 but clearly he was talking about Strange Magic there. That said, there are certainly a lot more female characters in EP7.
Half the population are female, aren’t they?
Yes. I wasn’t trying to make some philosophical statement lol…I was simply pointing out the context of George’s quote.
George Lucas loves to lie to the media. He’s never upfront with what he’s done or what he’s doing. I bet he knows what’s up with TFA.
Old George Lucas is a strange being, he changes his mind, his opinion all the time every time he’s interviewed he comes out with something completely different I think he makes up half the stuff he says then forgets about it, then makes up another story to tell. I think he has memory loss issues. But hey he is the creator of this amazing universe so who cares ? :0)
I don’t think it’s that as much as he just doesn’t care the same way most Star Wars fans do. He doesn’t put a lot of stock in sticking to your creative guns. He’s just extremely wishy-washy from a creative standpoint. George is definitely an odd duck, but odd ducks are the ones who tend to change the world.
Of course Lucas is strange. Every single creative genius in the history of the world has been strange, odd, quirky.
Creating fantastic, deep, cool, fictional universes is not something that just about any “normal” person can do.
‘Normal’ people don’t have an imagination?!
I don’t know. Do they?
Darth,
when you make a claim, the burden of proof is on YOU. Not the people you are making accusations about.
For example, say someone calls you an idiot. The person making that accusation would have to offer your posts as proof.
“They’re like things I did in school or movies I produced, like ‘Koyaanisqatsi,’ ‘Powaqqatsi,’”
I would love to see George Lucas making that kind of stuff, so I hope he’ll eventually release them to the public in some way. The Quatsi films are great—a bit dated now, but still great. Though that kind of abstract art is not for everyone.
I had forgotten that Lucas was involved in Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi. Time to dust off my “Qatsi” DVDs, pour a nice glass of something and give them a long-overdue watch. ;^)
His attitude and comments regarding TFA just seems bizarre to me. Might be more to the story, or maybe George is just a weird guy.
Surprised he is working on new stuff, because I thought the entire point was that he was “retired”.
There may have been a huge ‘difference of opinion’ between JJ and Lucas about where the SW story was heading, and JJ won.
I think there are a lot of fans who actively want someone to tell George Lucas “No!” that this sort of wishful thinking clouds their understanding of the reality of the situation.
George Lucas probably just wants to be left alone by all the nagging reporters, fans, etc. It’s obvious he knew more about what was going on earlier in pre-production. I think he’s just trying to distance himself from TFA so people will stop asking his opinion about it all the time. I mean, after being (negatively) bombarded by people for a decade I’d be tired of it too.
Yeah, Diversity George…
Like Lando eh? the only black person in the OT.
The trailer for “Strange Magic” was met with stone cold silence in the theater I saw it in this weekend. Except for the “From the Mind of George Lucas” which was met with chuckles and groans.
That he is not directing this new trilogy is the first intelligent move he’s made with the Star Wars property since the time before Ewoks.
I am wondering, a year from now, all of us would agree with that JJ is actually better story teller than Lucas. If TFA become ” Star Wars into Darkenss “, we would be in deepest trouble.
I doubt anyone fully understands how Lucas feels about letting go of Star Wars. It’s probably a little like going through a divorce or losing a child. It’s been his life for the last 40 years (at least).
It will probably take some time for him to get some perspective.
It was an awkward interview, but I agree with the others here who feel that being an ‘odd duck’ comes with the territory. George, like Luke, is a restless soul with a lot more depth than his image and demeanor might suggest.
It seems like Star Wars went from being his key to creative freedom, to being a prison he needed to free himself from. I don’t always agree with him, but I hope he continues to follow his dreams, because some of them are pretty amazing!
I wonder if he knew (or at least suspected) that Clone Wars would be his final Star Wars contribution. At any rate, as Mark Hamill mentioned, George is in a better place emotionally,
It seems he’s kind of ready for his baby to grow up and do it’s own thing.
He’s definitely odd, which given his profession is a compliment. He’s given us a lot.
This Strange Magic looks like a bit of a miss personally, but then again this is his first “normal” movie in a long time, and he’s openly admitted that he made it for himself, not us, which I guess I can respect.
Your comment reminded me of some of strong episodes of clone wars TV series regarding the nature of the Force. It seemes to me that Lucas clearly pursue the mystery of the force which remains to be revealed in the 6 movies. I hope this theme will be taken care of by story group , and will be continued to be touched upon in the following movies.
Lucas sold his entire film company (not just SW, mind you, but ALL of Lucasfilm) to Disney because he decided to do it. Nobody forced him to sell.
Now, obviously it must be a weird feeling for him to be looking in at his former “baby” from the outside these days. But again, nobody forced him to sell LFL. He certainly could’ve kept making SW films if he felt like it, for the rest of his life (much to the chagrin of his many detractors since the PT days). Seems to me like he simply chose to do otherwise (much to the relief of those very same PT detractors).
Lucas is a very bright man. He’s always known how to conduct his business (see how he managed to secure the rights to all things SW when he negotiated the production of ANH with Fox). He must have thought things through long before selling to Disney, I’m sure.
It seems to me like he was ready to do exactly what he preached through the entire SW saga while it was his to make: he was ready to let go and move on to other things. So I don’t see what’s hard to understand about this.
“So I don’t see what’s hard to understand about this.”
I didn’t say it was hard to understand…
I said, “I doubt anyone fully understands how Lucas feels about letting go of Star Wars.”
Not you, not me. Only Lucas.
We can only speculate.
No, not really. Either you decide to sell or you reject the offer and keep the rights to your creation. Simple as that.
It might be hard to fully understand for anyone who’s never been offered money for something they created. But to those of us who’ve been in that position, it’s very simple, really. And if you’re offered billions for your stuff, the decision is even simpler lol.
Simple for YOU.
You aren’t Lucas, and neither am I.
Speculation. Period.
No, I’m not Lucas, of course. But then again, you’re not me either, so don’t pretend to tell me what to say.
I can relate to Lucas, because I’ve been there, done that. I’ve been offered good money for a creation of mine that was close to my heart. I know what goes on through your head when thinking about letting go of something so dear to you.
Now, you may doubt Lucas’ motivation behind the sale of LFL to Disney all you wish. Just don’t generalize and throw us all in the same sack, because you are NOT all of us SW fans anymore than I am Lucas…period.
Nothing you are saying here is pertinent to my comments. Perhaps you need glasses.
He’s just old and senile like yoda lol
Hmmm…. Train him, I will not. Yes, too impatient he is. Always looking to this* for strength, never waiting, see what is in front of him he will not. [sigh]
George still has a “juvenile” hair line, like Sean Hannity. They both have a full head of hair, but now its white.
They kind of look like their hair lines are trying to eat their fore heads.
It’s all CGI.
WTF? lay off the LSD
Lucas turned to a bad story/screenplay writer,
so it is good that he is out.
Anyway sad.
how you dare
Then we are doomed
Oh right, yes, it’s really bad to ignore a person who isn’t a reliable source for a good story. How dare they be logical and put the project as the first priority instead of the businessman behind it? Putting the franchise in the hands of people who understand why the franchise is so successful, have new ideas, and who are in their creative peak, is a really terrible thing. Yeah..
Of course
Yeah kind of
I’ve suspected this for some time. It’s a relief tbh. The franchise needed a completely fresh start.
high five I suppose
Part of me really suspects that JJ Abrams refused to direct the original Lucas drafts and only agreed to do the movie once Disney decided the trilogy could go a different direction.
Personally, I am happy George stepped away from the franchise.
I wonder at which point Disney rejected Lucas’ treaments then?
You’d imagine it was post sale as they’re not going to spook the guy before the deal is done just in case he takes his ball back and says he’s not playing.
I wonder if Michael Arndt wrote the script based George’s outline and JJ & Co. weren’t happy with it?
Maybe there was a complete re-write that we dont know about.
I want to know too, what much is changed or everything new?
Well this is all pretty obvious, no? Even from the start where they announced these films, Kathleen Kennedy is seen on video humouring George. When he says he’s written the story outline, she immediately comes swooping in saying that they’re at the early process of hiring writers to work out where the story is heading. Thank goodness for Kathleen, honestly.
My worst fear now has become reality. This is a very very very sad news.
If neither the general plot is based upon the one left by the SW creator, we are just left with a series of movies “based upon” the characters and the worlds created by George Lucas.
To me TFA now has the same value and autenticity of every Expanded Universe products, a videogame, a comic, or a book. JJ, LK, or every one else made up story has the same value as the one that I could create in my mind.
The decision of Diseny is a true shame. And I truly believe now that Disney and JJ should have paid much more respect to him.
I fear that, somehow, J.J.’s pumped ego is responsable for this. This and the will of Disney to treat SW universe as the Marvel universe.
Now I know that we will never get the true final SW trilogy has conceived by his creator. I cannot believe that. It really hurt.
Hope that some day in the future the original plot will surface as well the Michael Arndt treatment.
But for a very old fan like myself, this news really hurt.
Well that was the biggest load of pretentious waffle I’ve read. George himself is quoted as saying he’s given his own BLESSING for Kathleen to take the reigns and do what she wants. George is backing the project. Tolkein wasn’t even alive to oversee the LOTR movies. Doesn’t change doodle squat.
And what exactly is George “backing”? 🙂 it´s obvious no one cares about his ideas now…
The LotR and Hobbit were adapted straight from Tolkien’s work. Nothing to compare with the present situation of TFA.
I 100% agree with you. When I read the title, it was like being smashed by Thor´s Hammer 🙁 now the true STAR WARS, the originals, will forever be the six movies….the next is a fan fiction (J.J.s fiction anyway..)
Don’t bother with that performance. They’ve already nominated people for oscars.
Agree 100%.
Good for you, viral, I personally don´t think this is a good idea, I´m very dissapointed and sad. I was really glad that the next trilogy is from the head of GL. Now Disney thinks that they know better than the creator how the story goes, how the characters develop….this is really sad…
If it’s true, it’s a Sad story. But i believe, he dodge the question.
Disney certainly uses the base stroy of george with some arrangement.
Who cares what JJ thinks happened to Luke Skywalker? I might as well go down the comic book store and ask some random guy what he thinks happened. If this is true then Star Wars ends with 1-6 for me and this is just EU. Disney really screwed up on this one.
I agree. But I still hope that they kept the basic trajectory for the characters, especially Luke.
This is pretty disappointing. I wonder if there is ANYTHING left from Lucas’s ideas. I hope they at least keep some of the general trajectory of characters. I don’t mind them creating a slightly different plot or adding, changing, or even deleting characters for the sake of better storytelling, but if they ditch everything for the entire trilogy, what is the point?
Even though I am not a big fan of the Prequels, I think basic ideas are where Lucas does his best work and he just needs other people to polish the writing and direct. If they totally get rid of his ideas it makes the sequels just EU style fanfic. I don’t mind them going forward with new ideas once they covered his, but to completely jettison all of his ideas from the start is very disrespectful, and likely foolish.
The whole excitement for me with the Sequels was finally getting Lucas’s ideas filtered through other creative people. If that is no longer the case, my desire to see these is much much lower than it was originally. I’ll still see them, but they won’t give me the feeling of finally seeing the “Sequels” that I have wanted ever since seeing the end of Jedi.
I agree completely, what Dale Pollock said about the ST outline seemed very flattering. If there were interesting battle scenes or new planets described I’d imagine they’d at least use one of those ideas… it’s possible Lucas might be unaware of what’s going on.
But I’m skeptical about this, because Lucas has made a lot of contradictory statements in the past.
If not, they might have had good reason not to work off the outlines… maybe the character story wasn’t as interesting… hopefully they at least drew inspiration from them. JJ knows how to nail the feeling down, so hopefully he took that into account. + keep in mind Kasdan is on board… I just really hope they keep JJ in check & allowed the story to be properly edited.
I must admit… I was completely wrong about this apparently as I had written many times before on this forum that Lucas’s outlines would be the foundation for the story.
If Disney looked at the outlines and thought “meh” maybe it was with good reason… I’ve been rewatching a lot of the post Jedi Lucas films… after the divorce he lost that spark which made him so unique. The last crusade was a lot worse than I remember it being.
I can respect that, nice work on the first six. I hope George enjoys watching the new films. 🙂
Also no “Revenge of the Phantom Clone”?
Remember the prequels people, remember the prequels.
I know what will prequel haters say, but for me, it is a huge letdown. Star Wars is George Lucas’ world for me, the movies, then there is EU by different writers, which isn’t telling lot of great stories… Now Force Awakens is EU for me.
I felt weird when Lucas sold his Company to Disney, didn´t know what to think, but when they said there will be more movies based on his stories I was happy. It was really comforting knowing that any doubts they had they just pick up the phone and: Hey George, how would act this character, what´s his purpose, his feelings, and what about this, could be this or could be that and he would answer those question and I would know this is still PURE Star Wars….now it´s all gone and I doubt George is or will be involved in any way…..this is…you know what? I was soooo soking forward to see it, so happy to read or see new spoilers…..now I´m just really sad..
Lucas himself has said that there were only a few pages with a rough draft. So what?
I hope this doesn’t change the overarcing theme of ‘rebuilding, moral and philosophical questions’ that Lucas talked about before. Because I want to see THOSE movies. Each trilogy has a theme.. The first is about corruption, politics, and arrogance. The second is about when the battle between good and evil is black and white, and the third trilogy is about rebuilding a better system, and when that good vs evil battle reaches more complicated grey areas.. It’s a natural progression of theme, and I hope this trilogy maintains that basic idea.
This is not good at all. Damn it.
It sucks for George, but I’m happy that Disney is doing what they honestly feel is best for Star Wars. If his ideas were bad or just okay, Disney shouldn’t settle for them just because it’s Lucas.
However you feel about the prequels, let’s not pretend that George’s ideas lately, for the most part, have been great. And wasn’t this the same guy who once imagined Luke as an old man, Han as a lizard and C-3P0 as a used car salesman?
Imagine ‘3P0 having Watto’s personality. o_0
thats just part of the creative process. many writers and directors, etc go through myriad bad ideas before landing on the magic of goodness. characters and plot ideas going through substantial change is part of the process, and great things often come from ludicrous beginnings.
i actually thought the general story to the prequels was genius, palpatine seizing control from the inside out, i just thought the lack of lively characters really killed off the “spirit” the originals had. i still enjoy them though. ok, im rambling, lol, but i think it would have been fine if they based the new movies off of george’s general ideas or outlines, regardless of how kinda out of touch he’s been with his own creations of late. im not panicking though either, we have a lot of talented people who are very familiar with the star wars universe here, and a fresh take should be fine….we shall see.,..
Mmh, the prequels,indy 4, Howard the Duck.
I prefer Kasdan.
Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz wrote Howard and Indy 4 had many writers. The Prequels, Howard, and Indy 4 could have been better with more polished screenplays and better directing. The basic ideas weren’t totally awful.
Especially the basic ideas were crap.
Indy and Aliens. Planet of Ducks. Star wars with politican. Come on.
Oh FFS. Howard the Duck was a Marvel comic book series that started in 1973. George Lucas had nothing to do with the “basic ideas” of it. He financed part of the film, that’s his complete contribution to it.
I was just about to write that. The idea of adapting Howard was not the problem, it was the execution, which Lucas had nothing to do with.
“Star wars with politican.”
Star Wars already had politics. And politics alone was not the basic storyline, it was one of the aspects of the story that could have been better executed (it comes down to pacing and the actual writing of the scenes, not the ideas themselves), which is what I was saying about others polishing the storylines. Though I never really had a problem with how much focus was given to politics, it was how those scenes were written.
“Indy and Aliens”
I believe even Indy and Aliens could have made for a good story. I actually like how they moved the story into the 50’s and added a little 50’s sci-fi into the mix. I don’t think they should have shown the actual aliens and left it more mysterious, but that still would have left the basic ideas intact.
Again, it comes down to the actual script and the execution of those ideas that made for a bad movie. If you changed aliens to something else and kept everything else the same, it still would have been a terrible Indy movie.
Did Lucas really do all creative writing and world building of Episodes 1-6?
The vast majority of it (assuming you mean the basic storylines). Most of what the others did was polishing the writing, not drastically changing the basic outline. Jedi probably had the most changes influenced by others as he only had a few basic ideas that needed fleshed out, but even then, most of it was still his basic ideas and he made the final choices. You can see outlines of the various drafts and many of the suggestions made by various people in the Making of ROTJ book.
Given that he apparently only had treatments for the Sequels, it shouldn’t have been that hard to follow the general storyline and still put their stamp on it (which I still hope they did). It is possible to take the basic storyline of the Prequels and make them work in a way that should satisfy most criticisms.
“Starnge Magic”
It’s the first time since 2013 that I’m afraid of what this movie will be. So they just scrapped the Maker’s idea? I will not be surprise if the new movies are not leaded by the Skywalkers or Solos(that’d a crap idea).
One thing that I was really liking about this new Star Wars era was the fact of the new trilogy had George Lucas’ ideas. But now, I don’t know what to think. I’m disappointed.
The “Luke Skywalker” of this trilogy is John Boyega, but at least one Skywalker we´ll see – the Jedi Master Luke. And if he is there the whole trilogy, we could say safely that it´s still about Skywalker….
“The ones that I sold to Disney, they came up to the decision that they didn’t really want to do those. So they made up their own. So it’s not the ones that I originally wrote.”
“We really appreciate what Arndt has done to bring us up to this point”…..
http://tinyurl.com/kmsjuno
Aaaaaand I’ve lost all interest in future Star Wars. Thanks, bye.
Can’t quite believe it. We will never get to see the true version of what happened after Return of The Jedi. Now its just fan fiction.
I never thought I’d see the day when I lost interest in Star Wars but it has arrived. Goodnight.
Don´t worry – in a distant future George´s kids will publish the original sequel trilogy story (let´s jus thope we´re still alive when that happens 🙂
Honestly, screw a book. I don’t want to read it, I want to see, watch the story getting life.
“Fan fiction” is probably the right term for it.
please tell me this isn’t true. I’m waiting for an update 2 on this article. I love everything about Star Wars. The characters, the action, the humor, and a lot more, but by far…THE best thing is the story. Please NO ALTERING THE DEAL, I will feel being treated unfairly.
Pray they don’t alter it any further
itll be interesting that although everyone is hoping for a return of sorts to the original trilogy magic, these sequels will be far different than the originals than the prequels were. the prequels, regardless of what people think of them (i enjoyed them for what they were) were made and directed by the creator of starwars… dont get me wrong, i still have high hopes that sw7 is gonna be a blast, but its not gonna feel anymore like original trilogy than the prequels did. i think people will be surprised to find that the PT will feel more like “real” starwars than these new ones will… i submit i may be totally wrong lol, just kinda pondering out loud
While it does make me nervous that this will not follow the GL story arch, I’m going to try to remain cautiously optimistic until December.
I respect Lucas. He’s a visionary genius. But it is possible some fresh ideas could move the series in a better direction than Lucas would have. Time will tell.
Oh well. If I don’t like the new ones, I’ll still have the originals (well, maybe not THE originals, but the Special Edition 2.0 versions).
Ahh… the life of a Star Wars fan.
I wouldn’t take ol’ George’s words too literally, folks. God love him, but he’s made so many blatantly contradictory statements over the years about the Star Wars stories that I always end up taking a wait-and-see attitude when he says something like this.
It’s certainly possible that LFL/Disney threw out Lucas’ entire ST treatment and started from scratch. However, I think it’s just as likely that they kept the basic themes (rebuilding, moral and philosophical questions) of his treatment, but changed other aspects of it like character focus or even story. Or, it may be a similar story, but they didn’t do it exactly as Lucas wrote it up, and to Lucas this means that they threw out his story.
Let’s not assume anything just yet. And, of course, it’s also possible that Lucas was being serious when he said for years that he didn’t have a Sequel Trilogy story, and ROTJ wrapped everything up, but that he then cobbled something together to sweeten the deal when he decided to sell LFL. It’s possible that his ST story just wasn’t very good, especially if his heart wasn’t truly in it and he just wrote it for the sake of the LFL sale.
I’m not anywhere near ready to write off TFN on the basis of this latest quote from Lucas, and I don’t think any of us ought to be. Not just yet, anyway.
spoken like a true jedi
All true. GL has misled us before.. Let’s hope the theme hasn’t changed. And honestly, I find it unlikely the theme would change, since the idea makes perfect sense and comes naturally.
Since he himself is saying he doesn’t know what they are doing then by that logic he also doesn’t know what exactly of his they are doing anymore and he doesn’t want to know anyway.
The ones that he “wrote” in the case of TFA are really in Arndt’s script which by various accounts is still the basis for that which JJ and LK rewrote while still keeping many of the same basic idea’s but shifting things around and introducing new characters.
One of the big changes was the size of the roles of the trio which JJ took from support parts to at least equal to the new heroes for VII.
Setting this whole treatment issue aside for a second whatever was going to happen George was not going to be hovering over this first movie along every stage of development. He wasn’t going to finalize the script or any of the visuals from from concept art to blueprints to models, miniatures, maquettes or oversee the shoot or the post or the edit or any of those things. This is where the movie is really made far more than simply overlooking the script. This is Star Wars. The script is just the bare bones starting point and the treatment from where that script comes from is even less than that.
As far as I can gather from various reported sources of merit the basic premise of George’s story involved the trio, the new generation some of which were their kids, the Empire in some form, the “Rebels” in some form, the Jedi and Sith, a Stormtrooper who went from the Empire to the Rebels, some kind of planetary destructive weapon seemingly on an ice planet of some kind among other things.
So if this is the case then it’s more exact to say they aren’t doing the ones he sold them but they have been used as the basis with additions or subtractions as they see fit. Which really is pretty much the same thing that we already knew as the Arndt draft was reworked by JJ and LK.
For example as reported on Making Star Wars in the Arndt draft the Stormtrooper character who goes over to the other side first appeared later in the story on the ice planet but now that was reworked to place him earlier in the story on the sand planet.
Let’s say for argument’s sake that there is a Sith Lord in TFA. Let’s say that it turns out he is Darth Plagueis and a Muun and was Sidious’ Master (as recanonized in TARKIN that is if wasn’t clear enough in ROTS) then it would be pretty clear that is something from Lucas’ outline. Now what if a character Plagueis appears who is Sith but not a Muun. Then it’d be from Lucas’ outline but changed from his intent that DP is a Muun. Now what if it’s a Sith Lord who isn’t called Plagueis but in virtually every other way might as well be Plagueis save for a few changes. Then it’s still clearly based on DP but changed for whatever reason. It’s still a variation on the same thing.
Now if Lucas’ outline had no Sith Lord at all and they included one or it did have a Sith Lord and they removed one then we are talking a real structural change. Did Lucas have a crazed Luke in hiding or whatever who hasn’t been seen in years and there is a search for Luke or let’s go see Luke component then that too starts from Lucas. If Lucas had Luke hanging around not crazed or absent at all then that too is a completely different idea.
It’s not in the superficial details, it’s in WHAT the story is about. What the message is about. What the whole point of the thing is. No way DISNEY kept that. Disney, nor JJ or Kasdan ever make movies with the kinds of philosophies or morals in them that George Lucas does. The whole reason Star Wars resonates is in the MEANING of the movies and in the unique philosophy of them. Take that away, and they are dime-a-dozen action/sci-fi movies. Disney tried to rip off Star Wars before, and it DIDN’T WORK, because they failed to spread the same IDEAS behind the pictures. It’s NOT in the designs and special effects, or even the CHARACTERS, action, mysticism or conflicts, so much as the MEANING behind the stories. I haven’t heard anything about WHAT this movie is ABOUT. It sounds NOTHING like a George Lucas idea to me, beyond the vehicles and creatures and costumes. SUPERFICIAL.
http://www.bigshinyrobot.com/58402/disney-still-using-lucass-star-wars-ideas/
If Lucas was bought out by Disney in 1994, and they saw an outline for the PT that contained a 10 year old Anakin in Episode 1, C3PO built by Anakin, Obiwan not finding Anakin, Boba Fetts dad as a stormtrooper clone and Padme losing the will to live, what any of us complained if they went in another direction from Lucas?
Yes. Yes, we would have.
Nope
Not me tbh..
Of course! You insult the millions of fans of those movies. Stop liking Star Wars and just hate it.
A lot of the assumptions people are placing into these tidbits are very wrong and one rumor becoming true does not validate anything else. Pretty sure Disney tossed out Lucas’ outlines very early on. I’m honestly surprised anyone is surprised by this. Kathy knows what the prequels are and wants to avoid that at all costs.
Kathleen Kennedy is’nt the god of Star Wars, Whp cares about what she thinks or does. Blah, blah, blah the prequels sucked, whine, whine whine. You sound like a younger fan that wasnt around in the beggining. George Lucas IS star wars my friend. It’s nothing but disrespect to toss out his ideas. Disney is an evil corporation that ruins everything it touches and it has now ruined my favorite film series. You are a tool and will be begging for the return of George Lucas come December 18th
The million dollar question: Since they aren’t using it… can we finally read the damn ST outline already? Dale Pollock certainly felt well enough about it.
Yeah! Right on. They can go ahead and show us georges treatments now. I promise you they will be better stories than this disney crap. I had serious faith in the movie…..until the news that georges stuff was tossed out. That faith is gone now. This is essentially EU stuff by definition now.
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater! The film could still be great, I’d just love to see what Lucas had written because I’ve been wondering for many many years now. I’m sure it’s possible that even if literal things weren’t taken from the Lucas outline, that potentially they drew from it for inspiration. The fact that debating had been going on between all the writers is a good thing I think. As an example, another forum member posted this:
http://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2014/01/rumor-michael-fassbender-hugo-weaving.html
SO, THIS REALLY JUST MEANS WE ARE GETTING EXPANDED UNIVERSE CRAP! EXPANDED UNIVERSE CRAP IS STUFF NOT WRITTEN BY GEORGE LUCAS HIMSELF. THEY TOSSED HIS STORY OUT? THE MAN HAS A CERTAIN WAY OF WRITING, HE ALWAYS LIKES TO REPEAT HIS THEMES, SO ANYBODY OUT THERE THAT THINKS THEY HAVE THIS STORY PEGGED ARE WRONG. ALL BETS ARE OFF. ALL WE ARE GETTING IS A DISNEY FAN FILM HERE FOLKS. DISCARDING LUCAS’S IDEAS WAS THE WORST POSSIBLE THING THEY COULD HAVE DONE. WE ARE GOING TO GET A DINEYED OUT FILM HERE. DISNEY SUCKS, THE CHARACTER NAMES SUCK AND ARE UN-LUCAS LIKE, VERY GENERIC, AND THE TITLE REALLY SUCKS PEOPLE. BAD NEWS FOR STAR WARS FOLKS, BAD NEWS. LIKE I SAID, THIS IS CRAPPY EXPANDED UNIVERSE CRAP. JJ AND DISNEYS FAN FICTION. BUMMER.
I hate to say it – but 100% agree with you in everything 🙁
For the first time JJ is doing a star wars film i would say keep George’s story the same then if that goes well and you still have the series then you can enhance on the plot. but fans are used to seeing a genuine “George Lucas Star Wars” not a different type of movie. Also little tip is to use John Williams music. That is what has always put the STAR WARS stamp on every movie.
The overall story arc and ideas for the Prequels were fine, even really good at times, but the issues came down to the nuts and bolts. The screenplay was bad, the acting was bad, the directing was bad. But the overall arc could have worked quite well.
Lucas is good at setting up stories. It does worry me that Disney tossed out his ideas of what would work. I was hoping for a Lucas story and someone else in charge of all the nuts and bolts.
Well said! Agreed. While I am a prequel defender(I’m a george lucas defender)there are many things about the films that could have been improved, but the story itself was well crafted, put together and executed great. Disney should have took cues from Empire and Jedi, keep george lucas, but at a distance. It worked well with episodes V and VI. I am kinda worried now. I am going to grin from ear to ear when all the lucas haters start screaming “bring back George Lucas!!” This coming December. I’m fine with JJ directing and Disney producing, but throwing out lucas’s ideas, no. This isnt star wars, not even with Luke Skywalker attached.
If the ST is as bad then fans won’t be crying for Lucas, there will be a realization that the OT was never going to be duplicated no matter who made it. A lot of great movies are just lightning in a bottle and to recreate the magic over and over is very hard. If the ST is bad, then morale of the story is: they went to the well too many times.
If the sequel trilogy is bad, I’ll be too disappointed to bother reveling in Disney’s failure. I want these films to succeed. To be great. I hope they are, but am a little more cautious because Lucas’ ideas are no longer part of it. I would never root for them to fail. I want more good Star Wars stories. If that happens without Lucas, so be it. He is the one that said goodbye.
I enjoyed that Lucas has the opportunity to see Star Wars as a fan and get “blown away”, but what bothers me is that he doesn’t even know what to call his own scrolling text at the beginning of each movie. He said it well that he can’t wait to see “the big ship coming over the thing”. It’s a STAR DESTROYER and text is an Opening Crawl. Dumbass
I thought he meant the camera with “the thing.”
Hey dumbass, since when does a star destroyer come over the opening crawl? It comes after. And he was talking about seeing it in a theater and how the Star Destroyer comes out over the screen or camera, dumbass.
hey, kid, you first achieve what uncle George did and then you can say dumbass to anyone you want..
Want me to send you a pizza roll?
Dont be an idiot, all right? he defined all the names of these things in the screenplay, he knows them.
It does make me sad Lucas isn’t the storyteller. I too have lost faith in this movie. Sucks.
This changes nothing for me. With three movies, Star Wars rose high. With three more it crashed to the ground. This Disney Star Wars will have to earn my money on it’s own merits. Unlike before with the PT, I won’t be looking for the same kind of magic as before. I will be looking at it as a fresh start in an alternate universe and ignore that “Episode 7” nonsense. (An alternate universe from the original theatrical versions of the OT that is.)
I know that’s some big mental gymnastics to play to try to enjoy a movie, but I do it because I really do want to like these new movies.
I think he might be referring to the Arndt drafts which had very little Big 3. Abrams pushed for more hence the rewrite.
“More of Luke, Leia, & Han” is something very different than “[…] they came up to the decision that they didn’t really want to do those. So they made up their own. So it’s not the ones that I originally wrote.”
The truth is.. if the treatment Lucas turned in was really that great, Disney would have used it..
Mars Needs Moms
To me the crossguard lightaseber is already an indication…
SW story is the result of a mind and a lifetime work and achievement of a person, George Lucas, that, clearly, has coordinated thousand of people to the result.
To scrap the original plot / storyline of Mr. SW himself, is pure madness and nonsense.
This is a terribile terrible choice and a really bad move for Disney.
TFA now, to me, is just EU stuff, a sophisticated fan fiction.
I imagine that prominent difference is the size of Han solo s role, if we are to believe the rumor of current story.
For the record, “Strange Magic” is NOT Lucas’s first animated feature, at least not as a Producer. In 1983, he released John Korty’s “Twice Upon a Time”, a film that I confess that I don’t really remember much about except that it was quite odd. I have a couple of the posters from it though.
Anyway, I am, like many others, quite disappointed to hear that Lucas’s sequel ideas were tossed, especially since Dale Pollack had suggested that this next trilogy would be the most exciting stories in the saga. And, yes, if it’s true that Disney is using NOTHING from his treatments, then why NOT tell us what he had planned?
If what Dale Pollack says is true, he penned an unauthorized bio on Lucas in Skywalking, it may all be a lie. Lucas lies too.
We really do not know the real history of Star Wars, no matter, what you read in books, on sites, or hear from the makers mouths, somethings are a rouse, ploy, or any other misleading info to misguide the thoughts of others for self gain, thus lies.
Lucas has said he exploited his films, and is very caigy.
I don’t believe half of the making of Star Wars docs and books, they are mainly a fantasy.
Is Darth Vader a character that needed a breath mask or a Nazi caped samurai?
Maybe a little bit of the Six million dollar man as well.
Dr. Doom in black is what I see but hey at least the character although a hybrid design, transcended most baddies to this day.
Minus of course that Hayden guy.
Just read The Star Wars. It’s all there in some form or another.
It’s strange to think that Ewok movies are more canon than this.
Disney want Star Wars to perform another Marvel movies, Despite we lose Lucas , many talented visonaries would create new generation of the movies.
I surmise Standalone movies are more OT feel and setting.
I just hope he is lying to us (again) about disney not using his ideas. I just dont care about other peoples star wars…
It is POSSIBLE that this series won’t suck. Star Trek did alright after Gene Roddenberry gave up creative freedom over his creation.
More importantly, at least from my perspective, we don’t yet know what ideas Disney actually rejected. After GL’s original ideas are revealed- we all might be singing a different tune.
I love George Lucas. I truly do. But is it really THAT shocking that they are taking the series in another direction? From the moment they announced a new Star Wars movie, I suspected they would be using new ideas.
I can’t be the only one who realized this.
… and I get that many fans assume GL had this all mapped out from the beginning, but certainly Star Wars is a tale that ‘grew in the telling’. I think it started of with a basic story structure that got more and more elaborate as new characters were introduced, and new plot threads.
We are all reacting to hypothetical ideas. Maybe we should wait to be outraged until we know what we are outraged about. Isn’t that the more logical position?
Lucas should mine to his projects being he doesn’t want to be ” Mr. Star Wars” anymore.
Move along George, move along.
I’m worried that Disney is going to Disneyfy it at least in the first star wars where Obi-wan is fighting Darth Moul and he killed him they showed some graphics and i doubt Disney will allow that to happen.
I think the big deal about this new star wars was that the series hasn’t been touched for 10 years and the last one was done by George Lucas. In Episodes 5 and 6 they had different directors but the time was so short in between films. And it’s done by Disney now
George Lucas directed the directors.
Let’s wait and see what happens when the movie is actually in theaters. What will George Lucas say about it then? Will he actually DISOWN it and say “this is no longer my vision of Star Wars”? Especially if the movie actually turns out to be great, that would be hard for many fans to digest.
However, I predict that by then, Lucas will be praising the new Star Wars entry (probably taking as much credit for the plot as he can — and Disney will let him do it!))
Or Lucas may simply await the initial reactions. If the movie is well received, he will also praise it (and take whatever credit he can). If it stinks, he will imply that “this is all because they threw out my vision”, and fans who have forgotten about one Mr. Binks will be grieving: “Why, oh why didn’t they stay true to George’s Sacred Vision?”
He’s ALREADY disowned it. That should tell you something. He knew Disney would never do his movies, but he gave them the chance.
mabey GL’s idea or overall plot synopsis had Luke or someone dying in the new trilogy? I’d like i better if the old heros sort of ride off into the sunset at the end of the trilogy and over the course of the 3 movies the other newer ones take the helm.
in the end setting up more movies down the road.
I told you. I had a bunch of people arguing with me, and laughing at my assertion that it would NOT be based off anything lucas wrote. They have the original trilogy, and that is all that matters. The prequels are garbage so take your dorky theories and shove it. Lucas is creatively bankrupt, and he is a billionaire who pisses on his fans. Thank God I was right. In your face.
I’m boycotting.
Per Lucas Star Wars is not the story of Anakin Skywalker. It is the story of Josh McDaniels. Two more Super Bowl victories and the saga is complete!