George Lucas' Magic Touch Is All Over "The Force Awakens" (3149 hits)
by Daniel Berry
Yesterday evening, USA Today posted an article on the upcoming animated feature Strange Magic, which just happens to feature a story written by none other than George Lucas himself. In the short piece, Brian Truitt provides some insight into why Lucas decided to move on from Star Wars, and at which point exactly did he do that.
From the USA Today article:
The iconic filmmaker isn’t regularly tinkering around in the Star Wars universe anymore — that’s now director J.J. Abrams’ gig — but he has created a new fantasy landscape with the animated musical Strange Magic (out Jan. 23), in which fairies, elves and romance are more plentiful than Jedi, Wookiees and the Force.
“My motivation has always been just doing what I want to do and making a movie that I think will be interesting, and that’s just been the way I’ve done it my whole life,” says Lucas, 70, who has been working on the “personal-ish” movie on the side for 15 years.
“I never expected to be successful — it’s just one of those things that happened. It happened that the stuff I like everybody else liked.”
Ever since the Walt Disney Co. purchased Lucasfilm in October of 2012, fans have been left wondering just how much of Lucas’ input would go into the production of Star Wars: Episode VII. Though he will only be given credit as “creative consultant”, it seems Lucas had a much deeper involvement in the story development for The Force Awakens than previously thought.
More from the USA Today article:
Lucas already started to develop the next three Star Wars films, but he knew a third trilogy was a 10-year commitment at least. He at first expected to finish Episode VII, release it in May 2015 and then sell the company afterward.
But Disney expressed interest and came along at the right moment, Lucas says. “It’s better for me to get out at the beginning of a new thing and I can just remove myself.”
“The time is more important to me than the money.”
Now he can focus on writing what he calls small “experimental” films and be first in line in December for Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
“The only thing I really regret about Star Wars is the fact I never got to see it — I never got to be blown out of my seat when the ship came over the Lucas says. “The next one, I’ll be able to enjoy it like anybody else.”
