the crimes of george lucas ('90s on)

THX-1136 prequel coming right up

http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/500986152_5snvJ-L-2.jpg

we learned george lucas was cool when his response to his rich neighbors' refusal to let him ruin their Tranquility by building a production studio on his land was to donate it to a nonprofit to build low-income housing on

that said i know this is naive but i read that breathlessly speculating io9 article and was genuinely taken aback that anyone, anyone, could want more goddamn motherfucking star wars movies

It's funny to see the history of Star Wars constantly get rewritten. In the past year or so it's gone from "Darth Vader's story was the entire thing" to "Oh yeah, it was going to be 12 episodes and 7-9 is WHERE IT REALLY GETS GOOD"

In the long run it's been the other way around - for a long time there was talk of a nine-episode trilogy of trilogies, and then around the time stuff was gearing up for Episode I it switched to "oh no just these and we're probably done".

In the long run it's been the other way around - for a long time there was talk of a nine-episode trilogy of trilogies, and then around the time stuff was gearing up for Episode I it switched to "oh no just these and we're probably done".

― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, November 1, 2012 12:13 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

yeah thats how i remember it too. and even when i was a kid the idea of a prequel trilogy bored me, i wanted to see what happened after ROTJ

"I've never had much personal interest in filmmaking or storytelling. My life's dream was to spend 35 years building a profitable brand to sell to the Disney Company and to donate the profits to education."

Mark Hamill:

“Oh my gosh, what a shock that was! I had no idea that George was going to sell to Disney until I read it online like everybody else. He did tell us last summer about wanting to go on and do [Episodes] VII, VIII, and IX, and that [newly appointed Lucasfilm president] Kathleen Kennedy would be doing them… Yeah, last August, he asked Carrie and I to have lunch with him and we did. I thought he was going to talk about either his retirement or the Star Wars TV series that I’ve heard about… So when he said, “We decided we’re going to do Episodes VII, VIII, and IX,” I was just gobsmacked. “What? Are you nuts?!” [Laughs]

. . . “I can see both sides of it. Because in a way, there was a beginning, a middle, and an end and we all lived happily ever after and that’s the way it should be — and it’s great that people have fond memories, if they do have fond memories. But on the other hand, there’s this ravenous desire on the part of the true believers to have more and more and more material. It’s one of those things: people either just don’t care for it or are passionate about it. I guess that defines what cult movies are all about…”

they should get him to play The Joker in the new movies

haha

When I went to Star Wars Celebration in August and went to see Mark Hamill's talk, he did this monologue and people went nuts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld0uIhst3TA

And Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble xp

Hey, it's on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YLeVe6MIQM

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/muppets_sw.jpg

(now that Disney own both, they can remaster all 6 existing SW films with CGI Muppets)

I'd watch that

Sam the Eagle 4 Hayden straight swap.

sam eagle for vader surely

lol @ C-Beaker-0

Andrew O'Hehir is of 2 minds

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/31/disneys_4_billion_lucas_deal_good_idea_bad_omen/

I thought I read that ILM was not in the deal?

no, but they threw in De Subjectivisten to make up for it

ILM is in the deal

pardon if I missed this, but is GL's participation in the next 3 films limited to story treatments?

i think he stated himself that they would be handed to kathleen kennedy.

I think what I read is that he's staying on as a consultant, whatever that means

it means approx. dick most likely

people either just don’t care for it or are passionate about it. I guess that defines what cult movies are all about…”

it is truly weird to think of star wars as a cult movie. i sort of take his point, but i also feel that describing it that way sort of devalues the very notion of a cult movie.

was it a cult movie when it came out? i can't imagine richard nixon giving a shit about it, but by reagan's term maybe it's conquered the normals?

i can't tell if you're serious or not, but fyi star wars was one of the most commercially successful movies ever released

Star Wars debuted on Wednesday, May 25, 1977, in 32 theaters, and eight more on Thursday and Friday. It immediately broke box-office records, effectively becoming one of the first blockbuster films, and Fox accelerated plans to broaden its release.[54] Lucas spent most of the day in a sound studio in Los Angeles. When he went out for lunch with his then-wife Marcia, they encountered a long queue of people along the sidewalks leading to Mann's Chinese Theatre, waiting to see Star Wars.[38] Even technical crew members, such as model makers, were asked for autographs, and cast members became instant household names.[5]
Star Wars remains one of the most financially successful films of all time. The film earned $1,554,475 through its opening weekend ($5.96 million in today's terms), building up to $7 million weekends as it entered wide release ($26.8 million in today's terms).[2] It replaced Jaws as the highest-earning film in North America just six months into release,[75] eventually earning over $220 million during its initial theatrical run ($844 million in today's terms).[76] Star Wars entered international release towards the end of the year, and in 1978 added the worldwide record to its domestic one,[77] earning $410 million in total.[78] Reissues in 1978, 1979, 1981, and 1982 brought its cumulative gross in Canada and the U.S. to $323 million,[79] and extended its global earnings to $530 million.[80] The film remained the highest-grossing film of all time until E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial broke that record in 1983.[81]

http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekly&id=starwars4.htm

Internet calculator tells me that, adjusted for inflation, it made 1.34 billion in today's dollars in its initial theatrical run (combined domestic & international). That's just in ticket sales. Obviously there were several more mints to be made on the merchandising.

yah but wasn't it just 12 nerds seeing it over and over again? did normal people care about it?

the big deal about star wars was that it WASN'T just a cult thing that only nerds cared about. compare it to star trek, which had middling ratings, was cancelled after three seasons, and only got its 'comeback' after lucas suddenly made SF profitable.

star wars is a cult movie in the same way that mormonism is a cult

widespread, profitable, special underwear

J.D. otm.

We live in a strange time where the definitions of what is nerdy and what is cult are changing and distorting and kind of becoming more and more meaningless. 'Nerds' are just another demographic these days, as plugged into the mainstream as anyone else. And they have no idea how good they have it.

the demographic of any 'nerdy' blockbuster movie isn't very nerdy anymore, but i wonder if that was ever the case w/ Star Wars either. don't think it's possible to make that much money w/ just nerds, no matter how many times they see it.

It also probably created a few million nerds, no? People who went because they heard it was hot, got into it, saw it again, saw the next few sci-fi movies that came out, suddenly realized they were going to the SF bookstore for monthly events...

Star Wars sounds like it was just some incredible freak accident where GL won the lottery x 1000.

I'm just going by this 70s show but on the show eric is the only one who is seriously into star wars, and everyone else just tolerates it.
there's a spongebob joke that titanic was star wars for girls, and i remember titanic similarly being adored by a core audience and merely tolerated by everyone else.

The question of is it cult or not has nothing to do with numbers but everything to do with the level of intense scrutiny and obsession it inspired.

it was never the case w/ star wars and tbh i think star wars nerds in general had a pretty low profile until the 90s whereas w/ star trek they were obv high profile being the reason the damn thing was revived. curious how aware of trekkies ppl were in the 60s - would ppl have been aware of them as a thing or were they just lumped in w/ general sci-fi nerds? obv there was enough awareness of that market for something like this to exist - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/44/01_MFOS_cover.jpg but it seems like ppl learning klingon and whatever comes later right? like in 1967 being a star trek fan is not that different from being a lost in space fan but by 1976 it's very different? in any case i can remember in 92 the movie theater at the local university was going to show all three of them in a marathon and it was announced that the films were being taken out of circulation for some reason (tbf the prints were beat to shit) so a friend and i went and there was a guy there dressed as admiral ackbar and the reaction wasn't 'o great, a dude dressed as admiral ackbar' it was 'wow, that dude came dressed as admiral ackbar! where the fuck did he find that mask?'. obv we were aware there were ppl that were REALLY into star wars but it didn't define the experience or whatever, it's like knowing there are ppl that are REALLY into back to the future or ghostbusters or whatever. whereas by 99 when phantom menace came out it was understood that of course there were ppl dressed up as darth maul or whatever. personal perspective only but seems to be a correlation between when star wars movies became strictly a geek thing in the culture and when star wars movies became the kind of thing only star wars geeks could care about. of course it may just be passage of time - really enjoying star wars in 77 (real time reaction to four quadrant blockbuster) vs really enjoying star wars in 97 (heavy nostalgia) vs really enjoying star wars in 2012 (ok really).

plus kael going gaga for star wars, star wars getting a best pic nod.

I remember an episode of ALF about asparagus so I guess it was probably the most popular vegetable of the 80s basically

spongebob joke that titanic was star wars for girls

Which episode of spongebob?

going to the theatrical re-releases of the o.g. trilogy in '97 were definitely my first experience waiting in line for a movie w/ people dressed up as characters

there's a spongebob joke that titanic was star wars for girls,

Ha, this is a nice example of the voice actor's work bleeding over into the writing. Tom Kenny wrote this bit after the movie came out; I remember him doing it on a Comedy Central special back when he still did stand-up in 1998

Also, I think a big difference between then and now is that nerd/geek culture took over pop culture in the last 10 years

Yes there has been a fundamental shift. The same vapid teenage bimbo or jock that would hassle someone for being into computers 20 years ago now carries one around with them everywhere they go, obsessively indulging their own interests (the social game, fantasy football, etc). Add to that unscrupulous marketing and suddenly 'nerd' more or less a catch-all for any IP from the 80's geared towards males. Since internet critics can all quote a line from Back to the Future it's a 'nerd property'. Nostalgia and pop culture referencing plus smart phones blah blah i think there is alot one could talk about the shift but yeah it more or less comes down to "2001: The Year Nerd Broke"

sorry yes it was a tom kenny bit, not spongebob. but yeah titanic the biggest movie in the world can still be a cult movie.