George Lucas
Page 58
74. Cieply, “Turning Point.”
75. William Scobie, “Lucas Strikes Back with His Secret Film Empire,” The Observer, July 20, 1986.
76. Pat H. Broeske, “The Willow in the Wind,” Los Angeles Times, May 15, 1988.
77. COGL, 150.
78. Aljean Harmetz, “‘Star Wars’ and Muppet Wizards Team Up in ‘Labyrinth,’” New York Times, September 15, 1985.
79. Larry Mirkin, author interview.
80. Sue Martin, “‘Star Wars,’ Lucas Still a Force,” Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1987.
81. “A Look Back at Howard the Duck,” Howard the Duck, DVD (extra), 2009.
82. Bob Thomas, “Studios Say No to George Lucas,” St. Petersburg Times, February 4, 1987.
83. See Thomas C. Hayes, “Disney, Lucasfilm Team Up: Holder Told of ’85 Plans,” New York Times, February 7, 1985.
84. COGL, 152.
85. Jack Mathews, “‘Captain EO’ Is Latest from Lucas; Film to Be Shown at Disney Parks,” Hartford Courant, September 12, 1986.
86. Jordan Zakarin, “The Making of ‘Captain EO’: Lucas, Coppola, and Michael Jackson’s Messy, Miraculous Disney Space Adventure,” Yahoo Movies, December 9, 2015, https://www.yahoo.com/movies/the-making-of-captain-eo-lucas-coppola-and-162110246.html.
87. Richard Corliss, “Let’s Go to the Feelies,” Time, September 22, 1986.
88. Ibid.
89. Charles Solomon, “Movie Review: A Cosmic Journey in ‘Born of Stars,’” Los Angeles Times, October 9, 1986.
90. Martin, “‘Star Wars,’ Lucas Still a Force.”
91. Harmetz, “‘Star Wars’ Is 10, and Lucas Reflects.”
92. Martin, “‘Star Wars,’ Lucas Still a Force.”
93. Stephen J. Sansweet, “Lucas Speaks: ‘Star Wars’ Is a Rose Is a Rose…,” Wall Street Journal, May 22, 1987.
94. “What’s New with Linda Ronstadt?”
95. See Stu Schreiberg, “Linda Ronstadt, to the Beat of a Different Drum,” USA Weekend, November 28–30, 1986.
96. Sansweet, “Lucas Speaks: ‘Star Wars’ Is a Rose Is a Rose…”
97. Jonathan Schwartz, “The US Interview: Linda Ronstadt—Checking in with the Ex–Flower Child at Home in Tucson,” US Weekly, December 25, 2000.
98. Pat H. Broeske, “But Meanwhile, ‘Zone Wars’ Go On,” Los Angeles Times, May 15, 1988.
99. Donna Rosenthal, “The Dream and Its Men: Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas Immortalize a Legendary Car and Its Own Inventor,” Sun-Sentinel (Broward County, Fla.), August 14, 1988.
100. Robert Lindsey, “Francis Ford Coppola: Promises to Keep,” New York Times, July 24, 1988.
101. Sansweet, “Lucas Speaks: ‘Star Wars’ Is a Rose Is a Rose…”
102. COGL, 158.
103. COGL, 159.
104. Lindsey, “Francis Ford Coppola: Promises to Keep.”
105. Janet Maslin, “Glimpsing the Soul of an Old Machine,” New York Times, August 12, 1988.
106. Lindsey, “Francis Ford Coppola: Promises to Keep.”
107. Goodwin and Wise, On the Edge, 457.
108. Champlin, “The Last Maverick.”
109. Malcolm L. Johnson, “Howard Fulfilling Fantasies with Extravagant ‘Willow,’” Hartford Courant, May 20, 1988.
110. Janet Maslin, “Willow; A George Lucas Production,” New York Times, May 20, 1988.
111. See Pat Broeske, “Weeping over ‘Willow,’” Los Angeles Times, May 22, 1988.
112. Michael Cieply, “Lucas Hits Critics: Applause Greets ‘Willow’ at Cannes,” Los Angeles Times, May 24, 1988.
113. “Statement of George Lucas, Chairman of the Board, Lucasfilm, Ltd.,” The Berne Convention, U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks, February 18 and March 3, 1988.
114. See Lucas’s testimony submitted for the record, ibid., 482–90.
115. Broeske, “But Meanwhile, ‘Zone Wars’ Go On.”
116. Jett was named after James Dean’s character, Jett Rink, in Giant.
117. Stevens, Conversations with the Great Moviemakers, 320–21.
118. “George Lucas” segment, 60 Minutes, March 25, 1999.
119. Biskind, Easy Riders, 424.
120. Windham, Wallace, and Hidalgo, Star Wars Year by Year, 141.
121. MOIJ, 184.
122. MOIJ, 186.
123. MOIJ, 190, 209.
124. Peter Travers, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” Rolling Stone, May 24, 1989.
125. Bob Thomas, “Lucas Brings Back His Golden Touch Again,” Indiana Gazette (Pa.), May 27, 1989.
126. Ibid.
127. Karyn Hunt, “Business Leader G. W. Lucas Dies,” Modesto Bee, December 19, 1991.
128. Vincenzi, “A Short Time Ago, on a Ranch Not So Far Away.”
129. Bernard Weinraub, “Software: Rescuing Children from Boredom,” New York Times, August 1, 1993.
130. Daniel Cerone, “Interactive ‘Jones’: George Lucas Dreams of Multimedia Adventures for ‘Young Indiana Jones,’” Los Angeles Times, March 4, 1993.
131. Daniel Cerone, “Rethinking Indiana Jones: Lucas Picks Up Where Indy Began, Breaking TV’s Rules in the Process,” Los Angeles Times, March 1, 1992.
132. John J. O’Connor, “Meeting Indiana Jones as a Boy and a Teen-Ager,” New York Times, March 4, 1992.
133. Cerone, “Rethinking Indiana Jones.”
134. Four more episodes would be shown on ABC’s Family Channel.
135. See “George Lucas Receiving the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award,” Oscars YouTube page, uploaded November 24, 2009, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USJNgbfnpQE.
136. George Lucas, acceptance speech on receiving the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, March 30, 1992.
137. George Lucas interview, Charlie Rose, CBS, December 25, 2015.
138. “George Lucas Receiving the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.”
139. Charles Champlin, “The Home Audience Is Listening: Technology: George Lucas’s THX Sound System Has Made Its Way from Movie Theaters to Living Rooms. Cheap It’s Not,” Los Angeles Times, May 30, 1990.
140. Andrew Pollack, “Computer Images Stake Out New Territory,” New York Times, July 24, 1991.
141. McBride, Steven Spielberg, 420.
142. Thomas R. King, “Lucasvision: George Lucas, Creator of ‘Star Wars,’ Talks about the Convergence of Entertainment and Technology,” Wall Street Journal, March 21, 1994.
143. McBride, Steven Spielberg, 420.
144. Richard Corliss, “They Put the ILM in Film,” Time, April 13, 1992.
145. Chris Taylor, How Star Wars Conquered the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of a Multibillion Dollar Franchise (New York: Basic Books, 2014), 288.
146. King, “Lucasvision.”
147. Chris Hicks, “Film Review: ‘The Tall Guy,’” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), December 7, 1990.
148. COGL, 182.
149. Radioland Murders press conference, Pasadena, California, October 8, 1994.
150. COGL, 182.
151. King, “Lucasvision.”
152. Ibid.
Chapter 11: A Digital Universe
1. Lucas interview with Charlie Rose.
2. Laurent Bouzereau and Jody Duncan, Star Wars: The Making of Episode I—The Phantom Menace (New York: Ballantine, 1999), 105 (hereafter MOE1).
3. Bob Thomas, “Return to ‘Star Wars’: Filmmaker George Lucas Planning to Write, Prepare and Shoot Three Films at Once,” Santa Cruz Sentinel, November 13, 1994.
4. Orville Schell, “A Galaxy of Myth, Money, and Kids,” New York Times, March 21, 1999.
5. “Commitment to Women Earns Nod from Magazine,” Santa Cruz Sentinel, September 14, 1994.
6. Orville Schell, “Film: ‘I’m a Cynic Who Has Hope for the Human Race,’” Time, March 21, 1999.
7. Schell, “A Galaxy of Myth, Money, and Kids.”
8. Martha Groves, “George Lucas and Film’s Tech Revolution,” Los Angeles Times, June 4, 1995.
9. Patri
ck Goldstein, “The Force Never Left Him,” Los Angeles Times, February 2, 1997.
10. Pollock, Skywalking, 246.
11. Bernard Weinraub, “The Ultimate Hollywoodian Lives an Anti-Hollywood Life,” New York Times, October 20, 1994.
12. Goldstein, “The Force Never Left Him.”
13. Schell, “A Galaxy of Myth, Money, and Kids.”
14. Goldstein, “The Force Never Left Him.”
15. MOE1, 12, 18.
16. MOE1, 38.
17. Press conference for Radioland Murders.
18. Ibid.
19. David A. Kaplan, “The Force Is Still with Him,” Newsweek, May 12, 1996.
20. Press conference for Radioland Murders.
21. Bruce Handy, “Cinema: The Force Is Back,” Time, February 10, 1997.
22. Jody Duncan, Mythmaking: Behind the Scenes of Attack of the Clones (New York: Ballantine, 2002), 218 (hereafter Mythmaking).
23. Scanlon, “George Lucas Wants to Play Guitar.”
24. Goldstein, “The Force Never Left Him.”
25. The most recent remastered VHS release had been made from an interpositive of the film—essentially a print—rather than from the negative.
26. COGL, 183.
27. Alex Ben Block, “5 Questions with George Lucas: Controversial ‘Star Wars’ Changes, SOPA, and ‘Indiana Jones 5,’” Hollywood Reporter, February 9, 2012.
28. Star Wars shooting script, May 15, 1976. Peter Mayhew, with considerable relish, posted the original pages of his Star Wars script on his Twitter feed in early 2015.
29. Hank Stuever, “George Lucas: To Feel the True Force of Star Wars, He Had to Learn to Let It Go,” Washington Post, December 5, 2015.
30. Associated Press, “Lucas Talks as Star Wars Trilogy Returns,” September 15, 2004.
31. Ken Plume, “An Interview with Gary Kurtz,” IGN.com, November 11, 2002.
32. On November 30, 2015, while discussing The Force Awakens at a SiriusXM radio town hall meeting, director J. J. Abrams was asked whether he believed Han had shot first. His enthusiastic response: “Oh, hell yes.”
33. MOE1, 105.
34. Claudia Puig, “‘Star Wars’ Appeal Is a Surprise Even to Creator Lucas,” Los Angeles Times, February 4, 1997.
35. Jonathan McAloon, “Steven Spielberg Refused to Direct Star Wars Prequels,” The Telegraph, November 26, 2015.
36. Wendy Ide, “Francis Ford Coppola: ‘I May Only Make One More Film,’” Screen Daily, December 8, 2015.
37. MOE1, 75.
38. Biskind, Easy Riders, 424.
39. “A Jedi Trio,” Star Wars Insider, October–November 1999.
40. Goldstein, “The Force Never Left Him.”
41. Nicola Agius, “Michael Jackson Asked George Lucas to Cast Him as Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars,” Mirror (UK), July 26, 2015.
42. MOE1, 51.
43. MOE1, 75.
44. MOE1, 78.
45. Brian Jay Jones, Jim Henson: The Biography (New York: Ballantine, 2013), 308.
46. MOE1, 88, 83.
47. See the documentary The Beginning: Making Star Wars—Episode I, Lucasfilm, 2001.
48. COGL, 197.
49. MOE1, 77.
50. COGL, 201.
51. MOE1, 77.
52. MOE1, 93.
53. French and Kahn, “Inside the Magic Factory.”
54. MOE1, 136.
55. Mark Cotta Vaz and Patricia Rose Duignan, Industrial Light & Magic: Into the Digital Realm (New York: Del Rey, 1996), 294.
56. MOE1, 134.
57. Kim Masters, “The Lucas Wars,” Time, September 30, 1996.
58. See J. C. Herz, “Game Theory: ‘Star Wars’ World with a Sense of Humor,” New York Times, October 29, 1998.
59. Bernard Weinraub, “Now Playing: Two New Minutes of ‘Star Wars,’” New York Times, November 23, 1998.
60. See Adam Rogers, “The Phantom Media Blitz,” Newsweek, November 14, 2001.
61. Weinraub, “Now Playing.”
62. COGL, 207.
63. MOE1, 149.
64. Devin Gordon, “Waiting for Star Wars,” Newsweek, February 28, 1999.
65. David Ansen, “Star Wars: The Phantom Movie,” Newsweek, May 16, 1999.
66. Roger Ebert, “Star Wars—Episode I: The Phantom Menace,” May 17, 1999, reprinted on rogerebert.com.
67. Adam Rogers, “The Phantom Media Blitz,” Newsweek, November 14, 2001.
68. “Lucas Admits Star Wars ‘Let Down,’” BBC News website, April 23, 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1945447.stm.
69. Joe Morgenstern, “Our Inner Child Meets Young Darth Vader,” Wall Street Journal, May 19, 1999.
70. Eric Harrison, “A Galaxy Far, Far Off Racial Mark?” Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1999.
71. Ross McDonagh, “‘I’ve Done My Damage’: Jar Jar Binks Actor Ahmed Best Confirms He Will Never Return to Star Wars,” Daily Mail, January 12, 2016.
72. Plume, “Interview with Gary Kurtz.”
73. Ian Freer, “George Lucas Interview,” Empire, September 1999.
74. Schell, “I’m a Cynic Who Has Hope for the Human Race.”
75. John Horn, “The Empire Bounces Back,” Newsweek, April 28, 2002.
76. Drummond Pike, quoted in Patricia Leigh Brown, “Design Notebook: A Force in Film Meets a Force of Nature,” New York Times, March 30, 2000.
77. Freer, “George Lucas Interview.”
Chapter 12: Cynical Optimism
1. See George Lucas’s remarks at Disney Legends ceremony, D23 Expo, Anaheim, California, August 14, 2015.
2. For those who need to know: Episode II would be shot with a Sony HDW-F900 24-P digital camera.
3. COGL, 233.
4. Mythmaking, 23.
5. Mythmaking, 17.
6. COGL, 216.
7. Mythmaking, 35, 50.
8. Mythmaking, 27.
9. Mythmaking, 36.
10. Mythmaking, 34.
11. COGL, 226.
12. Mythmaking, 64.
13. COGL, 221.
14. Mythmaking, 126.
15. Mythmaking, 204.
16. French and Kahn, “Inside the Magic Factory.”
17. COGL, 227.
18. “The Chosen One,” Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, bonus featurette, DVD, 2005.
19. COGL, 231.
20. See “Census 2001 Summary Theme Figures and Rankings: 390,000 Jedi There Are,” Office for National Statistics, United Kingdom, February 13, 2003. Also see “Jedi Knights Demand Britain’s Fourth Largest ‘Religion’ Receives Recognition,” Daily Mail (UK), November 16, 2006.
21. Schell, “I’m a Cynic Who Has Hope for the Human Race.”
22. “Lucas Announces Episode II Title,” abcnews.com, August 6, 2001.
23. Adam B. Vary, “Lucas Names ‘Episode II,’” Entertainment Weekly, August 20, 2001.
24. J. W. Rinzler, The Making of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (New York: Ballantine, 2005), 15 (hereafter MOE3).
25. See Richard Verrier, “Paramount Stops Releasing Major Movies on Film,” Los Angeles Times, January 18, 2014.
26. The three top-grossing films of 2002 were The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, grossing $936 million worldwide; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, grossing $878 million; and Spider-Man, earning $821 million.
27. A. O. Scott, “Film Festival Review: Kicking Up Cosmic Dust,” New York Times, May 10, 2002.
28. Peter Travers, “Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones,” Rolling Stone, May 16, 2002.
29. Roger Ebert, “Star Wars—Episode II: Attack of the Clones,” May 10, 2002, rogerebert.com.
30. Travers, “Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones.”
31. David Ansen, “Attack of the Groans,” Newsweek, May 19, 2002.
32. Scott, “Film Festival Review: Kicking Up Cosmic Dust.”
33. Mythmaking, 89, 91.
34. Patrick Goldstein, “Seclusion Has Left Lucas Out of Touch,” Los Angeles Times, May 21, 2002.
3
5. Schell, “I’m a Cynic Who Has Hope for the Human Race.”
36. MOE3, 27.
37. MOE3, 31, 35.
38. MOE3, 40.
39. Laura Holson, “Is There Life After Star Wars for Lucasfilm?,” New York Times, May 1, 2005.
40. MOE3, 48, 51.
41. MOE3, 54–55.
42. MOE3, 57, 128.
43. MOE3, 19, 78.
44. MOE3, 74, 128.
45. MOE3, 82.
46. “George Lucas Accepts the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2005,” American Film Institute, June 9, 2005, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHvOSZi3t14.
47. MOE3, 151.
48. MOE3, 151, 149.
49. MOE3, 165.
50. MOE3, 209.
51. Brian Braiker, “Putting the Hype in Hyperspace,” Newsweek, April 7, 2005.
52. Ian Freer, “George Lucas Interview,” Empire, September 1999.
53. Todd McCarthy, “Review: Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith,” Variety, May 5, 2005.
54. David Ansen, “The End of the Empire,” Newsweek, May 15, 2005.
55. Sharon Wasman, “Lucas’s New Headquarters Give Bay Area Film a Lift,” New York Times, July 20, 2005.
56. “The AFI Life Achievement Award,” http://afi.com/LAA/.
57. “George Lucas Accepts the AFI Life Achievement Award.”
58. Ibid.
59. Ron Magid, “George Lucas Discusses His Ongoing Effort to Shape the Future of Digital Cinema,” Amerian Cinematographer, September 2002.
60. Silberman, “Life after Darth.”
Chapter 13: Letting Go
1. “George Lucas Accepts the AFI Life Achievement Award.”
2. Schell, “A Galaxy of Myth, Money, and Kids.”
3. George Lucas, interview with Lesley Stahl, 60 Minutes, CBS, March 10, 2005.
4. 60 Minutes, March 28, 1999.
5. Bryan Curtis, “George Lucas Is Ready to Roll the Credits,” New York Times Magazine, January 17, 2012.
6. Bethany McLean, “Why Sheryl Sandberg, Bill Bradley, and Oprah Love Mellody Hobson,” Vanity Fair, March 30, 2015.
7. Ibid.
8. Curtis, “George Lucas Is Ready to Roll the Credits.”
9. “First Look: George Lucas Opens Up about His Relationship,” oprah.com, January 2012.
10. Curtis, “George Lucas Is Ready to Roll the Credits.”
11. Geoff Boucher, “George Lucas: ‘Star Wars’ Won’t Go beyond Darth Vader,” Los Angeles Times, May 7, 2008.
12. Holson, “Is There Life After ‘Star Wars’ for Lucasfilm?”
13. Smith, Rogue Leaders, 176.