Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (USE SPOILER TAGS!)

[Diesel]

This is both the "war" we deserve and need right now

[Falaskan]

Don't know if this has been asked already, but since the third trilogy is finally underway, would you have preferred the sequel trilogy had come first instead of the pt, when Hamill, Carrie, and Ford were younger??

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Falaskan

Don't know if this has been asked already, been since the third trilogy is finally underway, would you have preferred the sequel trilogy had come first instead of the pt, when Hamill, Carrie, and Ford were younger??

No.

First, the cynical reasons: the wheels started coming off the Star Wars bus with Jedi and there's every chance that Episodes VII-IX would have been horrible in many of the same ways the prequels were horrible. Why would I want to put Luke and Han and Leia through something like that? It's bad enough Han had to endure Jedi.

The not so cynical reasons: it's hard to crank out six interesting movies feature the same basic people in the same basic places fighting over the same basic things. You can't have your heroes stumble into the heart one grand adventure after another without the adventures starting to seem a little less grand. I mean, how many terrorists does John McClane have to trip over before it starts to seem silly? And the original cast - Harrison Ford in particular - was tiring of the whole thing too. The chances of getting three more good movies out of them all? I dunno.

[Ernest Rister]

Lucas' original plans for 7-9 after Jedi:

The Emperor would have escaped.
Leia would have become a Queen and leader of her people.
Luke would have watched her coronation knowing they could never be together.
Luke's sister would have emerged from a deep, deep region of the Galaxy.
Together, Luke and his sister would defeat the Emperor in the final film.

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by Falaskan

Don't know if this has been asked already, but since the third trilogy is finally underway, would you have preferred the sequel trilogy had come first instead of the pt, when Hamill, Carrie, and Ford were younger??

On top of octagon's reasons, we'd also have to put up with a totally different production value: Lucas always griped that bringing his various worlds (especially Coruscant) would have been impossible int he 80s, and despite all our complaints about CGI, I don't think Coruscant, Naboo, Mustafar, Geonosis, etc would have looked all that impressive as matte paintings or composites. The effects of the OT and PT represent the best of their times, and the PT demonstrates that we are capable of more now than we were before (whether or not Lucas truly took advantage of this the right way is a debate for another time that's been done to death already).

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

Lucas' original plans for 7-9 after Jedi:

The Emperor would have escaped.
Leia would have become a Queen and leader of her people.
Luke would have watched her coronation knowing they could never be together.
Luke's sister would have emerged from a deep, deep region of the Galaxy.
Together, Luke and his sister would defeat the Emperor in the final film.

Sounds interesting to me.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by octagon

No.

First, the cynical reasons: the wheels started coming off the Star Wars bus with Jedi and there's every chance that Episodes VII-IX would have been horrible in many of the same ways the prequels were horrible. Why would I want to put Luke and Han and Leia through something like that? It's bad enough Han had to endure Jedi.

The not so cynical reasons: it's hard to crank out six interesting movies feature the same basic people in the same basic places fighting over the same basic things. You can't have your heroes stumble into the heart one grand adventure after another without the adventures starting to seem a little less grand. I mean, how many terrorists does John McClane have to trip over before it starts to seem silly? And the original cast - Harrison Ford in particular - was tiring of the whole thing too. The chances of getting three more good movies out of them all? I dunno.

Yup. Lucas got out while the going was good, and I'm glad he got to enjoy those post Star Wars years without the bile and hatred that followed him around after 1997. Still, there were lots of hints in the Indy movies about where he was looking to go: Temple was a prequel featuring a comedy sidekick who "hilariously" mangles the English language and another who bumbles around getting into scrapes (Short Round + Willie = Jar Jar) while Last Crusade goes back even further to show us Indy as a kid. Then we had an entire TV series about Young Indy!

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yup. Lucas got out while the going was good, and I'm glad he got to enjoy those post Star Wars years without the bile and hatred that followed him around after 1997. Still, there were lots of hints in the Indy movies about where he was looking to go: Temple was a prequel featuring a comedy sidekick who "hilariously" mangles the English language and another who bumbles around getting into scrapes (Short Round + Willie = Jar Jar) while Last Crusade goes back even further to show us Indy as a kid. Then we had an entire TV series about Young Indy!

Please don't say that KOTCS will be a precursor to Ep VII.

[Geoff D]

Maybe that's what injured Harrison Ford on-set; it was the goddamned fridge door!

[Kirk Out]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yup. Lucas got out while the going was good, and I'm glad he got to enjoy those post Star Wars years without the bile and hatred that followed him around after 1997. Still, there were lots of hints in the Indy movies about where he was looking to go: Temple was a prequel featuring a comedy sidekick who "hilariously" mangles the English language and another who bumbles around getting into scrapes (Short Round + Willie = Jar Jar) while Last Crusade goes back even further to show us Indy as a kid. Then we had an entire TV series about Young Indy!

Saying short round + willie - jar jar. Is an insult to short round

[aiman04]

Originally Posted by Falaskan

Don't know if this has been asked already, but since the third trilogy is finally underway, would you have preferred the sequel trilogy had come first instead of the pt, when Hamill, Carrie, and Ford were younger??

During the production of Return of the Jedi, Lucas told Mark Hamill that he needs him back 30 years from then to play older Luke. So it has always been the plan to have the characters be older. The prequels would have to come first.

[greg_achen]

Originally Posted by aiman04

During the production of Return of the Jedi, Lucas told Mark Hamill that he needs him back 30 years from then to play older Luke. So it has always been the plan to have the characters be older. The prequels would have to come first.

Except when we were repeatedly told (during the prequel era) that it was always intended to be a six film saga and that Episode III "completed" the story. Lucas is a liar and even his most ardent defenders can't deny he has told some blatant lies throughout the years (most of which has corroborating video evidence to prove his contradictory statements).

[CinemaBlu]

Originally Posted by greg_achen

Except when we were repeatedly told (during the prequel era) that it was always intended to be a six film saga and that Episode III "completed" the story. Lucas is a liar and even his most ardent defenders can't deny he has told some blatant lies throughout the years (most of which has corroborating video evidence to prove his contradictory statements).

If he said that, he probably meant the story of Anakin Skywalker.

[greg_achen]

Originally Posted by CinemaBlu

If he said that, he probably meant the story of Anakin Skywalker.

If?

No, no. (After Star Wars came out) somebody asked me if I was going to do a sequel. And I said, "I'm doing the other two parts to this one." And they said, "You're doing this trilogy--do you have any more?" And I said, "I've got a backstory, which I've got laid out. I could probably do that." And they said, "But are you going to do a sequel?" And I said, "I guess maybe I could do a sequel at some point." And that got turned into doing nine films. It's six films. It's really not nine films. It's extremely unlikely that I will go on and do any more.

This was never planned as a nine-episode work. The media [pounced when] I made an offhand comment, 'It might be fun to come back when everyone's 80 and do another one of these.' But I never had any intention of doing that.

Merge: Can this really be the end of the Star Wars saga?

Lucas: Yes. The series starts with Darth Vader as a young lad and ends with him dying. So I don't know where else I can take it.

Merge: Wasn't there talk at one time of three trilogies?

Lucas: That was created by the media, not me.

I've left pretty explicit instructions for there not to be any more features. There will definitely be no Episodes VII-IX. That's because there isn't any story. I mean, I never thought of anything. And now there have been novels about the events after Episode VI, which isn't at all what I would have done with it. The Star Wars story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story. Once Vader dies, he doesn't come back to life, the Emperor doesn't get cloned and Luke doesn't get married.

Don't get me wrong. I am happy for more Star Wars and I am very optimistic about the direction of the sequel trilogy. But Lucas is a liar liar pants on fire.

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by greg_achen

Don't get me wrong. I am happy for more Star Wars and I am very optimistic about the direction of the sequel trilogy. But Lucas is a liar liar pants on fire.

Well, the man's had these ideas all his life, and it's bound to change and evolve over time, especially as times and studio politics always change. Can we really hold him to something he said 5, 10, 20, 30 years ago? Or even anything he said last year?

I'm grateful the idea's evolved into nine whole films. Just as I'm glad the Force was never made into just a crystal, as initially imagined.

The creative process is never a static thing (especially in Lucas' case, apparently).

[CinemaBlu]

Originally Posted by greg_achen

If?









Don't get me wrong. I am happy for more Star Wars and I am very optimistic about the direction of the sequel trilogy. But Lucas is a liar liar pants on fire.

As far as I'm concerned, any Star Wars films done without George Lucas might be cool, but I consider them Expanded Universe.

[thegoat]

Originally Posted by greg_achen

Except when we were repeatedly told (during the prequel era) that it was always intended to be a six film saga and that Episode III "completed" the story. Lucas is a liar and even his most ardent defenders can't deny he has told some blatant lies throughout the years (most of which has corroborating video evidence to prove his contradictory statements).

Oh geez. It's the creative process mixed with marketing. It's gone from a big script broken into three parts to a nine or twelve film saga to a six part story. Now, it's back to nine films. Plans for the franchise have changed according to creative whim, life circumstances, and (currently) franchise ownership. You talk like he's denying the events of the Holocaust.

[greg_achen]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

Well, the man's had these ideas all his life, and it's bound to change and evolve over time, especially as times and studio politics always change. Can we really hold him to something he said 5, 10, 20, 30 years ago? Or even anything he said last year?

I'm grateful the idea's evolved into nine whole films. Just as I'm glad the Force was never made into just a crystal, as initially imagined.

The creative process is never a static thing (especially in Lucas' case, apparently).

I agree. It's when he uses language such as "always intended" and "always planned" that he puts his foot in his mouth. I would expect him to at least phrase things a little better and be a little more open about the creative process so that he didn't blatantly contradict his previous statements and come across as a liar, but regardless, the point remains the same: take anything Lucas says with a grain of salt because it's liable change. Claiming that he always intended to make a sequel trilogy using a quote made over 30 years ago means nothing if we use quotes from later in his career that concretely refute his earlier quotes. He was either lying then or he is lying now.

Oh geez. It's the creative process mixed with marketing. It's gone from a big script broken into three parts to a nine or twelve film saga to a six part story. Now, it's back to nine films. Plans for the franchise have changed according to creative whim, life circumstances, and (currently) franchise ownership. You talk like he's denying the events of the Holocaust.

A perfect example of Godwin's law and hyperbole.

[Elvis]

Originally Posted by octagon

No.

First, the cynical reasons: the wheels started coming off the Star Wars bus with Jedi and there's every chance that Episodes VII-IX would have been horrible in many of the same ways the prequels were horrible. Why would I want to put Luke and Han and Leia through something like that? It's bad enough Han had to endure Jedi.

The not so cynical reasons: it's hard to crank out six interesting movies feature the same basic people in the same basic places fighting over the same basic things. You can't have your heroes stumble into the heart one grand adventure after another without the adventures starting to seem a little less grand. I mean, how many terrorists does John McClane have to trip over before it starts to seem silly? And the original cast - Harrison Ford in particular - was tiring of the whole thing too. The chances of getting three more good movies out of them all? I dunno.

So on the money!

[singhcr]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Maybe that's what injured Harrison Ford on-set; it was the goddamned fridge door!

[thegoat]

Originally Posted by greg_achen

A perfect example of Godwin's law and hyperbole.

Not at all. Nobody was being compared to Hitler or the actions/mentalitiy of the Nazis. You could substitute any political or public scandal in there without changing the meaning of my statement.The idea that he's deliberately creating a ruse or a cover up, as if he has something to hide, is just silly

Calling someone a liar and claiming to have public documentation of these lies does seem hyperbolic when refering to a filmmaker discussing plans for a franchise, though.