Being a die-hard Star Wars fan, my proverbial heart stopped when I saw this headline! Reportedly, George Lucas is plotting new episodes at his top-secret Skywalker Ranch, according to IESB, who also claims that this could be more than just a rumor.
Fans could expect the new trilogy after the entire saga is released in 3D, which is expected to be complete in 2015 or 2016, and it will be sequels.
Wired quoted Lucasfilm spokesman Josh Kushins: “This is, of course, is completely false,” Lucasfilm spokesman Josh Kushins wrote to Wired. “George Lucas has plenty of projects to keep him busy right now – including plenty of Star Wars projects – but there are no new Star Wars feature films planned.”
Lucas himself said a while ago that the negative reaction from fans (let me at 'em?!?!?!) to his recent eforts (prequels) is ‘guilty' for his decision to quit with the SW movies, and not only that – he will also abandon blockbusters entirely and return to small-scale film making that marked the early years of his career.
The film-maker's longtime producing partner at Lucasfilm, Rick McCallum, confirmed: “Red Tails will be the last blockbuster Lucas makes. Once this is finished, he's done everything he's ever wanted to do. He will have completed his task as a man and a film-maker.”
Red Tails, which Lucas has funded with $58m of his own money after major studios refused to back it, is the story of the Tuskegee airmen, a squadron of untested African American pilots who won nearly 100 distinguished flying crosses during the second world war. The film is directed by The Wire's Anthony Hemingway and stars Cuba Gooding Jr, Terrence Howard and David Oyelowo.
Lucas, on board as producer, told The Times he was disgusted by the reaction from studios when he tried to secure funding.
During an interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show (this January) he claimed that racial issues were to blame for Hollywood's lack of interest. “It's because it's an all-black movie,” he said. “There's no major white roles at all. It's one of the first all-black action pictures ever made.”
He refused to apologize to fans for making digital changes to his original trilogy: “On the internet, all those same guys that are complaining I made a change are completely changing the movie. I'm saying: ‘Fine. But my movie, with my name on it, that says
I did it, needs to be the way I want it.'”
“Why would I make any more,” Lucas says, “when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?”
Dear Mr George, I'm sure that those nitpicky fans belong to the same bunch as critics – being unable to create something of their own, they spit on other people's work – so I'm sure that there are more fans like me who'd welcome anything Star Wars related that comes from Your ingenious brain. Please pay attention to us, too!
George Lucas
