george lucas | the m0vie blog

Twixt a Rock and a Hard Place: Francis Ford Coppola, Movie DJ…

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Darren

A large part of me has tremendous respect for Francis Ford Coppola, even if his stock was considerably diminished by the twin misfires of The Godfather, Part III and Bram Stoker’s Dracula in the nineties. However, it takes a significant amount of courage to pretty much turn your back on major movie studios and produce a string of relatively independent and relatively experimental films, especially when you could legitimately be described as one of the main architects of modern cinema. Part of me wonders what would happen if George Lucas and Steven Spielberg attempted something similar to the string of low-budget arthouse releases Coppola has directed in recent years. His latest film, Twixt, comes with a gimmick that would put 3D to shame. The director is taking it on tour, and will apparently “remix” it for each and every audience. There’s no guarantee that two different audiences will see the same film.

Mixmeister Coppola...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Ben Chaplin, Bram Stoker's Dracula (Collector's Edition), Elle Fanning, francis ford coppola, george lucas, richard donner, ridley scott, steven spielberg, Twixt, val kilmer | 6 Comments »

The Trouble With Trilogies: Why Superhero Fanchises Have Trouble With the Third Instalment…

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Darren

So, it turns out that The Dark Knight Rises has a top secret ending. That’s very interesting, and I wonder what it could be. A few obvious possibilities have popped into my head, but there’s one facet of this news which really fascinates me: this piece of information gives weight to the suggestion that Nolan is going to give his superhero franchise a definitive ending, something that perhaps explains why we don’t really have a “classic” superhero trilogy yet, despite the fact that quite a few comic book characters have pushed well past the third film. So will Batman be able to do what Superman, Spider-Man, the X-Men and even another Batman have failed to do before him? Will he craft a complete and wonderful trilogy?

Batman really wants to know what the ending is...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: batman forever, Batman in film, Christopher Nolan, closure, conclusion, endings, film trilogies, films, george lucas, Movies, spider man, spider-man 3, star wars, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, The Godfather Part III, trilogies, Wachowski Brothers | 3 Comments »

Family Guy: Blue Harvest

Posted on December 24, 2010 by Darren

A long time ago, yet somehow in the future…

The wonderful thing about myths is that they essentially repeat. All the great and epic stories have been told time and time again, from the first cavemen passing the time by a late night fire through to the matinée screening of the latest big budget blockbuster. Each generation creates their own variation of the myth, putting their own spin on it – some parts are given more emphasis in this iteration, while we shy away from others. In writing Star Wars, George Lucas acknowledged his debt to Joseph Campbell, the author who proposed a “monomyth” – the idea that there is one single overarching story which has been told tim and time again. I reckon that it’s this timelessness is the root of the film’s success, and what makes it such a ripe target for Family Guy.

Click to enlarge...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: blue harvest, comedy, family guy, family guy: blue harvest, george lucas, homage, It's a Trap!, John Williams, Joseph Campbell, Judd Nelson, reference, Seth MacFarlane, star wars, Television | 2 Comments »

Is a Film Ever “Done” These Days?

Posted on October 4, 2010 by Darren

I was reading last week about how George Lucas is planning yet another re-release of Star Wars in 2012. This time in glorious 3D. Glorious post-conversion 3D. Yes, that was sarcasm. It’s interesting that Lucas continues to push for editing and updating the saga, especially considering his earlier position on updating existing films (in this case arguing against converting black & white films to colour):

“I am very concerned about our national heritage, and I am very concerned that the films that I watched when I was young and the films that I watched throughout my life are preserved, so that my children can see them,” he said. He furthermore remarked: “In the future it will become easier for old negatives to become lost and be ‘replaced’ by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.”

And yet, he has repeatedly demonstrated over the past decade or so that he is devoted to rewriting his version of Star Wars, arguing that it is simply never complete – he’s moving it closer to complete with every update. In this era of directors’ cuts and special extended editions, is becoming commonplace to accept that the theatrical release of a film isn’t the “finished” or “completed” version.

The infamous "everyone rocks out" deleted scene...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: blade runner, directors cut, DVD, extended editions, film, george lucas, Kingdom of Heaven, Movie, revisionism, ridley scott, science fiction, special editions, star wars, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, THX 1138 | 1 Comment »

Excuse My Na’vi-ity: At What Point Does Re-Releasing Avatar Become Overkill?

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Darren

I’ll admit that I did not like James Cameron’s Avatar as much as most. It was a slight disturbing racial fantasy played with Disney-esque simplicity and some truly incredible special effects. Such is life. It’s inevitable that my opinion diverges from the mainstream from time-to-time. I mean, everyone’s should at one point or another, right? Still, I can’t be the only person who thinks that re-releasing Avatar into the cinema smacks of cynicism – particularly with eight minutes of restored footage (that’s less that 5% of the total runtime). The movie is already the most successful movie ever made. At what point does enough become enough?

This movie has wings...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, avatar, avatar re-release, avatar rerelease, avatar: special edition, dark knight, DVD, film, george lucas, james cameron, Movies, re-release, special edition | 4 Comments »

Sticking it to the Fan: George Lucas and Fan/Hatedom

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Darren

By all accounts, George Lucas should be one of the most beloved people on the planet. Ignoring the fact that he was the forefather of one of the most iconic trilogies of all time (Star Wars), he has managed to expand the boundaries of what is possible with special effects (down to companies like Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound) and even in video games (many of the earliest videogames on flopdisk came from LucasArts). Beyond that he’s also the man perhaps most responsible for Indiana Jones and one of the most influential film makers of all time. And yet his name evokes a huge amount of discord when it’s spoken. Just why is that?

Lucas has un-Fett-ered control of the franchise...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: blu ray, fandom, films, gene roddenberry, george lucas, hatedom, Movies, science fiction, star wars, star wars trilogy, trilogy | Leave a comment »

George Lucas Planning a Trilogy of Trilogies

Posted on October 22, 2009 by Darren

Everyone loves a good, juicy rumour and this is about as juicy as it gets. Apparently George Lucas is working on a new trilogy of Star Wars films in order to capitalise on the 3D film-making craze – apparently remastering the originals isn’t all he had in mind. This sounds like something resembling a mixed blessing to anybody with particularly strong feelings about the original trilogy, but there is one grain of hope: apparently Lucas won’t be directing.

Maybe by the time he makes them, technology will be able to generate good performances from bad actors...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 3d, films, george lucas, Movies, prequel trilogy, rumours, sci-fi, science fiction, sequel trilogy, speculation, star wars, star wars trilogy | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: Raiders of the Lost Ark

Posted on August 4, 2009 by Darren

To “celebrate” the premiere of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (what’s to celebrate?), Sky Movies ran all three of the original movies back-to-back over the weekend. That’s a pretty good start to the weekend. I caught the first and third films, as well as rewatching the fourth. I’m going to try to catch Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom during the week. So, how do does the newly-formed tetralogy stand up?

"Doctor Jones, Doctor Jones... Calling Doctor Jones..."

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: films, george lucas, harrison ford, indiana jones, indiana jones and the raiders of the lost ark, Movies, non-review review, raiders of the lost ark, review, steven spielberg | 6 Comments »

Director’s Cuts: Remastered by the Old Masters

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Darren

The advent of incredibly flexibly home media has had an amazing impact on the world of film, right down to how the damn things are made. With producers carefully putting together additional content (or “bonus features”) for the eventual release of the film on home video (if that phrase means anything these days), and the temptation to “retouch” old films to bring them to the standard of the current format of entertainment system, it’s little surprise that we’ve seen the upswing that we have in the market for “Director’s Cuts” and “Extended Editions”. I’m kinda wondering if we’re entering a phase where all movies should be viewed in the same light as George Lucas views his own: they’re works in progress, never finished.