George Lucas, legendary filmmaker and creator of the Star Wars franchise, shared his thoughts on the current state of Hollywood during an interview with Brut at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. At 80, Lucas has had ample time to observe the industry from both within and without. When asked about the future of cinema, he was not optimistic. “Same thing as it is now,” he remarked. “What happens now – and it happens in streaming probably more than features, but features, it’s the same thing – nobody knows what to do. The stories they’re telling are just old movies. ‘Let’s do a sequel, let’s do another version of this movie.’ And it’s not just in movies, but in almost everything, there’s almost no original thinking.”
This perspective comes from someone whose creation, Star Wars, has become one of the most sequelized and spun-off franchises in film history. Since the release of Episode VII – The Force Awakens in 2015, there have been five additional Star Wars films. This doesn’t even include the various spin-off shows on Disney+, like The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, and Ahsoka.
George Lucas elaborated on his critique, saying, “It’s like, ‘I saw something, let’s do something like that.’ It’s also a way that movies are sold. If you go in and say, ‘I’ve got something that you’ve never seen before and you don’t understand it,’ it’s very hard to get a deal.” His frustration is evident in his assessment of the industry’s reluctance to embrace new ideas. Instead, Hollywood seems to favor the safe bet of rehashing familiar stories and concepts.
Although Lucas has distanced himself from active involvement in the Star Wars franchise since selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 for over $4 billion, he keeps an eye on its evolution. He has some harsh words about the direction that Disney has taken with his creation. “I was the one who really knew what Star Wars was…who actually knew this world, because there’s a lot to it. The force, for example, nobody understood the force,” Lucas said. “When they started other ones after I sold the company, a lot of the ideas that were in [the original] sort of got lost. But that’s the way it is. You give it up, you give it up.”
Lucas also discussed the role of technology in filmmaking, particularly the advancements made by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), the visual effects company he founded. He noted, “Well, we’ve been using it for 25 years, and it’s not AI, but we use all the digital technology because we pioneered a lot of that. Because especially at ILM, we were the only place that was doing digital.” Lucas has long been a proponent of technological innovation in film, and ILM has been at the forefront of digital effects.
Addressing the rise of AI in the industry, Lucas was pragmatic. “But the thing of it is,” he said, “it’s inevitable. I mean, it’s like saying, ‘I don’t believe these cars are gonna work. Let’s just stick with the horses. Let’s stick with the horses.’ And yeah, you can say that, but that isn’t the way the world works.” Lucas recognizes that change will be met with resistance, technological progress is unstoppable.
George Lucas’s comments on Hollywood and Disney highlight the lack of creativity in Disney and elsewhere in Hollywood.
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Wasn’t this clown just backing Iger during the potential takeover? Does he think we have the memory of a goldfish? lol.
It was very much his wife backing Iger. She is a co-trustee of his various trusts and even has come out the she has limited POA so she can basically put out any statement she wants from him. Why nobody should believe anything unless it’s out of his mouth.
He says all this but George Lucas has billions of dollars why isn’t he funding any original movies? Isn’t that what he was going to do after he sold Star Wars? It’s been 10 years he hasn’t done anything so he has no right to talk.
Flash Gordon + Lensmen + Dune = Star Wars.
Hardly original.
Very good, but hardly original.
Don’t forget Japanese Samurai films and Valerian.
Edgar Rice Boroughs stuff is in the public domain John Carter and Tarzan people should use the stories that are public domain for adaption.
okay, but being inspired by various things to create something new isn’t the same as just remaking an existing franchise or making more sequels to it
even the British took inspiration from Greek mythology when creating the Arthur legends
Batman took influence from The Shadow, Punisher took influence from a vigilante book from 1969 and so on and so forth.
If you take the ten minutes to watch the Lucas interview you’ll see he’s talking about his difficulties getting the first Star Wars movie made. They don’t mention Disney, the sequels, or any of the movies made after he left the franchise. What embarrassing clickbait.