By George, Lucas is out of the feature film business

[Scadente]

I do believe Lucas is on his money here. The future is internet publishing, via some organ we don't know of yet. TV as we know it is dying, just look at all the reality TV thats showing up. The counterweight are some high-quality TV-shows (BSG, Lost, CSI), some of which are quality through and through, others excel in presentation. As I see it, Warhol is cheering in his grave. Have a look at YouTube and all the "intarweb-celebs" it has spawned, hell someone called "lonleygirl15" is supposedly going to become a UN spokesperson. We're moving more and more into the territory of celebrities being people everybody could become. It's not admiration, everything related to celebrities is purely cringe-worthy. If you ever watched Big Brother, you'd spend most of the time on the couch hiding your face. I'm not saying it's happening NOW! But slowly it's creeping up, and a generation that grew up on the web is coming off age.

Some might call it TV-Democracy, low-brow becoming no-brow. People who should be in charge are losing it to the masses. Driveling, dumb and uninteresting masses. But the attentionwhores get their confirmation on their existence, and the rest get a good laugh. So we all win, right?

Decadency; fall of man.

[Riggswolfe]

Piss and moan about the prequels all you like but don't start going overboard with all this "he wasted his life" bullshit. The man could probably buy Blizzard with his pocket change. So I think his life went pretty well.

Great, he's a rich douchebag.  Yay.  Supposedly he chose directing as his vocation, and instead of actually doing anything interesting after 1977 he rode the Star Wars money train.  This was a guy who showed some serious promise, and none of it was realized.  Does anyone remember American Graffiti?  That was really a quite decent movie, and then he follows it up with Star Wars, which is by anyone's count a pretty awesome sophomore effort.

To the best of my knowledge none of his peers sold out as thoroughly as he did, not even his closest peer, Spielberg.  Shit, Spielberg could have coasted on Jaws for a good long while but real directors try to move on to other projects.  So yeah.  Hack, pathetic, rich moneybags loser.  These are all appropriate terms for Lucas.

You still have yet to explain how he sold out? This sounds like more ex-fanboy whining to me and I've heard a ton of it since 1999. Boohoo. Lucas sold out. He wants to make money off his films and not be a starving artist! Boohoo!

Fuck that noise. I think George Lucas dabbled in directing (let's face it he's directed how many movies now? ) and decided he liked other aspects of the movie business better like producing and essentially becoming his own studio. It's not about selling out, it's about control. Lucas could be a director but be beholden to studios or he could go the route he has gone and live his own dream which is to have total control of his movies. You act like Star Wars is only this cash cow that he sold his artistic soul to.  Star Wars freed the man to live his true dream.

George Lucas is a control freak (it's why he rarely directs, it's too stressful because he can't step back.) and Star Wars has enabled him to have control over his life and his finances to a level he probably never dreamed of. It's that simple.

So stop with the selling out shit. The guys making movies for studios? They're the sell-outs. Lucas is living his own dream. You just don't like his dream and feel like he pissed on your childhood. Get over it. If he sold out he would have made the prequels the fanboys were crying about. He made the prequels he wanted to see. And they made a ton of money and non-cynical people actually found some enjoyment in them. They're not art, they were never intended to be. But fuck art, art is usually boring and pretentious.

[HaemishM]

You still have yet to explain how he sold out? This sounds like more ex-fanboy whining to me and I've heard a ton of it since 1999. Boohoo. Lucas sold out. He wants to make money off his films and not be a starving artist! Boohoo!

Star Wars Bed sheets.
Star Wars cereal.
Star Wars toothpaste.
Darth Vader on Burger King commercials with that creepy pedophile King character.

And that's just the small bits. If you can't see how someone could consider him a sellout, you are blind. I have no problem with merchandising, I think it's great for the creator if he gets a share of it. But when he starts merchandising his creation on everything from motor oil to Target, he's sold out.

[Samwise]

If you could make money selling GameAngst-branded bedsheets, would you?  Be honest now.

[Roac]

What exactly is Lucas supposedly selling out from?  His goal is to make movies/TV/contentstuff and he needs money to do that.  Because he wants to make HIS content and not someone else's, he wants to be financially independant.  If selling Darth Vader Strawberry Preserves (tm) helps ensure that, that's what he's going to do. 

His cause has basically been to make money... you can't sell out from that. 

Edit: spelling

[Riggswolfe]

What exactly is Lucas supposedly selling out from?  His goal is to make movies/TV/contentstuff and he needs money to do that.  Because he wants to make HIS content and not someone else's, he wants to be financially independant.  If selling Darth Vader Strawberry Preserves (tm) to help ensure that, that's what he's going to do. 

His cause has basically been to make money... you can't sell out from that. 

Exactly. You guys act like Lucas was pretending to be some kind of Stanley Kubrick rebel film-maker who was all about the art. You're deluding yourselves.

[HaemishM]

If you could make money selling GameAngst-branded bedsheets, would you?  Be honest now.

I'll be honest, it would depend. If I needed that money to continue, probably. If that money was the difference between the 1500 square foot house and the 3000 square foot house, maybe but likely not.

If that money was just .01% of the other 99.9% of a billion-dollar merchandising smorgasbord, no. No, I wouldn't. It isn't that he merchandised the brand that bothers me. It's that he not only merchandised the brand, he whored that bitch dry. We're not talking about a guy who had trouble feeding his family, we're talking about a guy who has made one of the most money-making, successful fim franchises of all time. There has to be a point as an artist or a businessman or an anything where you really just don't need that extra bit of money enough to dilute the brand any further. It's a fine tipping point, but he long ago reached that point and his Jabba-like blubber pushed him far far over the edge.

That's the problem with American capitalism and selling out. At some point, enough has to be enough.

[Samwise]

You're more principled than I am by a long shot.  The only thing stopping me from selling out is a lack of buyers.   :-(

[Roac]

Lucas isn't hurting for personal money, and never will no matter what happens.  That isn't the point.  If he wans to keep doing what he likes doing, he needs money to fund his business.  While his personal future is secure, that of his company isn't.  One sour movie could significantly impact his ability to do that, and part of what he's railing against.  Look at the production schedule for LucasArts; they are close to gambling their company on every film they make.  They're going to grab for every dollar they can get, if not for capitalistic reasons, then very practical ones.  Yes, even if it's only 0.1% of their income.

[Ironwood]

You're more principled than I am by a long shot.  The only thing stopping me from selling out is a lack of buyers.   :-(

Seconded.  I'd sell my grannies dentures if they had gold in em.


Seems to me, any time someone takes their art in a direction that someone doesn't like it's called selling out these days.  If we're actually talking about, you know, the proper definition then, Yeah, Lucas sold out.  Ages and ages ago.  For pots and pots and pots of cash.

So what ?

[eldaec]

You're more principled than I am by a long shot.  The only thing stopping me from selling out is a lack of buyers.   :-(

Thirded.

And even if Lucas is an evil sell out, it's not as if he sold anything out thta he didn't create in the first place. Teh intarweb "community" would do well to realise that it did not create the star wars universe and does not own it.

[eldaec]

That said I think he's missing the point on why television is becoming more dominant than film.

It's not about volume per se, it's about convienience (I'd *always* prefer to watch anything on my nice television and my nice sound system, in my nice living with nice people, then put up with out of focus pictures, distorted sound, and sitting next to mouthbreathing retards with dubious personal hygenie in a cinema), and it's also about risk taking, smaller TV episode budgets allow more risk taking and more originality.

[Riggswolfe]

If you could make money selling GameAngst-branded bedsheets, would you?  Be honest now.

I'll be honest, it would depend. If I needed that money to continue, probably. If that money was the difference between the 1500 square foot house and the 3000 square foot house, maybe but likely not.

I usually enjoy your posts Haemish but here you're either being pretentious or you're lying either one. I'd whore myself out all day long for that extra 1500 square feet as would most any American. It's the American dream damn it...

[stray]

There are lots of people with plenty of opportunity to "sell out". Some of them don't. It happens. Shouldn't be that hard to believe.

[Signe]

This is why I don't work.  I don't want to be in the position of "selling out."  I let Righ do that.  In fact, I encourage it!  This way we get piles of money and stuff and when I blink my eyes and say, "I'm innocent!",  it's genuine.

[Triforcer]

It gives me a warm feeling when Internet ppls discuss "selling out".      Lucas is the embodiment of the American Dream- he's made money doing something he loves. 

[Ironwood]

It's a valid discussion area.  Just not in regards to douchebag directors.

[stray]

The whole "15 year old" thing is getting real old. Do you realize how much you use it, Triforcer? I think I've seen you resort to that dumb accusation in every single thread you've posted in.

Think of something else. Offer something else. Talk with people.


As for "Internet ppls   " --- The fact that you even use words like "ppls" and heart emotes means you are more enamored with the Internet than most people.

[Triforcer]

Wow, board's grumpy today.  And thanks for demonstrating your inability to understand sarcasm, Stray.

[stray]

Don't bullshit me.

[Riggswolfe]

There are lots of people with plenty of opportunity to "sell out". Some of them don't. It happens. Shouldn't be that hard to believe.

Some don't but they're rare enough that I think most people are full of shit when they say they wouldn't.

[HaemishM]

If you could make money selling GameAngst-branded bedsheets, would you?  Be honest now.

I'll be honest, it would depend. If I needed that money to continue, probably. If that money was the difference between the 1500 square foot house and the 3000 square foot house, maybe but likely not.

I usually enjoy your posts Haemish but here you're either being pretentious or you're lying either one. I'd whore myself out all day long for that extra 1500 square feet as would most any American. It's the American dream damn it...

In years past, maybe I would. After I bought my house, I got a strange sensation, one that I'd not gotten before. A warm fuzzy deep in the cockles, maybe in the subcockles. I'm walking my dog around the marina about 30 yards from my house, I have a great wife and that feeling said, "I'm not completely satisfied. Things could get better. I could sell that novel and make a little more money. I'd like a fenced yard, another bedroom and a bigger kitchen. I'd like a garden tub. I'd like a bigger TV. But if it never got better than this house, in this place, with this woman and this dog, that'd be ok too."

So yes, if it meant the difference between 1500 square feet and 3000, I could live with the 1500 square feet if it meant I wouldn't feel like a complete goddamn cumguzzling whore who takes the people that believed in him, that dug his writing and used their obsessive devotion as a cash cow, squeezing out every drop to feed his own little overindulgences.

Despite what American media and corporations will try to tell you, 1500 square feet is a pretty damn nice house. You don't NEED that other 1500 square feet unless you are housing a second family.

[XboxGod]

What exactly is Lucas supposedly selling out from?  His goal is to make movies/TV/contentstuff and he needs money to do that.  Because he wants to make HIS content and not someone else's, he wants to be financially independant.  If selling Darth Vader Strawberry Preserves (tm) to help ensure that, that's what he's going to do. 

His cause has basically been to make money... you can't sell out from that. 

Exactly. You guys act like Lucas was pretending to be some kind of Stanley Kubrick rebel film-maker who was all about the art. You're deluding yourselves.

QFT.

[Stormwaltz]

Not to interrupt your repartee, but George dueled Stephen Colbert last night. It may be the most whimsical thing I've seen him do in years.

[Ironwood]

In years past, maybe I would. After I bought my house, I got a strange sensation, one that I'd not gotten before. A warm fuzzy deep in the cockles, maybe in the subcockles. I'm walking my dog around the marina about 30 yards from my house, I have a great wife and that feeling said, "I'm not completely satisfied. Things could get better. I could sell that novel and make a little more money. I'd like a fenced yard, another bedroom and a bigger kitchen. I'd like a garden tub. I'd like a bigger TV. But if it never got better than this house, in this place, with this woman and this dog, that'd be ok too."

Yes.  I know exactly what you mean.  But you want to know the horrible thing ?

When the first kid arrives that changes.  Suddenly EVERYTHING isn't good enough.  EVERYTHING.  And you'll rip out your guts to make sure it is.

[Roac]

Not to interrupt your repartee, but George dueled Stephen Colbert last night. It may be the most whimsical thing I've seen him do in years.

Yeah, that was funny.  I'm glad he did, because he fell terribly flat during the interview.  Lucas stabbing Stephen through the crotch was gold.

[XboxGod]

Not to interrupt your repartee, but George dueled Stephen Colbert last night. It may be the most whimsical thing I've seen him do in years.

Hahaha. They both sucked pretty bad though.

[Krakrok]

I was watching the making of Mystery of the Nile (IMAX) and one of the producer guys mentioned that they had 45 different cuts of the movie and how Hollywood uses prescreenings to test out audience reaction to different cuts. That is 45 slightly or vastly different movies for the same budget. For crackhead fans thats 45 different versions of the same movie for them to buy.

One way to capitalize on the long tail of that would be to release the official main cut in theaters and on wide distro DVD. Then you take the other 44 cuts or whatever and make them available for online viewing. The viewers can watch a low quality version online, rank the 45 different cuts of the same movie, and order a high quality DVD of that cut instead of buying the offical main cut DVD.

[stray]

At some point, there needs to be an official "storyteller". Not forty five different Alan Smithee's. I don't like the idea.

If people get picky to that extent, then they should just make their own movie.