Star Wars Is Lucas' Destiny.
George Lucas, director of Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones, told SCI FI Wire that it's his destiny to have "Star Wars creator" on his tombstone. "I had to accept that about 10 or 15 years ago, that there wasn't anything I could do about it," the filmmaker said in an interview, adding that it's ironic that contemporary and frequent collaborator Steven Spielberg is not identified with one single film phenomenon.
"The problem for me in terms of accepting my fate is that when I wrote this thing, I made the choice of saying, 'I like this stuff. I like this story. But I know I can't do it. So what I'll do is I'll just take the first third and make that into a movie.'"
Lucas added, "I did that instead of saying, 'OK, stop, we're going to rewrite the script and take all of these ideas and squeeze it down into a two-hour movie that will end with Darth Vader killing the Emperor.' I thought, 'Gosh, that could be hard to do in two hours. I'd have to cut out so much. I'd have to compromise so much so that I can't do this. So I want to do the first third, and I'll get the other parts done.' What happened? I ended up with a trilogy. That's E.T., Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark. I took those three shots [with Star Wars], while Steve became something other than Mr. Jaws or Mr. E.T. I kept on saying, 'Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars.' If you say it enough, then you're stuck. That's you! It could be worse. I did American Graffiti, and there are some people who are still fanatic about it. So I've done other films, but nothing on this level, and I probably will never ever do another film on this level. In the end, you accept it and say, 'Life could be worse.' I'm proud of Star Wars."
George Lucas, director of Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones, told SCI FI Wire that it's his destiny to have "Star Wars creator" on his tombstone. "I had to accept that about 10 or 15 years ago, that there wasn't anything I could do about it," the filmmaker said in an interview, adding that it's ironic that contemporary and frequent collaborator Steven Spielberg is not identified with one single film phenomenon.
"The problem for me in terms of accepting my fate is that when I wrote this thing, I made the choice of saying, 'I like this stuff. I like this story. But I know I can't do it. So what I'll do is I'll just take the first third and make that into a movie.'"
Lucas added, "I did that instead of saying, 'OK, stop, we're going to rewrite the script and take all of these ideas and squeeze it down into a two-hour movie that will end with Darth Vader killing the Emperor.' I thought, 'Gosh, that could be hard to do in two hours. I'd have to cut out so much. I'd have to compromise so much so that I can't do this. So I want to do the first third, and I'll get the other parts done.' What happened? I ended up with a trilogy. That's E.T., Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark. I took those three shots [with Star Wars], while Steve became something other than Mr. Jaws or Mr. E.T. I kept on saying, 'Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars.' If you say it enough, then you're stuck. That's you! It could be worse. I did American Graffiti, and there are some people who are still fanatic about it. So I've done other films, but nothing on this level, and I probably will never ever do another film on this level. In the end, you accept it and say, 'Life could be worse.' I'm proud of Star Wars."
