George Lucas Says He Sold Star Wars to "White Slavers" - Update

[Fox12]

It surprises me that he used the term 'white slavers' lol... is he referring to those desert bandits in Star Wars that enslave robots, or passengers? I think he's at that age where mistakes can be made when the mind mixes fictional characters with reality slurs.

Either that or he really meant the term, which could be racist yet Disney is trying to take control of every franchise out there in fictional history so i'm not going to blame him for calling them 'slavers' even though it's quite extreme lol. At least he apologized in a very professional manner but like everyone else said ... you sold your kids for $4 billion dollars and can't expect to have some control over the Star Wars franchise anymore man.

In Disney's defense, they're giving their directors/producers a substantial amount of creative freedom. This is why the MCU has done so well - comic book writers are creating comic book movies. I welcome our mouse-eared overlords.

Are they, though? They've hired some of the most creative people in Hollywood for their films, only to fire them for being too creative. When you sign on to write/direct a Marvel film they basically sit you down and tell you what the stories going to be about. And it's almost always about a pre-existing plot line from a comic book.

I'm a little nervous about Disney trying to turn every single thing into a franchise.

 

[Hawki]

It surprises me that he used the term 'white slavers' lol... is he referring to those desert bandits in Star Wars that enslave robots, or passengers? I think he's at that age where mistakes can be made when the mind mixes fictional characters with reality slurs.

Either that or he really meant the term, which could be racist yet Disney is trying to take control of every franchise out there in fictional history so i'm not going to blame him for calling them 'slavers' even though it's quite extreme lol. At least he apologized in a very professional manner but like everyone else said ... you sold your kids for $4 billion dollars and can't expect to have some control over the Star Wars franchise anymore man.

In Disney's defense, they're giving their directors/producers a substantial amount of creative freedom. This is why the MCU has done so well - comic book writers are creating comic book movies. I welcome our mouse-eared overlords.

Are they, though? They've hired some of the most creative people in Hollywood for their films, only to fire them for being too creative. When you sign on to write/direct a Marvel film they basically sit you down and tell you what the stories going to be about. And it's almost always about a pre-existing plot line from a comic book.

I'm a little nervous about Disney trying to turn every single thing into a franchise.

Isn't that more an Marvel Studios thing rather than Disney though? I've heard tales of creative control issues in the MCU (e.g. Whedon and Age of Ultron - not seen it myself), but I always got the impression that Marvel was the one carrying out control, whereas Disney gave them free range.

On the other hand, as I understand it, Pixar is contractually obligated to give Disney X ammount of sequels over Y amount of years, so there's that I guess.

 

[MCerberus]

Look at the animated stuff. Clone Wars is the absolute best thing to have come out of the prequels. While Lucas was involved it was kinda meh. As soon as he left production the shows quality skyrocketed. Rebels has 0 Lucas involvement and its amazeballs too.

Lucas may have come up with Star Wars, but if it weren't for the people around him they would have all been like the prequels. Meh to downright insulting.

More directly, rumor is The Clone Wars was inspired by Genndy's miniseries, which was distilled awesomeness. Lucas' version of it was... the 3d animated movie, a terrible, terrible thing.

And it leads to a direct comparison between movie!Greivous and miniseries!Greivous, which is wheezing idiot vs hellish mass-Jedi killing ninja nightmare

 

[shintakie10]

So, outrageous sensationalist clickbait title. And then an update saying it didn't really happen like that. Wow Escapist, just wow

Except...that is what he said. White slavers was the exact word he used. They quoted the exact line he used in the original quote.

He later updated it because everyone pointed out how fuckin stupid the thing he said was.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

"People don't understand how funny Jar Jar Binks is, he's the key to all of this".

I know he once said something to that effect, but I'd really like to know what he had in mind, mostly because of morbid curiosity.

Was Binks supposed to turn into this jester-like figure of sorts, the fool who nobody takes seriously even if he's pulling strings and advising his higher-ups over matters of galactic import? I know Episode II drops him in the Senate and gives him one or two lines, but that's it.

I'm honestly wondering. I can't figure out a sequence of events that could plausibly involve Jar Jar Binks being the "key" to the formative events behind the Empire and Darth Vader, as well as the near-extinction of the Jedi Order. Even then, Lucas doesn't have the narrative ability to sell something this complex. It would've devolved into "Meesa plays with galactic politics because LULZ!" and it would've been difficult to honestly buy into that.

 

[martyrdrebel27]

I would have at least went with "White Privileged Neo-Nazi Cishetero slaving rape apologist rebuplican gamergating jewish bro patriarch furries

Oh, c'mon. I thought we were past the furry hate now.

@OP: Nothing else really that needs to be said that everyone else here hasn't already said. You sold Star Wars for 4 bill. Stop crying. Maybe you should start making a new IP however if you really think you know what makes a good movie, Lucas.

i'd love to see him make a new IP, just so people can truly see what a talentless hack he's become.

EDIT: I don't hate furries, I just don't get it. if people wanna bang each other in panda suits, have a good time. I just don't understand, well, most fetishes to be honest. and i'd never ask a furry to pet-sit for me.

Okay, for one, most furries dont own a fursuit. They tend to mostly draw or consume other drawn art of animal people, and I'm willing to bet the vast majority of it isnt porn either.

It's mostly not a fetish. They tend to like it far more because they're interested in the whole anthropomorphism thing as a concept.

For two, furries are not zoophiles. The assertion that they are misses the entire point of the whole fandom to such a huge extent that it's insulting at best and downright offensive at worst.

haha, guess I just dropped the fur-bomb. btw, I wasn't serious about the pets thing. and if i'm being honest, a sexy cat lady definitely has some appeal. it has to be mostly human though. like, 80/20 in favor of human. also, I thought that the suits were a huge part of the lifestyle.

 

[Kameburger]

Wow... Just leave him the hell alone. Clearly giving up star wars was a big deal for him do we have to keep reopening this old fucking wound?? God it's like going through a breakup and having soone tell you over and over how they really liked you two as a couple for the most part and how you ruined and she's happier now. Leave him alone. He's human let him do his thing.

 

[The Enquirer]

"People don't understand how funny Jar Jar Binks is, he's the key to all of this".

I'm honestly wondering. I can't figure out a sequence of events that could plausibly involve Jar Jar Binks being the "key" to the formative events behind the Empire and Darth Vader, as well as the near-extinction of the Jedi Order. Even then, Lucas doesn't have the narrative ability to sell something this complex. It would've devolved into "Meesa plays with galactic politics because LULZ!" and it would've been difficult to honestly buy into that.

There was that one scene where the moron convinced a lot of people to give Palpatine the emergency powers.

That said they could have made a character without the main attribute of fucking up vote him in to actually show just how convincing Palpatine really is.

 

[VoidWanderer]

If anyone ever doubted that he wrote that terrible dialogue in the prequel trilogy, this article is more than enough proof.

 

[jklinders]

So if Disney are "White Slavers" and the Star Wars franchise are Lucas' children, exactly what does that make the Lucas who sold his children to "White Slavers?"
...

I just now watched the clip in the article, and as far as I can tell; That was his entire point. -He did not accuse Disney of being white slavers; He made a self-deprecating joke about how the selling makes him a bad parent, with "white slavers" there to make the deed more severe -- the assigning of the epitath to the particular buyer, is all the work of the viewer.

As an aside: Here lies the actual issue, that the Escapist staff resolutely swept under the rug, when they defended click-bait article titles recently, instead going on and on about their financial motives, and all the other kids also doing it.

Issue is that these titles go out of their way to be misleading, and that people will read only the title, take it at face value, and form strong opinions without the real context, as evidenced by every comments section to an article ever -- even when we do read, we do so primed with a prejudice that colours the reading.

Truth. Fact is, the news section is all but useless here now for these very reasons.

Clickbait is actually a pretty vile practice and does not deserve any kind of reward. Shame really. The Escapist used to be pretty decent along the lines of providing news.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

...Does anyone really give a fuck?

Yeah, you tried to do something new with every film, and it was awful. After the war crimes that were the prequel films, is it really a surprise that Disney told him to piss off?

The steaming pile of excrement we call Star Wars Episode 7 is nothing but a shameless rip off of the original trilogy. To add insult to injury Disney has turned the Star Wars franchise into a SJW propaganda machine. Aftermath is just a cess-pit of political correctness. Rey doe not come off as believable because she's got God Mode activated throughout the movie and refuses help from any male character. Captain Phasma serves no purpose than to shoe horn in another "strong" female character that does diddly squat. Finn is the token black guy. In the movie white men are relegated to the duties of bad guys, dead guys, or minor characters. Poe Dameron was a far more interesting and likable character than Finn, Rey, or Kylo.

Edit: With the terrible plot holes in the story Episode 7 is much worse than the prequels which were very much a product of their time. Early 2000s was CGI heavy which meant bad CGI. There also wasn't a good selection of new talent at the filming of the prequels either.

That's... Nice? I actually thought Ep7 was decent enough, but fair enough. My main point (taking my own feelings on the films out of it) was that Disney were always going to take the safest bet, and that's certainly not Lucas after how poorly received the prequels were.

...Does anyone really give a fuck?

Yeah, you tried to do something new with every film, and it was awful. After the war crimes that were the prequel films, is it really a surprise that Disney told him to piss off?

>comparing a bunch of sci-fi movies to war crimes

Do I really need to explain why I hate OT fanboys?

Nice one, I was definitely making a literal comparison between some films and warcrimes because hyperbole isn't a real thing and we should all state our opinions in the blandest, most factual way possible.

 

[Pinky's Brain]

Rey doe not come off as believable because she's got God Mode activated throughout the movie and refuses help from any male character.

With the number of boxes the writers were forced to tick as for as progressiveness and carbon copying scenes from the original trilogy and while trying to compress most of the hero's journey into one movie I'm not sure if it was possible to do much better. This movie was essentially a means to get a new generation on the same wavelength as the one who grew up with the original trilogy, with slightly different characters and more progressive.

Now that they have that out of the way perhaps they can make a better movie next time ... or the next movie will have an ice planet and focus on a variation of Darth Vader/Luke with Leia and Kylo.

Poe Dameron was a far more interesting and likable character than Finn, Rey, or Kylo.

He'll probably be gay in the next movie, which I wouldn't really care about if it wasn't just more unsubtle ticking of progressive boxes, I wonder how they are going to fit a transsexual in.

PS. I would like Finn better if he wasn't a gender swapped damsel in distress. Always funny how the progressive crowd can be made to cheer deeply regressive characters.

 

[Callate]

George? Just shut up. Just... Go away for a year, if that's what it takes to have people stop sticking a camera in your face about the new movies. Pick a nice island in the Caribbean. A villa in the Mediterranean. Some swanky hotel in Reykjavik. Whatever. You have billions of dollars. You can afford it. Just. Shut. UP!

I was chatting with a friend at a New Year's Eve brunch who pointed out that what Lucas did when he could do whatever he wanted was Strange Magic. Said friend also suggested that a big part of the success of the original trilogy (aside from budget constraints and wary suits breathing down his neck) may have been because of the editing and guidance of Marcia Lucas, George's now ex-wife.

Whatever the truth of the matter, there's a strong suggestion that whatever gifts Lucas may have once had as a film-maker, they've faded. It's all very sad, I'm sure. But I need to hear what Lucas thinks should be done with Star Wars at this point like I need to hear Dick Cheney's advice on Middle Eastern foreign policy: you had your chance, you fucked up big time, now STOP.

In time, people will forgive and forget, but you need to go away, first, and lest you forget, you sold your "children" for four billion dollars and there's absolutely no reason for sympathy.

 

[Fox12]

"People don't understand how funny Jar Jar Binks is, he's the key to all of this".

I know he once said something to that effect, but I'd really like to know what he had in mind, mostly because of morbid curiosity.

Was Binks supposed to turn into this jester-like figure of sorts, the fool who nobody takes seriously even if he's pulling strings and advising his higher-ups over matters of galactic import? I know Episode II drops him in the Senate and gives him one or two lines, but that's it.

I'm honestly wondering. I can't figure out a sequence of events that could plausibly involve Jar Jar Binks being the "key" to the formative events behind the Empire and Darth Vader, as well as the near-extinction of the Jedi Order. Even then, Lucas doesn't have the narrative ability to sell something this complex. It would've devolved into "Meesa plays with galactic politics because LULZ!" and it would've been difficult to honestly buy into that.

He just meant that if Jar Jar failed then he would drag the entire movie down with him. Which is what ended up happening. Lucas made a wager and lost.

It's like how Yoda was the key to episode 5. All they had was this weird little swamp puppet. If theaudiance accepted him then they were good. If they hated him the Yoda would have dragged down the entire film. In that instance their gamble paid off in a big way.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

A more accurate headline might be "George Lucas, Clearly Joking, Says He Sold Star Wars to White Slavers." Granted, you might not like the man's art, but it doesn't mean he's not an artist. Dude is prone to exaggerate since he doesn't get to make Star Wars anymore, even though he created it, and it clearly bugs him. It's not about the money because he already had plenty of it. His assertions that Star Wars is a "soap opera" does give a lot of insight into why the prequels were so utterly mediocre. He cast a soap opera actor in the lead role and shot the last two movies exactly like soaps.

 

[tacotrainwreck]

Huh. Is that just his way of calling it a lateral transfer?

 

[Wackymon]

Spoiler: Welcome to Disney hell, Lucas

I'm not really that surprised that George Lucas doesn't like the new movie...what he considers "Good" kinda started skewing far from the commonly accepted definition after the original version of episode VI (some would say during Episode VI).

Once we can finally get the Unaltered original trilogy on official bluray, balance will truly have been restored to the Force.

Han didn't shoot first. He was the only one who shot.

I've heard some good things about the despecialized edition, which trys it's best to return it to as close to the originals as it can get.

 

[PapaGreg096]

Rey doe not come off as believable because she's got God Mode activated throughout the movie and refuses help from any male character.

With the number of boxes the writers were forced to tick as for as progressiveness and carbon copying scenes from the original trilogy and while trying to compress most of the hero's journey into one movie I'm not sure if it was possible to do much better. This movie was essentially a means to get a new generation on the same wavelength as the one who grew up with the original trilogy, with slightly different characters and more progressive.

Now that they have that out of the way perhaps they can make a better movie next time ... or the next movie will have an ice planet and focus on a variation of Darth Vader/Luke with Leia and Kylo.

Poe Dameron was a far more interesting and likable character than Finn, Rey, or Kylo.

He'll probably be gay in the next movie, which I wouldn't really care about if it wasn't just more unsubtle ticking of progressive boxes, I wonder how they are going to fit a transsexual in.

PS. I would like Finn better if he wasn't a gender swapped damsel in distress. Always funny how the progressive crowd can be made to cheer deeply regressive characters.

How was Finn a damsel in distress, sure he was overpowered a few times but there were many time when he held his own. Also the anti SJWs are becoming as bad as the regular SJWs

 

[Lilani]

Lucas gets no pity from me in regard to Disney not allowing him full creative control. Of course they weren't going to do that, not with how ill-regarded the prequels are. The fact that the man either does not see that or is unwilling to admit it just comes across as him being stuck up his own ass. And apparently his creative integrity has a price considering Disney didn't exactly have to hold a gun to his head to get him to sell the franchise. What I'm getting from his response is that he has his own creative vision regarding where the franchise should go, however he doesn't seem to want to admit that one of the primary requirements for this particular medium is that the audience must also be engaged. The creator's vision doesn't mean shit if the audience isn't satisfied with the result (note: this doesn't mean the film has to be overwhelmingly popular or well received by the unwashed masses, but it must engage the demographic it was aimed for, however large or small it might be).

This isn't some private project he's tinkering on in his garage, it's a million dollar movie production which is meant to entertain and satisfy moviegoers worldwide. True masters of this craft don't just seek to throw all the creative things in their head up on screen--they seek to give audiences engaging and well-crafted experiences. Which means that certain decisions have to be made in order to make sure the audience is on board with the experience from start to finish. However hard they work to make sure their creative vision is being fulfilled, they work just as hard to make sure the audience is getting a satisfying experience by watching it. To create something for public viewing and consumption without any regard for how it will be received by the audience is at best pretentious, and at worst just sloppy.

He'll probably be gay in the next movie, which I wouldn't really care about if it wasn't just more unsubtle ticking of progressive boxes, I wonder how they are going to fit a transsexual in.

PS. I would like Finn better if he wasn't a gender swapped damsel in distress. Always funny how the progressive crowd can be made to cheer deeply regressive characters.

Finn began the whole process of his and Poe's escape from the First Order. He then dragged himself across a desert on foot, aided Rey in their escape (which neither of them could have pulled off alone), held his own in a battle with a weapon he'd neither seen nor wielded before, jumped back into the fray with nothing other than a rudimentary knowledge of the "death star" base thing, and fought against Kylo Ren until he was practically mortally wounded. Perhaps there isn't a lot he did completely on his own, but I can't really think of anything ANYBODY did in the movie on their own, except perhaps Rey, but then that's to be expected as she's the "chosen one" in this story.

Jesus. Finn is a damsel in distress because he didn't do everything on his own, and other people call Rey a Mary Sue for being able to do too much on her own. What's the world coming to? And "progressive boxes?" It was 2015, and now it's 2016. To have women and minorities in leading roles shouldn't be "progressive," it's really just "on par." And regardless it certainly shouldn't be a bad thing.