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George Lucas

is a lot more than just the creator of

the STAR WARS universe:

 

He is an extremely influential filmmaker.

As well as being an accomplished filmmaker George Lucas is also an astute businessman. Lucasfilm has prospered due to his ability to spot an opportunity, focus on it and exploit it to it's fullest potential.

He is an American film maker who is the antithesis of all that the "Hollywood" system represents. He regards his continuing independence from the studio system as one of his greatest achievements.

He changed the world of entertainment. Like Walt Disney and Jim Henson he "took something that was not very well regarded, a kind of esoteric, technical - cult enthusiasm, and recognized it for the art it is and gave it a showcase where people could really see and appreciate the artistry". Like Disney he has the rare talent of being able to get the best from people he works with.

He is the founder of two of the most successful independent film companies in history. He formed American Zoetrope with Francis Ford Coppola. American Zeotrope Produced THX 1138, The Godfather, American Graffiti, The Conversation and Apocalypse Now.

With the money he made from American Graffiti Lucas founded Lucasfilm. Lucasfilm has produced five of the top ten grossing films of all time. These include Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

• George Lucas was about to graduate from the University of Southern California when he had the idea for "THX 1138". Two friends developed a script treatment and George scripted it and shot it in the cinematography class he was teaching. The initial student film "THX 1138:4EB Electronic Labyrinth" won the award for best drama at the National Student Film Festival in 1967. Lucas won prizes in every category. Among Lucas' competitors was an eighteen year old Steven Spielberg.
• With the assistance of Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas got funding from Warner Brothers to turn it into a feature script. Lucas acquired some excellent casting and shot in the American Zoetrope studio and around San Francisco and Marin County.

THX 1138

• Lucas' first feature film was a dark and pessimistic view of mankind's future.
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THX 1138 (Robert Duvall) was the worker who has accidentally received free will in his incarcerating world of tomorrow. Donald Pleasance played the chief villain SEN 5241, who controls the attempts to retrieve THX 1138, once he is revealed as a man with feelings. Maggie McOmie was the love interest.

The feature, like the short, is essentially one long and very suspenseful pursuit. The chase through the encased city of tomorrow, an electronic, computerized dictatorship that creates its workers to specifications, as little more than robots with a heartbeat.

The world Lucas created was Orwellian in its make up, with it’s own big brother.  Warner’s hated it, and they chopped five minutes out of the film.  The reviews were mixed, the atmosphere and action were praised but the dialogue and characterisations were found wanting beside the excitement of the chase.

THX 1138 was an indicator of Lucas' mastery of the medium and his vivid imagination was also evident in the way he used present day location's like the B.A.R.T. system (while it was under construction) to represent the world of the future.



Following THX 1138 Lucas along with John Milius tried to get the script that would become 'Apocalypse Now' off the ground but they could not get a taker. Reluctantly Lucas abandoned the project and began to develop the screenplay for what became 'American Graffiti'.

After an uncertain start in the real, post-graduate world of film making, Lucas was ready to make the film that would make his reputation.

     

AMERICAN GRAFFITI

 

"Where were you in '62?"

• Two boys, Curt Henderson (Richard Dreyfuss) and Steve Bolander (Ron Howard) are scheduled to leave for college in the morning. Each has his own doubts.
• They spend a final evening cruising the main strip where John Milner (Paul Le Mat) is King and Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford) is the pretender to the throne. Along with Wolfman Jack, Terry Fields and many others they have a variety of adventures before dawn comes and they each have to decide what they will do.

The film's buy line was 'Where were you in '62?'. In '62 George Lucas was eighteen and about to leave High School. Two of the characters, Curt Henderson's thoughtful observer, with aspirations to write and John Milner's aspiring race driver, are Lucas' alter egos.



Lucas not only re-created his own eighteenth summer but he also created a then unique narrative style in which several different and unrelated stories intertwine. This technique has been subsequently used in films as different as 'Pulp Fiction' and 'The English Patient'. It has also become almost standard in hour long television drama series like 'L.A. Law' and 'Hill Street Blues'. The films use of a musical collage to underscore the action and reinforce the feeling of the period was also then unique, there were forty one songs on the soundtrack. The night shooting was also an innovation and would have been impossible only a few years before.

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• American Graffiti confirmed the reputation of George Lucas as a great American director, although it gave no hint at all of what was to come.

     

STAR WARS

A long time ago,

in a galaxy far far away..................

Two robots, CP30 and R2D2 crash-land on the desert planet of Tatooine. They fall into the hands of Owen Lars and his orphan nephew, Luke Skywalker ( Mark Hamill). The droids are on a last ditch mission to save the galaxy from total domination by an evil, despotic empire. Local hermit (Obi-Wan) Ben Kenobi (Alec Guinness) is, secretly, the last of the Jedi Knights, a crusader-like army.  

When one of the robots disappears and Luke goes to retrieve it he meets Ben Kenobi and discovers that he has ìthe Forceî, a powerful energy field that surrounds all living things. When his aunt and uncle are killed by Imperial storm troopers on the trail of the robots, Luke flees Tatooine with Ben Kenobi, on the Millennium Falcon, the ship of Han Solo (Harrison Ford), an inter-galactic smuggler. However they are being chased by Darth Vader (David Prowse & James Earl Jones), the deadly Imperial second-in-command.

They are brought on board the Death Star, a new Imperial battle station, from where they rescue Princess Leia, who had sent the robots after Ben Kenobi. In their escape Ben is killed by Darth Vader. The Rebel Alliance, along with Luke, Han and Leia, attack and eventually destroy the Death Star.

Star Wars is undoubtedly the masterwork of George Lucasí life. Following a near fatal car crash in his teens, Lucas read avidly: philosophy, history and sociology. He discovered the writings of Joseph Campbell about myths and their persistence through all time and all cultures. He devoured the great themes; good versus evil, heroes and villains, magical princes and ogres, heroines and evil princesses. He brought them all together to form a complex tale, which eventually transformed from one movie into a trilogy of trilogies.

Lucas proceeded to gather a remarkable team around him, most of whom he still works with today. John Barry was production designer, Gary Kurtz the producer, Ben Burtt was in charge of sound, Dennis Muhren controlled the effects, Ralph McQuarrie was illustrator and John Williams composed the music.

The combined efforts of this team and many others produced a full blown phenomenon. Star Wars with it's used view of the future which was a combination of the ancient myths, old movies and stunning special effects was a massive, global success.  

SEARCH FOR FREEDOM

The search for freedom is a major theme in all of Lucas' films. It could be attributed to his California background and the times he grew up in. In the America of the 50's and 60's Lucas' generation were rebelling against their elders and testing their freedom.

In THX 1138 the search for freedom can be found in the attempts of the title character to remain free having been given free will by mistake. He tries to retain his free will in the incarcerated world that surrounds him.

The search for freedom in American Graffiti is represented in the efforts of the main characters to escape from the restrictions of living in a small town and from the impending pressures of adulthood. One leaves to go to college, some race cars illegally but all revel in the last days of freedom before the adult world with all its disappointments and limits takes over.

In Star Wars the search for freedom is represented in Luke's desire to get off Tatooine and on a larger scale on the struggles of the Rebel Alliance against the tyranny of the evil Empire.

MOVEMENT AND SPEED

From his youth onwards, Lucas has been fascinated by movement and speed. He enjoyed racing his car at local amateur races until he was involved in a serious car crash.

In THX 1138 most of the action is centred on the pursuit of the title character and most of the chase takes place on foot. However, Lucas uses unusual locations, camera angles and rapid cuts to give an exaggerated sense of speed and the movements of the characters, particularly the robot police.

In American Graffiti Lucas illustrates his fascination with movement and speed and his love of cars in the scenes on the main strip.  

The shots of the cars and their occupants convey the power of the cars and the fierce ambitions of the drivers to go faster. The lights on either side of the strip help to illustrate the speed of the cars. Lucas' feel for the subject's can be seen in the way he handles the climactic drag race between John Milner and Bob Falfa.

American Graffiti was the perfect embodiment of Lucas' own passionate love of cars and speed as a teenager in Modesto.

Star Wars represents the pinnacle of George's fascination with speed and movement. He pushed the available technology to the edge and beyond in an effort to illustrate the movements of the space craft. In the finale with it's race down the trench to the exhaust port, Lucas has everything in the scene moving at once. The starship dogfights convey the sense of claustrophobia with views of the battle from inside the cramped cockpits of the fighters.

TINY VESTIGE OF GOOD .V. SUPERIOR EVIL

The near biblical struggle between some small vestige of good rebelling against the indomitable tyranny of a colossal evil. This recurring theme can be found in THX 1138 and Star Wars.

In THX 1138 the evil is represented by the incarcerating world of tomorrow while the tiny vestige of good is THX 1138 who struggles to remain free having accidentally been given free will.

Star Wars contains a towering evil in the form of the Empire and it's forces, best characterised by Darth Vader. The vestige of good is represented by the Rebel Alliance and Luke Skywalker.

   

OTHER THEMES DEALTH WITH BY LUCAS

ROMANCE

In Star Wars the ancient theme of romance is played out with two heroes, one an innocent farmer, the other a roguish smuggler, fighting for the heart of a princess while simultaneously fighting together to beat the Empire.

LOST INNOCENCE

In American Graffiti the theme of an impending lost innocence bears heavily on the characters. The last days of summer are also the last days of that special confidence only youth provides before the mature world with it's disappointments and limits takes over. The summer of 1962 was full of promise for all of America, the country had a youthful President and was eager for change from the post-war drudgery to a new Camelot. This confidence was destroyed the following year with John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas. JFK is a kind of off screen presence in American Graffiti. With his death the whole of America loses the innocence it had in the summer of 1962.  

INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM .V. STATE CONTROL

The freedoms sought by the individual have always been in conflict with the controls sought by the state. One of the occasions when this conflict was most furious was on the campuses of American universities in the sixties. As a student at university in California, Lucas was a witness to this struggle. Therefore it is not surprising that it should become a theme in his films.

The film it is most obvious in is THX 1138. Robert Duvall's character, THX 1138, is the individual accidentally given free will by an electronic, computerised dictatorship, which subsequently attempts to regain it's control over him.

Lucas as a student had felt very critical of American society at the time and this is reflected in this film which was developed from a short film he had made at USC.

Luke Skywalker is another individual who rebels against the state. He joins the rebellion against the Empire after Imperial troops killed his aunt and uncle. The Empire is an all powerful intergalactic fascistic superpower. It has been likened to Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia and also to America in a Vietnam allegory.

Lucas was one of the first film school graduates to enter the industry in the sixties, along with the likes of Scorcese, Coppola and De Palma. Along with these others he brought a passion and love for films and film making to the profession. They also brought a great knowledge of film. These factors are reflected in all their work but particular in that of Lucas. He was heavily influenced by the films he had seen at

Saturday Matinees, drive-ins and on television as he grew up. Lucas drew more than just inspiration from these films. He paid homage to them, using scenes as blue prints for his own work.. In this section I will illustrate some of these.

THX 1138  

This film was a product of Lucas' disquiet with way he saw America being run. It was influenced by Lucas' wish to show a different vision of the future to that of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Among the films Lucas pays homage to is The Wizard Of Oz. The THX 1138 character is a descendent of the Tin Man. In The Wizard of Oz the Tin Man goes to ask the Wizard for a heart. In THX 1138, the title character is accidentally given free will and subsequently discovers that he has the ability to love. C3-P0 also bears a striking resemblance to the tin man.

Lucas' love of the adventure serials of his youth is also reflected in the casting of Johnny Weismuller Jr. as one of the chrome robot policemen. Weismuller's father had played the original "Tarzan".

AMERICAN GRAFFITI

The major influence at work in his most personal film is unsurprisingly Lucas' own youth. The films of the fifties also inspired Lucas. The likes of James Dean and Marlon Brando are clear influences on the John Milner character.

The alarmist B-movies of the 50's like "High School Confidential" and "I Was A Teenage Delinquent" also have fun poked at them. This takes the form of the car theft and Terry the toad being violently ill after drinking alcohol for the first time.

A movie with a particular influence on American Graffiti was Rock Around the Clock. This was the first film to feature Rock 'n' Roll. It's influence is most visible in the soundtrack. Several songs feature on both soundtracks.

STAR WARS

Star Wars is far and away the most influenced of Lucas' films. He draws from different countries, genres, methods of storytelling and myths to create a new legend.

The most important influence is Akira Kurosawa's 1958 "The Hidden Fortress".

Akira Kurosawa

Lucas has freely acknowledged how influential this tale of a hazardous journey undertaken by a strong willed young princess (Princess Leia in Star Wars) and her wise sword wielding protector (Ben Kenobi). They are helped and hindered by two loyal, bumbling companions (R2D2 and CP30).

However this is merely the tip of the iceberg. Scenes or groups of scenes in Star Wars also show Lucas' influences.

The scene where Luke returns to his home to discover it destroyed and smouldering and his relatives dead is drawn directly from "The Searchers" a John Ford western. In "The Searchers" John Wayne returns home to find it burnt to the ground and embarks on a quest to find his niece who survived.
 

Another character from films of the thirties who is recalled in Star Wars is "Flash Gordon". There were over thirty episodes of "The Continuing Adventures Of Flash Gordon", which played in cinemas on Saturday mornings to massive audiences of children. He had adventures on far off worlds and in rockets and space ships, just like the characters in Star Wars. In fact, Lucas went as far as trying to buy the rights to "Flash Gordon", but made Star Wars when the deal collapsed.

The climax of Star Wars comes when the Rebels attack the Death Star. This is handled almost exactly the same way as the climax to "The Dam Busters" a 1954 British war film celebrating the work of Barnes Wallace who developed the "bouncing bomb" that was used to destroy the Ruhr dams in Germany during World War 2.

In "The Dam Busters" the climax cuts constantly from the pilots attacking the dams to shots of the control room. The pilots fly low through the valleys surrounding the dams and come under attack from flak guns which streak the sky with tracers. Some planes are hit and crash. The shots of the control room, where the attack is shown on charts and maps and model, contain one person who wishes they were on the mission; Barnes Wallace. The others are all older, senior officers and commanders. The celebrations when the mission is successful concentrate on the solitary figure of Barnes Wallace, without who's effort the mission would have been impossible.

In "Star Wars" the climax cuts from the X-Wing fighter pilots attacking the Death Star to shots of the Rebels hi-tech control room. The pilots fly low through the trench leading to the exhaust port and come under attack from laser emplacements and towers which streak the sky with laser beams. Some X-Wing fighters are hit and crash into the Death Star. The shots of the control room, where the attack is shown on electronic charts and maps and a computer model, contain one person who wishes they were on the mission; Princess Leia. The others are all older, senior officers and commanders. The celebrations when the mission is successful concentrate on the solitary figure of Princess Leia without whose sacrifice the mission could not have taken place.

Having been influenced by the film-makers who came before him George Lucas is now one of the most influential film makers alive. Among those he has influenced are, his close friends Steven Spielberg, with whom he produced and wrote the "Indiana Jones Trilogy", Ron Howard, who he cast in "American Graffiti" and for whom he wrote "Willow" and Kevin Smith, who directed "Clerks" and "Mallrats" which both contain references to Star Wars.

Lucas' work outside film feature many links from his films. He also links his films with references.

THX 1138

The title of Lucas' first film is seen again on the license plate of John Milner's yellow hot rod in "American Graffiti" and on the door of a room on the Death Star in "Star Wars".

THX is also the name of a Sound System developed by LucasArts Entertainment to improve sound reproduction in cinema theatres, there is also a Home Cinema version.

STAR WARS

Harrison Ford is not the only link between the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies. In "Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom", Indy is lucky to escape from the night-club at the start of the film, the club's name is "Club Obi Wan".

The Luke Skywalker character has also inspired a number of links. Lucas set up his own mini studio and multi-media group. It is based on a 43,000 acre ranch called Skywalker Ranch. Part of this empire is Skywalker Sound, the world leader in sound effect production.

George Walton Lucas Jr. was born in Modesto, California, USA on 14 May 1944. Raised on a California walnut farm. He grew up on Saturday afternoon adventure serials, comic books, rock and roll, and the documentary television series Victory at Sea. He was a classic uninterested, alienated student of the fifties.

He had a passion for fast cars and even raced his own, a small Fiat Bianchina that had little horsepower but was competitive at small amateur tracks. Three days before he was to graduate from high school in 1962, George was gravely injured when the Fiat was struck broadside by another car and sent rolling toward a walnut tree at sixty miles per hour. His seat belt snapped and he was flung from the car which, a split second later, collided with such force that it moved the tree two feet, roots and all. If the seat belt had worked, he would have been killed instantly.

"You can't have that kind of experience and not feel that there must be a reason why you're here," George has said. "During the long recuperation I spent my time trying to figure out what that reason is and trying to fulfil it."

He enrolled immediately at Modesto Junior College for two years and brought his grades up high enough to be accepted in the University of Southern California's film school. He was determined to shine in one of America's most competitive academic environments. In effect, George had traded a passion for speed and an immersion in comic books and art house cinema into an obsessive drive to succeed as a filmmaker. All of his early work was characterised by creative daring and technical proficiency beyond his resources. George Lucas was no longer fooling around.

In 1968, having graduated with a Master's Degree from USC, he wins in every category of the National Student Film Festival. He also wins the annual Warner Bros. scholarship to serve as an apprentice. The only film in production at this time was Finians Rainbow. It was directed by Francis Ford Coppola. George quickly strikes up a firm friendship with him which will last throughout their careers.

THX-1138 nowadays stand for an advanced theatre sound system with the tag-line "the audience is listening". But it was originally the title of a college film made by Lucas at USC.

Lucas' innovative filmmaking caught the eye of director Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola sponsored Lucas with $777,777 (for luck) to turn the student film into a futuristic police state flick. Lucas met Francis Ford Coppola through a scholarship sponsored by Warner Brothers Studio,

The two young men were instantly drawn together by a mutual fever to make great films, and George became Coppola's apprentice. However, their personalities were in constant conflict from the start. George was physically slight, Coppola was large and flamboyant; while George might be driven by grand ambitions, he was fiscally cautious and Coppola was reckless with money; where George was quiet and reserved, Coppola revelled in the spotlight.

They formed a partnership, an independent studio in San Francisco called American Zoetrope. A haven for artists and experimental filmmakers, its financing secured on the strength of seven script ideas that Coppola pitched to Warner Bros.

Thus in 1971 George found himself, at 26, directing his first film for theatrical release. He poured everything he knew into his first studio effort, a kinetic vision of a dystopian future called THX 1138; a strange, esoteric glimpse into the themes that would resurface in all of his work of the seventies. Robert Duvall as the title character, imprisoned in an impersonal, mechanised world, finds salvation by trusting his own inner strength. Later, another more famous Lucas hero, Luke Skywalker, would triumph with the same easy going faith in himself. Donald Pleasance starred as the villain. However THX was not liked at Warner Bros. they cut five minutes off and gave it a minimal release.

In 1973 Lucas directs American Graffiti, one of the most profitable films ever released by a major studio. Made for less than one million dollars, it is estimated that Graffiti returned $50 for every dollar spent on production and distribution, a staggering ratio in the movie business. It made George Lucas a millionaire before the age of thirty. Based on Lucas' teenage years, it chronicles the last days of summer for the teenagers of a California town as the roll up and down the main strip in their souped up hot rods.

American Graffiti harks for the teenage innocence of 1962 which the entire nation lost the following year with the assassination of JFK. Lucas created a then unique narrative style in which several different and unrelated stories intertwine, e.g. Pulp Fiction. Another unique feature was the use of a musical collage to underscore the action and reinforce the feeling of the period. American Graffiti launched the careers of Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss and Ron Howard. However Universal Studios didn't like it and demanded changes and cuts until Coppola intervened. It was a box office smash and confirmed Lucas as a first rate American director.

Lucas realised after the experiences he had with studio interference in his first two films that control was the key to success. Having seen first two movies make a fortune for other people he decided that when he was negotiating for his next film he would give up a large salary for ownership of merchandising and sequels. It was a smart move, Star Wars shattered box office records and made Lucas over $50 million.

Four years passed between the release of American Graffiti and the masterwork of George's life, Star Wars in 1977. During this period he adjusted to being a millionaire, shared some of his good fortune with those who helped make Graffiti a success, and pitched the camp of his new company, Lucasfilm Ltd., in northern California, far from the hectic lifestyle of Hollywood.

He also became more the patient, dogged perfectionist than ever before, writing Star Wars alone and sweating through draft after draft, making himself learn how to write.

The film was a gigantic, unprecedented undertaking, and though he tried to maintain faith that it would be at least a modest success, he went through times of terrible doubt. Shooting took months of eighteen-hour days, with George overseeing the tiniest details until, at one point, he was hospitalised for hypertension. The stress of directing Star Wars led George to hire Irvin Kershner to direct the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back.

While composing Star Wars George had studied fairy tales, ancient mythology, and the theoretical works of Joseph Campbell, a popular teacher whose life's work had been to catalogue the religious and social myths of the world. Campbell found a common thread in all myths, a central humanity that George wanted to reach with his space heroes Luke Skywalker and Han Solo.

The subsequent tale of a young farm boy Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) who takes of on a galactic quest with the last of the Jedi knights Obi Wan Kenobi.(Alec Guinness). after being given a message by two robots CP30 and R2D2. With help from Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca they rescue Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and fight the evil empire and eventually destroy the deadly Death Star

Thanks to his willingness to bank on Star Wars' success, George's deal with Twentieth Century Fox to finance Star Wars made him wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. The studio originally offered him a fee for writing and directing the film, expecting him to ask for more money. Instead, he accepted their offer, asking only for sequel rights, and full participation in the ancillary rights - giving him the lion's share of profit from toys, games, soundtrack albums, posters, costumes, coffee cups, buttons, anything with the Star Wars name. Star Wars gained critical and public acclaim and won seven Oscars.

In 1979 he was Executive Producer for "More American Graffiti", the sequel to his second film. This was followed by "The Empire Strikes Back", which was based on his own screenplay. In 1980 he acted as Executive Producer with Francis Ford Coppola on "Kagushima" which was directed by Akira Kurosawa. 1981 saw Lucas Executive Producing "Raiders of the Lost Ark" with his friend Steven Spielberg directing. In 1982 he was Executive Producer for "Twice Upon a Time". A year later in 1983 he Executive Produced and wrote the screenplay for "Return of the Jedi".

By 1984 he was Executive Producer on "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" again with Steven Spielberg directing. In 1985 Lucas was Executive Producer for "Mishima". Lucas was busy in 1986, he acted as Executive Producer on "Latino", "Labyrinth", "Howard the Duck" and "Captain EO". In 1988 he was Executive Producer on "Willow" which was directed by Ron Howard, who had received his big break as one of the stars in "American Graffiti". He also shared the Executive Producer credit for "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" with Francis Ford Coppolla in 1988. In 1989, he was Executive Producer on "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", the last of the trilogy which shared Harrison Ford as star, Steven Spielberg as Director and George Lucas as Producer. In 1996 he restored, updated and added new scenes for the "Star Wars", "The Empire Strikes Back", and "Return of the Jedi" Special Editions.

George Lucas has also produced several series of TV programmes: "Droids", "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", "Ewoks" and "Maniac Mansion". The first three of these featured adventures of characters from the two trilogies: "Droids" featured the lives of CP30 and R2D2 before Star Wars, "Ewoks" was about the continuing adventures of the furry critters inhabiting Endor, and "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" followed the adventurous childhood and youth of Henry "Indiana" Jones.

Perhaps Lucas had such a great effect on the film business because of the tremendous support he gives to other filmmakers. His support, and his name, cover a broad range of films both successful and unsuccessful.

He has executive produced many films just to ensure that they are made and in some cases giving his fee up to enable the film to be completed if the budget runs out.

In the history of movie making, only a mere handful of people, like Steven Spielberg and Francis Coppola, made a real difference. But when describing the achievements of George Lucas, it is possible to say, simply, that he revolutionised film making. But, George Lucas did many things in his life other than filmmaking, all memorable.

Finally at what George considered the halfway point of his career, he had embarked on the creation of a second Star Wars trilogy, a project that should have kept Lucasfilm and Lucas Digital busy until the close of the century. George has written all three films himself, plans to direct at least one of the three.

He has not directed a film since Star Wars, preferring the less hectic world of the producer's office, though he has occasionally supervised the second unit of some of his later work.

George is living proof that a filmmaker can grab a large audience with life-affirming material. In 1992, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave George the Irving G. Thalberg Award for maintaining an exceptionally high standard of filmmaking.

Whether it was John Williams to score or Spielberg to direct, Lucas managed to bring the best together to produce quality films and then reinvested in the industry to make it better. It would seem obvious that others should learn from his example, but it is this that kept Lucas as an icon and successful business man in an industry that desperately needed one.

George Lucas' company, Lucasfilm Ltd., is the only achievement of its kind since the coming of sound, a self-contained multimedia production enterprise with subsidiaries and sister companies serenely independent of Hollywood influence.

He has turned the fortune that the Star Wars Trilogy earned him back into Lucasfilm, expanding the company's reach into post production facilities and multimedia research. In fact, he has formed two new companies, entirely separate from Lucasfilm.

Lucas Digital is the umbrella term for Industrial Light and Magic, which thrives almost twenty years after its formation as the premier special effects company on the planet, and for Skywalker Sound, a state-of-the-art recording studio that provides post production technology to many filmmakers and is developing into a favourite mixing studio for the music industry.

LucasArts was one of the first R&D companies to create games on CD-ROM, bringing the whole of Lucas' expertise in visual storytelling to an emerging technology. LucasArts also makes inter active learning games for children, and a multimedia station for classroom use.

 

These enterprises all have a home at the 4700 acre Skywalker Ranch.

The Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) FX Team set a new standard in film production. These advances have been used in films up to the present day. The first film to use this new technology was Star Wars. ILM has brought the power of computers to visual effects production in feature films. The systems developed by ILM have allowed the creation and the manipulation of images in video format. ILM have brought many spectacular scenes to life, from ET to Jurassic Park's dinosaurs to the Star Wars space battles.  

Computer effects are not the only thing that ILM handles. ILM also has a staff of model makers. Films require detailed models to give the effect of real objects. ILM did the effects in many well known movies such as Back to the Future, Backdraft, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Rocketeer. ILM is still setting new and higher standards in movie making, and without the influence of Lucas, the effects of today would not be possible.

Lucas has described Skywalker Ranch with the words: "In the future all studios are going to be exactly like us."

WRITER: FILMOGRAPHY

Feature Films

• Star Wars: Episode III (1996) (story)
• Star Wars: Episode II (1996) (story)
• Star Wars: Episode I - The Clone Wars (1995) (story)
• Radioland Murders (1994) (story)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) (story)
• Willow (1988) (story)
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) (story)
• Return of the Jedi (1983) (story)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) (story)
• Empire Strikes Back, The (1980) (story)
• More American Graffiti (1979)
• Star Wars (1977)
• American Graffiti (1973)
• THX 1138 (1970)

• Filmmaker : A Diary by George Lucas (1968)
• Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town (1967)
• THX 1138:4EB (1967)
• 1:42:08: A Man and His Car (1966)
• Freiheit (1966)
• Herbie (1966)
• Look at Life (1965)

• Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985) (story)
• Ewok Adventure, The (1984) (story)

PRODUCER: FILMOGRAPHY

Feature Films

• Radioland Murders (1994) (executive)
• Wow! (1990) (executive)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) (executive)
• Land Before Time, The (1988) (executive)
• Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) (executive)
• Willow (1988) (executive)
• Howard the Duck : A New Breed of Hero (1986) (executive)
• Labyrinth (1986) (executive)
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) (executive)
• Return of the Jedi (1983) (executive)
• Twice Upon a Time (1983) (executive)
• Body Heat (1981) (executive) (uncredited)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) (executive)
• Empire Strikes Back, The (1980) (executive)
• Kagemusha (1980) (executive) (international version)

• The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (executive)
• Droids (1985) (executive)
• Ewoks (1985) (executive)

• Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985) (executive)
• Ewok Adventure, The (1984) (executive)

• Star Tours (1987) (executive)
• Captain Eo (1986) (executive)

DIRECTOR: FILMOGRAPHY

Feature Films

• Star Wars (1977)
• American Graffiti (1973)
• THX 1138 (1970)

• Filmmaker (1968)
• 6-18-67 (1967)
• Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town (1967)
• Emperor, The (1967)
• THX 1138:4EB (1967)
• Freiheit (1966)
• Herbie (1966)
• Look at Life (1965)

EDITOR: FILMOGRAPHY

Feature Films

• Jurassic Park (1993)
• THX 1138 (1970)

• Filmmaker: A Diary by George Lucas (1968)
• 6-18-67 (1967)
• Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town (1967)
• THX 1138:4EB (1967)
• 1:42:08: A Man and His Car (1966)
• Freiheit (1966)
• Herbie (1966)
• Look at Life (1965)
•  

Student Films

• Filmmaker : A Diary by George Lucas (1968)
• 6-18-67 (1967)
• Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town (1967)
• 1:42:08: A Man and His Car (1966)
• Freiheit (1966)
• Herbie (1966)
• Look at Life (1965)
•  

Feature Films

• Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) .... Disappointed Man
• Magical World of Chuck Jones, The (1992)

• Star Tours (1987) .... Supervisor at Spaceport

MISCELLANEOUS CREW: FILMOGRAPHY

Feature Films

• Return to Oz (1985) (special thanks)

• Filmmaker: A Diary by George Lucas (1968) (sound)
•  

ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURES ARTS AND SCIENCES

AWARDS (OSCARS)

GEORGE LUCAS

1991

IRVING G. THALBERG MEMORIAL AWARD

ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURES ARTS AND SCIENCES

NOMINATIONS

GEORGE LUCAS

1977

DIRECTING

Star Wars

WRITING (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen based on factual material or on story material not previously published or produced) -

Star Wars

1973

DIRECTING

American Graffiti

WRITING (Story and Screenplay based on factual material or material not previously published or produced)

American Graffiti

To keep up to date on the production of the Prequels visit LucasFilm's official Web Site at:

http://www.starwars.com

  You can download trailers and clips on the making of "The Phantom Menace". It's also a good place to check out the truth behind internet's Star Wars rumour mill.

Visit the incredible Harry Knowles' Aint It Cool News.com for the inside track on upcoming movies (this is another site that crushes Star Wars rumours:

http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/

 

Visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) for info on thousands of movies:

http://uk.imdb.com

 

If you would like your Star Wars / Director site listed here e-mail me at: jedival1@geocities.com or valfarly@yahoo.com

 

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