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Multimedia => The Prequel Trilogy => Topic started by: Ben on April 23, 2005, 04:01 AM

Title: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Ben on April 23, 2005, 04:01 AM
I haven't seen one of these yet, and I figured it would be a good place to show everyone the press this flick is getting. 

I'll start with this one from Yahoo:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=680&e=20&u=/usatoday/20050422/en_usatoday/starwarsuniverserevolvesaroundvader
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Brian on April 25, 2005, 11:41 AM
Good idea, should be lots of stuff coming out in the coming weeks.  TV Guide.com (and the newsstand edition) has a number of Star Wars features up HERE (http://www.tvguide.com/special/starwars/).  Oh, and just for the sake of saying it, plenty of spoilers present in the TV Guide coverage.  So beware ;).
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Brian on April 27, 2005, 03:51 PM
I guess not necessarily a "news article", but I didn't think it needed its own thread.  Kevin Smith had a viewing of ROTS earlier this week, and has posted his review on his site HERE (http://viewaskew.com/news/sith/).  Be warned, there is some language if that sort of thing offends you :).  Sounds like he liked it....SPOILERS present as well.
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Ben on May 1, 2005, 11:28 PM
A most excellent George Lucas interview from Wired.

http://wired-vig.wired.com/wired/archive/13.05/lucasqa.html
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Brian on May 3, 2005, 02:53 PM
TIME Magazine (http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050509/index.html) has a nice feature up (both online - partially, and in their print edition) covering Star Wars, specifically Revenge of the Sith.  There is a nice photo gallery online, as well as a number of different articles.  Also, their poll question asks people to pick their favorite Star Wars movie.  Just for fun, here's the numbers so far (with 22,708 votes in)

Revenge of the Sith - 33.6%
The Empire Strikes Back - 27.3%
Star Wars (A New Hope) - 26.3%
Return of the Jedi - 5.8%
The Phantom Menace - 4.9%
Attack of the Clones - 2.0%
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Ben on May 3, 2005, 05:00 PM
Man. The movie hasn't even been seen by the general public yet.

While I agree it stands a chance of being the best SW flick of all time, I think that poll was better off being taken a week or two after the premiere.
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Brian on May 10, 2005, 04:15 PM
Not exactly a "news article" per se, but thought this was as good a place as any.  Yahoo Movies has its "Summer Movie Guide" up, and has a feature on ROTS here (http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&cf=smg&id=1808406061).

Something they mention in their coverage that is somewhat interesting:

Bet You Didn't Know
Unlike in Episodes I and II, director George Lucas used a dialogue coach on set to make sure his actors were getting as much attention as the special effects.
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Famine on May 10, 2005, 04:21 PM
Something they mention in their coverage that is somewhat interesting:

Bet You Didn't Know
Unlike in Episodes I and II, director George Lucas used a dialogue coach on set to make sure his actors were getting as much attention as the special effects.

Are you an Angel?

Kevin
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Ben on May 10, 2005, 05:23 PM
Yippee!
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Brian on May 11, 2005, 10:11 AM
Filmforce.IGN has been running a number of Star Wars features this week, leading up to the ROTS release next week.  Some are kind of fun or interesting to read, here's a few of the linkys:

Gear of Star Wars (http://filmforce.ign.com/starwars/articles/611/611707p1.html)

Babes of Star Wars (http://filmforce.ign.com/starwars/articles/610/610816p1.html)

Quotable Characters (http://filmforce.ign.com/starwars/articles/609/609854p1.html)

Coolest Creatures (http://filmforce.ign.com/starwars/articles/608/608596p1.html)
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Ben on May 13, 2005, 01:49 AM
The Peter Travers Rolling Stone review:
 
Be warned of spoilers and junk.

Drink the Kool-Aid. Wear blinders. Cover your ears. Because that's the only way you can totally enjoy Revenge of the Sith -- the final and most futile attempt from skilled producer, clumsy director and tin-eared writer George Lucas to create a prequel trilogy to match the myth-making spirit of the original Star Wars saga he unleashed twenty-eight years ago. Fan boys, of course, have convinced themselves otherwise. So have several critics, if you go by early reviews.

Heralded for its savagery (my God, it's rated PG-13), the film follows Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen -- to merely call him wooden is an affront to puppets everywhere) as he loses his limbs and his conscience and takes on the evil mantle of Darth Vader. But thematic darkness is no excuse for dimness in all other departments, except the visual.

In this heretic's opinion, Sith is a stiff, brought down by that special knack Lucas has of turning flesh-and-blood actors into cardboard cutouts. To hear Anakin and his pregnant wife, Senator Padme (the vivacious Natalie Portman rendered vacant), discuss their marriage -- a secret that could get Anakin defrocked as a Jedi -- is to redefine stilted for a new millennium. The minute any character -- human or droid -- opens a mouth to speak, your eyes glaze over.

I kept thinking how much better Sith would play as a silent film, with only Chewbacca allowed to do his Wookiee growl and John Williams to trumpet his recycled score. And yet, Revenge of the Sith is the movie that will do more business (my guess is $400 million-plus), sell more popcorn and brainwash more audiences than any blockbuster this summer. There are reasons: Sith is the last time Lucas will ever skywalk with the Skywalkers on the big screen (talk persists of a TV spinoff). There is enormous goodwill built up by the original series Lucas began in 1977 with Star Wars: A New Hope, continued in 1980 with The Empire Strikes Back and ended in 1983 with Return of the Jedi. All three of those movies belong in my personal time capsule, despite the Ewok blight on the last one. That's why you, me and everyone we know lined up for 1999's juvenile The Phantom Menace and 2002's atrocious Attack of the Clones. We watched with stifled yawns as Anakin grew from a snot-nosed kid (Jake Lloyd) to a whiny teen lover boy and wanna-be Jedi (Christensen). We justified the thudding lifelessness (a pox on those Jedi councils) by praising Lucas' digital artistry and nurturing the hope that Revenge of the Sith would spin our heads around with the dark magic of Darth Vader.

Not even close. Until the last half-hour, when Lucas actually does establish a emotional connection between the landmark he created in 1977 and the prequel investment portfolio he laid out in 1999, the movie is one spectacularly designed letdown after another. Chief culprit? The script. Even with a reported polish by -- say it isn't so -- British playwright Tom Stoppard, the words are leaden, faux literate, mock-Shakespearean and devoid of humor. The late critic Pauline Kael once dismissed Star Wars as "an epic without a dream." I disagree. Lucas' dream is a grand one: to build a mythic futuristic fantasy out of the influences of his youth -- the Bible, the Bard, H.G. Wells, Jack London, John Ford westerns, Flash Gordon serials and long afternoons at the movies. If only for the original Star Wars, Lucas deserves a place in film history. He transformed pop culture into Pop Art. Lucas' major error was believing he could do it all alone. With Empire -- now officially the best of the Star Wars six -- Lucas had the invaluable help of screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark) and Leigh Brackett (The Big Sleep), and director Irvin Kershner, who knew how to loosen up actors. For those who wrongly criticized Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford back when, all I can say is, look and weep.

As Mace Windu, even the lively Samuel L. Jackson looks embalmed. Ewan McGregor fares better as Obi-Wan Kenobi, if only because mischief is embedded in his DNA. Best of all is Ian McDiarmid as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the true badass of the piece. As Palpatine draws Anakin into his web and away from the Jedi code, the film is briefly enlivened by the thrill of temptation. McDiarmid paints an insidious, seductive portrait of evil. It's too bad that playing the grotesque Darth Sideous, Palpatine's Sith lord alter ego, drives the actor into horror-show hamboning.

As for the good stuff, none of it involves human speech. There's Obi-Wan taking on the droid general, Grievous, whose metal arms can swing four light-sabers. There's the massacre of the Jedi when Palpatine calls for Order 66. There's Palpatine taking on Yoda (again voiced by Frank Oz), whom he contemptuously calls my "little green friend."

As for the much-touted opening aerial dogfight with Anakin and Obi-Wan firing on the clones in a cluttered digital landscape, the effect is pure video game and purely without threat. Lucas fills Sith with so much computerized wizardry that it barely jibes with the low-tech original, taking place decades later, which shows the touch of human hands and plays all the better for it. But as cop-outs go, you can't beat the reasons that turn Anakin bad. Suffering nightmares about his wife dying while giving birth, he joins the Sith, who claim power over death, to save the woman he loves. If it means the killing of Jedi younglings, so be it. If it means letting his hubris run amok like any yuppie exec, so be it. It's like hearing that the young Hannibal Lecter was weaned on food instead of live flesh.

Lucas almost pulls the plot out of the fire in the film's final section, showing Obi-Wan hacking away at Anakin with his light-saber on the lava planet of Mustafar. Lucas even drops a hint that Anakin thinks Padme and Obi-Wan may have been getting it on. As we watch Anakin nearly melt in the lava, only to be put together, Frankenstein style, in a lab while Lucas intercuts scenes of Padme giving birth to the twins Luke and Leia, a link to genuine feeling is established at last. It's too little and too late. To hail Revenge of the Sith as a satisfying bridge to a classic is not just playing a game of the Emperor's New Clothes, it's an insult to what the original accomplished. To paraphrase Padme: This is how truth dies -- to thunderous applause.


PETER TRAVERS
(Posted May 13, 2005)


------------------------------------------

I didn't know people still cared what he thought. I don't, I'm just pasting the article to save you the trouble of clicking on Rolling Bone's link and getting bombarded with ****.

I'll personally wait till I see the flick to tear this review apart, but I get sick of critics talking down to fans.
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: bobafett14 on May 13, 2005, 08:23 AM
He's just starving for some attention.  Either that or Lucas never gave him an interview and now he's pissed.

What a Schmuck.


Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Ben on May 15, 2005, 09:31 PM
A truly excellent article about US policy and Star Wars.


http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/entnews/ap/20050515/111620724000.html

'Wars' Raises Questions on U.S. Policy

By DAVID GERMAIN,
AP Movie Writer
57 minutes ago

Without Michael Moore and "Fahrenheit 9/11" at the Cannes Film Festival this time, it was left to George Lucas and "Star Wars" to pique European ire over the state of world relations and the United States' role in it.

Lucas' themes of democracy on the skids and a ruler preaching war to preserve the peace predate "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" by almost 30 years. Yet viewers Sunday — and Lucas himself — noted similarities between the final chapter of his sci-fi saga and our own troubled times.

Cannes audiences made blunt comparisons between "Revenge of the Sith" — the story of Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side and the rise of an emperor through warmongering — to President Bush's war on terrorism and the invasion of Iraq.

Two lines from the movie especially resonated:

"This is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause," bemoans Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) as the galactic Senate cheers dictator-in-waiting Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) while he announces a crusade against the Jedi.

"If you're not with me, then you're my enemy," Hayden Christensen's Anakin — soon to become villain Darth Vader — tells former mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). The line echoes Bush's international ultimatum after the Sept. 11 attacks, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."

"That quote is almost a perfect citation of Bush," said Liam Engle, a 23-year-old French-American aspiring filmmaker. "Plus, you've got a politician trying to increase his power to wage a phony war."

Though the plot was written years ago, "the anti-Bush diatribe is clearly there," Engle said.

The film opens Wednesday in parts of Europe and Thursday in the United States and many other countries. At the Cannes premiere Sunday night, actors in white stormtrooper costumes paraded up and down the red carpet as guests strolled in, while an orchestra played the "Star Wars" theme.

Lucas said he patterned his story after historical transformations from freedom to fascism, never figuring when he started his prequel trilogy in the late 1990s that current events might parallel his space fantasy.

"As you go through history, I didn't think it was going to get quite this close. So it's just one of those recurring things," Lucas said at a Cannes news conference. "I hope this doesn't come true in our country.

"Maybe the film will waken people to the situation," Lucas joked.

That comment echoes Moore's rhetoric at Cannes last year, when his anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" won the festival's top honor.

Unlike Moore, whose Cannes visit came off like an anybody-but-Bush campaign stop, Lucas never mentioned the president by name but was eager to speak his mind on U.S. policy in Iraq, careful again to note that he created the story long before the Bush-led occupation there.

"When I wrote it, Iraq didn't exist," Lucas said, laughing.

"We were just funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass destruction. We didn't think of him as an enemy at that time. We were going after Iran and using him as our surrogate, just as we were doing in Vietnam. ... The parallels between what we did in Vietnam and what we're doing in Iraq now are unbelievable."

The prequel trilogy is based on a back-story outline Lucas created in the mid-1970s for the original three "Star Wars" movies, so the themes percolated out of the Vietnam War and the Nixon-Watergate era, he said.

Lucas began researching how democracies can turn into dictatorships with full consent of the electorate.

In ancient Rome, "why did the senate after killing Caesar turn around and give the government to his nephew?" Lucas said. "Why did France after they got rid of the king and that whole system turn around and give it to Napoleon? It's the same thing with Germany and Hitler.

"You sort of see these recurring themes where a democracy turns itself into a dictatorship, and it always seems to happen kind of in the same way, with the same kinds of issues, and threats from the outside, needing more control. A democratic body, a senate, not being able to function properly because everybody's squabbling, there's corruption."
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Ben on May 15, 2005, 09:34 PM
An article about ROTS' Cannes premiere. (http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/entnews/va/20050515/111621064300.html)
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Brian on May 16, 2005, 09:37 AM
Another little Star Warsy feature over at Filmforce.ign, this time focusing on Best Background Characters. (http://filmforce.ign.com/starwars/articles/611/611885p1.html)
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Darth Broem on May 16, 2005, 10:58 AM
A truly excellent article about US policy and Star Wars.


http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/entnews/ap/20050515/111620724000.html

'Wars' Raises Questions on U.S. Policy

By DAVID GERMAIN,
AP Movie Writer
57 minutes ago

Without Michael Moore and "Fahrenheit 9/11" at the Cannes Film Festival this time, it was left to George Lucas and "Star Wars" to pique European ire over the state of world relations and the United States' role in it.

Lucas' themes of democracy on the skids and a ruler preaching war to preserve the peace predate "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" by almost 30 years. Yet viewers Sunday — and Lucas himself — noted similarities between the final chapter of his sci-fi saga and our own troubled times.

Cannes audiences made blunt comparisons between "Revenge of the Sith" — the story of Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side and the rise of an emperor through warmongering — to President Bush's war on terrorism and the invasion of Iraq.

Two lines from the movie especially resonated:

"This is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause," bemoans Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) as the galactic Senate cheers dictator-in-waiting Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) while he announces a crusade against the Jedi.

"If you're not with me, then you're my enemy," Hayden Christensen's Anakin — soon to become villain Darth Vader — tells former mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). The line echoes Bush's international ultimatum after the Sept. 11 attacks, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."

"That quote is almost a perfect citation of Bush," said Liam Engle, a 23-year-old French-American aspiring filmmaker. "Plus, you've got a politician trying to increase his power to wage a phony war."

Though the plot was written years ago, "the anti-Bush diatribe is clearly there," Engle said.

The film opens Wednesday in parts of Europe and Thursday in the United States and many other countries. At the Cannes premiere Sunday night, actors in white stormtrooper costumes paraded up and down the red carpet as guests strolled in, while an orchestra played the "Star Wars" theme.

Lucas said he patterned his story after historical transformations from freedom to fascism, never figuring when he started his prequel trilogy in the late 1990s that current events might parallel his space fantasy.

"As you go through history, I didn't think it was going to get quite this close. So it's just one of those recurring things," Lucas said at a Cannes news conference. "I hope this doesn't come true in our country.

"Maybe the film will waken people to the situation," Lucas joked.

That comment echoes Moore's rhetoric at Cannes last year, when his anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" won the festival's top honor.

Unlike Moore, whose Cannes visit came off like an anybody-but-Bush campaign stop, Lucas never mentioned the president by name but was eager to speak his mind on U.S. policy in Iraq, careful again to note that he created the story long before the Bush-led occupation there.

"When I wrote it, Iraq didn't exist," Lucas said, laughing.

"We were just funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass destruction. We didn't think of him as an enemy at that time. We were going after Iran and using him as our surrogate, just as we were doing in Vietnam. ... The parallels between what we did in Vietnam and what we're doing in Iraq now are unbelievable."

The prequel trilogy is based on a back-story outline Lucas created in the mid-1970s for the original three "Star Wars" movies, so the themes percolated out of the Vietnam War and the Nixon-Watergate era, he said.

Lucas began researching how democracies can turn into dictatorships with full consent of the electorate.

In ancient Rome, "why did the senate after killing Caesar turn around and give the government to his nephew?" Lucas said. "Why did France after they got rid of the king and that whole system turn around and give it to Napoleon? It's the same thing with Germany and Hitler.

"You sort of see these recurring themes where a democracy turns itself into a dictatorship, and it always seems to happen kind of in the same way, with the same kinds of issues, and threats from the outside, needing more control. A democratic body, a senate, not being able to function properly because everybody's squabbling, there's corruption."

Oh boy I smell a controversy :(
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: DSJ™ on May 16, 2005, 12:00 PM
From CNN:

'Star Wars' celebration in London (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/16/london.starwars/index.html)

Quote
The day of "Star Wars" celebrations began at 6 a.m. with a dawn parade of the 501st UK Garrison of Storm Troopers.

They were there to open the doors to the world's first showing of the entire six-film "Star Wars" saga at the nearby UCI Empire cinema.

Now that would be something, sitting through all of them.  8)
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Brian on May 16, 2005, 02:28 PM
Again, not "technically" a news article...but Moviefone has a feature up called "unscripted" where Hayden Christensen and George Lucas ask questions of one another, submitted by fans/readers/viewers.  Some interesting comments in there, covering why Hayden is now in ROTJ, Yoda's backstory/history, and where the Saga is headed.  Not everything is "new" information, but kind of a nice little video.  About 15 minutes long or so, and you can view it HERE (http://movies.channel.aol.com/feature/starwars/unscripted.adp).
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Ben on May 16, 2005, 04:50 PM
The New Yawk Times review (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/16/movies/16star.html?ex=1147838400&en=8fb491b87610884f&ei=5083&partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes)
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Ben on May 16, 2005, 05:03 PM
The New York Daily News review (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/309861p-265142c.html)
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: SilverZ on May 16, 2005, 06:44 PM
The New Yawk Times review (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/16/movies/16star.html?ex=1147838400&en=8fb491b87610884f&ei=5083&partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes)

But of course the rise of the Empire and the perdition of Anakin Skywalker are not the end of the story, and the inverted chronology turns out to be the most profound thing about the "Star Wars" epic. Taken together, and watched in the order they were made, the films reveal the cyclical nature of history, which seems to repeat itself even as it moves forward. Democracies swell into empires, empires are toppled by revolutions, fathers abandon their sons and sons find their fathers. Movies end. Life goes on.

That was a great f'ing review.
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Jesse James on May 16, 2005, 09:03 PM
I have to say, even without having seen the film, I'm so tired of reading reviews that cite dialogue as being what effectively (to them) "ruins" the film for them...

I think it's one thing to acknowledge a flaw, but dialogue hardly ruins the films...  I believe Ebert said it best that the it's never been good in SW, and never will be, and you have to look past it to see what a good story is there.
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Darth Broem on May 17, 2005, 08:53 AM
The dialogue and acting seem to be bad when they are just standing and talking to each other.  When they are in action it's not that bad...if I am remembering correctly.  It's more when you got Anakin talking to Padme one on one.  Or Anakin talking to Kenobi one and one and not doing much else.   
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: CHEWIE on May 17, 2005, 10:28 AM
Eh, we all know how the media tries to put a negative spin on just about everything.  I pay no attention to them or their connection of Mr. Bush to Palpatine.  Give it up liberal media.

 :P
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: DSJ™ on May 17, 2005, 02:47 PM
A few words from the creator
George Lucas surveys his empire (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/17/film.george.lucas.ap/index.html)
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: DSJ™ on May 18, 2005, 12:24 PM
Closing the circle of 'Star Wars'
The movie that built an industry (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/17/star.wars.overview/index.html)

Mark Hamill on life with Luke
Broadway, animation career can't overshadow 'Star Wars' (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/18/markhamill.ap/index.html)
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: DSJ™ on May 19, 2005, 10:15 AM
The man who would be Darth (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/18/hayden.christensen.ap/index.html)
Title: Re: ROTS news article thread
Post by: Brian on May 20, 2005, 09:30 AM
I picked up the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly yesterday (with Anakin/Hayden on the cover), to have something to look at during the wait for the start of ROTS.  They have a very nice article in there, talking with Lucas about the Saga, and some interesting tidbits are in there.  Just to throw out here for conversation, here's some things I found interesting:

Regarding what the fans wanted for the prequels....

"I think the problem most hardcore fans had with the movies is that they wanted to cut to the chase" says prequels producer Rick McCallum.  "They watned Darth.  You could almost go from Episode III now and do two more films....you know, Episode 3.1 and 3.2.  Just to see a Vader evolve...."  McCallum pauses, and the idea just hangs there, tantalizing.  "But those aren't the films George wanted to make".

Lucas on the Prequels and the gamble of TPM.....

Lucas believes his biggest gamble was starting the saga with Jake Lloyd's gee whiz kid in Menace.  Even his marketing team was skeptical.  "That's a little bit of why it got overhyped.  People (here) were nervous if it was going to break even," says Lucas of Menace's notorious promotional push.  "I didn't care.  I said, This is the story.  I know I"m going to need to use Hamburger Helper to get it to two hours, but that's what I want to do."

By Lucas' own calculation, 60 percent of the prequel plot he dreamed up decades earlier takes place in Sith.  The remaining 40 percent he split evenly between Menace and Clones, meaning each film contained a lot of.....filler.  Or, in Lucas parlance, "jazz riffs....things that I enjoy.....just doodle around a lot"--mostly in the form of blending live action and animation to create exotic worlds and emotionally resonant characters.  You know, like Jar Jar.  "That's the whole point to me.  Making it the way I want it to be.  That's what it comes down to," he says.  "Somebody's got to be happy out of all this.  It might as well be me."

Lucas and the beginnings of the Prequels........

After finishing ROTJ in 1983, capping a decade of Star Wars labor, George Lucas wanted to focus on raising a family with his wife Marcia, and build Lucasfilm into a vehicle for financing and servicing the films he wanted to make.  "Then I got divorced," says Lucas, "and that sort of screwed that up.  I had to start all over again."  He means emotionally and financially: The split reportedly cost him $50 million of his fortune.  He spent the next decade or so raising his three adopted children, shoring up Lucasfilm, producing a few movies and a TV series (Young Indy), and trying to determine when....and with what.....he'd return to direction.  In 1994 "after much back and forth", he chose Star Wars.

"I tried to get out of doing it," confesses Lucas.  He even asked (half jokingly) Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard to each take a prequel: "Those are the two guys I agree with aesthetically the most."  If they had said yes? "I would have said, Good!"  But both said no.  "He was reluctant to get back in the harness.  Its just the hours and the intensity," says Howard.  "Steven told him the same thing: George, there's one person to do these, and that's you.  YOu just have to get up out of your chair and leave your desk.  I know the ranch is an enticing place, but just go make these movies".

Anyways...great article, and a nice read.  I really didn't know some of these things that Lucas thought about the prequels, and basically admitting that he had to stretch the story out and use "filler" for the first two prequels.  Plus, the fact that he initially wanted help with them from Howard and Spielberg was just interesting to me.