Check out more about this Ron Howard news in
this Hollywood Reporter article. Director Ron Howard is in the process of doing press for his new film
In The Heart Of The Sea, but in the process another topic has come up: STAR WARS.
There's been a good deal of press lately regarding George Lucas lack of involvement with the new Star Wars films following the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney. Lucas has equated it to a divorce. George had ideas about the direction for new chapters in the saga, and Disney had other ideas and wanted to go in another direction. And it seems likely that Disney's fear of Lucas involvement stems from much of the criticism that was leveled at George for the way that PT films turned out with Lucas as writer and director.
Well,
this new article reveals that George Lucas didn't want to direct the Prequels! No doubt Ron Howard has seen some of the negative press about George Lucas recently, and I can see why he would feel some loyalty to George. Lucas gave Howard opportunities as a director early in his career with projects like
Willow. So I can certainly see why he would feel compelled to step in and stop some of the George bashing. Read on:
Ron Howard on Turning Down ‘Star Wars’ Prequel: "Too Daunting"
by Arlene Washington
11/29/2015 12:12am PST
“He didn’t necessarily want to direct them," said Howard of George Lucas. “He told me that he had talked to [Robert] Zemeckis, he talked to me, he talked to Steven Spielberg.”
Director Ron Howard revealed that his résumé of blockbuster films could have included Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace. In a podcast interview on Happy Sad Confused with Josh Horowitz, the director said that he along with Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg passed on golden offers from Lucas to direct the franchise prequels.
“He didn’t necessarily want to direct them,”said Howard. “He told me that he had talked to [Robert] Zemeckis, he talked to me, he talked to Steven Spielberg. I was the third one he spoke to. They all said the same thing: ‘George, you should just do it. This is your baby.' Nobody wanted to follow that act I don’t think at that point. That was an honor, but it would’ve been just too daunting."
Lucas ended up directing the trilogy including, Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, Episode II — Attack of the Clones and Episode III — Revenge of the Sith. Howard lauded Lucas as his "directorial mentor" whom he worked with on Willow (1988) and American Graffiti (1973) and shared Lucas' impact on his latest film, In the Heart of the Sea.
“There are some subtle, contemporary themes in the story and it surprised me when I read it. And yet, there’s also this bedrock classic story of going to sea and nature turning on the whalers," said Howard. "This is what attracted Herman Melville to the story of The Essex when he wrote Moby Dick. I think those elements attracted me, but I wanted to present them in as modern of a way as I possibly could. I was borrowing a little bit from George’s inspiration, about how do you tell classic story, preserve that, but make it a modern movie experience for audiences.”WOW. Spielberg said no. Robert Zemeckis said no. Ron Howard said no.