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 Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas is a biography written by Dale Pollock published in 1983. Originally having Lucas's cooperation, eventually he took issue with certain elements of Pollock's manuscript and disowned it. Well, let's see what it says and decide for ourselves whether it's a credible document or some kind of hit piece, shall we?
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Jun 29, 2020 19:30
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 16:39 |
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So it starts off with Lucas as a teen getting into a serious car wreck that hospitalizes him for days and "crushes" his lungs. From this he decides he's been wasting his life and undergoes a personality change from aimless underachieving shithead to ambitious overachieving shithead.
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Jun 29, 2020 19:58
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Lucas's father, also named George, made him earn his allowance money by mowing the lawn, sounds like with a manual mower. Eventually Lucas saves enough money to buy a motorized lawnmower that lets him get the job done in a fraction of the time. George Sr., while admittedly impressed, is infuriated by this act of defiance.
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Jun 29, 2020 20:22
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Upon graduating high school George Sr. insists Jr. help run the family business. The younger Lucas angrily declares he will never join his father and what's more, he will become a millionaire by the time he turns 30. This starts a years-long rift between them.
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Jun 29, 2020 20:45
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Young George was a real gearhead and cars were his first passion. He hangs out with the local streetracing scene up until he has his big accident (the book kind of jumps around a bit in the timeline). If he was born like 30 years later he'd probably be a 'Fast and the Furious' diehard.
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Jun 29, 2020 21:03
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Wookieepedia cites a different story of how the book was conceivedquote:Skywalking was commissioned to tie in with the release of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. Crown Publishing, who commissioned Pollock, wanted Skywalking to be completely unauthorised. Lucas, Pollock and Crown eventually came to a deal which allowed Pollock to write anything he wanted, but Lucas was able to cut anything he felt was factually inaccurate. Pollock was present on the set of Return of the Jedi and conducted more than eighty hours of interviews for the book. 
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Jun 29, 2020 22:32
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Turns out George Lucas was kind of a big slut back in the day and would regularly pick up women for sex in the backseat of his car. He continued having regular one night stands while at USC, seems like Marcia was his first actual relationship. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jun 30, 2020 04:54
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SidneyIsTheKiller posted:and "crushes" his lungs Incredible thread, goldmine immediately.
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Jun 30, 2020 14:42
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josh04 posted:Incredible thread, goldmine immediately. Oh my god
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Jun 30, 2020 17:29
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I'm mortified.
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Jul 1, 2020 09:49
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I could not resist the comedy of putting that on to someone's rap sheet
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Jul 1, 2020 10:22
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Through USC Lucas takes an apprenticeship with Francis Ford Coppola, the beginning of a much closer working and personal relationship than I had ever realized. Lucas makes a documentary about the making of Coppola's film Rain People that for decades was (maybe still is?) assigned watching in film schools. I also had no clue Apocalypse Now was originally Lucas's idea.
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Jul 1, 2020 13:40
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Coppola is portrayed here as a man with such a magnetic personality and towering charisma that he's completely oblivious to how much of a selfish rear end in a top hat he is. >>> Lucas talks about the impression Coppola gives that "people disappear when they walk out of the room. He has no conception that people live their lives after they leave him. He finds it incredible that people do things he doesn't wish them to do, since he's controlling it all and they're all here for him. " He also convinces Lucas to grow a beard, claiming people will take him more seriously that way.
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Jul 1, 2020 13:50
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George Lucas hates writing, but Coppola encourages him to do it anyway. >>> Coppola had no plans to pay for a screenwriter so he gave Lucas a valuable lesson in discipline: if he was going to make it in the movie business, he was going to have to learn how to write. "So I wrote it, and I turned it in to Francis, and I said, `This is terrible,"' Lucas remembers. "He read it and said, `You're right."' Lucas and Coppola would grow apart as he found Coppola growing more "amoral" as time went on, and allegedly Coppola became miffed when Lucas (after he became a gazillionaire) wouldn't help him financially during a down period for him (Lucas says he had but to ask).
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Jul 1, 2020 14:09
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Coppola being sorta nuts not at all surprising
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Jul 1, 2020 14:13
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Jul 1, 2020 15:10
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Aight that's a loving wild crash. I'd probably decide to stop being a lazy piece of poo poo if I walked away from that too.
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Jul 1, 2020 15:14
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Having no real clue how to market THX-1138, one of the things Warner Bros. tried was promoting it through an adult magazine called "Adam Film World". >>> Describing the lovemaking sessions between LUH and THX, the magazine zine leers, "Seems good old-fashioned sex play leads right to the old-time physical orgasm, and you know they're never going back to that futuristic mental stuff."' Lucas claims that he left even sexier footage out of the movie at the request of Robert Duvall. SidneyIsTheKiller fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Jul 1, 2020 |
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Jul 1, 2020 16:00
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Lucas was "completely outraged" when Warner Bros. cut a few minutes from THX-1138 before release and was so bitter about it that years later when negotiating with WB over Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lucas stipulated (and received) a formal apology as part of the deal. Eventually Raiders would go to Paramount regardless. When Universal also recut American Graffiti against Lucas's wishes, his already low opinion of the industry turned into a seething personal hatred. >>> Lucas didn't care how slight the alterations were. He felt he had been trifled with and deceived, and in the morally righteous world of George Lucas, that was unpardonable. ...Thus, the mutilation of American Graffiti was a totally black incident for Lucas, representing Hollywood's perfidy and crassness. It left him with an abiding resentment that has deepened over the years.
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Jul 1, 2020 16:25
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SidneyIsTheKiller posted:when negotiating with WB over Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lucas stipulated (and received) a formal apology as part of the deal. lol what a power play. George Lucas is alright. Wanna see a picture of a beardless Lucas, but I reckon Coppola did him a solid there.
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Jul 1, 2020 17:38
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Right? This book has kind of a reputation but I'm not really getting a bad impression of our boy Lucas here at all. I suppose it does make him sound difficult to work with, but the way he puts it is still pretty relatable. >>>At the end of the shooting, Coppola decided to have a group therapy session involving the producers, the director, and the crew. George impatiently listened as the crew complained that he never talked to them, confided in them, joked with them, or related in any sort of a personal way. "It was one of those feely-talky therapy sessions," Lucas says with a snort. "Lucky they hadn't invented hot tubs yet, or we'd all have been in one." But the criticism touched a nerve; Lucas knew he had to confront his difficulty in communicating with people, even if it ruined a lot of his fun in making movies. "Being a director is a very draining job," Lucas is convinced. "It's like being head of a very big family, and you have to give every little kid your attention." Lavishing attention on insecure show people was not Lucas's idea of a good time.
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Jul 2, 2020 00:04
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TBH in '83 I'd be really surprised if he didn't come off well. If you look at his work, it's several good interesting movies, and being the guy behind the biggest movie of our times, its competent sequels, and being a major player in "Raiders of the Lost Ark". A little later he gets in front of congress to talk about colorized movies and why they are bad, and I think is also on the record as saying something like "special effects are useless if not used as part of the old-fashioned emotional connection and storytelling"
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Jul 2, 2020 00:16
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Yeah, if anything, it feels weird reading something that just takes for granted that of course George Lucas is brilliant and a great filmmaker. It also feels like a prequel that's constantly doing that reverse foreshadowing thing.
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Jul 2, 2020 00:43
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Nebakenezzer posted:"special effects are useless if not used as part of the old-fashioned emotional connection and storytelling" It's true! - Fortunately, this is not a mistake George Lucas would ever make.
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Jul 2, 2020 00:47
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Lucas's experience making American Graffiti is so trying he comes to straight-up hate directing and decides he's going to retire - and after the movie's massive success he could legit do so at seemingly the top of his game (it's easy to forget that American Graffiti was one of the biggest movies of the 70s). But he wanted to at least realize "The Star Wars" first: '50s nostalgia movie', 'space serial movie', and 'Vietnam movie' are said to be his bucket list projects (I remember hearing somewhere around the time of Red Tails' release that 'Tuskegee airmen movie' was also one of these projects but there's no mention of it here). He would have an even more miserable time directing Star Wars (he and most of the crew suffer chronic diarrhea while on location in Tunisia, for just one example of the production's unpleasantries) and even its monumental impact can't change his mind from mothballing his director's chair. SidneyIsTheKiller fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Mar 19, 2021 |
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Jul 3, 2020 11:15
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I was impressed how much the book seemed to know about the various Star Wars drafts (with "Annikin Starkiller" et al); I reckon this must have been one of the earliest media to cover this stuff. Though it says at one point Obi Wan and Darth Vader started out as a single character? I haven't read the early drafts myself but I don't recall hearing about that one. When the production had already gotten underway, Lucas was still concerned that Obi Wan had nothing to do for much the second half of the movie. It was Marcia who convinced him to kill him off midway. Once Alec Guinness got wind of this, he was none too happy and immediately got on the phone with his agent to try to remove himself from the gig and had to be coaxed back. Afterwards it seemed he genuinely appreciated the opportunity (and the book suggests, at least at the time of its publishing, that legends of his resentment toward all things Star Wars is exaggerated).
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Jul 3, 2020 11:44
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After Star Wars made unprecedented bank (and continued to make - 20th Century Fox produced "Happy Birthday Star Wars" posters advertising that the film was still running), Lucas paid out generous bonuses to most of the cast, crew, and even the clerical staff at Lucasfilm. Not everyone was gracious about it: a couple of crewmembers complained when Lucas got them each of them a car (admittedly, while I wouldn't look a gifthorse in the mouth, a car's not really a great gift for someone who doesn't want or need one). Anthony Daniels also refused Lucas's offer of a $100k bonus in protest upon learning the other principle actors had gotten percentages; Daniels was already a bit disgruntled that all his promotional appearances for Star Wars required him to be in costume & character (meaning he couldn't actually get much exposure for himself as an actor) and that some marketing copy actually tried to pass C-3PO off as an actual robot IRL, and in general felt he was treated as just an expendable guy in a costume (He also complained that Lucas was giving him the cold shoulder on set but I think eventually he realized that's just the way Lucas is). Lucas didn't give any extra to ILM, and the book admits it has no idea if he had been unsatisfied with their work or if he just thought they'd already been adequately compensated.
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Jul 3, 2020 17:18
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Voting Floater posted:lol what a power play. George Lucas is alright. George pulls up in his  
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Jul 3, 2020 18:16
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Veteran screenwriter Leigh Brackett is hired by Lucas to write the script for Empire, but he ends up hating the draft she submits. She dies two weeks later. Coincidence??? 
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Jul 3, 2020 18:35
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SidneyIsTheKiller posted:I was impressed how much the book seemed to know about the various Star Wars drafts (with "Annikin Starkiller" et al); I reckon this must have been one of the earliest media to cover this stuff. Though it says at one point Obi Wan and Darth Vader started out as a single character? I haven't read the early drafts myself but I don't recall hearing about that one. Yeah, Alec Guinness should definitely be given a pass for that. It wasn't so much he minded appearing in Star Wars; it was that he was a legendary actor when he did so, and had been in some all-time-great movies. So when suddenly everybody knew him from *just* Star Wars, it's a little annoying. It's kinda like how Danny Elfman wrote the Simpsons theme in an afternoon? Imagine now for about 95% of people, that's the only thing they know about him? It'd be similar. SidneyIsTheKiller posted:Veteran screenwriter Leigh Brackett is hired by Lucas to write the script for Empire, but he ends up hating the draft she submits. She dies two weeks later. lol
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Jul 3, 2020 18:44
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>>> "Steven Spielberg had suggested that Lucas and his closest friends exchange profit percentages in their films, and George, with some misgivings, agreed. He gave Spielberg one point in Star Wars in exchange for one in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a fair enough trade. Lucas made a similar deal with John Milius for a point in Big Wednesday, a movie glorifying Milius's surfer days that was one of 1978's biggest bombs. Lucas is now sorry that he traded points with Milius: 'I simply made a bad investment.'"
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Jul 3, 2020 19:22
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It was Lucas who pressed Fox to sue Universal over Battlestar Galactica (the book notes the studios typically try to stay on each other's good side and avoid legal disputes). But he actually didn't mind being ripped off, he just thought it sucked. >>> "I got hundreds of letters from people saying, 'I think your TV show is terrible.' It was very upsetting." SidneyIsTheKiller fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Jul 3, 2020 |
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Jul 3, 2020 19:48
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The plot thickens: Battlestar Galactica's effects work was being handled by a team of former ILM crew that formed their own rival company. >>> Dykstra remains defensive about 'Galactica': "There was no profit participation from Star Wars, so we were really out to lunch. It was George's money and George's movie, but none of us got any points. 'Battlestar' was the first project that came through the door that promised to pay the bills to keep my buddies and me employed." Dykstra contends that 'Galactica' was not a ripoff of Star Wars, but he does acknowledge, "The effects were the same, and maybe I feel guilty about that." SidneyIsTheKiller fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Jul 3, 2020 |
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Jul 3, 2020 20:08
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SidneyIsTheKiller fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Jul 3, 2020 |
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Jul 3, 2020 21:19
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Jul 4, 2020 06:37
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Lucas hates the first rough cut of Empire so much--he feels Kershner is making the movie "better" than is necessary--that he proceeds to re-edit the film himself, cutting out 40 minutes. >>> "It was just a lot better than I wanted to make it," Lucas says. "And I was paying for it." 'Supereditor' Lucas presents his cut to Kershner, producer Gary Kurtz and editor Paul Hirsch and they are unanimously critical: his revision is a mess. Lucas snaps. >>> ...[Lucas] exploded: "You guys are ruining my picture! You are here messing around and we're trying to save this thing!" Kersh calmly pointed out what he thought Lucas had done wrong, but George became even more upset. "It's my money, it's my film, and I'm going to do it the way I want to do it," he declared. Once the crew gets him to calm down, Lucas confesses: >>> "But they were right. It didn't really work very well. That was what made me angry--I couldn't make it work." Kershner suggested some new changes and the next day Lucas went back and recut the film, following the director's advice. "It came together beautifully," he says.
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Jul 4, 2020 09:11
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Lucas tries to refinance his Bank of America loan, but they refuse. The reason? Turns out Francis Ford Coppola had also taken out a loan from Bank of America to self-finance Apocalypse Now that spiraled out of control, and they weren't about to go through the same thing with Lucas (gee thanks, Francis). Now literally out of money and having to make payroll, Lucas has no choice but to face his worst fear: >>> "So I had to go to Fox to get a guarantee for the loan," Lucas says gloomily. "It was humiliating." By making some costly concessions to 20th Century Fox on their initial deal for both Empire and Return of the Jedi, Lucasfilm managed to retain ownership of both movies (and pay its employees). Lucas went from owing $15 million to $33 million. He blames the runaway production on Gary Kurtz for letting Kershner indulge himself; Kurtz says Kershner's results were worth it. Though The Empire Strikes Back becomes the 2nd all-time highest grossing film after release, Lucas and Kurtz end their professional relationship.
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Jul 4, 2020 10:48
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This is gold, please tell me there's more coming?
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Jul 4, 2020 16:44
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George Lucas rules.
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Jul 4, 2020 17:30
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 16:39 |
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Easy Riders, Raging Bulls paints George as a guy who basically hosed around on Coppola’s dime for quite a while, so I’m guessing there’s some ‘he said she said’ in their relationship.
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Jul 4, 2020 18:44
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