George Lucas Hanging Up His Lightsaber For Good?

Is Lucas really waving bye-bye to blockbusters?

The man behind the greatest sci-fi movie franchise ever, Star Wars, is seriously talking about calling it quits.  With a few days until his next production Red Tails opens in theaters, George Lucas told The New York Times in a feature story published earlier today that he's likely leaving blockbuster films behind and moving closer to retirement.  Do we believe him?

The Times asked him what his next project was and here's what he had to say, "Um … well, it’s funny you should ask," the 67-year-old Lucas stated.

"I’m moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff," he said.  

He also pointed out that Red Tails will go down as his last big budget blockbuster, though he reportedly hinted at leaving the door open for a fifth and final Indiana Jones installment.  I've read elsewhere that Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford are more or less waiting on word from Lucas to get the ball rolling with the project.

Lucas even took the time to address the infamous refrigerator scene from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and his idea to include it in the film.

"The odds of surviving that refrigerator — from a lot of scientists — are about 50-50," Lucas said.

I'm not sure what to think of Lucas' comments here.  Maybe he'll work on smaller films and passion projects, or dare I say...walk away for good?

Red Tails comes out this Friday (GTBP will have the review for you), and Lucas recently told Jon Stewart on The Daily Show he'd been trying to make the film for years and really had to fight for it to get made.  Will the box office success or failure of Red Tails have any impact on his decision?

Should Lucas retire from filmmaking or continue?  GTBP readers please let us know.

Comments

[J.Bradley]

It's really indicative of a lot of directors from his generation. If it's not time for them to step down now within a decade or so it will be.

[Mario Melidona]

not necessarily. certainly directors can continue to have fruitful directing careers very late into their lives, it all depends on the projects they choose. George Lucas is a director who constantly goes back to tinker with his Star Wars franchise and it gets annoying having revisited editions. Currently i'm bothered by LoTR trilogy constantly having new box sets. its plain old cash-grab and its insulting. The only projects he's directed/written/produced involve some form of Star Wars and Indiana Jones, most directors change it up. he stays the same, that's the problem. he doesn't know what else to do.

[J.Bradley]

Well he has a Disney-like empire with just a handful of movies. Could he have taken the risks and made a legacy of MOVIES, experimenting and changing artistically with each project? Sure. But he didn't do that. There are risks in whichever way they play it. He chose to do it the way he has. That's the choices that one has to make in that business. All one can do is appreciate and evaluate what they've done within the parameters they've operated. Heck, Disney never directed one movie, but he was a creative force behind everything that studio did and we associate EVERYTHING about that studio with ol' Walt. Same with Lucas. He is pretty much "the Force" behind that "brand" - as we would say in modern parlance. Still though, he's human. He's gotta' step down sometime and that time is simply getting near.