SAN FRANCISCO ― Ask George Lucas what he thinks about the forthcoming “Star Wars” movie ― the first one the series creator has not had a hand in ― and he morphs into sagacious Obi-wan Kenobi.
“I’m very eager to see what they’ve done with it,” Lucas tells USA Today. “You know, I’m not going to be around for 100 years. You reach the age of 70, and you understand it’ll take a decade to do a group of these new movies. So it’s time to realize, ‘Star Wars’ needs someone else.”
Three years ago, Lucas, 71, shifted from directing and producing to philanthropy and fatherhood ― he and his wife Melody Hobson, 44, had a daughter, Everest, in 2013 ― after selling his empire, Lucasfilm, to Disney for $4 billion.
George Lucas (AP)
But the Northern California icon has another legacy that might rival “Star Wars”: Industrial Light & Magic, the special-effects company he founded 40 years ago in order to move a far-out space saga from his imagination to the big screen.
Over four decades, ILM not only has provided increasingly seamless effects for the six-film series, but also created indelible movie moments ranging from the rampaging dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park” to the monster wave in “The Perfect Storm.” To date, ILM has contributed effects to some 320 films and won 16 Oscars.
Our exclusive conversation with Lucas, which is edited for brevity, ranged from the dawn of special effects (a money-sucking necessity) to its current business state (fragile in the U.S.).
Q: Describe technology’s role in moviemaking.
A: It’s the means to an end, which is telling a story. Take the first cave paintings. You had someone making drawings with charcoal, then someone added color with an ochre rock. In cinema, the most technological of art forms, there were stories you could not tell. So you try and come up with solutions.
Q: What was the challenge with the first “Star Wars” movie?
A: At that point in time, the tech pinnacle was “2001: A Space Odyssey,” but the problem was you couldn’t pan. Now (director Stanley) Kubrick wanted a quiet movie, but I was telling a space fantasy. So (special effects pioneer) John Dykstra had to come up with a new technology that allowed lots of camera moves ― pans, cuts, tilts. I had to start a company from scratch to make “Star Wars.”
Q: Were you concerned your tech vision couldn’t be realized?
A: Sure. I’d put all my profits from “American Graffiti” into ILM, but when I came back from shooting (“Star Wars”) in London, they hadn’t completed any shots. It was August, and the movie was due out in May. It was a drama, to say the least.”
Q: When did you realize ILM would be more than a pet project?
A: Pretty much right after I finished “Star Wars.” Steven (Spielberg) was working on some movies, and I was doing Raiders of the Lost Ark, and everything seemed to lend itself to special effects. When my (filmmaking) friends kept saying, “Hey, can you do this for me?” that’s when I knew.
Q: The dinos in “Jurassic Park” were a milestone of sorts for ILM.
A: We had started to visualize things on what was the first Pixar computers (the animation juggernaut that is now part of Disney), but the holy grail was doing something seamless and real. We’d done (the water creature) in “The Abyss” and crude things on Willow, but nothing like making a dinosaur that looked like it was shot on location. That was a big deal.”
Q: That leap led to more flexibility for “Star Wars” storytelling.
A: Right, after “Jurassic Park” I could do a full-size Yoda that could talk and act, which led to creatures like Jar-Jar Binks and others, which was the development of photorealistic actors that you could use for stunt work.
Q: Many American special effects companies are facing stiff challenges from overseas firms. What’s your take on the future?
A: I fear that within the next 10 or 20 years there won’t be any special effects houses in the U.S. That’s just the way it is, people migrate to where they can do the best business. It’s hard to compete with companies that can offer you a 30 percent discount (for a special effects project) when the margin on such work is usually around 5 percent. Everyone goes for the highest quality they can get, for the least amount of money.
Q: ILM is still headquartered here in the Bay Area. You seem very proud of the moviemaking beachhead you established here.
A: When I moved ILM from Van Nuys (in Los Angeles) to the Bay Area (in 1978), we were saying you don’t have to make movies in Hollywood. People told us you couldn’t do that, but me and my friends (ranging from Francis Ford Coppola to Chris Columbus) thought otherwise. We made some of the biggest, most successful movies of all time, the most technologically advanced movies of all time, winning many Academy Awards. It was all done right here.
Q: Did special effects unleash the sci-fi/fantasy film explosion?
A: People have always been interested in fantasy films, if simply because films started out as a magic act. They love to see things they can’t see in real life, and that goes back to Georges Melies’ “A Trip to the Moon (1902).” In many ways, technology has allowed for epics to come back. In the old days (of Cecil B. DeMille films), you could afford to hire 10,000 extras. But today, with special effects you can have 1,000 Stormtroopers running around, or bring back “Troy.”
Q: Were you passionate about technology even as a film student?
A: No. I was interested in cinema, even when I was doing (his student film) “THX-1138.” I only ended up spending the money to help build better special effects so we could all make better movies.
By Marco R. della Cava, USA Today
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