I have just seen on Empire Magazine this highly distressing news...George Lucas has told The New York Times that he is thinking about his retirement and that his film 'Red Tails' will be his last blockbuster film.
As I have seen all of the Star Wars Films and of course all of the Indiana Jones films as well as being a huge fan of both franchises, I hope to god that George Lucas is joking about this as he is a big player in the movie world and I think it's safe to say that there will be a very very big void left to fill when or if he steps down from making anymore films.
George Lucas told The New York Times Newspaper that:
"...I'm retiring..."
"...I'm moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff..."
Although this news is the most shocking news I've heard today,-I say this because I loved all the work he did on the Star Wars films, and I know the world did as even today these films are being released in 3D and all of these films have already been released again on Blu-ray-, there still was room in this interview for the legend of film to still be evasive about whether or not there will be a fifth Indiana Jones...and if you are like me and have seen the last Indiana Jones movie,-Indiana Jones:The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull- then you know that if this film were to become more than a rumour then it has to be a lot better than this one.
Rick McCallum, who has been producing George Lucas's films for more than 20yrs went some way to explain to the obviously dumbstruck New York Times as well as trying to get across to the many other fans of George Lucas's films what the reason was behind this decision:
"Once this is is finished, he's done everything he's ever wanted to do".
"He will have completed his task as a man and a filmmaker".
Even though this goes some way to explain Lucas's retirement I and many thousands of people and fans alike will be as dumbstruck as ever as to why he has decided this now...but I suppose if he wanted to retire he is doing it on a very high point as all the Star Wars set of films were bloody fantastic with the grand scale of everything from the creation of the characters, the whole story of the fight between The Republic and The Empire, and even down to the special effects on every film, was loved the world over...and now that I think about it these films are the gift that keeps on giving.
Also the same can be said of the Indiana Jones films and these were I think I'm okay in saying had as big as fan base as Star Wars...so really for George Lucas it is probably the best time to retire as he has had all the problems with trying to get 'Red Tails' released into cinemas and it's a little bit harder to gage what the reception will be from cinemagoers on this latest film from him.
These problems that George Lucas has encountered with 'Red Tails' is that when he went to pitch this idea to studios no one seemed to want to touch it so Lucas had to use his own money to fund every aspect of this film, including the prints to the film. After very long and drawn out negotiations between Lucas and 20th Century Fox, the studio finally agreed to distribute the film all be it rather reluctantly in America but they won't be paying any of the costs.
I don't really understand why there has been so much problems with getting this film out to cinemas as the story of 'Red Tails' is all about how in 1944 when the war on Europe takes it's toll on allied forces the Pentagon are forced to resort to unorthodox methods of commissioning the all African American pilots of the experimental Tuskagee training program.
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox/redtails/
I could understand if the studios weren't wanting this movie to be another Pearl Harbour because let's face it this movie was a big stinker of crap at the cinema...that was only improved with the help of Team America:World Police, and no one wants another one of these as the reviews were bad and I can't think that there was a lot of money that was made on this film.
But I would have thought that any studio that has George Lucas come to it to pitch an idea that needs financial backing would give this straight away just purely for the fact that it's George Lucas.
But still the fact remains that this film has had some minor teething problems.
Apart from this though, you could say that this film has been a long time coming in development as George Lucas started commissioning scripts for this movie in the early 1990's, and even then this story was going to have three parts to it.
Oh well...I guess you win some you loose some, but this won't be the last that we hear of George Lucas though, even if it won't be on the side of the big blockbuster side of things.
The New York Times have said that:
"Lucas has decided to devote the rest of his life to what cineastes in the 1970's used to call personal films. They'll be small in scope, esoterical in subject and screened mostly in art houses. "
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