Solo director Ron Howard has recalled the advice George Lucas gave him about making a Star Wars movie — that the franchise's audience is primarily "12-year-old boys."
Yup, that was really the beauty of the thing. Twelve year old boys may have fucking loved it, but everybody found something to enjoy, and while I think the “saved in the edit” is a bit overly revisionist, it gets at the essential truth that unfiltered Lucas is worse than collaborative Lucas.
With George Lucas and interviews there are always two things things to keep in mind: first, he will inevitably oversimplify in a “draw the rest of the fucking owl” way that makes its success seem like an inscrutable miracle of personal genius that minimizes the contributions of his colleagues; and second, he will say some shit that’s completely different from the last time somebody asked him the same question three years earlier.
Star Wars didn’t become a phenomenon because 12 year old boys liked it.
It was because EVERYONE liked it.
George made a good thing with the help of a LOT of other creative people. But this is terrible advice.
Yup, that was really the beauty of the thing. Twelve year old boys may have fucking loved it, but everybody found something to enjoy, and while I think the “saved in the edit” is a bit overly revisionist, it gets at the essential truth that unfiltered Lucas is worse than collaborative Lucas.
With George Lucas and interviews there are always two things things to keep in mind: first, he will inevitably oversimplify in a “draw the rest of the fucking owl” way that makes its success seem like an inscrutable miracle of personal genius that minimizes the contributions of his colleagues; and second, he will say some shit that’s completely different from the last time somebody asked him the same question three years earlier.
Episode 1-2 was Lucas completely unfiltered.
Episode 3 is the result of his friends helping George salvage his mess.
Specifically, everyone liked the thing George made after his wife completely overhauled it.
And after the actors practically rewrote all their own dialogue.
He’s the type that needed someone to tell him “no.”