WIRED magazine on George Lucas

[The Man with No Name]

According to TheForce.Net, the May issue of WIRED features an in-depth feature article on Uncle George.

http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/stor ... _91472.asp

If you already have the mag, could you be so kind as to scan in the article for your brethren.

I'm from Australia, and we won't be getting the May issue of WIRED until July.

The lucky country my ass!

[Chilly]

cool

[force2187]

Hey guys, I wrote the Wired article. It's called "Life After Darth," and it focuses on a period of George's life that he has hardly ever talked about. He was generous with his time, as were Peter Jackson and a bunch of other great folks I talked to while I was researching the story. It focuses on George's desire to make new experimental films now that SW is over.

I'm very happy with it, and the layout is awesome.

It will be on the Web early next week, with cool extra online-only stuff.

[Obi]

nice dude, can you give any sw related snippets?

[force2187]

I can't leak much, but here's a lil' snippet from the online-only section, which will be posted with the main article. Keep in mind that my article is more about what George wants to do next, but this is him telling me about SW:

"The story being told in Star Wars is a classic story. Every few hundred years, the story is retold because we have a tendency to do the same things over and over again. Power corrupts, and when you're in charge, you start doing things that you think are right but they're actually not."

I noticed that a blogger has scanned the cover, so that's out there on the Net somewhere.

The May issue is also at bookstores and magazine stores now. The cover is intense.

[force2187]

It just came out. The subscribers haven't even gotten it yet . But it'll be in all those places soon.

[Obi]

thanks force, nice to know the mainstream media browses mf

[force2187]

This is a great site.

[The Man with No Name]

force2187,

I'm looking forward to reading your article.

Did you visit Skywalker Ranch to interview GL, or did you do it over the phone?

I'm a freelance writer myself (I've written several features for Film Threat), and I've always harboured a desire to interview the Emperor of Marin County.

[force2187]

Yeah, I went to the Ranch. It's one of George's most beautiful movies.

Where can I read your stuff in Film Threat?

I'm Steve, by the way.

[Obi]

Ranch visits are probably very rigidly run like gestapo all around you making sure you dont see anything you are not supposed to, like casting calls for the tv show and etc

[force2187]

Nah, not at all. It's relaxed and lovely.



http://pauldavidson.blogs.com/wfme/2005/04/a_galaxy_of_wor.html

There's a (lo-rez) scan of the cover.
(that's not my website, that's another writer)

[SnakePlisken]

Woa, did George know he was going to be encased in the Vader mask for the cover? (with graphic manipulation of course).

[The Man with No Name]

Yeah, I went to the Ranch. It's one of George's most beautiful movies.

Where can I read your stuff in Film Threat?

I'm Steve, by the way.

Good to meet you, Steve. I'm Matt.

This is my strongest piece, which, incidentally, is an examination of "The Phantom Edit" and its implications:

http://www.filmthreat.com/Features.asp?Id=289

The original title of the article was "The Fan's Cut", but the editor decided that it should be the article's subtitle. I got over it.

[ohmixmaster]

Thanks for the cover scan. Love it, probably the most daring cover of a SW movie to date. I really like it, and appreciate the effort.

Speaking of "The Phantom Edit", doe anyone know where I can DL that?

[Mokle]

This mag has been out for at least a week where I am, and one of my friends in California has had a copy for a while. If I head to the bookstore anytime soon, I'll try to pick one up.

[Fixer]

Steve,

Picked up a copy at B&N Wednesday. Great article, but wish it was about ten times as long. I never knew about the influences of those particular indie pix from the 50s & 60s (e.g. 21-87). I'd love to see them. I'm also looking forward to these unpopular films he wants to make.

So, two TV series? Is this something GL said directly, or something you got in a LFL press pack, or some other source?

Also, to echo the question above, did GL know about/approve the cover? It looks fantastic. Kudos to the Wired art department. I wouldn't mind having a framed version of that.

Thanks for a good read.

[force2187]

Is this something GL said directly, or something you got in a LFL press pack


If it was from a press pack, you would have read it in 300 other places by now! If you notice, in the article, I quote George on that.

Thanks for all the really nice comments about the piece.



Matt, that's a good article on the Phantom Edit, thanks for posting the link. I also loved the mug shots of Jake Lloyd <grin>.

I'm curious about this statement:

the ruler of an entertainment empire based in San Francisco in what must feel like a churlish affront to the city of dreams.

What do you mean?

[dylan]

Damn, I should have piced this up then. I saw it while grocery shopping last night, flipped through it and put it back on the shelf.

[force2187]

Well yes, you should have.

[force2187]

I can't really answer that question for reasons of my job. Personally, I'd rather that you didn't post lo-rez scans of it, particularly because the whole article is going to be posted on wired.com/wired early next week, with the additional material I mentioned. Since I'm so happy with the way the article turned out, I'd be bummed to think of people trying to read the article in sort of hacked-up lo-resolution form. But I realize that this site is about spoilerifficness for the hardcores <grin>.

[force2187]

Thanks so much, I appreciate it!

I just confirmed that the Lucas story and the Web-only stuff will go live on http://wired.com/wired on Tuesday morning.

Thanks! (I'm eager too.)

[force2187]

Once it goes live, I'll be around here to answer questions, if you guys have any.

I do encourage people to get a copy of the magazine if they can. We're huge Lucas fans at Wired, and the magazine went all out for the print version, with glossy cover stock for the newsstand copies that make Darth Lucas' face look especially amazing (grin), and special silver inks for the article itself.

In this case, it looks even cooler on paper!

[The Man with No Name]

Welcome Matt!

Looking forward to reading the Wired article. I also remember reading your Phantom Edit article. Nice article, although I always strongly disagreed with one of your statements in the article.

In retrospect, I was a little bit hard on GL. When I wrote that article I had a simmering disdain for "The Phantom Menace" that has since cooled.

I agree; "THX-1138" and "American Graffiti" are two well-directed films, and I should have been more cognizant of that when I wrote the article.

[force2187]

Yep, it has in major cities. The official publication date is Tuesday -- thus the Web version happens then -- but this issue has been leaking out in bookstores all week, in some cases selling out a month's supply in a single day.

[The Man with No Name]

Matt, that's a good article on the Phantom Edit, thanks for posting the link. I also loved the mug shots of Jake Lloyd <grin>.

I'm curious about this statement:

the ruler of an entertainment empire based in San Francisco in what must feel like a churlish affront to the city of dreams.

What do you mean?

Hehe. I winced when I came across that clumsy turn of phrase yesterday (I re-read the article after grabbing the link off the Film Threat site).

What I was trying to say was that GL's move to SF was correctly perceived by many as GL giving Hollywood the finger.

[force2187]

Oh, I get it. I thought "the city of dreams" was SF, because I live there, and it is indeed dreamy.

[The Man with No Name]

SF is very dreamy. I did my junior year at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley. During my eighteen-month stay in the Bay Area, I lived in Nicasio and in the Fillmore.

Like Tony Bennett, I too left my heart in SF.

[Obi]

my car broke down in SF. other than that very nice

[CoGro]

Thanks Steve, great to have you aboard.


I checked out the article - very nice. Good work.

I'm jealous of you, though. Here I am trying to become a lawyer when really I should be trying to construct ways to interview Lucas and visit the Ranch.

[force2187]

Thanks, CoGro. I was a bit nervous when I went up to interview George, because, while I've interviewed lots of intense people before -- from Jerry Garcia (yay!) to Steve Jobs (ugh! though I'm still a faithful Apple user) -- I had never met George before, and THX 1138 was such a formative experience for me when I was 12, to say nothing of Star Wars, which I saw with the poet Allen Ginsberg (that's a whole other story) when it first came out.

But as soon as I walked in the room and we sat down, I knew it would be OK. George was very casual -- at some point we were both sort of laying around on couches laughing and talking, with the tape recorder going the whole time -- and I liked him even more than I hoped I would. While it's true that there's a huge amount of machinery involved in seeing George, he has a very pleasant, unaffected manner and an extremely lively mind. It was great, and I'm grateful for having had the experience.

[The Man with No Name]

Steve,

Tell us more about the "machinery".

[force2187]

Tell us more about the "machinery".

Eh, it's irrelevant. But the Lucasfilm PR people are wonderful, as nice as anybody in the business, and I'm not just saying that. They're both great at what they do and extremely personable, which is rare.

Everybody is doing remakes or someone elses stories.

I know what you mean, but I also think there's some great stuff out there these days. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Memento, and Lost in Translation were all great movies that were unlike anything I'd seen before.

Steve do you have any photos of the visit to the Ranch, or any other media form you could share with us?

I wish I did, but I didn't bring a camera. I'm not even sure it's allowed. The photo in the main spread of the article, though, does show the Main House at the Ranch, and the sweep of hills around it. The Ranch is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, and I would say that even if George hadn't been the one who built it. It's all lovely, understated, and very organically related to its surroundings and to the architecture of the Bay Area in subtle and profound ways. It's also very quiet. You can think there, which was one of the main ideas in creating it.

[Ewok_Pudu]

It's one of George's most beautiful movies.

So is it safe to assume you have seen Revenge of the Sith?

Honest impressions?

[robbie_20002002]

Great to know we have a professional writer here at MF. I bought TotalFilm yesterday (probably the 2nd biggest circulation for a film magazine in the UK) and they had a small sub section in their SW special rating the top 5 SW sites. No1: SW.com. No2: TFN No3 i think was JediNet. The other two were so obscure as not to be worth mentioning. Obviously some researcher had spent 5 mins googling Star Wars and written up the first five sites listed.

[Devil Dodo]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Memento,

those are two of my all-time favourite movies!

[force2187]

So is it safe to assume you have seen Revenge of the Sith?

Nope, I didn't. My article isn't about ROTS, as you'll see, but about a part of George's past that he has always kept secret that was crucial to his destiny as a filmmaker, and about what he wants to do next.

[Ziggy]

I know Lucas was burned by Howard the Duck, but he'd stop losing his key employees if he'd start allowing them to make their own films/projects under the Lucasfilm Umbrella.

Hopefully after SW is over, he'll loosen the reigns a bit. Otherwise, what's the point in building the new complex?

[force2187]

Guys, my Wired cover article on George Lucas is now posted on the Web:

Life After Darth
http://wired-vig.wired.com/wired/archive/13.05/lucas.html

Things to notice:

1) The article is mostly not about Star Wars, but about what George wants to do next.
2) I uncovered a previously unknown part of his life that was crucial in his decision to become a filmmaker.
3) I discovered the secret source of the phrase "the Force," which I am most happy about!
4) This really is a glimpse of George behind his usual wall of safe statements. There's some serious criticism of the new trilogy from one of George's oldest friends, and LOTR director Peter Jackson says some wonderful things about how seeing Star Wars as a teenager inspired him.
5) Yes, it's a long article, but I guarantee that you haven't seen most of this information before, even if you've read the Lucas biographies.

Along with the main article is an unusually frank online-only question-and-answer session with Lucas in which he talks about his feelings about the response to the new trilogy, the technical history of Star Wars, Fahrenheit 9/11, and other matters of interest:

http://wired-vig.wired.com/wired/archive/13.05/lucasqa.html

There are also some stills from ROTS. I'm not sure if these have leaked before.

Enjoy it all, guys!

[jpeters430]

Great article man.

It was definitely nice to get an inside look at Lucas and his future. Most the aritcles on Lucas usually turn into the same old rehashed stories, but you did something different. One of the best Lucas articles I've ever read.

Great stuff. Everyone should go read this.

I think a lot of us fans are waiting to see what else Lucas can do. I know that mind of his is constantly churning. Personally, I can't wait for him to start making his films that no one wants to see.

Edit: It's great how you found so much new information. That's a tough thing to do with a guy as popular as Lucas. Not like I've read everything written about the guy, but I've read my share, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much good stuff you'd dug up.`

[force2187]

Thanks man! That was my main intention -- to write a story that was almost all new information, even for people who have read ten books on Lucas and Star Wars.

[VT-16]

Wow, that was quite an article. Both of them.

I do have hope he´ll get enough courage to "downscale" his ambitions enough to go on a surrealist movie-making binge. Hell, CGI might find some further use then, rather than just operating in the sci-fi and fantasy-genres.

And I guess in his mind, all the CGI is there to experiment with and use to go beyond the norm in terms of effects. (Simulating his influences, who combined different elements in their films.) Which in turn makes alot of people angry when he abandons the actors and dialogue. (Though it seems as if he´s unusually proud about ROTS, so it´s possible it´s good on all accounts this time.)

Once again, good job! Definitely a different take on him and his career.

[oedipus]

Great articles man

Not just a rehash of the same old stuff thats covered by every piece done on Lucas. I also like that you focused a lot of it on his pre THX period and even his pre film school period. Most pieces gloss over that period until they get to the American Graffiti/Star Wars period of his life.

I really enjoyed it.

[Reecoh]

Fantastic article! A great read & full of info I had not seen elsewhere, especially on his early influences.

I'm really interested to see what kinds of things he ends up doing now that he's got nothing but time. I personally think he's capable of delivering more huge hits, even if he never expects them to be big. And if not, well, as he said he's earned the right to fail

[force2187]

Thanks so much, guys!

Yep, there is a ton of new information in my article and the Lucas interview. I expect that certain entries in Wikipedia will have to be revised [grin].

THX 1138 was my favorite movie when I was a kid, so I wish George well in moving off into new directions.

[The_Somnambulist]

Thank you

I've been checking my college campus bookstore everyday since you arrived here with your information. Is all the Lucas-related stuff going to be available online?

As soon as the article came up online, I posted it at TFn and one of the moderators there suggested that I move it into some anonymous, scarcely read thread.

Rock on, MF!

---

Anyway, I really enjoyed the article. It touched upon a side of George Lucas that I wasn't really aware of for a good deal of time in my youth and younger teenage years when I should have been.

His status as an independent filmmaker is unfortunately obscured due to the nature of the SW Saga but his past/projected future should certainly be given more emphasis in wherever he is written about. This "side" of GL makes him more easily relatable to a rogue or rebellious persona that America main-stream seems to be lacking nowadays but which he constantly portrays in his films. Also, I love the angle the article took of portraying an independent artist trying to get away from the trappings of what he has constructed himself. Rejecting his built-up time and effort to "reinvent" himself. It's great to know someone that old and experienced is still, as Obi-Wan recently put it, "always on the move."

It's very inspiring.

Another unique facet of this article was the description of the "art scene" that found its way to the West. Is it a detriment or a benefit to know of these influences? I ask the author, do you ever feel as though an artist's originality is diluded when there is such a detailing of inspirations? I'm constantly concerned about these things, being a filmmaker myself. Either way, GL has certainly taken all his experiences and morphed them into something new and unseen in this generation. I kinda think that sort of initial emulation is necessary, especially when surrounded by a society that really isn't very open-minded and doesn't always easily allow for such divergent expression. It serves as a guide, firm and validating, until you're able to find your own voice and more freedom.

Here's a memorable quote:

"Art is about communicating with people emotionally without the intellectual artifacts of the current situation, and dealing with very emotional issues." -GL

---

An excellent complement to this article would be GL's interview with Charlie Rose which aired about half-a-year-ago.

Thanks again, force2187, because your writing is solid and your content is deep. I slid through this thing with speed and interest.

The_Somnambulist

[VT-16]

I think it´s very healthy to hear about such influences, especially since they contrast greatly with mainstream cinema and it´s many contributors. Nice to hear the father of SW has such an avantgarde background, and seems to utilize some of it even in his most mainstream work. You don´t have that kind of background with other big budget spectacles.

[force2187]

Thanks so much, Arthur! And I agree, VT.

[Zaius]

An excellent article. It was a joy to read.

Very informative,particularly concerning GL's appreciation of the non linear documentary style of filmaking.

The kurosawa influence i was aware of, but the more out there stuff
was a suprise.

Star Wars tv aside i look forward to what the future brings.

[The Man with No Name]

Steve,

Hats off to you for writing a fascinating article about one of the world's most intriguing filmmakers.