I know the obvious answer is money, but why not keep the franchise himself and pay people to write and direct the new movies? as opposed to handing over the rights to a studio who have no passion for stories only profit?
shareCause of his age and thos supersmart Star Wars "fans" which thought that they have to mob the prequels (yep, there was some stupid stuff (like Jar Jar and metochlorians), but mostly the trilogy was at a good level).
shareI understand the age thing, I just wish he had kept the rights, but hired directors that could bring his stories to life.
shareAbsolutely. I think one reason was also that he thought doing new Star Wars movies would be too expensive, but I dont think that it would have been much of a problem to find investors for new Star Wars movies:) .
shareYeah, I mean, it is still a billion dollar franchise with the new movies released Disney already made back their money.
shareDisney will eventually squeeze it dry and kill it. Not the central story line, but with the overt capitalizing on the popularity with one spin-off after another till it's like these other super hero movies with a new one coming out every few months and people beginning to tire of it. I know we don't see it yet, except for the decline of Spider Man.
shareWatch this video. I believe it does the best job of answering this question:
https://player.vimeo.com/video/249112851
He didn't just sell Star Wars. He sold his company and all the rights to his creations with KK taking his place as CEO. Yes, money is a big deal but Lucas was already rich and had a steady cash flow.
He retired because he's in his 70's and has young children and wants to live out his next 20 years or so in peace and not have the constant stress of running several companies along with monitoring movies, games, and other projects. He wants to be a rich guy and do what makes him happy and I can't see why anybody would blame him.
I would say the Prequels took everything he had left out of him. After writing, directing, and producing that trilogy he was out of steam.. why do you think he made the last two almost entirely in a studio? He didn't want to travel and deal with shooting locations, production problems, weather, hot-headed actors, and the thousands of issues that come with making a blockbuster film.
On top of that, he had constant negativity thrown in his face after releasing his movies. A day and age where it's hard to hide from that sort of thing.
Why didn't he have other people write and direct his movies for him? That wouldn't alleviate all the stress I would say that would only be 20-40% of the actual work he would have to do as not a producer but as the CEO of the studio producing. He's also a power hog and would clash with other writers, directors, and producers (remember he fired Gary Kurtz a long time friend and partner) that's why he did the PT on his own for the most part. He offered his creative service to Disney and after a couple of months and the fact that they threw out his outline he realized they were not going to make the movies he wanted to be made so he left. He related it to a break-up.
In addition, he insured his company and employees survival for the most part.
The inevitable question to ask is who should run the company after he passes away. Sooner or later, someone else would need to be in charge and he knew this.
shareI get it, from you post, that someone should run "Star Wars", but why or better yet, WHY, was it Disney?
The whole ABC/DISNEY/themepark/family goodness/squeaky clean-run amoke vibe is just terrible.
StarWars is a visceral adventure serious series that is somehow still safe while running the edge boundries of reality/adult-hood. That is not Disney. Disney is fantasy fairy tale kid-safe, as in what universe could this happen type tripe. Sure, I get it - the two are seriously close to one another, but at the same time they are different.
Cinderalla vs Winnie the Pooh. Fake fantasy vs imagination fantasy. Sure I'm an XY, and so I disregard XX fantasy, but it's different and to be fair I enjoyed the Snowman movie and Cinderalla, and SnowWhite, but they are for kids, like little kids.
Where am I going, i got lost, other than to say What was he thinking, surely in all of Hollywood, with all of it's money, he could have found someone better than Disney to carry on his torch. While we bashed him over the prequals, and loooking back they were good / bad in all the ways, the Disney move is a hard one to swallow. It wasn't apparent at first, but now, is looking like a no-way-out situation, as in we-are-f'd.
This trilogy is dead, that there is little doubt. But remakes happen all the time and new stories can be told. I just don't expect the Force or Skywalkers to be part of them. RIP
Disney wasn't the worst part of it, it is JJ Abrams. He is a soulless hack with an eye for the moment. But he has no lasting relevance.
share$4 billion reasons...
It will work out for him legacy-wise as well... As the new movies have already led to a revised opinion of his prequel trilogy...
Money and legacy... Win-win...
Prequel haters were the main reason George sold Lucasfilm, and now we're all suffering the consquences of such ungrateful people. George is laughing all the way to the bank, and I don't blame him one bit.
He did it because he felt guiltyy about making something that so many people have wasted their lives on. He knew he could get a big check and donate money to some corrupt charity to make himself feel better.
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