Tag: george lucas

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Time to get a Star Wars Insider subscription again?

As someone who’s generally pretty well informed on what’s going on with the franchise, I go back and forth on the Star Wars Insider.

I let my subscription lapse more than a year ago and pick up the issues at Barnes & Noble… And often forget to read them anyway. (Yes, it’s available digitally, and I’m not really much of a collector, but I think I have them all since issue #24.)

The magazine is hobbled by the same general issues as most of print media – it’s always, always going to be a day (actually a month, or several months) late when it comes to breaking news. That’s just the nature of the beast, but I figure the Insider isn’t really meant for folks like me, the fans who read dozens of news sites daily. It’s for the casual fans. There’s a fine line to walk to attract the hardcores without alienating the core audience – the short stories being perhaps the latest (successful?) attempt.

But with new movies coming up (and hopefully, an end to the parade of generic Clone Wars covers) it’s perhaps time to renew. The new issue features an interview with George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy about the new movies. Will it contain anything we haven’t heard yet? (Also, a Tim Zahn interview and short story.) Well, we’ll find out on the 11th.

What are your thoughts on the Insider? If they lost you, what would it take to bring you back?

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Lucas: “I don’t really have much to do” as Episode VII consultant

Access Hollywood tracked down George Lucas at the Governor’s Awards this weekend. They didn’t get much out of him, but overall? “I don’t really have much to do,” he said. (Snarkily?)

When asked about Steven Spielberg – who’s already taken himself out of the running for director – Lucas said “I’m pretty sure he’d never want to do that!”

Of course, the fourth video from the conversation with Kathleen Kennedy is due this week… So who knows?

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Video: Kathleen Kennedy and George Lucas on directors and getting started on Episode VII

StarWars.com has released the second video featuring Kathleen Kennedy and George Lucas talking about the new Star Wars films, Lucas’ role in them, and what they’re looking for in a director.

There’s some overlap with the first video in the beginning, Kennedy did mention “people she’s worked with in the past,” but didn’t bring up any names. “I think we have a unique opportunity to go after some incredibly talented people,” she says. “It’s not going to be people who don’t already have some affinity for Star Wars probably, it’s gonna be somebody who really appreciates what Star Wars meant to them and is excited to dive in and be a part of this. I think the thing that will be immediately apparent are the directors who walk into the room and say ‘I can’t wait to be a part of this.'”

“I think it’s going to be a pretty long list,” Kennedy concludes.

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Donating his Disney billions will put George Lucas among biggest givers ever

George Lucas will be one of the biggest charitable givers ever when he donates his Disney billions, Forbes says. (via)

Disney is paying Lucas $4.05 billion in cash and stock for Lucasfilm and its subsidiaries. He plans to put most of the money towards education.

In other news, Mellody Hobson, who has been romantically linked with Lucas since 2006, has been named chairman of DreamWorks Animation. She’s been on the board of the company, which was co-founded by Steven Spielberg, since 2004.

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Report: George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy meeting with “well-known screenwriters” to pitch ideas for Episode VII

Today in Episode 7 reports, we have the Los Angeles Times’ Steven Zeitchik and John Horn saying that “several different screenwriters paid visits to Lucasfilm’s Northern California compound to pitch George Lucas and his co-chair Kathleen Kennedy their ideas for the new live-action installment.” Their source went on to say “they were well-known screenwriters with experience creating big-budget Hollywood films,” and the stories were not adapted from existing Star Wars books. (via)

Their source is anonymous, but this does dovetail neatly with something Kennedy said in the video released Tuesday: “We’re sitting down with a couple of writers and we’re starting to discuss ideas; We’re starting to talk about what those stories might be.” I feel comfortable putting this one in the ‘fairly plausible’ column.

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George Lucas and his post-Star Wars life

EOnline caught up with George Lucas to ask what and how he feels about moving on from Lucasfilm and Star Wars.

“It was 40 years of work,” Lucas said when we caught up with him at the Ebony Power 100 Gala at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall. “It has been my life, but I am ready to move on to bigger and better things.”

He also talked about his charity work and said he’s going to keep making “littler personal films,” but “the ones I am working on now will never get into the theaters.”