As ABC's Lost draws to its finale, the accolades from other showbiz creators are coming in and being received by the series' creative team. But what one well-known creator of a story that takes place a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away said to the Lost team is rather telling of the real way he made up the Star Wars saga's storyline.
During last Thursday's Lost Live: The Final Celebration event, ABC Studios executive Barry Jossen read a letter from Star Wars creator George Lucas to Lost producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. What Lucas may not have realized is that Zap2It's Rick Porter was there and reported on what Lucas said -- and what it means to the true history of how Star Wars was created:
"Congratulations on pulling off an amazing show," Lucas said. "Don't tell anyone ... but when Star Wars first came out, I didn't know where it was going either. The trick is to pretend you've planned the whole thing out in advance. Throw in some father issues and references to other stories -- let's call them homages -- and you've got a series.
"In six seasons, you've managed to span both time and space, and I don't think I'm alone in saying that I never saw what was around the corner. Now that it's all coming to an end, it's impressive to see how much was planned out in advance and how neatly you've wrapped up everything. You've created something really special. I'm sad that the series is ending, but I look forward to seeing what you two are going to do next."
EXCLUSIVE:
"Chewie", the Screenplay About the Making of the Original Star Wars Movie
This revelation by Lucas that he made up the Star Wars story as it went along was guessed by many fans but now at least we have official acknowledgement. What Lucas is forgetting, or perhaps hoping that thirtysomething-year-old fans of Star Wars have forgotten, is that ever since the success of the first Star Wars movie in 1977, he's made it a point of telling any media that cared to listen that he had a grand plan for Star Wars. It wouldn't be so much of a problem for me for Lucas to say that he made it up as the story progressed save for the fact that he marketed his franchise as a grand vision, a unified story that chronicled a story he had in mind. All of that was a lie that took thirty years to finally air out.
When Lucas told Time that he had the stories for nine Star Wars movies (later redacted to six and originally twelve), and that the notes were written in a binder, that was a lie. But it worked at selling toys, bedsheets, lunch boxes, breakfast cereal, amusement park rides and a million other Star Wars products. That lie helped, in part, to make Lucas a billionaire. And as a former fan of the Star Wars universe, I boo at Lucas for finally letting the truth out not in an interview or as a comment made on his Star Wars website or magazine, but to other filmmakers. That makes it appear that Lucas has two faces: the one he shows to his peers as a marketer of a highly successful product, and the salesman face that wants gullible fans to buy his products based in part on a fallacy.
In the end this kind of news and my editorial stance doesn't quite seem to be worth the energy it took to write, but thirty years ago, when people cared about Star Wars, this kind of confession would have meant something. At least Damon Lindelof seems to get both sides of it; after listening to Lucas' letter the Lost producer said, "I just want to apologize to Mr. George Lucas for everything I said about the prequels."
Maybe Lucas could hire a guy like Lindelof to make a decent sequel trilogy.
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mckracken
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Posts: 965
Posted: 13 years 1 week ago
hmmmpf... I dont think it changes the impact of the 1977 Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back or Jedi. They are the cornerstones of cinema... but when the story expanded, this explains a lot, like trying to cram 30 years of pre-established Star Wars history into just 6 hours of crappy storytelling ...
in my opinion, he would have been better off truncating the three prequels into a shorter span of say 2 to 5 years, omitting Jake Lloyd's younger Anakin Skywalker and Jar Jar Binks. Starting off with an older Anakin and a solid regular cast that isnt supposed to age 30 years over three flicks.
still we all suspected he was lying all this time, no surprise there, I gave up on the CGI tv show after the pilot and I kinda want to watch the live action Star Wars TV show play out (if only to see George Lucas film 100 episodes before pitching his entire series to a network...which also is a total lie... LOL!)