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Hypothetical Biopic


Zerimar Nyliram
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Would you be down to see a movie about George Lucas and the story of Star Wars? Personally, I'd love to see what all he went through, from being rejected by every motion picture company to the numerous rewrites to casting to the famous premier. I can even see the trailer showing the execs ripping apart the script and saying how it's not what the public wants, never showing George's face until the very end, where the dude hands back the script for The Star Wars saying, "Good luck, George," at which point we finally see his face. It then cuts to the movie title (which, if it were my decision, would be The Maker), before cutting briefly to crazed fans running frenzied to the premier.

What I don't know is if I'd want it to be just the story of the first Star Wars or telling the entire story, from the sequels to the prequels, all the way up to the Disney buyout. I can see positives and negatives both ways. One way you get a more complete story but have to cram more pivotal events into two hours, and the other way you get a more focused story but leave out important milestones that came later.

What would you want to see if such a thing were to happen?

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Given all of the "making of " documentaries and special features n Star Wars and other movies he's done on physical media, I don't know that George needs a biopic movie.

 

One doesn't need a movie about them to be more "real."

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I think George is a fascinating dude as a storyteller (not a writer) and as a filmmaker who embraced and pushed technology. I like to kick him around for the PT, but the dude is a visionary. But yeah, between the annotated screen plays and the countless behind the scenes and making of docs around Star Wars, I don't know what story there is to tell.

 

Plus, to be honest, as interesting as he is, he's doesn't exactly have the personality to be the focus of a movie. The dude is very chill and soft spoken.

 

If it were to happen though, I wouldn't mind seeing just a movie about him while making ANH, when no one was taking it seriously and thought it was going to be nonsense.

 

I've been re-watching all the scifi films from the late 70s and early 80s that came in the wake of Star Wars. I loved them as a kid, it's obvious now they all have serious quality issues... but at the same time, not all of them low budget, and yet Star Wars is the only one that, even pre-SE, holds up. I've been really looking at these movies (Space Hunter, Battle Beyond the Stars, Space Raiders, Star Crash, Galaxy of Terror) and in most cases, I think if I had those sets and costumes NOW, I could make something killer. Trying to see where they went wrong, and where Lucas went right, has been fun.

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I agree with Zathras, we know this story to well. And anyone who doesn't know it probably wouldn't care enough to go see it. Having said that I think movies about real people are almost always better when the focus is on a shorter period of time rather than the persons entire life. The idea though of the movie being him sort of fighting against the execs is a movie we've seen 100 times. I don't know if Lucas version of that story is interesting enough to make a movie. Plus like Tank said its not like he has the charismatic personality to carry it.

 

Tanks idea about the making of it when everyone thought it was going to be a joke is interesting. Almost like "The Disaster Artist" but in the end Tommy Wisseau is a genius who made the most successful movie ever.

 

If you had to make a movie about George I'd like to see one about the influences that led to Star Wars. The kinda thing where George is directing a scene of the shootouts on the Death Star then it flashes back to him as a boy watching an old sci fi serial. Then he is directing the saber dual and it flashes to him as a kid watching a sword fight in a samurai movie. They show him talking about how the Falcon is always breaking and needing fixing and it flashes to him as a teen immersed in the car culture of Modesto.

 

Just make the whole thing balls to the wall schmaltzy and sentimental about how the wonderment of youth lead to this new thing, Star Wars, which was then the wonderment of millions of people's youth. End if with some young director making a movie present day and then flash back to him or her watching Star Wars as a kid being the influence.

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Would you be down to see a movie about George Lucas and the story of Star Wars?

short answer : I don't think I'll be 'down to see a movie' for maybe ... a decade? How long is it going to end up taking for a vaccination to be developed, tested, and properly distributed? I'll tell you what, man, I'll be 'down to see a movie' when the total #s of detected cases here is back in the low hundreds and the number of new cases discovered daily is back in the low double digits!

 

longer answer : I don't want to say anything potentially legally actionable, or even just disparaging or remotely negative, not about anyone anywhere on the face of God's green earth and certainly not about someone who has brought so much joy to so many people all across that same aforementioned green earth but, but, but, but, what are the odds on George Lucas being some sort of monster? I don't mean, like, a dianoga or what-have-you, I'm talking more a run'of'the'mill Hollywood exposé 'it was an open secret' 'we all knew about it' kind of monster.

 

Like, the guy sold his life's work, this multibillion dollar franchise that he's also so obsessed with that he couldn't keep himself from returning to it years and years after the fact, possibly just so he could avoid having to make regular pay-outs to his ex, who played a once-long-denied-now-somewhat-acknowledged role in the initial creation of the same aforementioned franchise, whom he maybe HAAAATES, whom he never talks about no more. The guy adopted children as an aging single man. Like, watch the TPM behind-the-scenes documentary, watch it with a jaundiced eye, watch it fully aware of the darkness inside the heart of all of us, watch it with the memory of every other sexual predator who has been in the news for the past several years not far from the forefront of your forebrain, and then draw your own conclusions about what manner of man George Lucas is.

 

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm being needlessly cynical, but I kinda think there might be more than a ghost of a chance that George Lucas is ... ??? I don't know? I don't want to say? Maybe the biopic would be more interesting if he's evil? I naturally hope he's just what he appears to be on the outside : an obtuse weirdo who got insanely lucky, one among the many of Roger Corman's protégés who REALLY made out good, a solid law-abiding citizen who's never done anyone no harm more than the inevitable outcome of a marriage gone bad and whatever awful fallout comes from being wealthier than Croesus.

 

 

What would you want to see if such a thing were to happen?

Wait, wasn't there a script sold a few years about Chewbacca? It might even have been called 'Chewbacca'? About the life of Peter Mayhew, the hospital orderly (?) who played Chewbacca? Kind of feels like it might have covered some of the putative material in a potential Lucas biopic as discussed in this thread.

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The documentary I mentioned can be seen by clicking on this link. It is a documentary on the making of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace (1999), originally produced for the film's DVD release. It covers the entire production of the movie, from preproduction to casting to visual effects, editing, and theatrical release!

 

The script I mentioned was entitled 'Chewie'. It was written by Evan Susser and Van Robichaux. Here is a link to a news article about the script.

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I could see a biopic of young filmmaker George making ANH from idea to opening night. Not his whole career.

 

That being said, I will not watch it, because if I care about a fictional property, I don't want to know about what goes into making it. It kills the fantasy for me to know how it was made. So, while, I think a biopic could be possible and even good if done right, since it will involve a Star War, I, personally, have no interest.

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I'm as big a fan of Star Wars and other things Lucas has done as the next dude, like THX1138, American Graffiti (which arguably indirectly gave us shows like Happy Days and Lavern and Shirley), and Indy of course. Undeniably the guy has been an important influence on pop culture. But is he really an interesting guy? Would such a movie cover anything we don't already know? I just don't think he is biopic worthy.

 

More interesting public figures out there. I'd love to see a biopic on the early days of Black Sabbath. Or David Bowie, for that matter.

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Is that the doc where you see the initial reaction of Lucas and McCallum after watching the first rough cut of TPM, and they are clearly realizing how awful it is?

Just watched that part. It is great.

 

It also has the final three kids auditioning for Anakin and you see George falling in love with Jake Lloyd when the second kid is waaay better and looks like a young Mark Hamill.

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Actually, American Graffiti inspired a segment on the anthology show Love American Style. That segment was a backdoor pilot for Happy Days.

 

Just sayin...

I think you still have it wrong. The "Love American Style" segment was kinda shelved but Lucas cast Howard in American Graffiti based off his performance in it, which then reignited ABC's interest in the pilot which went on to become Happy Days.

 

The Love American Style segment aired on February 25, 1972

 

Filming for American Grafitti began on June 26, 1972 and the movie opened in August of 73

 

Happy Days premiered on January 15, 1974

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