GeorgeLucas Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Um ... probably not. But the folks over at Market Saw seem to believe that they've uncovered secret galactic plans to create a brand new big-screen Star Wars trilogy in 3D. However, they claim these films wouldn't be directed by George Lucas -- instead, he'd pass them off to other directors like Steven Spielberg or Francis Ford Coppola (who Market Saw claims their source mentioned directly as a potential candidate). Yeah, definitely let me know when Coppola decides to direct a Star Wars film so I can look out my window and watch all the pigs flying.

Almost immediately after this rumor hit, folks began to read between the lines. Market Saw, who've been the unofficial Avatar fansite for awhile now, continually mention in their piece that Avatar has to do well in theaters in order for this new Star Wars trilogy to happen since Lucas wants the films in 3D and needs more theaters to come equipped with 3D technology. As AICN points out, it seems like someone at Fox is spinning a marketing web by putting the thought in folks' heads that if they go see Avatar, they'll be helping to bring new Star Wars movies to life.

From MS: "How seriously should you consider these rumors? Well it is coming from a source that SHOULD KNOW. This source is absolutely connected. So odds are it is seriously being talked about at Lucasfilm. Right now. Will it happen? AVATAR will have to hit and hit big and then all the stars have to align properly - all I can do is pass on the info."

Read the rest over at SciFi Squad

Time is running out! But if you act fast, you can be the proud owner of a Starbucks cup that George Lucas himself slurped mediocre, overpriced coffee out of! Bid on it now on eBay. You have about 3 hours and change to own this monumental piece of history! Right now it's only $8.07 -- what a steal.

As per the description:

This is an extremely rare item, and no it's not a joke. I was at a press event at Skywalker Ranch earlier this year, where George Lucas was drinking from this very cup. I have a photo of him drinking from it, where the name on the cup is very visible and is the same as in this photo. I'll include the photo with the auction for the winner. It includes the sleeve, which has his secret magical coffee mixture written on it, so you'll be able to order what George does, and the lid that his lips actually touched! In the future you might be able to snag some DNA off of this and clone him. You never know.

Yes, this is an extremely crazy auction. Yes, I actually took his coffee cup when he left it behind as trash, and yes, I even flew with it on a plane. It's ridiculous, I know it. I meant to frame this in a lucite square, but I figured there has to be a bigger Star Wars fan out there than me who would probably want this thing. Check it for midichlorians, frame it, put it in your Lucas altar, what have you.

May The Force Be With You.

If you purchase this, please let us know ASAP. Especially if you do, in fact, clone Lucas.

Update: The guys at ReelGuyz.com won the cup for $51, plus shipping. They have a few ideas of what to do with it, but are looking for suggestions from readers too. Personally, I'm down with a Viking funeral, but that's just because I like a good excuse to wear my helmet with horns.

When you consider the state of computers back in 1977 from our point of view here in 2009, it sometimes seems miraculous that computer-generated images made it into movies back then. We can push a button these days to easily create simple images and special effects, but back in the 1970s it was laborious just to generate a wireframe model of the Death Star. Compare that to what a comparatively simple computer system can bang out for a low-budget movie these days, and it's an extremely stark contrast.

In the video after the break, you can watch the Trench Run graphics being created for Star Wars, and computer artist Larry Cuba narrates the process. Word of warning: it's an extremely dry video, and someone had the crazy idea to throw sounds from the movie behind his narration. Sure, it takes a bit of movie magic out of the Lucasfilm mystique, but seeing those X-Wing fighters being created with digital light pens is pure nostalgia.

Everyone listens to Harry Knowles, but nobody listens to Harry Knowles. I've failed to find a link to his original rant, but a while ago the AICN headgeek was ranting about how 3-D was going to be the future of the medium. He had his own fan perspective as a lover of the gimmick, but more importantly I recall his rant mentioning the business incentive studios had (higher ticket premiums, motivation to back to theaters again, renders piracy pointless) to make all of their tentpole films in the third dimension. And yet no one really took him seriously, it was just another in a long line of Harry's infamous ravings.

That was a year ago, maybe even two. Now the world has more 3-D films than theaters to display them in and it seems like a new production is announced every other day. Whether or not you agree with me that an Oscar for Best 3D is only a matter of time at this point, there is a booming need to accommodate Hollywood's extra-dimensional lust. And if the sheer volume of films looking to capitalize on the tech wasn't sign enough of things to come, now the University of Southern California has announced the creation of a new program within its School of Cinematic Arts to train and challenge students in the still-developing field of stereoscopic 3-D.

If studios weren't incredibly anal about leaks and spoilers, we might be seeing a whole lot of videos like this on the web. David Berry worked as a rotoscope and animation artist for six months on Star Wars, shooting home movies when time allowed. He's put up a nostalgic compilation of some of those set to music, and it's a fun look back at the behind-the-scenes of George Lucas' space romp in the mid-70s when facial hair was common among men, and bras were not among women.

As one of the commenters points out, it's strange (and awesome) to see a workshop without a computer in sight, and to watch people working on things like a model of the Millennium Falcon or starfields by hand. Berry went on to work at Industrial Light and Magic on films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Empire Strikes Back, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Raiders of the Lost Ark and winning an Oscar for work on Cocoon. Not too shabby. He now dabbles in time lapse photography and has graciously shared this Star Wars footage with the web.

Hopefully, as NDAs expire and time passes, we'll see all sorts of footage from people shot on the sets of different films.

I guess this is the news that nobody was waiting for, but the threat of another Indiana Jones film has been inching closer to reality by the day, and now The Insider has received reports that Harrison Ford will be polishing off the fedora and the whip one last time. There have been rumblings about a fifth film ever since Crystal Skull first hit theaters, but now we've gone past rumblings and finally started to hear some details. Both Shia LaBeouf and producer Frank Marshall have recently confirmed that a film is in the works, and now, Insider's sources are saying that, "...filming will not start until next year, and it will not be released before 2011." Now, if you happen to be mathematically inclined, you might notice that Ford will be almost 70 by the time the film starts production, which would probably make for a slightly less 'active' Indy this time around.

I won't waste your time recounting all the ways that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a let-down for fans -- you know things are bad when an unflattering 'buzz-word' is created as a tribute. But maybe it's possible that a fifth film could correct some of those mistakes. Call me naive, but there is a very (and I mean, very) small part of me that thinks George Lucas and Steven Spielberg may have learned their lesson, and will go back to what made the original films so great. Maybe this time they could capitalize on the relationship between Indy and his son Mutt to try recapturing some of that Last Crusade vibe? But, I guess we can take comfort in the fact that no matter what those two come up with this time, it certainly couldn't get any worse than what was ... or can it?

Over on SciFi Squad, Mike Moody debuts his new weekly column called TV Geek Week, which will not only talk about the latest and greatest news in geeky TV land, but will also take a look at what fanboy-ish goodies are arriving on the boob tube this week. Check it:

Is George Lucas finally moving ahead with that promised live-action Star Wars TV show? Sources say yes. Sources also say the show will be produced in Australia by a hand-picked crew of Aussie TV vets. And we might even get to see it before the end of 2010. But I got a question: Do we really want a live-action Star Wars TV show?

Well, yeah, of course we do. For most of us, the original Star Wars trilogy was a thrilling entry point into the bizarre and inspiring world of science fiction. For an '80s kid like me, Star Wars was nothing less than a dazzling blast of awesome that I couldn't get out of my head. There was nothing cooler. (I wore the sh*t outta my Yoda jammies.) I'd love to see a Star Wars TV show deliver the same unpolished pluck, heart and spirit of the original trilogy, but we all know that's not gonna happen.

Read the rest at SciFi Squad

"I like being thought of as a toymaker who makes films." In the summer of 1971, George Lucas talked with critic / journalist / scholar Gene Youngblood for a program entitled "George Lucas: Maker of Films," which aired on public television station KCET in Los Angeles. Michael Heilemann of Binary Bonsai has made it available for online viewing, and it's a fascinating watch.

The interview takes place a few months after THX 1138, his first feature, opened and died a quick death at the box office. It would be two more years before American Graffiti ignited the box office and six years before Star Wars changed everything. Young Lucas was already mighty unhappy with the Hollywood studio system. Binary Bonsai provides context for his late 60s ventures, and then in the interview, Lucas says he started the feature-length version of his short THX 1138:4EB in the wake of the freedom created by the success of Easy Rider, but by the time he finished, the studio wanted something closer to the commercial fare of Airport and Love Story.

The program includes snippets from 6.18.67, a behind-the-scenes short doc that Lucas shot while on location for McKenna's Gold in 1967, and Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, as retitled by USC at the time. Despite Lucas' repeated assertions that he wants to make personal films -- something that his old running buddy Francis Ford Coppola is finally doing -- it seems that he will always be thought of as "a toymaker who makes films." And here he is, in a rare glimpse at the early years of his career.

After the jump: Watch the video!

Mere days after Shia LaBeouf gleefully announced that Steven Spielberg had "cracked" the story for Indiana Jones 5 comes another confirmation that it'll rear its ugly head. Empire Online caught up with Indiana Jones' longtime producer, Frank Marshall, who didn't go so far as to green-light it, but revealed that they'll start hashing out ideas before too long.

"It's really about the script," said Marshall. "Once we see that, we'll see. We're not going to wait another 20 years. We'd all love to make another one. I'm anxious to hear the idea!" But he quickly added that he really didn't know what Spielberg was cooking. "Until there's a script, nothing's definite. I haven't heard the idea." (He should ask LaBeouf. I bet he knows.) Marshall also confirmed that Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford were equally eager to return for a fifth outing. "Yeah. We had a great time making the last one and, as Harrison said, we need to make this one soon. We're not getting any younger."

While talk is talk, and plans vanish, bear in mind that they were already chattering about a fifth outing before Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hit theaters, and were still dreaming of it after, despite the negative reviews and fan backlash. I have no doubt it'll happen regardless of what the fans say or think. When it does, that shrieking sound you hear? That'll be the death cry of my fangirl soul ... and I'm sure it won't be the only lament visited upon the heavens.

Ah, the sequel no one is clamoring for has reared its head again. To be fair, some people enjoyed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and with worldwide gross receipts totaling nearly $800 million, the only question that remained was when Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford would be ready to give it another go. (Our own poll last year suggested that it was time to retire the franchise.) Reportedly, Lucas favored the idea of continuing with old Indiana Jones as the lead character rather than handing things over to young Mutt Williams, played by Shia LaBeouf. Research was being conducted to find an artifact that the movie could be based on.

In the UK to promote Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, LaBeouf talked to the BBC and revealed that he had spoken recently with Spielberg about another Indiana Jones movie: "Steven just said he cracked a story on it before I left. I think they're gearing that up." Spielberg is busy filming The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, so maybe he talked with Lucas between shots: "Hi, George, it's Steven. What if Indy searches for a shabti?" "Steven, what's a shabti?" "You know, George, the Sorcerer's Apprentice, the inspiration for that segment with Mickey Mouse in Fantasia?" "Of course, Steven, who do you think you're talking to?" "Well, George, the shabti was a figurine that was buried with the dead and performed hard labor for the deceased in the afterlife." "Ooh, I know, Mutt could try to get to it first, so he would never have to do manual labor for Indy any more!" "George, I think we've cracked it."

We'll wait to see if an official confirmation seeps out. Are you holding your breath for Indy 5?