Name: Francis Ford Coppola Feels Sad 'Star Wars' Dominated George Lucas' Directing Career
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Francis Ford Coppola Feels Sad 'Star Wars' Dominated George Lucas' Directing Career

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served as a mentor for in the heyday of New Hollywood, producing Lucas’ 1973 breakthrough feature “American Graffiti.” Lucas’ next project would be “,” which launched a franchise so massive the writer-director would never helm a non-“Star Wars” movie again. Lucas has directed four films since 1977 (the original “Star Wars” and the three prequel films, released between 1999 and 2005), which Coppola tells in a wide-ranging interview is somewhat sad news.“Well, he created something that brought joy and happiness and pleasure — and even some wisdom — to so many people. Whatever benefits he got from it, he deserved and is welcome to,” Coppola said. “If I feel sadness, it is that he didn’t make the other movies he was going to make. George is truly a brilliant, talented person. Just look at ‘American Graffiti’ and see all the innovation. We should’ve had more.”Coppola said Lucas is well aware that Lucas’ decision to only direct “Star Wars” films bums him out, adding, “I’m at the point where I can’t bring it up anymore. I do sort of think of him as a kid brother. We older people have to celebrate the success [of younger people]. I recognize that my daughter, Sofia, is, in a way, more successful than I am, and people are more interested in what she’s going to do next than [what I’m going to do next]. That’s how it should be.”While Lucas stuck only to directing “Star Wars” movies, his filmography branched out of the space saga thanks to his executive producing career. In addition to executive producing “Star Wars” entries “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi,” Lucas also EP’d Steven Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones” movies (and got story credit), “Howard the Duck,” “Willow,” “The Land Before Time,” and “Radioland Murders,” among other credits.Had Lucas gotten his way, he would have directed even more “Star Wars” movies. The filmmaker intended to direct the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy before making the decision he wanted to prioritize family over the continuation of the franchise. Lucas sold his company Lucasfilm to Disney in $4 billion deal, giving up control of the “Star Wars” franchise in the process. Lucas was “painful” but the right call, although he expected Disney would’ve given him more say as it developed its own “Star Wars” sequel trilogy.Sign Up:This Article is related to: and tagged , ,JavaScript is required to load the comments.Loading comments...Get The Latest IndieWire Alerts And Newsletters Delivered Directly To Your InboxListen to these IndieWire podcasts.Interviews with leading film and TV creators about their process and craft.ad

served as a mentor for in the heyday of New Hollywood, producing Lucas’ 1973 breakthrough feature “American Graffiti.” Lucas’ next project would be “,” which launched a franchise so massive the writer-director would never helm a non-“Star Wars” movie again. Lucas has directed four films since 1977 (the original “Star Wars” and the three prequel films, released between 1999 and 2005), which Coppola tells in a wide-ranging interview is somewhat sad news.“Well, he created something that brought joy and happiness and pleasure — and even some wisdom — to so many people. Whatever benefits he got...

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Zack Sharf is the New York–based News Editor at IndieWire, where he is responsible for running the site’s daily news flow, in addition to crafting larger editorial pieces and covering special events. Prior to joining IndieWire, he received his B.A. in Media Studies from Emerson College, where he worked the Boston press circuit for three years as Managing Editor of the school’s film organization, Reel Reactions. Zack has also worked in the web and editorial department of NYC’s leading news station, WABC-TV. He has a sweet spot for “Before Sunset,” black labs, Julianne Moore, and “The Iron Giant.” Follow him @ZSharf.

https://www.indiewire.com/author/zack-sharf/

Zack Sharf

IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus is independent film. As of  2016, IndieWire is a subsidiary of Penske Media. It has a staff of about 20, including Publisher James Israel, Editor-in-Chief Dana Harris, Chief Critic Eric Kohn, and Editor-at-Large Anne Thompson.

Francis Ford Coppola Feels Sad 'Star Wars' Dominated George Lucas' Directing Career

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