Hollywood studios lack 'imagination' says guy who bled Star Wars dry for 30 years
Well 37 years, and counting
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.George Lucas has criticised the major Hollywood film studios, saying they lack "talent" and "imagination" and have been overrun by corporations.
His criticisms might be valid, given that we can soon look forward to Captain America 5: Age of Iron Man v Guardians of Future Past hitting cinemas, if a little hard to swallow from the man who repeatedly re-trod Star Wars, arguably added characters based on merchandising options and eventually sold the franchise to Walt Disney Studios two years ago.
"The problem has always been the studios," Lucas told Charlie Rose on CBS This Morning.
"Although the beginning of the studios, the entrepreneurs who ran the studios were sort of creative guys. They would just take books and turn them into movies and do things like that.
"Suddenly all these corporations were coming in. They didn't know anything about the movie business.
"The studios went back to saying, 'Well we don't trust you people and we think we know how to make movies'," Lucas continued. "The studios change everything all the time. And, unfortunately, they don't have any imagination and they don't have any talent."
In spite of the fairly bleak situation American cinema finds itself in, Lucas did acknowledge that a small amount of talent is still fostered by the studio system, but made it clear he thinks this is now by far in the minority.
Star Wars 7, which is produced by Walt Disney Pictures and directed by JJ Abrams, is set to wrap in the next three weeks.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments