In 2012, the big movie news of the year was Disney to buy Lucasfilm for more than $ 4 billion. The mouse house should have recovered the money in the meantime, but could “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens“Already bring in more than two billion dollars worldwide (plus a lot of merchandise). The only question is why the “Star Wars“Inventor George Lucas actually sold his life’s work.
In an interview with Paul Duncan, who is currently writing a book about the long-lived sci-fi franchise, Lucas spoke about his motivation at the time for the industry-shattering decision that made Disney the dominant world power in the entertainment business after the purchase of Marvel.
The filmmaker: “I was working on the next trilogy at the time. I’ve already talked to actors and everything is slowly coming up. But I was just about to have a daughter with my wife. A trilogy takes at least ten years from me – Episodes I to III ran from 1995 to 2005. I would still be dealing with Episode IX (today). In 2012 I was 69 years old. So I had to wonder if I want to do this for the rest of my life. Do I want to go through this again? In the end, I decided that I’d rather raise my daughter and enjoy life a little.“
Lucas continues: “I didn’t necessarily have to sell Lucasfilm, I should have entrusted the production to someone. But that’s not a real retirement. I also wanted to stay out of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Return of the Jedi’, but that just couldn’t be done. I’ve been there every day. Even though the people there were my friends and I trusted them, it wasn’t the same as if I had done it myself. It felt like I was removed. I knew that it wouldn’t work for me that I would be frustrated with it again.“
„I’m one of those micromanager types“Says the director self-critically. “And I just can’t do better. So I didn’t have a choice to go ahead and I wanted to enjoy what I had and was looking forward to spending time with my daughter. I also wanted to build a museum, which I always wanted to do. So I thought to myself, ‘If not now, then when?’“
The rumors of some fans that he was simply tired of the “Star Wars“Franchise, he clearly denied. Letting go was not easy for him at all. And he even tried to interfere again at Disney at times. He was surprised how little people had listened to his advice, since he had already thought through the new trilogy quite far.
Lucas concludes: “I’ve spent my life creating ‘Star Wars’ – 40 years – and giving up that hurt very, very much. But it was the right thing.“In life, everything cannot always go the way you imagine …
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