Wedge 45 spent some time typing up some great interviews with George Lucas from this summer. Most of the info here is stuff we've covered in various posts over the past few months, but hey - these are straight from the horses mouth. Topics covered include DVD, how the ET's got in the Senate, George Lucas in Love and much more!

Anyhow, the first interview was recorded July 14th, 1999, and broadcast July 15th on Barry Norman's Film Night. Barry Norman has been THE face of British television film reviewing for over 25 years. His style is, according to Wedge 45, a little dry. Enough of the introduction, let's go:

Barry Norman: It could be said that with Star Wars, you pretty well reinvented the movies.

George Lucas: Well, I think, I'm not sure exactly how that might play; it's an advancement of Science Fiction movies, I guess.

BN: No, more than that, I think, because Francois Truffaut once said that everything that happened in cinema since 1940 has been influenced by Citizen Kane and I think it's probably as true to say that everything that's been made since 1977 has been influenced by Star Wars.

GL: That's possible, I think I've taken film into a more visual medium. I'm a big advocate of silent films and, (with) Star Wars one of the unique things is the pacing and the fact that you can follow the story without the dialogue.

BN: Well, I suppose the obvious question now is why did you wait so long to make this movie?

GL: Well, there were a number of reasons. The first, I was burned out, that's probably the most important. Also, I had been very frustrated because my imagination had created a large, crazy world and I could only put a very small part of it on screen so I wanted to wait until the technology caught up. (I've edited this slightly as I think we've heard this question many, many times.)

BN: The first three films in the series were in a sense, morality plays, but you've taken it a lot further in the new one, because there's almost a quasi-Christian element here that Anakin is the result of a virgin birth and he is the chosen one. How intentional was that?

GL: It wasn't really meant as a virgin birth, more as a metaphor for life.

BN: So, you weren't trying to invent a new religion there?

GL: No, no. The idea is that the hero, throughout mythology, has always been the result of a special birth. Usually, as with Hercules, the father is a God. Every hero has a mysterious birth. (I've edited this to make it read more coherently.)

BN: The morality aspect of the stories, that is clearly something that is important to you.

GL: Well yeah, the films are about good and evil and this new series of three films is more about the struggle of good and evil within ourselves.

BN: Where you surprised about the generally negative critical response?

GL: Not really, all the films had terrible reviews, the first one the worst of all.

BN: Really, I loved it, I gave it a rave.

GL: Ah well, you were an exception.

BN: I suppose the biggest complaint among all the reviews I've read is that it hasn't got the outstanding characters that the first trilogy had. It hasn't got a Han Solo, a Luke Skywalker, a Darth Vader - Darth Maul isn't as big in this one as Darth Vader was in the original. Do you think that that is a justified criticism?

GL: Not really, I mean it doesn't have a Han Solo; not every movie can have a Han Solo. The movies aren't a formula were you stick three parts of this and one part of that in and the story is we need to have this rogueish character who's always wisecracking, but, I think in terms of the other characters, there's a lot of other different qualities going on. There's a lot of expectations among the fans and there's no way we can meet some of those explanations cos they just think it's going to be the Second Coming, and it's not, it's a movie -

BN: - I thought Anakin was the Second Coming -

GL: - No, so what happens is that when they start hyping, then eventually the movie is everywhere and then they start doing a backlash about hype there is. We didn't need that much publicity, actually.

BN: Will you be influenced by the reaction to this film criticallyand publicly when you devise the next one?

GL: Probably not too much. The story is already done and I want to adhere to the story. The critics I stopped listening to a long time ago and they will hate the next two just as much as they hate the last four.

BN: And you'll weep all the way to the bank.

GL: Yeah, I'm certainly not going to worry about that, and urm, the fans, they generate their own stories, their own ideas, they have their own fantasy life that goes around the movies and that's fine but I try to keep away from all that; I don't even read the offshoot books that come out based on Star Wars.

BN: How important is the merchandising to you? Financially, it must be very important indeed.

GL: Well yeah, financially it's one of those good luck things. I mean I got the merchandising rights for Star Wars primarily in the beginning to promote the film because I didn't think the film would be promoted because I didn't think the studio was behind it. I wanted to make the two more films, so I got T shirts and posters to get people to go see the movie and eventually after the film was such a hit, a toy company came in and started making toys and the toys became successful.

BN: Are you ever tempted to stick a character in, not because it adds to the film, but because you think, "Hey, this will sell as a toy."

GL: No, you can talk to the Head of Licensing. He curses me constantly because I don't think about the products and the toys. "How can we make this into a toy", or, "How can we do that" (he says), and I say, "I'll make the movies and you can figure out how to do the toys afterward. It never really works the other way around.

BN: I think you once said that your father wanted you to go into business like he was and you said, "No way am I going into business" and what happened: You ended up as an immensely rich and successful -

GL: Businessman. Yeah, it's one of those things that you never know what path life is going to send you on and I would never in a million years thought that I would have been running businesses, but here I am running businesses.

BN: George, thank-you very much indeed and good luck with the movie, well what am I saying, you've already had good luck, it's doing great.

GL: Well yeah, thank-you.

The second interview was broadcast live on the British breakfast show, "The Big Breakfast", on July 16th, the British release date for "The Phantom Menace", a very funny show, mainly because of its brilliant host Johnny Vaughn - that rarity on TV, a funny man. Wedge is a fan and thinks it's important to convey the type of show and host this is because your enjoyment of this interview will be heightened if you have an idea of the background. This is his favourite ever interview with Lucas, because it's not dry and Vaughan actually manages to get George to loosen up and visibly enjoy himself. For the first time George comes across as a genuinely warm and funny guy and that's great.

This was the culmination of two weeks worth of Star Wars related interviews and features on the show, and Vaughan had been psyching himself up for his interview with George for a while, because he, like us, is huge fan of the Saga. An enormous amount of people involved with TPM had been interviewed, including Rick McCallum, Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson (a great interview, that one, really hilarious), Liam Neeson, Nick Gillard, Ray Park, Brian Blessed, Hugh Quarshie, Kenny Baker, Ahmed Best and earlier on the morning that George was being interviewed, Jake Lloydd (I mention this fact because there's a reference to Jake's presence off-camera in the interview). The Big Breakfast is filmed in a ver large house which has been turned into a studio and this interview took place in a small shed in the bottom of the garden, further adding to the already surreal mood. Anyway, here goes, enjoy:

Johnny Vaughan: Episode 1 is probably the most anticipated film ever - tell me about the pressure of that

George Lucas: None really. To me, it's just a movie. I work everyday and I make my little movie -

JV: - (laughing) I make my "little" movie -

GL: - and I feel fairly secure it will be well received by a few people, and so the pressure is not that great actually. The really high expectations of some of the fans I can't possibly meet, so I simply don't worry about it because there's nothing I can do about it; once expectations are so high, there's no way you can meet them.

JV: What was it about the original movies that captured people's imaginations so much?

GL: (Jokingly) Well, it's probably because they're the most brilliant films ever made, and the most entertaining.

JV: - You're preaching to the converted -

GL: Besides that, they're based on ancient myths and mythology, the kind of stories that have entertained people for thousands of years, and I did it as a kind of an experiment of trying to move this forward and it actually worked a lot better than I imagined. I'm pretty sure it's the ancient emotional underpinnings that make people really gravitate toward it.

JV: The way I imagine it is that George has this great big leather book, covered in dust, it's the Chronicles of Space and you've written the whole thing already and it's complete in your own mind. Is that right?

GL: No, that's wrong.

JV: You don't have the complete story, mapped out from the start, all those years ago?

GL: No.

JV: Okay, nice one, so you're winging it.

GL: No, I have a little story treatment, a little outline that says this happened here, this happened here and, in the first one I had all the scripts, but I had to rewrite the scripts so they went along because since they became three movies, they had to have different structures and things, but the ones I'm working on now, was the back story which I'd written out, which was this was where he comes from, this was were he comes from, this is what the Clone Wars were about; it's just a little outline that goes right through the plot of the movie and where the characters came from and what they did - it's only about seven or eight pages.

JV: Oh, that's brilliant, all those people that think you've schemed the whole thing up, but in fact, George Lucas, he makes it up as he goes along.

GL: (Chuckles)

JV: What does the new film concern?

GL: This one is about young Anakin as a boy and how he goes from being a slave on a remote planet on the edge of the universe to getting to be trained as a Jedi, and how that all transpires, that's one story. Then there's another story where a Queen's planet is being threatened by a powerful Trade Federation.

JV: Could you just explain this because that's what the writing at the start concerns.

GL: That's what the writing at the start is.

JV: So what's it going to tell our viewer?

GL: Well, most people find it confusing, but basically what it says is that there's a planet, the bad guys have surrounded it -

JV: - Planet...bad guys surround it -

GL: - Yeah, surrounded -

JV: - Why?

GL: They can't...Well we don't know why, it doesn't make any difference (laughs)

JV: It's a $150 million movie, why d'ya need to know?

GL: Yeah, they're bad guys.

JV: They're bad guys, that's all you need to know now.

GL: And the people on the planet are threatened, and there's a trade dispute, so they send these two Jedi who are kind of the enforcers of the Universe. The way they settle disputes is like the way the Mafia settles disputes. They come in, say "You take half, you take half, it's settled". But they stumble into the fact that there's a much bigger conspiracy going on and the real plot is that these bad guys are going to take over the planet and it's actually involved in a much bigger and more obscure plot that goes on by the character known as The Phantom Menace.

JV: The effects are stunning. How much was real, how much C.G?

GL: Well ultimately, it's like two movies. We shot the entire film live and then we animated the entire film so you're watching an animated film and a live film at the same time. 95% of the film has been manipulated digitally.

JV: You're good friends with Stephen Spielberg. I know you like to put little references to each other in each other's movies. Did I see a couple of ETs in there?

GL: There are a couple of ETs in there.

JV: Was that a tough decision to make?

GL: Well, they weren't in there originally, but I showed the film to Stephen - he said, "where's the ETs?", because he'd mentioned it years before and I'd forgotten about it and so I said, "Alright, I'll go and put a couple in there somewhere".

JV: Because we had a couple of reeeally overweight Star Wars fans on the show with long hair and little goaties, and they didn't like that at all...the invasion of ETs into their universe -

GL: - Well I -

JV: - I pointed out to them that they're not very good with women which evened it up a bit. (GL laughs.) George, just before we break for the adverts could you sign these boxer shorts for our competition...beware the Dark Side

(George laughs again, the show goes to break and news summary before coming back to return to George.)

JV: Do you know what George, they say "No news is good news", but when it comes like that it's always good. Just in the shed with George Lucas doing a spot of Jed-I-Y (followed by groans from the crew and Lucas) - do you know what, it's like a dream come true. (They continue now with viewer's questions.) George, what's been your favourite Star Wars parody?

GL: There was one done a long time ago called "Hardware Wars" which has become infamous & there's a new one just starting on the circuit now, called "George Lucas in Love" which is very funny - a take-off of "Shakespeare in Love", only it's how I came up with Star Wars.

JV: You don't mind, it's not savage or anything?

GL: No, no it's funny.

JV: With a title like that, it sounds like "George Lucas in Love", it sounds like one of those satirical porno films - disgraceful.

GL: I wish.

JV: (laughing, then) If you make that as a film, I want a cut. Next question, why did you go back to the start of the saga instead of finishing the story of Luke, Han and Leia, etc. Will you ever finish that story?

GL: No, I won't because ultimately, this is all I've had written, this is the back story to the original Star Wars - I haven't written any sequels and I'm too lazy to go out and do it.

JV: Come on, I think you're very motivated. Who is your favourite Star Wars character?

GL: Anakin, well it's actually Luke, but Jake's sitting over there so what else can I say?

JV: Do you have a Dark Side yourself?

GL: No, no, no, of course not, I'm not even human.

JV: I didn't want to get that deep. You've revealed you're not human, that's deeper than I wanted to go. I like to keep it really shallow, please don't do that again.

GL: Okay.

JV: What was it about this movie that made you want to direct again?

GL: Well, I was getting bored and my life was happy and I decided I'd do something to make myself miserable.

JV: Was this a real struggle?

GL: Making the film was great, but the press part, being here, doing these things...

JV: Meaningless interviews.

GL: Yeah, meaningless interviews, endless, month after month...it's torture.

JV: People say if Shakespeare were alive today, he'd be George Lucas. What does that feel like?

GL: Scary, I don't know what to think about that...far too high level for this show, I think.

JV: Yeah, well spotted, sorry about that; we try to keep an eye on these people, but sometimes they just filter through our system. Why, oh why, don't you release the Star Wars trilogy on DVD. I'm a DVD fan myself, why don't you do this?

GL: Well, I'm waiting until I finish all the films before I do that.

JV: (With comic, but obviously genuine, outrage) All six? Do you mean I've got to wait that long?

GL: Well, yeah.

JV: But you can do the first trilogy.

GL: Yeah, I know, but I want to make it as a six film set when I release it.

JV: (With awe and longing) A six box set.

They then have a game called "Star Warts" and Vaughan thanks George for his time. George did look like he genuinely enjoyed himself.

Thanks again for all the typing Wedge, good stuff!