George Lucas Threatening To Retire And Make Small, Experimental Movies Again

By Joshua Tyler | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Every few years George Lucas undoes an extra button on his flannel shirt and tells everyone how much he’d really like to be making small independent movies instead of the CGI-infested, box office bloat he’s become best known for. It never actually happens, but George keeps right on saying it. He’s saying it again only this time he sounds like he’s actually doing it.

In a recent interview with Empire Lucas had this to say about his future plans…

I’m moving away from the company, I’m moving away from all my businesses, I’m finishing all my obligations and I’m going to retire to my garage with my saw and hammer and build hobby movies. I’ve always wanted to make movies that were more experimental in nature, and not have to worry about them showing in movie theatres.

George Lucas is now 68-years-old and, though you’d never suspect it given his influence in Hollywood, he’s only ever directed six feature films. Four of them were Star Wars (though he frequently takes credit for making all six Star Wars films… he didn’t) and the other two were his student film THX 1138 and the classic car-culture movie American Graffiti.

So will Lucas actually step away from running Lucasfilm to make all the edgy little indie movies he’s always wanted to make but never had the time to? Somehow I doubt it. The truth is that if he really wanted to make those movies, he’d have done it by now. He’s not the only filmmaker running a billion dollar empire and most of the others, like Steven Spielberg for instance, still manage to find time to make the movies they want to make.

If it happens though, I’d be all for it. Not just because Star Wars would be a lot better off with someone else in charge of it, but because Lucas is a genuinely talented guy who might really come up with something new and exciting to knock our socks off. For now, believe this happens when you see it.

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