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- An Expensive Divorce and Single Parenting Left Lucas Star Wars Weary
- Lucas Kept Busy, Leaving Little Time to Revisit Star Wars
- Jurassic Park’s Breakthroughs Inspired Lucas to Begin Work on Star Wars Prequels
As a tech enthusiast and movie buff who has spent countless hours marveling at the magic of cinema, I can’t help but feel a profound sense of awe when reflecting upon George Lucas’ journey. This man, driven by an insatiable curiosity for technology and storytelling, single-handedly revolutionized not one, but two worlds – filmmaking and computer graphics.
By the release of “Return of the Jedi” in 1983, George Lucas was more drained than ever before in his filmmaking journey. He was going through a tumultuous divorce with Marcia Lou Griffin, his editor on the original Star Wars. In just six years, he had completed not only all three Star Wars films but also produced the first Indiana Jones movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” in 1981. During the ’80s, Lucas entertained ideas about creating another Star Wars trilogy as a prequel, but he had only drafted rudimentary backstories for characters like Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi following initial discussions with 20th Century Fox regarding a series of sequels.
A full decade would pass before Lucas, inspired by advancements in computer-generated imagery (CGI), started visualizing how these films could be realized with a computer graphics approach. During this time, he also produced around a dozen other movies and grew Lucasfilm, Ltd. from his base at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California. Additionally, Lucas was fully immersed in the role of a single parent, having adopted three children during the ’80s.
In his quest for a grander Star Wars universe, Lucas found himself constrained by the boundaries of computer technology, which hindered his vision of exploring the politics within the Republic and introducing characters entirely rendered in CGI, such as massive droid armies that were impractical to create physically, and a child-friendly character named Jar Jar.
An Expensive Divorce and Single Parenting Left Lucas Star Wars Weary
Regardless of the successful collaboration between George Lucas and Marcia Griffin, particularly on the comedy film American Graffiti and the iconic Star Wars series where she won an Oscar, the strain of establishing Lucasfilm, Ltd. and Industrial Light & Magic began to affect their marriage in the early ’80s. After adopting daughter Amanda Lucas in 1981, their relationship had become strained by the time Return of the Jedi was released. Eventually, George Lucas finalized a divorce settlement worth $50 million in 1983.
Despite shifting his focus from Star Wars towards creating more Indiana Jones films in the ’80s, Lucas remained a committed parent and decided to adopt two more children. As he moved away from the glitz of Hollywood, Lucas relocated his visual effects team from the San Fernando Valley to reform as Industrial Light & Magic in San Rafael, California. Previously, Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola had established American Zoetrope up north – eager to steer clear of the politics of Tinsel Town. In an attempt to fill the void of visual effects studios that he mentioned in the Disney documentary titled Light and Magic as “absent, at the time… globally”, Lucas intended to set up his own studio.
Lucas Kept Busy, Leaving Little Time to Revisit Star Wars
During the mid-80s, George Lucas instructed Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to create visual effects for any films belonging to his friends. This expanded ILM’s earnings beyond the Star Wars franchise. ILM was responsible for producing analog visual effects in various projects, such as Jim Henson’s Labyrinth and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. In the late ’80s, Lucas secretly started developing a computer division in San Rafael. He personally funded the creation of new computer technology, leading to the original Pixar machine and eventually contributing to the development of innovative software like Adobe Photoshop. However, the technology required for the visualization of Lucas’ prequel ideas was not yet advanced enough to produce Episodes I-III of Star Wars.
As a devoted cinephile, I’ve always admired Lucas and his contributions to the film industry. Although he was still diligently executive producing masterpieces like “Willow” and overseeing productions on set and location, it had been a while since he last sat in the director’s chair, with his dedication to parenthood taking precedence. However, even as a producer, I got a front-row seat to groundbreaking advancements in technology, such as the revolutionary ‘morphing’ technique that breathed life into the first time transformation of Fin Raziel, the sorceress, into multiple animals in one stunning CGI shot during the production of “Willow”.
Jurassic Park’s Breakthroughs Inspired Lucas to Begin Work on Star Wars Prequels
1992 marked a significant moment when super-agent Michael Ovitz negotiated a deal for Universal Pictures. This deal stipulated that they would finance Steven Spielberg’s ‘Schindler’s List’ if he were to also direct ‘Jurassic Park’ at their studio. To accomplish both projects in the same year, Spielberg entrusted his friend George Lucas with post-production duties for ‘Jurassic Park’, and he then headed off to Krakow, Poland, to commence work on ‘Schindler’s List’.
George Lucas had a unique chance to observe the groundbreaking advancements in Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) led by ILM veteran and visual effects pioneer Dennis Muren for ‘Jurassic Park’. The work of two pivotal computer animators, Steve “Spaz” Williams and Mark Dippé, in creating computer-animated dinosaurs for ‘Jurassic Park’, convinced Lucas that the CGI he envisioned for ‘Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace’ could ultimately become a reality.
In his blog post for StarWars.com, Lucas stated that Episode I wasn’t about telling a confined tale; instead, he felt compelled to delve into the politics and broader aspects of the Republic. To accomplish this, he needed a novel approach, which was provided by digital technology. This innovation allowed him to finally release The Phantom Menace onto screens after a 16-year gap.
In a span of six years, Lucas constructed the equipment at Lucasfilm’s computer animation studio to cater to the large workforce and extensive rendering hours required for creating Episodes I-III. Despite harsh criticism towards the overbearing presence of CGI character Jar Jar Binks in the first prequel, The Phantom Menace, it served as a roadmap for the subsequent 25 years of filmmaking heavily reliant on computer-generated imagery. By the way, you can stream the Star Wars franchise on Disney+.
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2024-09-02 02:32