George Lucas Reveals His Post-‘Star Wars’ Plans and New Movies
No 'Star Wars: Episode 7' for George Lucas! In case you haven't heard (yeah right), Lucas recently sold his Lucasfilm empire to Disney for a meager $4 billion, giving the future of 'Star Wars' over to the Mouse House and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy. A stunning development that immediately reinvigorated the 'Star Wars' brand and turned the entire fanboy focus toward the beloved franchise once again.
But what about George? He'll act as creative consultant on the next 'Star Wars' trilogy, starting with 'Star Wars: Episode 7,' but by and large he'll be leaving the force in someone else's hands. So the question is, what does the man do with his time now?
At a recent event, Lucas opened up ever so slightly about his post-'Star Wars' plans. Aside from the fact that he intends to donate much of the money received from Disney to an educational foundation (good on yah, George), Lucas evidently intends to go back to his experimental filmmaking days -- something he has been talking about doing for decades. (You'll recall that his first film, 'THX-1138' is a cold, strange dystopian sci-fi drama that is about as far from 'Star Wars' as one can get.)
“Mostly it will be philanthropy but I’m also going to make my own little personal films,” Lucas said about his upcoming free time. Lucas has been beating this drum for what seems like ever. Earlier this year, in an interview with The New York Times while promoting 'Red Tails' -- the Tuskegee Airmen film he funded out of pocket -- Lucas hinted at last week's blockbuster development by saying he was retiring and "moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff.”
And if 'Red Tails' didn't seem a big enough divergence from what he's normally known for, prepare for Lucas to get really strange. “I’m going to go further out than that," Lucas said to Entertainment Weekly. "I barely got 'Red Tails' into the theaters. The ones I’m working on now will never get into the theaters.”
Oh, we're sure you'll figure out a way, George.