Lucas talks new 'Star Wars' with Colbert
NEW YORK — In case you're wondering: No, George Lucas has not watched this week's new Star Wars teaser.
"I just saw what was on CBS, but I'm going to try and look at it," Lucas told Stephen Colbert, chatting onstage at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in Manhattan on Friday.
Participating in the Tribeca Film Festival's directors series, Lucas was terse but cordial when asked about his mega-franchise now owned by Disney, and steered by director J.J. Abrams and LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy as the next installment, The Force Awakens, lands in theaters this Christmas.
"I hope it's successful, I hope they do a good job," Lucas answered an audience member, who asked about his hopes for the new film. Earlier, he told Colbert that he thinks it will be "really thrilling, because they're doing a different kind of story. I don't know what that story is, I don't know anything about it."
But that was about as much as Lucas said regarding the sci-fi movie's future, instead spending most of the hour-long discussion recounting his early days as a filmmaker. Detailing his partnership with auteur director Francis Ford Coppola, he talked about his box-office flop THX 1138 and how difficult it was for him to get studio backing for the comedy American Graffiti. (The early '70s romp went on to make more than $100 million on a then-$700,000 budget — one of the most profitable movies of that era, Lucas added proudly.)
The conversation then circled back to the original Star Wars trilogy, as Colbert described the night he saw the first movie with his friends in 1977, at a preview screening in Charleston, S.C., when he was just 13.
"As soon as (it) came on, we knew everything was different, from the moment those words appeared on screen and the scroll came," Colbert said. "As soon as the thing was over and we got to school Monday — because this was a Saturday night — we couldn't explain to anyone how the world was different now. There was no way to convey what a fresh representation of what sci-fi battles were, or what a space epic was. There was no vocabulary for what you showed us."
Although Lucas looked uncomfortable at times (he had also picked up a minor cough, he told the crowd), Colbert's genuine admiration and wry banter with the filmmaker kept everyone at ease throughout. When Lucas said his filmmaker friends didn't "get" Star Wars, Colbert mocked, "I don't get it, why does this black guy have asthma?" (A reference to Darth Vader.) And when Lucas said that he's "known for (his) wooden dialogue," Colbert shot back, "It's not wooden, George, it's hand-carved."
The conversation wasn't entirely free of its awkward moments. Lucas, who faced the wrath of many fans for his poorly received Star Wars prequels, ranted briefly about critics who give bad reviews. "If you don't like something, what's the point of going around trashing it? ... That's what you do with bad films, you ignore them. You don't have to get all worked up and go crazy."
And when an audience member asked if Colbert would consider filmmaking, Lucas queried why he didn't replace Jon Stewart as The Daily Show host. (Colbert is taking over for David Letterman on Late Show this fall, after exiting The Colbert Report last year.) "Now you're working on late night where nobody sees you because nobody stays up until 1 o'clock in the morning," Lucas said.
After cracking a joke about how he's only moving from 11:30 to 11:35 p.m., Colbert seriously responded: "I worked for Jon Stewart at that show, and my memories will always be of him being the keenest, most intelligent mind, and the clearest thinker I've ever worked for. I would never, no matter how successful I'd be, want to get under his shadow."
Lightening the mood, Lucas jested: "You don't have to be under his shadow. I guess that, or you just start jumping on his body saying, 'I won! I won!' "