Comprehensive information and links about George Lucas

George Lucas (born May 14, 1944George Lucas is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter famous for his epic saga and his Indiana Jones films. He is one of Hollywood's most financially successful directors and producers.

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Biography

George Walton Lucas, Jr. was born in Modesto, California. His father, George Walton Lucas, Sr., ran a stationery store and owned a small walnut orchard and was mainly of British and Swiss heritage. His mother, Dorothy Ellinore Bomberger Lucas, was a member of a prominent Modesto family (one of her cousins is the mother of former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman) and was mainly of German and Scots-Irish heritage.

Lucas attended Thomas Downey High School, where he was an indifferent student at best and dreamed of becoming a professional race car driver. That early dream ended June 12, 1962, when he crashed his Fiat Bianchina. The car was clipped from behind while he tried to make a left turn into his driveway. The car rolled; the racing harness that he had installed snapped, and he was thrown from the car. Had the harness not snapped—and Lucas has said it shouldn't have—he would most likely have been crushed to death by the steering column when the car smashed into a walnut tree. (The force of the impact uprooted the tree).

During his recovery, Lucas reevaluated his life and decided to go to college. He enrolled at Modesto Junior College, where he earned an AA degree, then transferred to the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television. USC was one of the earliest universities to have a school devoted to film studies. There he made a number of short films, including an early version of (the complete title was "Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB"), which later became his first full-length feature film.

After graduating with a bachelor of fine arts in film in 1966, he drifted a little, trying to figure out what to do next. He tried joining the Air Force as an officer, but was turned down because of his numerous speeding tickets. He was later drafted by the Army, but tests showed he had diabetes, which killed his paternal grandfather. Lucas was prescribed medication for the disease and does not seem to have required insulin. In 1967, Lucas re-enrolled as a USC graduate student in film production.

Eventually he co-founded the studio American Zoetrope with Francis Ford Coppola, hoping to create a liberating environment for filmmakers to direct outside the perceived oppressive control of the Hollywood Studio system. From the financial success of his films (1977), Lucas was able to set up his own studio, Lucasfilm, in Marin County in his native northern California. Skywalker Sound and Industrial Light and Magic, the sound and visual effects subdivisions of Lucasfilm, respectively, have become among the most respected firms in their fields. Lucasfilm Games, later renamed to LucasArts, is highly regarded in the gaming industry.

is considered by some to be the first "high concept" film, although others feel the first was Steven Spielberg's , released two years prior. Lucas and Spielberg had been acquaintances for some time and eventually worked together on several films, notably the first Indiana Jones vehicle, , Lucas waived his up front fee as director and negotiated to own the licensing rights—rights which the studio thought were nearly worthless. This decision earned him hundreds of millions of dollars as he was able to directly profit from all the licensed games, toys and collectibles created for the franchise. In 2004 Forbes Magazine estimated Lucas' personal wealth at $3 billion. In 2005 Forbes.com estimated the lifetime revenue generated by the franchise at nearly $20 billion.

Lucas was fined by the Directors Guild of America for refusing to have a standard title sequence in his films. After paying the fine, he quit the guild. This made it hard for him to find a director for some of his later projects. According to some, he wanted his friend Spielberg to direct some of the later movies, but as a member of the guild Spielberg may have been unable to do so. Spielberg has repeatedly stated that Lucas consciously did not let him direct any films, despite the fact that Spielberg wanted to. Other directors Lucas pursued to aid him were David Lynch and David Cronenberg, both of whom declined.

On October 3, 1994, Lucas started to write the three prequels, and on November 1 that year, he left the day-to-day operations of his filmmaking business and started a sabbatical to finish the prequels.

The American Film Institute awarded Lucas its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2005. He received the award on June 9, 2005. [1]

On June 5, 2005, Lucas was named 100th "Greatest American" by the Discovery Channel.

In 1969, Lucas married film editor Marcia Lou Griffin, who went on to win an Oscar for her work on the original (fourth) film. They adopted a daughter, Amanda, in 1981, and divorced in 1983. Lucas has since adopted two more children: Katie, born in 1988, and Jett, born in 1993. All three of his children have appeared in the prequels.

In 2005, Lucas gave $1 million to help build the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial on the National Mall in Washington D.C. to commemorate American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr..

Innovator

Besides his directorial and production work on movies, Lucas is the most significant contemporary contributor to modern movie technology. In 1975 Lucas established Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) in Van Nuys, CA, which was responsible for the invention of the special computer assisted camera crane "Dykstraflex" (named after special effects innovator, John Dykstra) that was used for most of the space fight sequences used in the movies (technology which was later adopted by most other visual effects production units, such as those responsible for ). Through ILM, Lucas spurred the further development of computer graphics, film laser scanners and the earliest use of 3D computer character animation in a film, . Lucas sold his early computer development unit to Steve Jobs in 1986, which was renamed Pixar.

Lucas is also responsible for the modern sound systems found in many movie theaters. Though Lucas didn't invent THX, he is responsible for its development. The acronym ostensibly stands for "Tomlinson Holman eXperiment" after its chief engineer, however, it is obviously a reference to Lucas' first film.

Now Lucas is spearheading digital photography for movies. Though personal digital photography is now mainstream, most movie studios still use traditional cameras and film for movie production. Lucas departed from this model by filming almost completely digitally. He showed the result to a select audience of the Hollywood elite, before the movie's general release. For the presentation, Lucas used a special digital projection system. The attendees said the movie had the clearest and sharpest presentation they had ever seen.

Despite the successful demonstration of the technology, movie studios are slow to move to this new model, in part because of the high price of the digital equipment.

. This first occurred with the Star Wars 1997 special editions, which primarily consisted of cosmetic changes, but had some controversial elements such as the anti-hero Han Solo shooting in self defense instead of in aggression. It occurred again with the 2004 DVD release of the original trilogy.

In addition, the mixed reviews and an increased level of vocalized disappointment by some fans relating to the Prequel Trilogy films have greatly stoked the debate concerning Lucas' treatment of certain characters and concepts in comparison to the 1977-1983 Star Wars films.

Changes Lucas personally made to for its 2004 DVD release further re-enforced criticism from fans who felt that he was spoiling the integrity of his original films.

Lucas is also viewed by some to be anti-union. He dropped his membership in the directors guild when they fined him $250,000 for the fact that films primarily outside of the United States, and primarily with non-union crew.

These anti-union allegations,however, have been contradicted by major national unions. The AFL-CIO awarded Lucas with the Top Labor Management Award in 2002.

Made his first cameo appearance in the Star Was series in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.. Although Lucas was credited as author of the book, it was later revealed that the book was actually ghost written by Alan Dean Foster, who would also write saga) contains the number 1138 hidden as an Easter egg, and each of his movies are also made with the sound company, THX. It is also rumored that while growing up in California, the last seven digits of his home telephone number were 849-1138, where the 849 corresponds with the letters THX on a standard telephone.Lucas credits his friend John Milius with introducing him to the films of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, whose works (including Seven Samurai) inspired the George Lucas was honored by the AFI, and was given a Life Achievement Award for his contribution to the movie entertainment industry.Lucas is a member of the United Methodist Church, though conflicting reports describe him as either stating that he doesn't adhere to a specific religion or as a "Buddhist-Methodist"sup multimedia project so well, that if he had had the story in the 80's, he might have produced a film based on the events in it.Has upset some of his long time Star Wars fans by refusing to release the original Star Wars trilogy in its original format on DVD, and has endured some harsh criticism for his handling of the Star Wars prequels, which many found to be flat, wooden and uninspiring. Some even feel that he has destroyed and cheapened the integrity of his own masterpiece.Friend Steven Spielberg called Lucas a pure independent filmmaker, as Lucas is very ensconced in Northern California in the San Francisco area.His nickname in high school was Luke. This later became the name of the hero of his original Star Wars trilogy, Luke Skywalker.Sold Lucasfilm's Computer Graphics Division to Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs, and it later became Pixar Animation Studios."Life On The Screen": The filmmaker argues that students must learn a new language of image and sound in order to succeed from Edutopia"Life after Darth": an in-depth look at George Lucas's artistic influences and future aspirations from Wired