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GL had this to say in the latest star wars insider magazine:


It looks like this film is going to be a bit darker in tone and atmosphere than Episode I.
It's definitely getting a little bit more intense. The next one will probably be the darkest of all of them. Ultimately, I have to tell a story. So the story comes first. And I can't really play it to an audience. I mean the story is what the story is. I knew that it was going to go very dark. You know, it may not be very successful when I get down that dark. But, you know, at least the thing will be finished and it will have been good to me. There's not much I can do about. I can't take a story that's basically very, very dark and make it happy. Because it's not.

So you don't have that commercial thought in your head that this has to be a big hit?

This has never been a commercial idea. It's been one that nobody wanted to do, and it was hard to get it done, and everybody thought I was nuts. The fact that it has become commercial is sort of a separate thing that defies description. So I can't really play to that. And I don't really have to.


Personally, I can't wait till it gets dark! It'll be great when EpIII ends WITHOUT a happy ending!

Everybody knows how gloomy episode 3 is going to be,its the climatic turning point of the series.
As for episode 2, its pretty obvious that there is going to be alot of tension...Duh!

Not a comercial movie, huh Lucas? What a bunch of BS.

Yeah macco WHAT A LOAD OF BS!!!!
Commercialism is what Star Wars is all about these days.

*bows A87 a kiss*

Oh dear... seems to me he's already started apologising for his next movie.

"I know it's not what anyone wants to see, I know it's not what the fans think of as Star Wars, but it's the story..."

As if he has no control over it!

Still, I reckon it's going to be good regardless - certainly better that TPM anyway, so I'm happy. I just hope Lucas isn't going to embarress himself by starting to talk about the series as if God handed him the story on stone slates...

I think there's a certain degree of negative build-up coming out of LFL these days. They certainly seem to be trying to play down AOTC, stick out some bad press, etc.

My theory is that they have learnt from the hype of TPM and are trying to lower expectations so that when everyone walks out of that theatre they will have been blown away.

I don't doubt for a minute that that sort of thing goes on - but surely a better strategy would be to make a really good film?

In this case, I like the idea of GL not caring about what the fans want to see. Alot of people dont really understand what it will be like to go see EPIII. The movie is going to be totally dark. From the sounds of it, there will be no "happy ending," even a glimmer of a happy ending. In my entire life, I have never seen a movie that is as dark as Lucas is trying to make us beleive it will be. Imagine going to the theatre and being 'emotionally drained' from seeing nothing but bad things happen to characters we love for a full 2-1/2 hours. EPIII will end VERY dark and depressing. So much so that we will really be looking for "A New Hope"

Come on - given Lucas' limitations as both a director and scriptwriter do you honestly think he can pull it off? Real emotion is the one thing he can't add to a movie during post-production...

Ok, that's harsh - but really, could he pull it off? I guess Mr. Williams has proved he can jerk a tear with his soundtracks - but for it to be as affecting as you're talking about it's going to need a lot more than a dramatic chord and the death of a hero. It's going to take emotional involvement and, for it to really work, the foundations for that should be laid during Ep I Ep II - and to be honest, looking at TPM and some of the acting / dialogue in the trailors for AOTC, I don't think he's off to a very good start...

>>More than an element of Devil's Advocate in above statement<<

I agree with BigSef - it's good that Lucas is not looking at this story from a commercial angle, so that it is not influenced by the money factor ... the best works of art have happened when the artist isn't concerned about it's commercial viability but when the artist is concerned about bringing out his vision exactly as he wants, unconcerned about how much money his work is going to make - and while StarWars in general has become a commercial goldmine, I feel that Lucas is genuinely NOT thinking about what he has to do to the story so that it makes pots of money and becomes a big hit. And while it hasn't exactly come from Jehovah on tablets of stone, still he does have a very definite concept and vision of the story as a whole and where its going - and it WILL end in a very dark way in Ep.3, and although it may not be entirely mass audience friendly ( although the real fans will love it ) I don't think that's going to affect Lucas' thinking in any way. He's just going to take this tale to it's logical end, not worrying about the fact that it is dark and introspective may mean less commercial success for the movie.

if anyone ever thought that episode 111 was going to have a happy ending then they are either delusional or on some very bad drugs or have never seen the original trilogy. in fact if it didn't have a darker edge to it i would be seriously dissapointed and i hope that episode two starts to show some of that darkness. george lucas himself said that this part of star wars was a tradgedy. and you can't redeem someone (darth vader) if he hasn't done anything nasty in the first place. besides the fact that i am dying to know exactly what makes anakin turn to the dark side. what is the straw that finally breaks the camels back.
as for it being a commercial success or not i find that whole discussion to be stupid. when the first movie was made in the seventies no movie studios wanted it or thought anyone would understand or like it. what do critics and studio heads know anyway. true fans will like the new movie no matter what.

I agree wit bigsef here, that intreview was really positive to me.

When did the new SW Insider come out???? I haven't gotten it yet. The little exerpt doesn't sound like GL is apologising for anything.

Positive all the way.

It's definitely not apologetic - I was pretty happy with Lucas' tone throughout the interview - he made the first StarWars movie with no commercial thought in mind, inspite of everyone telling him he was off his rocker, and that it would fail - and inspite of it turning into a whole series, legendary in movie lore, he's still not concerned with the commercial aspect of it - just like when he made the first one - he's going to tell his story his way, like it or not and nuts to the critics and studio heads - and thats really cool. Like debbie said, 90% of the times these guys never know where its at - while the true fans ARE going to love the movie, no matter what.