George Lucas Talks 'Episode III' And Beyond

[Wednesday, January 15th, 2003]
George Lucas spoke to Fox News about Star Wars: Episode III and his future after that movie.

"I'm going to go from complete success to complete failure". Lucas says that he expects utter rejection from his fans once Star Wars concludes. "I'm going to make a bunch of movies like 'THX'. And if people don't like it, too bad. There will be no Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan for me. There won't be any big dramas or Oscars."

Lucas goes on to talk about working on Episode III, which will link Attack of the Clones to the first original movie. "I know what I want to do," he said. "It was mapped out from my original writing for 30 years. But still you have these two pieces — Clones and Chapter IV — and you have to make them fit together. You're going to see a lot about Anakin and Luke and Princess Leia's mother, all the adults. And of course Luke and Leia will be infants in it."

Talking about the criticism Hayden Christensen got for his portrayal as Anakin Skywalker, he says. "Not a bit. This is a talented kid. Years from now people are going to say, was he always so good, and look at Clones, and realize yes."

Lucas also talked about Peter Jacksons' 'Lord of the Rings', who he has become good friends with while they were shooting their movies in Australia and New Zealand.

"Essentially, Peter is making three three-hour movies out of one book," Lucas said. "And I'm making nine two-hour movies from one book. We discuss it a lot because they are similar in nature".

Episode III is expected to begin shooting this year, with the final movie hitting theaters in May 2005.

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