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He showed his latest movie, "Red Tails," to a bunch of movie executives, and they all turned him down. One studio's honchos didn't even show up for the screening. (Could there be another side to this story, I wonder? Just seems hard to believe.) From the NYT magazine:
"Isn't this their job?" Lucas says, astonished. "Isn't their job at least to see movies? It's not like some Sundance kid coming in there and saying, 'I've got this little movie -- would you see it?' If Steven (Spielberg) or I or Jim Cameron or Bob Zemeckis comes in there, and they say, 'We don't even want to bother to see it. . . .' " Lucas sighs. It's true that the movie, "Red Tails," is a biopic about the Tuskegee Airmen rather than a space opera starring the Skywalker clan. But the snub implied that Lucas's pop-culture collateral -- six "Star Wars" movies, four "Indiana Jones" movies, the effects shop Industrial Light and Magic and toy licenses that were selling (at least) four different light sabers this Christmas -- was basically worthless. When "Red Tails" opens in theaters on Jan. 20, it will be because Lucas paid for everything, including the prints.
Fox finally agreed to distribute the movie,which is a biopic about the Tuskegee Airmen. But it will not be paying any of the costs.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.