Is George Lucas really retiring?

It's sad to say that the man I once idolized, who created the greatest science-fiction universe of all time(shut up, Trekkers) in Star Wars, is someone I'd gladly pop champagne to see retire. That is the case, though, as diminishing returns on every franchise film George Lucas gets his hands on has been the way of things for about twenty years now.

This week sees the release of Lucas' passion project, Red Tails, a film on the Tuskegee Airmen he's been wanting to get done for more than two decades. Why someone with more money than many small countries felt he had to wait so long is beyond me. Especially when other films on the subject have been produced to great effect with a considerably smaller budget than the $70M+ Red Tails cost. Whatever. It appears we won't have to ask those types of questions anymore, though.

While speaking to The New York Times, Lucas revealed that he's "retiring" from making blockbusters....


“I’m retiring,” Lucas said. “I’m moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff.” 

This is in line with some statement he's made over the last week, where he told fans that Red Tails is probably the closest thing they'll ever get to a seventh Star Wars film. In the past few days, Lucas has been on a whirlwind press tour to amp up Red Tails, claiming in some interviews that the very future of African-American cinema rests on the film's success. Yeah right. It's statements like these, along with the retirement talk, that makes me think he'll say anything to put a few more butts in seats. Who wouldn't want to go to a theater and see the final major LucasFilm project from such a legendary figure? The irony is that Lucas is only a producer on it, although he did do some reshoots at the end.

So what will he do instead? Lucas is a filmmaker first and foremost. He'll still make movies, but they will be smaller in scope, more experimental, like the stuff he worked on back in the 1960s at the beginning of his career. Think more American Graffiti than Indiana Jones.  He wants his movies to play in the arthouse theaters, rather than the big multiplexes.

I don't think Lucas has had the passion for his most popular films in a very long time. The Star Wars prequels were cold and emotionless, and felt like works for hire. The same could be said of the last Indiana Jones. So this news makes me very happy, because I think Lucas still has a lot to offer if tackling subjects that are important to him.  I still maintain that we will get three more Star Wars movies at some point, and hopefully Lucas will now hand over the reins to somebody who can do them justice. *cough* Joss Whedon *cough*