George Lucas to quit blockbuster movies

Los Angeles - Star Wars creator George Lucas is to stop making movies because he believes that the days of the blockbuster are over. The announcement from one of the most successful filmmakers in history is expected to send a shock wave through the major Hollywood studios, whose business is based on big budget movies that make a giant splash at the box office. But Lucas, who was also behind such hits as the Indiana Jones series, believes that with the Internet, multichannel television and video games fragmenting the entertainment audience, feature films have become too expensive and risky. 'We don't want to make movies. We're about to get into television. As far as Lucasfilm is concerned, we've moved away from the feature film thing because it's too expensive and it's too risky,' said Lucas in an interview in Daily Variety Thursday. 'I think the secret to the future is quantity,' Lucas said. Spending 200 million dollars on a movie made no sense, Lucas added. 'For that same 200 million dollars, I can make 50-60 two-hour movies. That's 120 hours as opposed to two hours. In the future market, that's where it's going to land, because it's going to be all pay-per-view and downloadable,' he said. Lucas said he believes Americans are abandoning the cinema-going habit for good. 'I don't think anything's going to be a habit anymore,' he said. 'Everything is going to be a matter of choice. I think that's going to be a huge revolution in the industry.' Lucas was speaking to the industry trade paper after a ceremony honouring his 175-million-dollar contribution for a new film school at the University of Southern California. 'The world of moving images hasn't had a lot of respect (in academia),' said Lucas. 'But it's the major form of communication in the 21st century.' © 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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bearDec 31st, 2006 - 14:43:23

Mr. Lucas' predictions may seem dire but all one has to do is look at the state of the major music labels to see that these trends are real. The part of his statement that sums it all up is ' The future is about quantity. At the same time that he is crying doom, the enthusiasm that brought him to make great movies must still be alive because he just announced the plan to make a fourth Indiana Jones movie while also donating $175 million toward the creation of a new film school. I'm sure they won't be teaching the philosophy of 'Make a bunch of crap as cheap as you can' at any school that he supports.

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