At a recent screening to celebrate the 45th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back the 80 year old writer-director George Lucas talked a whole load of behind the scenes stories about the film leading with the little green Jedi master himself. So when George Lucas talks Yoda the audience were all ears especially when asked why Yoda speaks the way he does. To which he explained, “Because if you speak regular English, people won’t listen that much…..But if he had an accent, or it’s really hard to understand what he’s saying, they focus on what he’s saying.” “He was basically the philosopher of the movie,” Lucas continued. “I had to figure out a way to get people to actually listen — especially 12-year-olds.”
His deal to make the films is the stuff of legend and he went on to explain “I said, ‘I’ll do it for $50,000, to write and direct and produce… But I do want the sequels.’ And I wanted the rights because I’m going to make those movies no matter what happens to this one.”
The other condition to his contract was something that would change the industry. “I said, ‘besides that, I’d like licensing.’ They went, ‘What’s licensing?’” Unimpressed by the film, and colored by the history of movie merchandising to that point, the studio capitulated to his demands. “They talked to themselves, and they went, ‘He’s never going to be able to do that. It takes them a billion dollars and a year to make a toy or make anything. There’s no money in that at all.’”
The promotion of the film was, for Lucas, underwhelming and he put together his own covert campaign saying, “I got the kids walking around Disneyland and the Comic Cons and all that kind of stuff to advertise the movie,” he said. “And that’s why Fox was so shocked when the first day the lines were all around the block.”
related feature : Stop motion genius Phil Tippett talks Star Wars, George Lucas & that chess board scene
related feature: Stop motion genius Phil Tippett talks about Jabba the Hut in the original Star Wars film
The post George Lucas talks Yoda! appeared first on Any Good Films.
from Any Good Films https://ift.tt/ZyC13WB
