George Lucas: 'I'm Retiring'
In a forest-clearing New York Times profile, George Lucas pulled a Soderbergh (new catch phrase?): "I'm retiring."
"I'm moving away from the business," he continued, "from the company, from all this kind of stuff."
By "stuff" Lucas is referring to sprawling epics -- his bread and butter. He hopes to focus on more art house-type films, like the ones he made as a fledgling director at U.S.C. film school: clouds rolling in over the desert and and one based on a E. E. Cummings poem. (Hear that? That's the sound of a million eye rolls.)
But just like Soderbergh, Lucas isn't closing up shop just yet. He still has a few more Lucas-y films up his sleeve: his next, "Red Tails," a WWII action flick that follows the Tuskegee training program, and the fifth "Indiana Jones," which is still in the works.
News of Lucas's eventual departure from the world of blockbusters will surely hit "Star Wars" fanboys the hardest; there will be no more prequels or re-cuts of the series. To the director, though, this comes as a kind of relief.
"Why would I make any more when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?"
"Red Tails" hits theaters Jan. 20.
[via NYT]
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First Posted: 01/17/12 02:34 PM ET Updated: 01/17/12 02:34 PM ET