It was but a fleeting moment of hope. You may recall the other day I posted about the news that George Lucas was getting ready to get back into the director’s chair with “Red Tails”, a movie about the true story of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen… black pilots who fought for their country back in WW2… a country that treat German Prisoners of war better than they treated them because of the color of their skin.
I was very excited about this news because I’ve been saying for some time that Lucas needs to get back in the director’s chair with something that had nothing to do with Star Wars or Indiana Jones. Something to help stir his massive creative juices again that have been laying dormant for 3 decades. Something to help him rediscover that Oscar nominated director still inside him somewhere. And this seemed like the perfect type of project for that.
Sadly however, it appears that report was wrong. Oh Lucas is making this movie… but he’s not directing it. The Thompson on Hollywood blog over at Variety.Com is reporting the following:
According to Lucasfilm, Lucas is NOT directing Red Tails. He is an a executive producer, with Rick McCallum and Charles Floyd Johnson producing. Ridley is writing. No other attachments yet, they say.
I lament this news. It probably also means that we aren’t likely to ever see Lucas in the director’s chair again… meaning that great visionary director truly is dead… he died back in the late 70’s and very early 80’s somewhere only to be replaced by a franchise, creative soul devouring doppleganger. Lucas is still responsible for pushing the limits of technology and almost forcing the movie industry to move forward in areas of visual effects, digital technology, sound and more… but that great filmmaker is gone. For one brief moment I thought there was a chance we’d see him start to resuscitate the storyteller in him… but I guess that’s not going to happen. So sad.
