USA:DIRECTOR GEORGE LUCAS TALKS ABOUT HIS NEW STAR WARS PREQUELS AS MEMORABILIA FROM HIS FIRST TRILOGY GO ON DISPLAY

Record ID: 191265

  • Title: USA:DIRECTOR GEORGE LUCAS TALKS ABOUT HIS NEW STAR WARS PREQUELS AS MEMORABILIA FROM HIS FIRST TRILOGY GO ON DISPLAY
  • Date: 29th October 1997
  • Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 29, 1997) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EXHIBIT HALL WITH STARWARS PARAPHERNALIA VARIOUS OF CHARACTERS FROM TRILOGY DIRECTOR GEORGE LUCAS SAYING, "IT IS ALWAYS A BIG MISTERY WHY THESE FILMS ARE SO POPULAR, PART OF IT IS BASED ON THE THEME THAT THIS SMITHSONIAN EXHIBIT IS BASED ON, WHICH IS AT THE HEART OF ALL THIS ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY THAT HAS BEEN AROUND FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS. A MYTHOLOGY IS KIND OF A PSYCHOLOGICAL ARCHEOLOGY, IT IS LOOKING AT THE PAST, LOOKING AT THE MINDS OF PEOPLE IN THE PAST AND SEEING WHAT THEIR EMOTIONAL LIFE WAS LIKE AND WHAT THEY CARED ABOUT AND I JUST TRANSLATED THAT INTO A MODERN STORY." (ENGLISH)
  • Embargoed: 13th November 1997 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES/ FILM lOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Entertainment,General
  • Reuters ID: LVA36WDYUTRFINP03W0TCRQF831G
  • Story Text: Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the "Star Wars" trilogy exploded onto movie screens, making a name and a fortune for director George Lucas - now, artifacts from the films are on display in Washington D.C., with organizers bracing themselves for a blockbuster.
    "Star Wars: The Magic of Myth", a 5,000 square foot (465 square metre) exhibit featuring costumes, characters, models and artwork from the films, opened at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on Friday (October 31) for a one-year run.
    Organisers expect the display to be popular and have signed up more than 300 volunteers for crowd control at the museum on Washington's Mall.
    Lucas, who was at a preview of the exhibit on Wednesday, said he had originally been surprised by the tremendous sucess of the trilogy. He believes the popularity of the films, though a bit of a mystery to him, was due in part to the story's mythological overtones.
    The first film in the series, "Star Wars", premiered in 1977 as a medieval space-age myth, featuring Luke Skywalker, a nobly born but humbly reared knight, damsel-in-distress Princess Leia, and the hard-shelled but good-hearted Han Solo.
    Two more movies followed - "The Empire Strikes Back" and and "Return of the Jedi" - which tracked the characters to a happy ending.
    Lucas said he had finished shooting the first of three new "Star wars" films that are set 20 years prior to the first movie.
    The newest film, whose title he would not divulge, will be released in May, 1999 after 18 months of post-production work and animation.
    Lucus blamed unavailable technology at the time for the delay between the trilogies. He said new technology has allowed him to produce a "more wide embracing story," and compared newly available digital technology to the invention of sound in cinema.
    "Silent cinema was an incredible achievement and so the greatest arts that has ever been produced in this country was done in the silent period. But with sound and being able to say words means you can tell more interesting stories and with more depth and more character. It is the same thing with digital technology," he said.
    Senior visual effects supervisor on all the films, Dennis Muren, said effects which were impossible to create in the first trilogy were now possible thanks to computers.
    He believes the new technology adds a level of "reality" to the films.
    It remains to be seen if the new films will attract such popular appeal as the first three.
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