George Lucas tears Hollywood apart for lack of original thought

Star Wars Creator George Lucas said at the Cannes Film Festival that there is almost no original thinking in Hollywood.

Lucas was in the south of France on Saturday to receive an honorary Palme d'Or, the Cannes Film Festival's highest honor. Meryl Streep, another Lucas film legend, also received an honorary Palme d'Or at the start of the 77th edition of the annual festival, which kicked off May 14.

Answer a question from a French media Raw on the state of movies in 10 years, Lucas said (via IGN) the same thing will happen now.

Unfortunately, for Hollywood, Lucas added, the film industry is running out of ideas for new stories.

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“What's happening now, and it's happening in streaming, probably more than features, but features are the same thing, no one knows what to do,” Lucas said. Raw. The stories they tell are just old movies. “Let’s make a sequel, let’s make another version of this movie.” And it's not just in movies, but in almost everything, there is almost no original thought.

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Lucas wasn't the first major film to make pointed comments about Hollywood at the Cannes Film Festival. Earlier during the annual event, Francis Ford Coppola, Lucas' longtime friend and mentor, highlighted how Hollywood faces a dire future.

I fear that the film industry has become more about hiring people to take care of their debts because the studios are very, very in debt, Coppola said at a press conference in Cannes. And the job isn't so much about making good films, but about making sure they pay their debts.

Lucas received his Palme d'Or from Francis Ford Coppola

The timing could not be better for George Lucas's visit to the south of France since Francis Ford Coppola was present on Saturday to present his fellow filmmaker with his Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Coppola headed to Cannes this year for the world premiere of his sci-fi epic Megalopolis as well as several movie stars, including Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Laurence Fishburne and Aubrey Plaza.

In his remarks before awarding Lucas the Palme d'Or, Coppola spoke of their decades-old relationship as friends and collaborators, which began in 1968. VarietyLucas first worked with Coppola on the musical comedy classic Rainbow Finienswith Fred Astaire.

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Recalling the start of their working relationship, Coppola, 85, said he made a very important suggestion to Lucas, who recently turned 80, early in production.

Happy to have someone from my own generation, I suggested that he come every day, but on one condition: that he make a brilliant suggestion every day, which he always did, Coppola said during of his presentation of Lucas (via Variety). And thus began an association that would last a lifetime. And it went on and on, marking the history of cinema, the history of history, the history of business and now the history of France.

Naturally, Coppola's introduction included a Star Wars story, where he recalled how Lucas had told him how the owners of the Flash Gordon The comic strip refused the pitch from young filmmakers to make it into a film.

He looked at me and he said, “Well, I'm going to make my own movie, I'll call it.” Star Battles Or Star Wars or something. Coppola recalled (via Variety). And so he did, and in doing so he risked everything he had to achieve it.

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival ended on Saturday.

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