George Lucas, creator of iconic Hollywood movies, says making Hollywood movies is meh

There are lots of boys and girls out there (and also grown adults) who will see Star Wars in a short 29 days, and decide then and there that they want to grow up and become a filmmaker. I know this will happen, because it happened to me once upon a time. For anyone with even a tiny filmmaking bug, Star Wars comes across as simply the best, biggest, most complex, and ever-expanding saga on the screen and it’s hard not to want to emulate that one day.

But according to Star Wars’ original creator and director, George Lucas, you shouldn’t want to.

In a video interview with Vanity Fair, Lucas comes across more than happy to have passed the Star Wars reins over to new director, J. J Abrams. He also has no plans to ever return to directing another Star Wars movie — whether it be an Episode or a Star Wars Story anthology — because “you go to make a movie, and all you get is criticized.”

More than likely, Lucas is alluding to Episodes I – III which introduced a young Obi-Wan Kenobi and his rage-filled padawan, Anakin Skywalker. Though you still might have seen those movies three dozen times, the movies were widely panned by critics, and many (including myself) try hard to forget the memory of Jar Jar Binks.

Lucas knows that. He explains that this filmmaking process doesn’t lend well to his own creativity, and “people try to make decisions about what you’re going to do before you do it. It’s not much fun, and you can’t experiment. You can’t do anything, you have to do it a certain way. I don’t like that.”

What he does like is experimental film, and he’s looking to get back to that world of film. His first film was a very experimental one called THX 1138; his second movie was an indie, American Graffiti. That’s what he’s looking to do now, where he can creatively control everything that happens without the watchful eye of a huge Hollywood studio.

According to Lucas his next movies will be movies, “that generally will be seen anywhere.” But if Lucas’ name is attached to it, we’re going to find a way to see it one way or another. He’s the reason thousands — maybe even millions — of us grew up wanting to become filmmakers ourselves.Watch this on The Scene.

(Image via video.)