Professional Help

I’m trying to figure out why George Lucas insisted on writing the screenplays for Star Wars Episodes I thru III. If he had hired a professional screenwriter, sat him down for about 20 minutes with a beer and a notebook and went over the framework of the story, the movies would have been a lot better. It's not like he would've had to cede any authority over how the movies were made. He would have had complete control over how it turned out. He could have churned through about twenty different writers until he found one who could follow orders and properly “channel his genius.” Weren’t there all kinds of original Star Wars books that came out from about 1987 to 1998? I never read any of them (I’m not that into Star Wars), but I think that for the most part they were pretty well received. Why couldn’t he have gotten one of those writers to take a gander at the script? They probably had more experience writing dialogue for Han and Leia than Lucas did. Honestly, other than the scorn of countless moviegoers, what did Lucas have to gain by writing the script? How can one man possibly take any MORE credit for a single project than George Lucas has taken for the Star Wars franchise? Can you even legally say the words Star Wars without mumbling “created by George Lucas” somewhere in there? No one would even have noticed who the screenwriter was. No one would have noticed that there even was a screenwriter. All we would have noticed is how much better the movies were. And George Lucas would still get to bask in the spotlight. It makes no sense to me. Unless you are a unique talent in the screenwriting universe (e.g. Quentin Tarantino), for the most part if you’re a big time director (just this once, and never again, I will do Lucas the unspeakable honor of referring to him as a big time director), writing your own screenplay is sort of like cooking the food for the catered lunches on the movie set. I’m sure some people would get a rise out of it, maybe even brag about it, but the only thing that could possibly come out of it is for people to say, “my God this food is awful, couldn’t he have gotten a professional to handle this?” Bad move by George Lucas. I should have seen it coming, though. After the Ewoks, what else could I have possibly expected?