NEWS > ENTERTAINMENT > GEORGE LUCAS TO RUIN BLACK HISTORY WITH RED TAILS

GEORGE LUCAS TO RUIN BLACK HISTORY WITH RED TAILS

April 17 2009

Prague, Czech Republic – It’s been a very long time since George Lucas has stepped foot outside of Skywalker ranch for anything but ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Indiana Jones’. In fact it’s been 15 years since Lucas stepped out of that realm to write the story for ‘Radioland Murders’. The interim has seen 4 poorly received ‘Star Wars’ films and one lambasted entry into the ‘Indiana Jones’ series but with filming underway, Lucas is finally stepping forward to ruin a entirely new genre with ‘Red Tails’.

‘Red Tails’ is a fictional retelling of the famed and controversial Tuskegee Airmen, a project that Lucas has secretly developed for over 20 years. Though he will pass on the directing baton onto first time director Anthony Hemingway, it’s believed that Lucas will do for black history just what he did for his legendary ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ series. According to early talk from the set, Lucas is doing exactly that.

“From screenwriting, to directing, to acting Lucas is using his tried and true method to filmmaking. He had great success with that on at
least one movie, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, but since then it’s really been a mixed bag of success,” said Scrape TV Entertainment analyst Tracey Temple. “Granted he has had incredible financial success but creatively things haven’t really been on the upswing, to say the least, so there were quite a few eyes rolling when it was announced that he was going to make another movie of any kind, never mind one outside his comfort zone.”

Lucas’ last major movie was ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ for which he acted as producer and co-writer of the story. The long awaited return of Jones to movie theatres met with great financial success, but poor critical and fan response. In fact the general consensus was that it marked the end of series, much as the animated ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ also released last year marked the death knell for that series.

“To be totally fair to Lucas, he destroyed the Star Wars’ franchise when ‘The Phantom
Menace’ was released and everything else was just a scramble to retain some semblance of respectability. It’s not often that a filmmaker can be responsible not only for the genesis of his life’s work but also its disastrous finale but Lucas has achieved that twice,” continued Temple. “It will be interesting to see what he does to Black history with ‘Red Tails’. We are living in time of true Black history with a near redemption for the ills committed against Black Americans but if anyone can mess that up, it will be Lucas. He could do more damage to the cause of Black people than slavery or the Ku Klux Klan has done combined.”

The film, currently shooting in Prague, will star Terrence Howard, Academy-Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr. and various television actors and hip-hop artists. The script has been written by John Ridley whose last major film was the unremarkable ‘U-Turn’.

“I suppose Lucas at least got part of this picture right by casting black actors in the leading roles but casting to race does not necessarily make a great film. Both the director and writer are black as well so that’s something, but the issue here isn’t race, it’s talent, and there are severe doubts in that realm though we will
see,” continued Temple. “From everything that has been heard about the film so far it is going exactly to plan and Lucas is spending as much time on the set meddling as he possibly can. It remains to be seen if he will be able to set back civil rights and the black experience with the same gusto that he destroyed his two most venerable franchises, but if anyone is capable, it is George Lucas.”

It should also be noted that Lucas acted as executive producer on the sequel to his film ‘American Graffiti’, a film which many critics credit as marking the definitive destruction of the 1950’s.   

Samantha Dryden, Entertainment Correspondent

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