May 2019 HTSAAIL™ of the Month - George Lucas
Our HTSAAIL of the Month for May 2019 is George Lucas. George Lucas is famous for creating one of the most iconic movie series in history; Star Wars.
As of today, there are 9 Star Wars movies but we are going to focus on the original Star Wars movie and how it almost didn’t happen.
Back in 1973, George Lucas was fresh off of directing the movie “American Graffiti” which was a big hit and put him in the spotlight as an up and coming young director.
As a child, George Lucas was infatuated with sci-fi shows like Flash Gordon and always dreamed of creating his own on a much bigger scale. After his success of American Graffiti, Lucas began developing a script for his “space movie” which invited many obstacles and difficulties into his life.
The Rough Draft was one of the toughest things to do as Lucas stated. At many times it would leave him feeling ill with all the stress that it created. The 129 page rough draft was lacking a specific point of view and was all over the place story wise.
With a story somewhat put together, the next step of getting a movie created was getting a studio to back you. Even with all his previous successes, selling the idea of a sci-fi movie was more difficult than expected.
Many studios laughed at the idea of a “Space Opera” movie and that it would be the absolute laughing stock of Hollywood. Others believed that sci-fi was a dead genre and just for children. After meetings with numerous studios, 20th Century Fox was the only one that agreed. The green light wasn’t because they loved the idea, but because they loved George Lucas. His confidence and creativity which led to his previous achievements as a director gave them the confidence that he would be able to make this a success.
Star Wars began filming in the Tunisian desert, which led to its own set of problems. The heat and sand led to actors fainting, equipment breaking down, and lots of money being spent. The movie was taking longer than expected to make and was way over budget, but George Lucas kept his vision clear and persevered.
When Star Wars was released in 1977, it did over $775 million in the Box Office and surpassed Jaws as the highest grossing film of all time.
What if George Lucas quit writing his original draft of Star Wars thinking “no one will enjoy this story.”?
What if George Lucas listened to the studios that rejected him about his childish movie script?
Act on that crazy idea, believe in yourself when no one else does, and when you fail keep trying again.
FAIL.
TRY AGAIN.
SUCCEED.
HTSAAIL™
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