It is sad that George Lucas changed the way films were made. Twice. Inspired by films such as Flash Gordon and the films of Akira Kurosawa, as well as Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Joseph Campbell, Panthelon Books, 1949) and Frank Herbert’s Dune (Frank Herbert, Chilton Books, 1965) books, George Lucas began work on Star Wars in 1974. He previously had success with his first feature sci-fi THX-1138 (George Lucas, US, 1971) and again with his urban gothic American Graffiti (George Lucas, US, 1973). However getting backing proved problematic. Star Wars was produced with a budget of $11,000,000 and released on May 25, 1977. The film earned $215 million in the United States and $337 million overseas and won several awards, including 10 Academy Award nominations.
Star Wars set the bar for the future of special effects for film.
Lucas new exactly what he wanted when he wrote the original Star Wars, but the technology available at the time was still terribly inadequate and just couldn’t produce the challenging visuals he envisioned. He had created a rich environment containing weird creatures, space battles and otherworldly locations. Computer generated
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Helmed by Andrew Stanton who priory brought huge success to both Disney and Pixar with Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, US, 2003) and WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, US, 2008). Transitioning from a film such as WALL-E, where dialogue and fandom practically didn’t exist to a film with huge leaps in time, space and dialogue should have been questioned. The studios threw money at the production, perhaps in the hope of salvation and the idea that special effects will keep audiences happy. The film was doomed to fail as the fans of the John Carter books had massive expectations and the faith Disney had in Stanton, despite never before shooting a live action