George Lucas Recalls Early Cannes Days With ‘THX 1138’, Besting Studios With ‘American Graffiti’ & ‘Star Wars’; “The Fact That People Make Money In The Movie Business Is A Myth”
deadline.com“We weren’t really that interested in making money, we were interested in making movies,” said Star Wars franchise architect George Lucas about the early days of his career with mentor Francis Ford Coppola in a Cannes sit down discussion today.
In a wide-ranging chat before a packed Salle Debussy Theatre crowd, Lucas, who is here to receive an honorary Palme d’or at the 77th edition shared how his THX-1138 was accepted into a new section at Cannes, the Director’s Fortnight, back in 1971, but Warner Bros didn’t want to send the filmmaker or his co-scribe Walter Murch to France for the premiere.
The duo scraped their money together, went to their own premiere in a side street venue, but snuck in because they didn’t have tickets.
Years later he was asked by the French media why he didn’t go to the press conference of THX 1138, and Lucas said “we didn’t know about it.” Originally United Artists, known to be filmmaker friendly, bought Lucas’ scripts for American Graffiti and Star Wars, but they didn’t like the former.
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