George Lucas to Lost Producers: I Made Up Star Wars as I Went Along
In last week's episode, Lost dipped back in time to tell what was, in effect, the prequel to its main story. It was an episode that was about as well received as George Lucas's own Star Wars prequels, which makes the fan letter that Lucas just sent the Lost producers all the more poignant -- and potentially revealing.
ABC Studios executive Barry Jossen read the letter from Lucas to executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse at last Thursday's UCLA-held event, "Lost Live: The Final Celebration." Zap2It's got the full text:
Congratulations on pulling off an amazing show. Don't tell anyone ... but when 'Star Wars' first came out, I didn't know where it was going either. The trick is to pretend you've planned the whole thing out in advance. Throw in some father issues and references to other stories -- let's call them homages -- and you've got a series.
In six seasons, you've managed to span both time and space, and I don't think I'm alone in saying that I never saw what was around the corner. Now that it's all coming to an end, it's impressive to see how much was planned out in advance and how neatly you've wrapped up everything. You've created something really special. I'm sad that the series is ending, but I look forward to seeing what you two are going to do next.
Afterward, Lindelof cracked, "I just want to apologize to Mr. George Lucas for everything I said about the prequels" -- an appropriate mea culpa, since it's through Lindelof's appreciative tweet that we first learned about the now-famous, prequel-eviscerating takedowns posted by Red Letter Media on YouTube. Still, if nothing else, Lucas's note at least explains that slightly pervy-in-retrospect sexual chemistry between Luke and Leia.
'Lost' gets a letter from George Lucas [Zap2It]
Subscribe to the new Movieline on YouTube
Comments
Oh wow, I had no idea Georgie. You sooo had us all fooled. Now go look up sarcasm in the dictionary.
Lost is the only show I know of that needs a recap of a recap of every episode and to have english subtitles in a show that is in english, the show in itself is like trying to explain to people what the matrix is, show in itself is more complicated and confusing to any show out there has ever been and no thats not a compliment, it's just the truth.
Lets be honest someone would have to watch every show like 20+ times before they even grasp whats going on, anyone that says they understood this entire series watching it one time in my book is just a liar!
That it is all!
I can totally picture the shirtless Josh Holloway poster adorning the TV screening room in Skywalker Ranch.
LOL, Ole George is still goofy looking as always
Lou
http://www.total-anonymity.se.tc
WHO REALLY CARES????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
WHO REALLY CARES?
Carlton Cuse was on Bill Simmons' most recent BS Report podcast and does essentially admit that the first season was a grab bag of ideas, and the next season or two were the writers stalling since they didn't know how long the show would be on. Also, I had no clue Cuse created Nash Bridges.
Lucas' prequels were lacking plot substance. "Lost" is the most aptly named show on TV. What is the point of a puzzle without a solution? I used to watch it faithfully, but last season each episode seemed to out weird the previous one.
Anyone who can dream up something like Star Wars on the fly is a genius!
The only thing that could have made the Star Wars prequels suck harder were if Shia Lebeouf had a starring role in them.
Does this mean that we get "Lost: Special Editions" to look forward to, with Jar Jar Binks as Mr. Eko's brother?
Because if it is, they have my $24
hey @ZANE i loved the series, and yes you can understand it well by watching the episodes once if you marathon them.
watching them once a week, hell i gotta agree with you there.
you and Ghost54 should take your act on the road. Second biggest laugh I had all within 20 minutes. Thanks guys!!!
When Wendy and Richard Pini were planning their classic comic "Elfquest", they deliberately planned it to run 24 issues and no more. They wanted a deliberately written stories with all details accounted for, no need for making it up as they went along. At a result, they, along with several other comic artists, paved the way for short run "graphic novels" which were much better written and had far better stories than monthly comics did or ever could.
It would be nice if one series, one channel, had the guts to think beyond one season at a time and planned to run a fixed number of episodes - probably three years, that way there's enough episodes for syndication. With a planned run and a fixed end, there are going to be fewer plot holes and better written stories. The closest I have ever seen to that was the series "Wiseguy" where storylines ran chronologically, in runs of 4-12 episodes, building on events in previous stories without plot holes or conflicts and contradictions. It made the show one of the more coherent at storytelling I've ever seen.
Your own post provides proven beneficial to myself.
It’s really informative and you're naturally quite knowledgeable in this field. You have got opened up our eye to be able to different thoughts about this kind of topic along with intriguing, notable and strong content material.