Suffering From Success
In the cool Honolulu evening with the Pacific currents providing a very warm Christmas season, one George Lucas, creator of the greatest film of all time tried desperately to hide his face and act incognito with a large towel and a comically large straw hat as he made his way across the resort to meet his best friend Steve for a relaxing hot tub session.
George had been eager to go on the vacation along with his wife and Steve's girlfriend so that he could just wash away the stress of making Star Wars and spend a couple of weeks just relaxing and having fun without a single care or thought about movies. However, it seemed his streak of anonymity was at an end as this time for Star Wars, George had done his fair share of rounds for promotional material and every magazine and news show shared photos and videos of him with his face plastered everywhere after the premiere. Before December 10th, George was just another face in the crowd, now he was one of the most famous men on Earth.
Everywhere he went people tried to rush to him and have a conversation, shake his hand or get an autograph. It was incredibly touching on one hand to receive such love and adoration for your dream film, with lots of people saying it was the greatest or their new favorite. However, when you were swarmed and everyone demanded some personal time with the great George Lucas it got pretty exhausting, made all the worse by information on how the franchise would play out, begging for any hints or clues of the future of Star Wars when all he had were two script drafts and his and Dave's ramblings and muses.
George had hoped that he could find some serene isolation in Hawaii, but the islands had many a movie theater and they all showed Star Wars. The first few days were quiet and relaxing, but then somehow word spread around and half the hotel wanted to meet him. It got to the point where George had to do an impromptu meet and greet the night before to get people to back off so him and Marcia could at least leave the hotel and get with their sightseeing.
It was quite ironic, for so long he wanted to stand alongside the likes of Hitchcock and Kubrick and now he was more famous than both men and many other Directors, some even going so far as to proclaim him the greatest Director of all time with a mere three films under his belt. Seemingly everyone thought Star Wars was perfection, and George as its creator was a living genius.
Such a world scared him.
Thankfully through some small miracle, he managed to shuffle his way through the pool area and found a waving Steve. George quickly hopped in and sank to the bottom with his head just rising above the surface so no one could notice him.
"Sorry for all the hassle George. If I had known about how crazy the tourists and natives would be I would have just rented a house in Malibu." Steve apologized.
George shook his head, "Don't be, it's your birthday tomorrow and you should celebrate how you want. We're both rich now we should go wherever we want, see the world. Besides, Marcia's just as happy as our trip to France, that alone makes the trip worth it." George said with a smile. The romantic excursions they had done together had really brought out some flames of passion that were usually absent and it was nice for the two just to be themselves and have some fun without fighting on Star Wars edits.
"You know, I bet ya if we had Elvis standing next to you all the locals would ignore him and ask for a Lucas autograph." Steve joked, with George shaking his head in annoyance.
"I've got to start taking tips from Bruce on how to stay invisible." George said, how the star managed to blend in like Superman as Clark Kent was beyond George's fathom.
"Shame he couldn't join us." Steve remarked. After the post-Graffiti vacation both had been eager to go on a trip with Bruce again to repay him for helping with their productions only for the Goose to sadly decline and remain in LA.
"Can't blame him when he's helping Carrie, would have been the same if it was Marcia." George said with Steve nodding in respect. He could handle Sidney hating his guts for some reason and Universal trying to ruin his company through cutthroat competition, but to have gone so low as to manipulate Carrie with her trauma was a low too blow that erased any respect George had for his once former bosses, happily co-signing on a blacklist of Ed Fisher from anything involving Lucasfilms.
Still, George still deeply wished that he had Bruce present. The duo seemed to connect and form a great partnership on films that was only eclipsed by George's work with Marcia in the editing room. As much as this vacation was meant for fun, George did want some help in forming at least an outline for Lucasfilms' and Star Wars' futures. Would have been good to have his partner and co-owner, but his best friend Steve would be more than enough.
After some quaint conversation and many pleasant silences, George decided to address what had been weighing on him for the past week, "Steve, I haven't told anyone this other than Marcia, Bruce and Gary, and please don't say anything to the media; but I'm thinking of taking a break from directing."
Steve jerked up from his spot as if he experienced a surge of whiplash at the news, "You're quitting?!" He asked in shock and alarm.
George fervently shook his head, "No, I'm not walking away completely, I just want to take a break for a couple of years I guess."
"But why? Star Wars is the greatest-" Steve began, and then paused as he saw George wince heavily at the praise he had received countless times since the premiere. "Is that it? Feeling too much pressure to continue?"
George sighed, "About half of it I guess. I gotta be honest, I just don't know how the hell I can follow up to that. Somehow I managed to stumble my way into a timeless masterpiece everyone's praising as the greatest film since it's invention. How can I be better than perfection? Star Wars is lightning in a bottle and lightning never strikes twice."
"Francis managed to do it with Godfather. Most people think Part II is better than the first one. Besides it's not like you're heading into Empire out of nothing, you have the whole trilogy planned out, it's gonna be written from your vision, you can do it." Steve argued.
George smiled softly to his friend, "Thanks Steve. I know the rest of the trilogy is going to be good, but I can't handle the burden of doing it twice and having to be better than perfection and superior to the last each time, it's too exhausting and I don't know what the hell I can do to make it exciting and fresh as the first instead of just being a one trick pony. Besides, directing's not even my greatest passion anymore."
"What?" Steve asked in disbelief. If the George Lucas of film school were here right now he'd slap his older counterpart silly for such heresy.
"Oh it's not like I hate it, but after three movie's it's lost its luster for me. The job's too stressful, people are too difficult and even when I was directing a film as part of my own company and everyone believed in me I felt like I was going to collapse by the end. I love the art, and it's fulfilling but it's not fun like how I started out. Does that make sense?"
"I guess so." Steve said blankly. Although quite frankly, the concept that George was presented horrified Steve to his core. Directing was his first love, his greatest passion and motivation, the way of life that made him who he was. He spent most of his life making films, and if one day he started to fall out of love with the practice and being exhausted then he didn't know what he would do with himself. It would be as if Steven Spielberg no longer existed.
"Honestly I find it's the work with ILM that's the most fulfilling. Creating special effects, designing new worlds, inventing new technology, literally making magic possible, it can be tough but everytime I work with the Magicians I feel some of the happiest and most fulfilled I've ever been in my life. Somehow I managed to catapult Hollywood years if not decades of what we have, changing cinematography forever. It's something I can forever take pride in, the knowledge that all future movies will have technically been descended from Star Wars, and there's still so much more with audio and computers that's yet to be done. I want to continue doing that, make it so that dreamers like you, Martin and Brian have the best technology possible to make the greatest stories after told. Maybe after a couple years of doing that I'll direct something new." George affirmed, seeming pretty set on this path.
It was a damn shame in Steve's eyes to see George take a hiatus when he had so much to offer, but he could respect the reasoning and at the very least George wouldn't be absent from film entirely and was still doing what he loved.
"So what's gonna happen with the sequels? Whose directing them?" Steve asked.
At the question, George eyes strayed from Steve, looking a bit bashful at what was to come, "Well I was kind of aiming for every film in the trilogy to have a different director, that way each film can be distinct and tell its own story. For Empire I was hoping that Bruce would take over the chair."
"Really? Quite a lot to go from TV to Star Wars" Steve asked in surprise.
George shrugged his shoulders, "He's an Emmy award winner, made a sports documentary into an engaging and fun movie, and he basically directed most of the action scenes and did a good number of takes, not to mention that romance movie he made with Carrie was pretty good. Bruce has been there from the beginning, it's the least he deserves. As for Revenge of the Jedi...honestly I was hoping I could hand it off to you."
"ME?!" Steve asked in complete flabbergast. To Steve it was already enough that he was able to work in a company that had basic human decency with his friends and where he got relativefreedom to pursue the stories he wished, but to not only make a Star Wars movie, but cap off the trilogy with the finale being the most important part of the story?!
"You're the only one besides Bruce who understands what makes Star Wars, you have the same passion for adventure films, you have a great foundation for science fiction with Close Encounters, and you're my favorite Director Steve. If I don't direct Revenge then you're the only person who can complete the story. Although I hope you won't retire." George said in confidence.
"Why would I do that?"
"Because you're better than me and you'll probably make a better Star Wars movie." George answered. Steve's mind then flashed to one of his interviews where he gave some statements on Star Wars and his statement of a hypothetical surpassing of George made Steve blush, realizing he probably made George's insecurities about the release worse.
"Maybe not. Still, are you really sure about giving me a Star Wars film? There's already Indy, it feels wrong to direct your stories." Steve tried to argue.
"Come on Steve, I trust you. Besides it's not like Star Wars was solely my work. Marcia heavily influenced the script and she's basically responsible for half the movie with the editing, Bruce did a lot of the heavy lifting with the action, Gary organized the logistics. It wouldn't be so different with you, what's wrong with a Spielberg Star Wars?" George suggested.
Steve sighed and shook his head with a soft smile. George rarely asked for anything from him, and when he did it was really hard to say no to the big softie. "So hypothetically when would Revenge be made, four to five years from now?" He asked.
"I guess so. Hoping to start pre-production sometime next year, from there it's sometime in 78 for Empire and either Christmas of 79 or Summer of 80, and from there it's Revenge's release three years later."
Steve nodded, "That's good I guess, gives me time to gain experience and be competent."
"What do you mean?" George asked.
Steve groaned as flashbacks of his most recent work and the cause of him picking out Hawaii for his birthday vacation played in his mind. "I don't think I'm cut out for blockbusters."
"Really? You-" George began to say, but then realized how much he sounded like Steve when relaying his insecurities. "Sorry."
"It's okay, I guess I did it first." Steve chuckled, "Jaws was a shit show that still gives me nightmares to this day and Close Encounters was organizational hell and I don't know if I would have crossed the finish line without Alan jumping hoops and performing miracles behind the scenes. I shoot far, I fall hard and I have no sense of scale or budget, not to mention there's some damn curse that follows me everywhere and screws up all the little details. But, nowadays everyone knows me as Spielberg of Jaws so I probably won't make any money off of simple stuff and part of me just wants to make a really great and grand film and just have everything turn out alright in production."
"I'm guessing that's why you're hoping to get Conan with Bruce?" George questioned.
"Hey if his Irish magic made you a billionaire then I want to experience what's at the end of the rainbow." Steve joked to which they both laughed, "But yeah, having Bruce in my pocket would hopefully exorcise this curse and Conan feels like a great step up in my resume and good prep work for Indy and I guess Star Wars. I love my work George, but if all my movies end up being made the same way, I'm scared that one day I'll be burnt out and start hating it." Steve confessed.
As someone who went through his own personal hell with THX and American Graffiti, George could easily relate and gave Steve a look of sympathy, "It's going to be okay Steve. You're a great artist and you'll get through this."
"Thanks. Would you just mind doing me a favor George?"
"What's that?"
"Next time you find a miracle kid send him my way."
