George Lucas’ Red Tails Finds a Director?

Posted by on August 21st, 2008   Filed under: Action, Drama, Rumours
Source: Dark Horizons

With all the online hate that has been directed at George Lucas lately thanks to his treatment of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, you have to wonder why he doesn’t just move on and try something completely different. He’s been talking about returning to his art house roots for years, and yet we still have no word of any concrete plans for a non-Star Wars project from the guy. There is, however, one movie that he has been talking about every now and then, and that is his Tuskegee Airmen movie, Red Tails, about the first African-American pilots to fly in battle during World War II. The weird thing is, he’s not directing it himself, and he didn’t write it either (the screenplay is by John Ridley).

As far as I know, Lucas is on board as executive producer only, and he is reportedly in search of the right director for the film (Spielberg wasn’t interested). Here’s where it gets a little weirder: apparently one of the people he approached as a possible director is none other than Mace Windu himself, Samuel L. Jackson. In a recent interview with IGN, Jackson gave this scoop on Red Tails:

“I just read it like two weeks ago. It’s a pretty good script. At one point (Lucas) was asking me if I’d ever want to direct anything. I said, ‘I don’t know, man. I’m trying to find things.’ He said, ‘Well, let me send you this thing. Maybe you might want to direct it.'”

When asked if he would be interested, Jackson said he’s not sure he’d want to give up acting for a year and a half, but he also didn’t rule it out. Now, I’ve got nothing against Samuel L. Jackson, but I don’t understand why Lucas would hand over this pet project of his to just any random first time director. It just doesn’t make sense. On the other hand, IMDB claims that the movie already has a different director attached by the name of Anthony Hemingway. He previously directed episodes of CSI: NY and ER, and was assistant director on Freedomland. What’s the deal here? Is this true, and if so, why can’t Lucas find a bigger name to take on the project?



  • Bob the Slob

    lucas is a wasteland of crap. He shouldn’t be allowed to talk to someone as cool as Mr. Jackson.

  • Liney

    It really is a work of genius for someone to show such promise as a ground breaking director (THX, American Graffiti), and to create something that is so loved by pretty much the whole planet (original Star Wars trilogy, and to a lesser extenet IJ), to then become such a figure of hatred and shame. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you…George Lucus! Formerly a passionate artist who took chances and gave a sh*t.

  • Itchy-Finger

    I put Lucas on the same pedestal as George A. Romero, though they were the kings in their days today they are all out of creative ideas and drive and should just move on or direct lifetime movies.

  • Yeah, I would guess no one wants to touch this because the name of George Lucas, regardless of whether this project has any promise, which it may well have, is one that these days is regarded with chintzy crap. No one wants to run the risk of making the Jar Jar Binks of historical African-American epics.

    I experienced a singular moment of schadenfreude when this weekend’s box office tallies were posted and The Clone Wars debuted at number three. I guess you can only go so far marketing cheap garbage to 6-year-olds.

  • “I’m riding a glorious wave of schadenfreude knowing that this movie got smashed by Tropic Thunder this weekend.”

    That’s a lot of schadenfreude, Joel.

    Three still equals millions of dollars, which isn’t so bad for a commercial to a TV show that every single critic hates.

    Lucas may have lost it, but he’s still damned good at making money… now when it comes to films outside of Star Wars and Indiana Jones that’s another story. Howard the Duck and Radioland Murders might have helped Lucas decide to stick to mainly doing what he knows, which is making bucket loads of money.

  • swarez

    I don’t want to hear anything negative about Howard The Duck.

  • Why would Lucas have any reason to believe Samuel L should get his feet wet with a WWII epic!? I mean seriously he could just call me…I’ve at least done some shorts and I’m black (which seems to be the only reason he’s calling Jackson).

  • Gee Paul, those quotation marks look awful funny around a sentence I didn’t write. Sure, a 3rd place, $14.5 million debut for a cheaply made animated movie whose main purpose is to tie into a television show isn’t technically a financial failure. But it’s a big blow against the Star Wars brand, which is already in the shitter

    I haven’t seen The Clone Wars. It could be really good. It could evoke in me a stirring sense of pathos for its daring portrayal of the plight of jedi knights, wookies, hutts, clone troopers, gleep-glops, hoogamans and wobwobs. But I’ll take a wild guess and say I won’t like it.

    I’m not arguing that Lucas is bad at making money. He is clearly very, very good at it. That’s exactly the point. Time and again he pursues projects that are transparently cash grabs whose only creative aspiration is to squeeze the last sputtering gasps life out of something he created three decades ago. Now he wants to do a serious project involving real live actors (I’m guessing that computer animated gleep-glops won’t be flying these planes) and anyone who has been paying attention has the right to be a little skeptical. And my schadenfreude levels are just about right.

  • *Ahem* I meant to add that the point is that the Star Wars brand failed in the perception of many people, which is bad news for Lucas if he wants to keep this Clone Wars thing going as a TV series.