George Lucas is most famous for his Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, but his wealth and fame has led him into the philanthropic world. Knowing the people he rubs shoulders with, it was no surprise when he was invited to the 2012 Milken Institute Global Conference. What was surprising was how much he got to talk about his films, especially the aforementioned fan favorites.
Towards the beginning, Lucas reminds everyone of something we all tend to forget when we discuss the most famous space opera of all time:
Star Wars was aimed at adolescents going through puberty, people 11, 12, 13 years old.
That's right, Star Wars was the Harry Potter of the 70s and 80s. Does that make the darkness of Empire Strikes Back equivalent to Prisoner of Azkaban? It is more likely that the success of the first film helped him push the maturity level to young adults, but I wasn't on hand to ask questions so we'll have to wait to find out.
He also got to discuss the famous strange food buffet scene that appears in Temple of Doom:
All those things are eaten somewhere in the world and they're all very nutritious. There's a lot of protein in that scene, from the beetles to the monkey brains.
Throughout the interview we're given peeks into what makes Lucas tick, how his successful franchises came about (Tattooine is an actual town in Tunisia; Chewbacca is one of Lucas' favorites because Chewbacca was his dog, Indiana) and a repeat of what the man has went on record saying before:
In Star Wars it was a little confusing about who drew first, was it Han Solo or was it Greedo? So when I did the special edition, I decided to make it clearer that Greedo shot first.
In the interview he makes a good case for his reasoning, and I am partial to believing him and letting the issue drop. Love the changes or hate them, they are his creations and he can do what he wants with them.
Watch the complete interview below.