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The Last Jedi - Actually Widely Hated?

I really don't think we know enough about what's going on at Lucasfilm and Disney to judge any of the people deeper behind the scenes. These kind of productions are an incredibly complicated to but together, and without knowing exactly what was going on and who said what and who did what it is hard to judge who exactly was at fault for the directors not working out.
The one we do the most about was Solo at the end it sounds like that one was really on Lord and Miller. From the stories we heard it sounds like they were given the opportunity to cooperate, and make it the way the Lucasfilm people wanted and wouldn't cooperate.
 
JD said:
I really don't think we know enough about what's going on at Lucasfilm and Disney to judge any of the people deeper behind the scenes. These kind of productions are an incredibly complicated to but together, and without knowing exactly what was going on and who said what and who did what it is hard to judge who exactly was at fault for the directors not working out.
The one we do the most about was Solo at the end it sounds like that one was really on Lord and Miller. From the stories we heard it sounds like they were given the opportunity to cooperate, and make it the way the Lucasfilm people wanted and wouldn't cooperate.
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it was her job to properly vet her directors before hiring them... oh and maybe actually caring enough about it all before 80 percent of the film was shot and THEN firing them .. i mean don't sugarcoat bad leadership.
 
ichab said:
I've never bought the Lucas line "these movies were made just for kids" In the very first movie(later retitled Episode 4, the first of MANY revisions to these films) we see two people burnt to a crisp and an arm sliced off with a lightsaber. The Empire Strikes Back had a little humor ,but the story was much darker than what you would see in a kids flick. Return of the Jedi was when the story started to get too humorous and the focus became more about selling toys to children. Gary Kurtz pointed this out himself.


""I could see where things were headed. The toy business began to drive the empire. It's a shame. They make three times as much on toys as they do on films. It's natural to make decisions that protect the toy business but that's not the best thing for making quality films."

Couldn't agree more.
"
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Try Return to Oz and Neverending Story.
Those were for 5 year olds in the eighties.
Star Wars were classified U in the U.K.

It was a different time.
 
Flying Spaghetti Monster said:
it was her job to properly vet her directors before hiring them... oh and maybe actually caring enough about it all before 80 percent of the film was shot and THEN firing them .. i mean don't sugarcoat bad leadership.
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I don't know enough about those situations to judge any of the people involved.
And as for Solo, I don't really see that as not caring, I see that as trying to give Lord and Miller a chance to stay on the movie, and not wanting to have to start all over with a new director, until it became clear it just wasn't going to work. I think it's also worth keeping in mind that in the majority of these situations, the issues come up long before filming actually starts, so I think there obviously must have been something that was going on with them, that made the decision makers at Lucasfilm think they were going to work out.
I also don't know enough about what exactly is going on at Lucasfilm, and who exactly is involved in what decisions to judge any one individual for what's going on over there.
 
Flying Spaghetti Monster said:
she was not involved in any creative capacity on aNY of those films.. she was a glorified secretary
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Flying Spaghetti Monster said:
she was the executive producer only on every film she was involved with.. all those big hits. The role of executive producer is to oversee the work of the producer on behalf of the studio, the financiers or the or the distributors. The EP will ensure the films are completed on time, within budget, and agree to basic technical and artistic standards. all those great films she plastered her name on.. was made great by someone else.. nothing of what she did at all made them great. So citing those films is not really thinking about her job is now..it's totally different
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First, let's backtrack again because you're not being totally accurate here. Fortune has a very interesting article on her that discusses her history. First, yes, Kennedy's first role in film was as a secretary for another filmmaker on Spielberg's 1979 film 1941. But she quickly caught Spielberg's eye and came to work for him directly. By the next year, she was an associate producer on E.T. She made a career of solving problems on films, starting with making E.T.'s eyes realistic. Eventually, she made a name for herself in Hollywood.

Her overall role at Lucasfilm is President where "she oversees the company’s three divisions: Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound." That in itself is a lot of work. She spends a lot of her time in meetings and trying to develop relationships with partners in order to make Lucasfilm a profitable endeavor for Disney. Michelle Rejwan is the Senior Vice President of Live Action Development and Production her role is to oversee "all theatrical and direct-to-consumer live-action content and is responsible for identifying and delivering future projects for Lucasfilm. Working closely with Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, Rejwan shapes and implements the creative strategy for Star Wars and Lucasfilm."

At the end of the day though, Lucas trusted Kennedy to run the company. And there's all this talk about her being on her way out in 2021. Well, we've heard that a lot. And honestly, it'll happen someday. She is 66 years old. I'm sure she doesn't need to keep running this company in order to survive. And frankly with all of the negative reactions she's getting from fans and the opportunity to write her own ticket in Hollywood pretty much anywhere, why would she stay if she really didn't love what she did? Again, as I've said dozens of times, the shareholders only care about one thing: money. And under Kennedy's leadership, she's brought Disney a lot of it.

She's done a lot of the business and creative-related issues behind the biggest films in the last four decades. She's done a lot more with her life than you or I have. The honest to God truth is that Kennedy is overseeing the overall direction of Star Wars at Disney, like it or not. But I think its (wait for it) naive to suggest that someone who was "a glorified secretary" would be someone Lucas would trust with his company. That's really undermining this woman's impressive career.
 
Uh yes. yes as president of Lucasfiulm she is NOT a glorified secretary and has much more creative power. Like a Feige might have.. and we see how that is working.

But her decades as "executive producer" on the various blockbusters of the 70s 80s and 90s was little more than what I said it was. Did she create or innovate any of the technology. Did she cast any of the actors? Did she think of any of the ideas? Did she pick a tone. Even select a cinematographer? Did she build a model spaceship? Did she say "hey we can move a dinosaur on a computer?" NO NO NO. she was looking over the various paperwork aspects of those films and was given a nice schmoozey title
 
Flying Spaghetti Monster said:
Executives wanted a PG rating, partly because they felt some of the scenes DID seem too graphic for very young viewers and didn't wish to hear parents later complain, but primarily because they felt that the G rating by this time was seen as "uncool" and a sort of box-office poison for a non-animated film.
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Exactly. If the film was really meant for children, then they could have just trimmed out the bits that made it too scary for the little ones. They just didn't want a G rating for their "movie for kids" and made absolutely sure they didn't get it.
 
Tosk said:
Exactly. If the film was really meant for children, then they could have just trimmed out the bits that made it too scary for the little ones. They just didn't want a G rating for their "movie for kids" and made absolutely sure they didn't get it.
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Lucas definitely saw Star Wars as a movie for the younger demographic. This is not disputed.
 
Flying Spaghetti Monster said:
Uh yes. yes as president of Lucasfiulm she is NOT a glorified secretary and has much more creative power. Like a Feige might have.. and we see how that is working.
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I think she’s doing just fine. Disney shareholders I imagine would agree. You keep expressing your opinion as if it’s an ultimate truth. It’s not. You don’t like her. You don’t agree that she’s doing a good job. That’s fine. But you keep forgetting that this is a business. And Kennedy has proven to be an excellent businesswoman.

But her decades as "executive producer" on the various blockbusters of the 70s 80s and 90s was little more than what I said it was. Did she create or innovate any of the technology. Did she cast any of the actors? Did she think of any of the ideas? Did she pick a tone. Even select a cinematographer? Did she build a model spaceship? Did she say "hey we can move a dinosaur on a computer?" NO NO NO. she was looking over the various paperwork aspects of those films and was given a nice schmoozey title
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Your commentary shows me you don’t know the first thing about what a producer does. It’s managing. It’s basically running a business of doing the film. No. She doesn’t know how to do CGI. But she doesn’t need to. She hires people to do that. No. She doesn’t have a writing credit. Because she’s responsibly for the business of making films. But nah, let’s just call it being a secretary.
 
Your post shows me that you have not read my actual words on what she did so again:
she was the executive producer only on every film she was involved with.. all those big hits. The role of executive producer is to oversee the work of the producer on behalf of the studio, the financiers or the or the distributors. The EP will ensure the films are completed on time, within budget, and agree to basic technical and artistic standards. all those great films she plastered her name on.. was made great by someone else.. nothing of what she did at all made them great.

her job was important. She did something. But nothing of what she did made those films great. With running Lucasfilm, her job expanded into more roles, like hiring the storytellers, guiding those stories, hiring the directors etc.. it's far more than what she did back as an executive producer.
 
Campe98 said:
I think she’s doing just fine. Disney shareholders I imagine would agree. You keep expressing your opinion as if it’s an ultimate truth. It’s not. You don’t like her. You don’t agree that she’s doing a good job. That’s fine. But you keep forgetting that this is a business. And Kennedy has proven to be an excellent businesswoman.



Your commentary shows me you don’t know the first thing about what a producer does. It’s managing. It’s basically running a business of doing the film. No. She doesn’t know how to do CGI. But she doesn’t need to. She hires people to do that. No. She doesn’t have a writing credit. Because she’s responsibly for the business of making films. But nah, let’s just call it being a secretary.
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You do understand what hyperbole is right?
 
Quite a few directors have had movies pulled from them by them making a turd before being handed a choice movie.. Josh Trank, niel blomkamp .. Etc.
They could be hard to work with.. Not work well with others.. etc.
 
I know this term has kind fallen out of usage, but from the stories that came out of Fan4stic, Josh Trank was just a hot mess.
 
valkyrie013 said:
Quite a few directors have had movies pulled from them by them making a turd before being handed a choice movie.. Josh Trank, niel blomkamp .. Etc.
They could be hard to work with.. Not work well with others.. etc.
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I know Neil Blomkamp's films haven't been well regarded since District 9, but I can't help but love them. They have a distinctive style and a solid sci-fi concept at the core.
 
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