NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[a completely inoffensive name]

When Lucas first pitched the first movie it was Anakin who rescued the Princess from the Empire and later fell to the darkside - in a second draft "Luke Skywalker" was a meshing of what would become Obi-Wan and the Luke we know.

By the time he'd got to the point where ANH had an actual plot there were three films and a backstory. That backstory barely changed between 1976 and 1999, except that Palpatine is referred to as "President" of the Republic in the original Star Wars novel.

The "nine movies" story is, afaik a later invention that Lucas was toying with.

As a unit the current two trilogies barely make dramatic sense - he end of Episode V is robbed of all it's pathos if you watch I-III first.

The idea of Episode VII raises a more fundamental issue, what would be the point? Other than to give Mark Hamil some pocket money.

Don't insult Mark Hamil, he has been the most successful of the entire Star Wars cast. Go read up on his extensive voice acting career.

[TinCow]

Don't insult Mark Hamil, he has been the most successful of the entire Star Wars cast. Go read up on his extensive voice acting career.

Uh... no. Really, no. Really, really no. Really, really, really no. Also, no. Also, also, no. Hell, even this guy makes me say no.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Don't insult Mark Hamil, he has been the most successful of the entire Star Wars cast. Go read up on his extensive voice acting career.

Um - he's a film actor who does voice work, his most recent TV gig was as Pamela Anderson's Uncle on VIP.

In any case - he's not well paid, and despite being a fairly good actor he can't break out of being Luke.

Exactly. The first film was tempered by Steven Spielberg, who suggested the opening sequence, much of the narrative and R2-D2 and C3-PO instead of Lucas' preferred Jar-Jar Binks style aliens. Lucas didn't have free reign on the first three, and his ideas were altered and adjusted by his directors, crew and cast. The second set was all unabated Lucas, and we know how that went!

More to the point - his wife edited them, removing large chunks of the first film and leaving them where they belonged on the cutting room floor.

He divorced her since finishing EP VI.

[Greyblades]

Lucas is a mixed bag, without him there wouldn't have been a star wars at all, on the other hand he seems to think that star wars having a large child fan base means that star wars should be less mature than it deserves to be. Personally I'm hopeful, considering Disney's take over of Pixar has gone pretty well and the clone wars series has had some really good episodes proving to me that star wars can still be made well.
Also I kinda liked the prequels, Yeah I said it!

[Lemur]

I think you mean "Noooooooooooooooooooo."

[caravel]

I agree with the general consensus that Disney certainly can't do any worse than Lucas has done with the last three films...

[a completely inoffensive name]

Um - he's a film actor who does voice work,

It is the other way around. He is a voice actor who does film. He is well respected in the voice acting community and its obvious he has made voice acting his job. The only people who continue to define him as Luke are people like you, who can't even recognize the wonderful news that Lucas is no longer in total control of Star Wars..

[a completely inoffensive name]

Uh... no. Really, no. Really, really no. Really, really, really no. Also, no. Also, also, no. Hell, even this guy makes me say no.

Earl Jones and Alec Guin. I will concede, but I was talking about just the original trilogy. Don't bring up Pandamay and Worlds Worst Jedi because that was a travesty of wasted potential.Also I lol'd at Harrison Ford, I love the man to death and I watch everything he is in but the man's recent repetoire includes a chick flick and nothing special since the 90s.You underestimate the following that many young people have with cartoons. Mark Hamil is considered by many dudes to be the "definitive" voice of the Joker.

[TinCow]

Also I lol'd at Harrison Ford, I love the man to death and I watch everything he is in but the man's recent repetoire includes a chick flick and nothing special since the 90s.You underestimate the following that many young people have with cartoons. Mark Hamil is considered by many dudes to be the "definitive" voice of the Joker.

I completely understand Hamil's success as a voice actor. I'm very aware of it and I would also say he's had a successful career because of it. Certainly far better than many of his other co-stars, like Carrie and Billy Dee. However, I really don't think it's debatable that Harrison Ford has had a more successful career overall. Six of his films are in the IMDb Top 250 (three if you exclude Star Wars). While Ford is not remotely a 'great' actor, he was bankable for a long, long time. The guy was top of the A-list for 20 years. While Hamil has had a great voice acting career for about that amount of time, I don't think a voice acting career can be compared to a Hollywood lead actor career. I guarantee you that Ford's payments for appearing in his list of forgettable films over the past 10 years have far surpassed Hamil's despite the fact that the former was in decline in and the latter has just been getting better.

By your analysis we should also say that Hamil is better than Pacino and DeNiro, because Hamil is still a going concern while Pacino and DeNiro have forgotten how to do anything other than cash a check. That misses the point about what constitutes a career.

[a completely inoffensive name]

I completely understand Hamil's success as a voice actor. I'm very aware of it and I would also say he's had a successful career because of it. Certainly far better than many of his other co-stars, like Carrie and Billy Dee. However, I really don't think it's debatable that Harrison Ford has had a more successful career overall. Six of his films are in the IMDb Top 250 (three if you exclude Star Wars). While Ford is not remotely a 'great' actor, he was bankable for a long, long time. The guy was top of the A-list for 20 years. While Hamil has had a great voice acting career for about that amount of time, I don't think a voice acting career can be compared to a Hollywood lead actor career. I guarantee you that Ford's payments for appearing in his list of forgettable films over the past 10 years have far surpassed Hamil's despite the fact that the former was in decline in and the latter has just been getting better.By your analysis we should also say that Hamil is better than Pacino and DeNiro, because Hamil is still a going concern while Pacino and DeNiro have forgotten how to do anything other than cash a check. That misses the point about what constitutes a career.

That is a good point. I didn't think of it like that. I retract my previous statement.Although personally after seeing Pacino in "Jack and Jill" I would be happy if everyone punished him by ignoring his earlier work. My god was that a waste of my time and my sanity.

[TinCow]

That is a good point. I didn't think of it like that. I retract my previous statement.Although personally after seeing Pacino in "Jack and Jill" I would be happy if everyone punished him by ignoring his earlier work. My god was that a waste of my time and my sanity.

Pacino is such a sad state of affairs. He was such an incredible actor... truly one of the greatest ever. And now his appearance in a film is a reason for me to avoid it.

[Papewaio]

Admiral Thrawn?