George Lucas Talks About the Difficulty of Getting A Black Film Made in Hollywood
George Lucas recently stopped by The Daily Show to talk about his new film Red Tails, which is about the trials and triumphs of the first all-black aerial combat unit, the Tuskegee Airmen.
Lucas, who is one of Hollywood’s biggest names, says that even he (despite his influence) had a difficult time trying to get this film made. Lucas has been working on the project for over 23 years trying to convince studios to give it a chance; however, many have been hesitant to back an action film because of its black cast.
Instead, Lucas poured $93 million of his own money into the film and forced the the studios to reconsider.
During the interview, Lucas explained why it’s so difficult for black films to find their way to box offices. As most of us already know, it boils down to one thing: money.
Studios do not want to invest the resources into high-quality films with black casts because they don’t think their investments will be returned in the form of large box office numbers, here or abroad. With Red Tails, Lucas hopes to prove them wrong.
So why did George Lucas use nearly $100 million of his own money on this film? He said that he made Red Tails to show teenage boys that there are real, inspirational American heroes.
Although many black filmmakers don’t have $93 million to get a film made, perhaps the success of Red Tails will finally open the door (and the box office), to more well-crafted black films.
‘Red Tails’ will hit theaters Jan. 20, check out the trailer below.
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the tuskegee air men were REAL!
real life black heroes yall
take off from work and take your family.
Heck yeah!!! Take your family and some other folks, too.
find your children, find your wives, and find your husbands, too. definitely going and supporting this one. I heard about it earlier and was intrigued but didn’t know george lucas was behind it. interesting.
James: I’m wondering if the movie will be in many theaters. Sometimes these type movies are released in limited theaters
Is that his wife?! She’s a cutie pie!
That’s Mellody Hobson(don’t know if I spelled her name right); they’re not married but have been together for a few years. She’s often on Good Morning America as a financial contributor.
Thanks!!! I thought she seemed familiar……if I was her, every morning I would wake him up to Bey’s put a ring on it, with no prenup! loool just kidding for them sensitive folks out hurr!
Melody also does an early morning segment on Tom Joyner’s early Monday mornings radio show called “Melody Mondays”. She gives great financial advice
i guess she does give good advice……look at all that money she is hooked up with
I watched this this morning. I’m so glad we’ve got allies like him.
When I saw the trailer for the movie a week ago I said I would go out and support it. Now after reading this I’ll go tell everyone I know to go out and see it.
Will definitely not be seeing it. Typical hollywood spin of BM with WW, never a BW/Bm love story made with real money. when they put a love story with a BW on the big screen as the main story, then maybe. until then – NOT. The majority of the tuskegee airmen had BW for wives/girlfriends – why can’t we see a high quality, big budget romance between them? Please. And Lucas being with Melony Hobson means nothing, since she is past child-bearing age (and he is too, imho).
Wow! I thought the movie was about the Tuskegee Airmen and not interracial dating. And what does Lucas and MELLODY (not Melony) have to do with this?
@ AJ,
?!?!?!?!?!?!
WTF?!?!?!
Some people have issues!
WILL.NOT.BE.SEEING.IT.
AJ: Then don’t go see the movie. That’s your prerogative. However most people are trying to figure out what the hell ur talking about as the gest of the movie is about the African American Airmen, and not on their romantic endeavors.
I’m assuming AJ is responding to the image at roughly the 2:10 mark? Also, it’s Clutch that put an unnecessary photo of Lucas and his girlfriend with this article.
@PINK: I know just what AJ is talking about. How about you do more than look at trailer snippets, and find out what more the movie is supposed to be about? YES, this movie does feature an interracial relationship between one of the Airmen and a white woman. And YES, I agree with AJ – why the pattern of almost all movies focusing on romantic relationships between Black men (particularly those of integrity and character) with white women? Why can we not get big budget films made like this where the love a Black man (or any man) has for a Black woman be showcased? Why must the IR thing be shoved down our throats. Think about your daughters. Ifthey are going to watch a film celebrating Black achievements, why are they discounted and pushed to the sidelines always for someone white? I don’t buy it, and call bull.
They rarely have Lucas-quality films showing white men LOVING Black women (not sexing, ho-ing, friending), but continually push LOVE between white women and Black men, all the while pushing dysfunction between Black men and Black women. (In fact, Clutch mag profiled some independent film about an intelligent Black man trying to escape his loud, tacky dark-skinned girlfriend – sorry, I can’t remember the name of the movie now). It has been CONSTANT for the past few years. If you can’t see that, then you have your head buried in your ass intentionally.
Just because LUCAS is DATING a Black woman, means nothing. Their relationship isn’t being shown on the big screen as something to aspire to.
I always say that Black women deserve the treatment that we get, because we cheer for those who are not really cheering for us. If you cannot see the effort that is on to push Black men of decency and success away from Black women , (and really all Black men) by the promotion of media half-truths, then you have been living under a rock.
Find out more about the movie, and you’ll see one of the main themes is based around a relationship with a white woman. Why must Black women constantly be put down to raise up Black men? We can pretend to ignore what is happening, or face the truth of what is being promoted and distorted, even too ur own history.
And AJ, I’m with ya – I will save the few little dollars I have for something else.
@Jess – You nailed it! Every war movie *except* those with black soldiers show the soldiers fighting to come home to their women (of the same race). This is true for every white war movie from the black and white era, to “Saving Private Ryan” and right on down to “The Dirty Dozen.” When it comes to black soldiers, movie makers find ingenious ways of leaving black women out! This trend even touched “A Soldiers Story.”
And now black women, who are once again NOT shown as women worth fighting for, are supposed to bear the burden of supporting “Red Tails.” Otherwise, we risk seeming ungrateful to Hollywood, unsupportive of black male actors, close minded to interracial themes or just plain too ignorant to see period pieces or anything that doesn’t have Tyler Perry’s name on it. But they keep missing the point: Show us some love and we will do the same for you!
Thank you Ruggie, for understanding! Finally, somebody who is NOT the typical zombie!
@edub – I see what you are talking about at 2:10 but I assumed it was a white pilot because they are talking about protecting the white pilots so they can go back home to their wives and children.
@ AJ and Ruggie – I see what you are talking about and I can agree. I have no problems with interracial relationships, I say do you, it isn’t my life or my relationship so I don’t care. But it is annoying when they play up BM being with WW in period pieces. It is like the want to change the past to make today’s whites feel less uncomfortable about the evils of the past.
The most recent example I can think of is Pan Am, where the blond hair blue eyed flight attendant slept with a black solider from Mississippi, then proceeds to walk around hand in hand with him in NYC, and she is surprised when two white guys attack him. Maybe I am one who likes historical accuracy but I was thinking the following: Old dude was just talking about how bad racism is at home and how dangerous it can be so I doubt old dude would be staying at a WW apt, sleep with her, and then walk around out in public with her bc he knows that kind of thing can get him KILLED! Why the crap would he risk his life for a one night stand?! And then they played up the fear she had of him, the questioning of herself that came with it, her naivety with social conditions of the time , but she was able to overcome it to sleep with him and then show him around NYC. GAG! It was just too much but hey, at least they made some white people feel better! I just ask if you are going to make it a story line, make it realistic even if it does make people uncomfortable…it should make people uncomfortable as it was a horrible, unjust, hateful, dangerous, part of this nations history.
IMO including these interracial relationships in storied taking place during hostile historical times is less about excluding BW and more about making white people feel included and feel better about the past, so they can see a movie or TV show and say “not all of us were bad”. Seriously, try talking to white people after Roots, some of the can’t handle it!
With that I am still going to see the movie…mostly because there is going to be some hot eye candy but also because I was lucky enough to know one of the Tuskegee Airmen.
@LemonNlIme: I think you’re missing the point. This push to show B=M with WW is not about “making white people feel good”, or making them face a racist past. It is about removing Black women from relationships with Black men, removing Black women from the mentality of Black men (and other men) as being any thing more than a “jump off”, ho, or easy chick to lay with. LOVE and respect is NOT being pushed for Black women and men, and Black women are being reduced to being only good enough to be whores. Not wives, not girlfriends, not lovers – hos and jump offs, that’s it. Not worth saving. The “goodness, decency, kindness and glory” of white women is being pushed, and the degradation of Black women is being pushed.
Sorry, but there is no other real reason why most of the media spin on Black women nowadays is as sexual stereotypes (i.e. like in Love & Hip Hop. etc), as Clutch so correctly pointed out in prior article, or loud, wild and trashy.
Once you understand the value of RESPECT and LOVE between men and women, and NOT SEX alone, you will understand why their is such an emphasis on Black man/white women relationships lately – it is to make Black women into the easy lay, quick fix ho undeserving of love, affection, marriage to any man. You are not worth saving.
It is about removing Black women from relationships with Black men, removing Black women from the mentality of Black men (and other men) as being any thing more than a “jump off”, ho, or easy chick to lay with. LOVE and respect is NOT being pushed for Black women and men, and Black women are being reduced to being only good enough to be whores. Not wives, not girlfriends, not lovers – hos and jump offs, that’s it.
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@Jess
This angle of yours is very interesting, but instead of relegating black women to “jump off”, ho status, as you claim, I think the trend has more to do with not recognizing black women as real women at all. Of course, I can’t say that for certain about this film because I haven’t seen it, nor do I know much if anything about it.
@ruggie Hear, hear!
I can’t wait for this film to come out! And i’ll definitely be encouraging all of my friends to go see it
He was on the TJMS this morning as well, discussing how difficult it was to get the studio heads to go for this movie. Must be nice to be so cheesed up that you can just do it all yourself. It will be interesting to see what type of support this film gets.
I’ll definitely be there!
I’ve followed the production of Red Tails via Shadow & Act for a while and commend George Lucas for putting his money where his mouth is. Here’s the kicker though…if this movie is a success, Lucas’s backing and production will receive all of the praise, but if it falls short of expectations, the black actors will be blamed (simply for being black).
Gigi: If this movie doesn’t bring out masses to see it…..no one will blame it on the black actors…..but instead on the content/subject matter. Not everyone is into history or army type movies. The ultimate test will be if young people go out to see this movie because young people (teenagers and young adults) are the ones they generally drive a movies’ (boom) or (gloom). These days young people are the majority that go to the movie theaters.
mellody is gorgeous…george knew what he was doing! i am excited to see them film but idk how it will do in the box office. i’ve barely caught a commercial and have seen no online advertisement on websites and blogs such as this one.
I actually don’t stay too far from Tuskeegee- actually I am eight miles away from the historic city. There’s a lot to be learned about the Tuskeegee Airmen, if you haven’t been. However, I was shocked that George Lucas- of all people- would have trouble getting a film made.
This comment here stuck out to me:
“Studios do not want to invest the resources into high-quality films with black casts because they don’t think their investments will be returned in the form of large box office numbers, here or abroad.”
I find that to be ironic being that if it was a mostly Black film with a White director (See: Taylor Hackford’s “Ray”, Norman Jewison’s “The Hurricane” or Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad” or “The Color Purple”, studio execs would have no problem going out of their way to put money and promotion behind those films. A perfect example of that would be Tate Taylor’s “The Help”. If it was Spike Lee or George Tillman behind that film, I doubt the Disney Corporation would have gotten behind than picture.
You make good point about those movies being successful despite the casting. I think part of Lucas’ problem is that he’s known for Star Wars, Indian Jones and his special effects. It’s possible they didn’t believe he could pull it off. Also, his story/plot lines are terrible and some of his actors have said Lucas’ scripts don’t depict how people naturally speak. I also think the fact that the movie is “inspired by” the story of the Tuskegee Airmen and not actually based on it may have hindered him. There’s no telling how close to home he’ll hit with the story line. He is very imaginative and highly creative, but that may have to be scaled back due to the fact that this is semi-based on factual events.
“You make good point about those movies being successful despite the casting. I think part of Lucas’ problem is that he’s known for Star Wars, Indian Jones and his special effects. It’s possible they didn’t believe he could pull it off.”
As great as those franchises were, unfortunately they boxed him into a corner creativel- especially when you consider the fact that those franchises were all that he cared about.
“Also, his story/plot lines are terrible and some of his actors have said Lucas’ scripts don’t depict how people naturally speak.”
That has a lot ot do with him being closely affiliated with the sci-fi film genre. You don’t really need a good plot or storyline…just special effects and an expensive action sequence and he figured that out a long time ago.
Also, the actors who criticized his work are the same ones who became known primarily because of George Lucas. In fact, they wouldn’t have a career without him. Harrison Ford would have still been a carpenter if he didn’t get cast in “Star Wars”.
I am not completely sold on his reasoning on why he could not get this film made as well given his name or maybe it is because of his name, the more I see the trailer the more I wonder about the script which I suspect is the real road block behind the movie not getting made it feels simple.
I’m ready to prove these corporate big wigs WRONG!
Agreed. How will we get more black movies made if we confirm the things these corporate Hollywood people are saying about black movies?
he was incredibly candid and to the point. he seemed to make Jon uncomfortable. glad he’s doing this
I will be going to see “Red Tails” on opening weekend in support of my hometown, Tuskegee, Alabama and my alma mater, Tuskegee University!!!
Until he marries this woman, Im not taking his fat butt seriously.
You’re kidding me, right?
Who says they even WANT to get married? And how can you not take him seriously? He’s an award-winning filmmaker.
Girl: What business is it of ours if they get married or not?!? If Melody is ok with their arrangement then that’s all that matters. RU bitter because you don’t have a husband? I don’t know I’m just asking…… Perhaps u do have a husband.
@Girl: Co-sign!
Regarding “Red Tails”…..it’s the subject matter that will not attract young people. And young people are the ones that go to the movies in droohs. African American adult males will enjoy this type movie………but unfortunately it’s not going to attract masses of people overall. It will do well on DVD.
EXACTLY!!!
This will not appeal to the young masses who aren’t interested in anything that won’t make em dance and they need to do a hell of a lot more promo for it to make the numbers with masses outside of the blk community…
Shes really pretty. Why arent they married
when does this movie come out again? IT would be awesome if clutch could plug the release dates so that people can be prepared to check the film out opening weekend. (if I’ve missed them somewhere in the article then I apologize in advance)
i believe they said Jan. 20 in the video.
@PGS..and what do you intend on doing about it? MAKE me take him seriously?
If she were white, they would be married right now.
I’m a little confused why some of you are more concerned about this couple’s marital status than the film. WHO CARES if they aren’t married. They aren’t young kids, I’m sure they know what they want and if they wanted to be married, they would be.
Apparently you only love someone if you marry them. Obviously. Because that ring releases a special binding fluid that makes you happy with your spouse forever.
People are so ridiculous. What about places that don’t have a ring giving as a custom? Does their union mean less… sigh.
Honestly! Some of these comments just stun me. So many women have their self-esteem in the gutter. My husband and I have been discussing moving to Nigeria to raise our future kids. I have been wavering, arguing we can make it work without so making a drastic change, but coming here and reading comments gives me so much pause. These are supposedly educated and exposed women with so much self-loathing and inferiority complexes.
I just don’t understand how it gets so bad.
@TheBestAnon
Now if I said a comment like that, everyone would have my head. SMDH…while its still attached.
QON: And rightly so. I don’t think all black women are like that, as you can see I focused on the type that makes such stupid comments, e.g. Girl. You seem to have a problem NOT stereotyping every black woman.
Also, your comments are always woman-hating so I don’t blame anyone not wanting to give you benefit of the doubt. It would be like assuming a klansman with a noose at your door is just there to welcome you to the neighborhood.
The Best Anon- I agree. QON seems to have serious issues with women in general.