Francis Ford Coppola says it’s ‘a pity’ George Lucas made all those ‘Star Wars’ movies

What”s happening in an alternate universe out there where George Lucas followed up THX 1138 and American Graffiti not with Star Wars but with something else? If there were no Star Wars (or fewer Star Wars), what cinematic gifts would Lucas have given to the world instead? Would there be anything greater than Red Tails and Strange Magic left in him?

That”s the perennial question Francis Ford Coppola has us thinking about again. In a Vanity Fair story published on Wednesday, the Godfather filmmaker said this of his American Zoetrope co-founder:

“George [Lucas] is kind of a genius, but I think it”s a pity he got so [absorbed in that one franchise]. I hope George isn”t offended, but the truth of the matter is that Star Wars cost us 10 new George Lucas films that would have been wonderful.”

What original work would we see if Hollywood weren”t so focused on sequels and remakes? It”s a question we could ask of plenty of studios and filmmakers these days.

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