There are no Best Picture Oscars on his mantel, but filmmaker George Lucas received an award last week at ShoWest 2005 that no one else will ever get.
"I've been here at ShoWest quite a bit over the last 30 years, but I never, ever expected to get the Galactic Achievement Award," Lucas said after receiving the accolade and enjoying the night's only prolonged standing ovation.
Closing night at ShoWest honored Mel Gibson with the Film of the Year award for The Passion of the Christ, and Matt Damon and Jennifer Aniston were named Stars of the Year -- along with several other performers. But the main attraction was Lucas, whose sixth and final Star Wars movie will hit theaters May 19.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Earlier in the day, Lucas had treated theater owners at the convention to an extended preview of Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith. The scenes featured the dramatic metamorphosis of hero Anakin Skywalker into villain Darth Vader.
Lucas said audiences should be prepared to bring tissues for the second half. "This film is more of a tear jerker," he told reporters prior to the awards dinner. "It works as an emotional tragedy."
Lucas spoke of plans to eventually re-release all six of his Star Wars movies in 3D format, something he believes that, along with digital technology, is the future of movies. He hopes to begin in 2007 with a 3D version of the original Star Wars. The plan would then be to re-release each subsequent film in 3D a year at a time. There are also plans for a DVD six-pack of all the movies at some point, but the format is still being determined, Lucas said.
Lucas insisted that there will never be episodes VII, VIII and IX of the franchise. "It was a figment of the media's imagination. I made a joke once, and it turned into three more films."
Lucas confessed to reporters that he is actually glad to be releasing his final Star Wars film into theaters.
"When I committed to episodes I, II and III, I knew that was a 10-year commitment that would be arduous. I'll be glad to get my life back. For me, that's very exciting."
As for the future, Lucas is waiting for a script for a new Indiana Jones movie and also wants to experiment with different kinds of filmmaking technology to make short films and even some television.
"I've worked very hard to earn the right to fail for the rest of my life."
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had