The 2025 TCM Classic Film Festival kicked off with a screening of the 1980 hit Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, featuring a rare pre-movie discussion with director George Lucas.
The Star Wars sequel, currently celebrating its 45-year anniversary, was the festival’s opening night programming at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre. TCM’s primetime host Ben Mankiewicz led Lucas in a just over 30-minute conversation, touching upon a wide variety of topics.
Fellow director Francis Ford Coppola, who’s set to receive the AFI Life Achievement Award on Saturday, was a big topic of conversation throughout Lucas’ remarks. Lucas is presenting Coppola with his AFI honor alongside Steven Spielberg, as Lucas and Coppola have a long history of friendship and collaboration. Lucas shared the pair’s origin story throughout the conversation.
Lucas and Coppola met working on the latter’s 1968 film Finian’s Rainbow, where Lucas was essentially interning at Warner Bros. after winning the Samuel Warner Scholarship. Lucas, who was 22 at the time, said it was “so boring” sitting on set, as he had no interest in making theatrical films, and he recalls a 27-year-old Coppola approaching him.
“I’m watching you make a movie, but it’s really boring. I don’t want to make these kind of movies,” Lucas recalled telling Coppola when asked why he was on set, which kicked off a friendship and long partnership between the two. Lucas also shared the start of his San Francisco-based film production company American Zoetrope with Coppola, which they founded in late 1969. “We both didn’t want to really be down here,” he said to a laughing crowd.
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Mankiewicz joked throughout as Lucas would continue talking about his work with Coppola instead of answering the question at hand. “I can’t do 20 minutes with George Lucas,” he joked after expressing he was afraid he wouldn’t get a question in about The Empire Strikes Back, or Star Wars in general.
Lucas did eventually venture into Star Wars territory, sharing the discussions he had with the film’s studio, 20th Century Fox, around his contract. The director, who was coming off his Oscar-nominated film American Graffiti, said the studio was concerned he’d try to ask for more money. “I’m not going to do that here,” he recalled telling the studio. “I get the deal memo, I signed it. I’ll do it for $50,000 [to] write, direct, produce.”
“I do want the sequels because I’ve already got ‘em, and the standard practice in film is called indentured servitude. In order for your film to get off the ground you have to sign for two or three other movies. And I didn’t want that to happen because it didn’t happen on American Graffiti,” he added. Lucas said he told the studio he wanted to make the sequels no matter what the outcome of the first movie was.
“Beside that, I’d like licensing,” he remembers telling the studio. Lucas said the studio talked about it and decided that they’d give them to him because there’s no way he’d make a profit from it.
Lucas also spoke about Yoda, one of Empire Strikes Back’s most notable additions to the Stars Wars universe, and his distinctive way of speaking. “It was done purposely because if you [are] speaking regular English, people don’t listen that much. But if you have an accent or it’s really hard to understand what he’s saying, they focus on what he’s saying,” the director explained.
“He was basically the philosopher of the movie, so [he had] longer talking scenes, where I had to figure out a way to get people to actually listen,” Lucas said. “Especially 12 year olds.”
The TCM Classic Film Festival crowd was treated to a big screen viewing of The Empire Strikes Back following Lucas’ remarks. The festival runs through April 27 with viewings around Hollywood.
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