| [RIP] Gary Kurtz, film producer (Star Wars, The Dark Crystal) [message #373995] |
Mon, 24 September 2018 16:58 |
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From ComingSoon.net ...
Star Wars Producer Gary Kurtz Dies at 78
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It is with great sadness that ComingSoon.net must report that
film producer Gary Kurtz, one of the major forces in the
creation of Star Wars, has passed away at age 78 from cancer.
Kurtz was a hands-on producer for 1977's Star Wars, shepherding
George Lucas' pet project from Flash Gordon-knockoff to
problematic production to unprecedented sci-fi phenomenon. The
film went on to become the highest-grossing movie of all-time,
and set the pace for many of the studio blockbusters that
followed. He was involved to a greater extent in the follow up,
1980's The Empire Strikes Back, serving as both producer and
second unit director under director Irvin Kershner in the
absence of Lucas, who was busy building up the Lucasfilm empire
as well as Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California. Kurtz
and Lucas clashed over massive budget overruns (which Lucas had
to cover out of his own pocket), forcing Lucas to secure more
funding from distributor 20th Century Fox.
Fallout from the rift between Kurtz and Lucas was far-reaching
for the Star Wars saga, with Kurtz growing disenchanted with
plans to make the third film Return of the Jedi more toyetic and
triumphant.
"We had an outline and George changed everything in it," Kurtz
told Hero Complex in 2010. "Instead of bittersweet and poignant
he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy."
The original story involved Han Solo being recovered in the
opening act, then getting killed in the middle of the story,
which at the time did not involve a Death Star retread. The
ending would have found the Rebel Alliance in tatters, Leia
struggling with her new role as queen and Luke wandering off
alone "like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns."
Howard Kazanjian eventually took over as producer on Return of the
Jedi, with Rick McCallum later taking on production duties for the
prequel trilogy and Kathleen Kennedy overseeing the current run of
Lucas-less Star Wars Saga movies for Disney.
Kurtz and Lucas first partnered on 1973's seminal teen comedy
American Graffiti, which revolutionized the use of music and
cross-cutting of stories in film, and helped launch the acting
careers of Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard and Harrison Ford. Kurtz
also produced Monte Hellman's 1971 cult classic racing movie
Two-Lane Blacktop, starring singer James Taylor.
Kurtz's post-Star Wars career saw him continuing in the fantasy
realm, producing Jim Henson and Frank Oz's ambitious all-puppet
1982 epic The Dark Crystal, which did middling business but is now
considered a classic and is currently getting a Netflix series
follow up. He also produced Return to Oz, a dark take on L. Frank
Baum's creation that failed at the 1985 box office.
His career hit a major snag with 1989's Slipstream, a
post-apocalyptic sci-fi film from TRON director Steven Lisberger
starring Star Wars lead Mark Hamill. Kurtz encountered major
financial problems after a messy divorce that wrecked havoc with
production, eventually leaving the film without U.S. distribution.
Kurtz tried to get several other projects off the ground, including
an animated version of Little Nemo in Slumberland which he abandoned.
He ironically acted as producer on Patrick Read Johnson's wonderful
(though sadly unavailable) coming of age movie 5-25-77, which follows
Johnson (John Francis Daley) as a teenager becoming the first person
to see Star Wars and the effect it had on his life.
< http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/986553-star-wars-produ cer-gary-kurtz-dies-at-78>
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