George Lucas

George Walton Lucas Jr. is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. Lucas is best known for creating the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic, and THX. He served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Lucas is one of history's most financially successful filmmakers and has been nominated for four Academy Awards. Lucas personally directed or conceived 10 of the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Lucas is considered to be one of the most significant figures of the 20th-century New Hollywood movement, and a pioneer of the modern blockbuster. Despite this, he has remained an independent filmmaker away from Hollywood for most of his career.

Lucas was once a favorite director of the hosts and guests of the movie review show On Cinema. Frequent guest Gregg Turkington once described Lucas as “one of the most successful filmmakers ever.”^[1] When Turkington and host Tim Heidecker were visiting Modesto, California, they recorded an episode interviewing local residents about Lucas and his films, most prominently American Graffiti, which was set and allegedly shot in Modesto.

The next episode, On Cinema Followup: George Lucas, Lucas himself appeared on the podcast to clarify if American Graffiti was in fact shot in Modesto.