The Rabbit Hole

Actually, I think this information supports what I was getting at: that Lucas would rather be an idea man and a producer than an actual hands-on filmmaker. I feel like, for him, a film like The Empire Strikes Back, where he came up with the basic concepts and ideas, handed it off to other people to write and direct, and shepherded it towards release, is what he really enjoys. By the time he did the prequels, I guess I think that he felt maybe it was too much to hang on someone else's shoulders, or he got a little short sighted, but I never felt like a) he had that much enthusiasm to actually be in the chair on those films, or that b) he was really pushing the technology as much as he had been waiting for. Much of what Cameron did with Avatar comes from the guy being a major techno-nerd, and he's literally off commissioning people to build these new cameras and rigs that will let him create his vision. To me, Lucas always seemed more passive: "We've arrived at a time when the tool I need exists, so I can finally do it." I don't remember Lucas insisting ILM's advances were going to be good for other movies, or that he'd even been pushing his people to see "are we there yet?", just that they had arrived.