George Lucas in Love

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George Lucas in Love

Directed by	Joe Nussbaum
Produced by	Joseph Levy
Written by	Joe Nussbaum Timothy Dowling Daniel Shere
Starring	Martin Hynes Lisa Jakub
Distributed by	MediaTrip.com
Release date(s)	June 1999
Running time	8 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
IMDb profile

George Lucas in Love is a student short film that started attracting notice in June 1999 when it was passed around Hollywood offices as a filmmaker's "calling card". It is a homage and spoof of both Star Wars and Shakespeare in Love. The film was directed by Joe Nussbaum, who financed the film with money his grandmother left him. Nussbaum recruited dozens of fellow University of Southern California film school graduates to help him with his movie. The casting director, musical composer, and executive producer are all alumni.

In the film, George Lucas is a USC college student in 1967, and he's suffering from writer's block as he tries to write a movie about a young space farmer with a bad crop of "space wheat". Everywhere he goes, viewers see classmates and teachers that either resemble, or will influence the creation of, Obi Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Jabba the Hutt, R2-D2, and C-3PO. Lucas is surrounded by inspiration, but he sees nothing. Not even his adviser, who looks and speaks suspiciously like Yoda, is able to help him.

Eventually, young Lucas meets his muse, a young girl (with a very unusual hairdo) who is "kind of leading a student rebellion". After they meet, everything falls into place for Lucas, as she urges him to "write what you know." His writer's block dissipates and he quickly finishes his masterpiece.

The film received great attention as it circulated around Hollywood in the summer of 1999, and eventually premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 19 that year. It debuted online at MediaTrip.com on October 12, 1999, and has proven very popular with both regular audiences and Star Wars fans ever since. The film has won several awards, including the Canal+ Short Film Award at the 2000 Deauville Film Festival, the Audience Award at both the Florida Film Festival and the San Sebastián Horror and Fantasy Film Festival, and was awarded Best Short Film at the 2000 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.

When the film was released on VHS in 2000, The New York Times reported that the film made it to #1 on Amazon.com's Top 10 sales chart, beating out sales of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace for a day. A DVD with audio commentary by the director and behind-the-scenes featurette was released in 2001. The DVD also included several other MediaTrip short films, including Evil Hill, Film Club, and Swing Blade.

Nussbaum eventually signed a directing deal with Dreamworks Pictures, and later directed the 2004 film Sleepover.

In 2004, the film won the Pioneer Award in the Lucasfilm-sponsored 2004 Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards.

[edit] Trivia

George Lucas is a fan of this movie, having sent a congratulatory letter to the filmmakers, which they show in a hidden easter egg on the DVD.

Some of Lucas' "student films" mentioned throughout the movie (1:42:08 and 6-18-67) are mistakenly thought by some to be spoofing the title of Lucas' student film Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138:4EB, but are in fact titles of actual films made by Lucas at USC.

In a quick tag during the credits, another friend of Lucas shows him his new duck, Howard, presumably giving him another inspiration for his later box-office flop based on the Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck.