While George Lucas admits the new “Star Wars” film is “intriguing,” he has been personally focused on creating a magical movie for girls.
His new animated film, Disney’s “Strange Magic” is a musical set in the world of fairies.
He told us at a Cinema Society screening of the movie, “I have been working on this film for 15 years. I was thinking about ‘Star Wars’ being designed for 12-year- old boys, and I thought maybe I’ll make a film for 12-year-old girls, because I have a lot of daughters. And girls go to the movies. I worked on it on the side for those years, and we finally got it done.”
Introducing the film to a crowd of prominent New Yorkers and their children at the Tribeca Grand, he added, “This was a little project of love . . . the music is really great, and this one also has a lot of sword fighting and monsters and boy things. It’s essentially for girls, and it’s the story of finding true love, because everybody deserves to be loved.”
While “Strange Magic” boasts characters voiced by Alan Cumming, Kristin Chenoweth and Evan Rachel Wood, who all turned out for Saturday morning’s screening, the real star, especially among the discerning young attendees, was executive producer Lucas.
He and wife Mellody Hobson even sat through the screening with the group of excited kids and parents.
When the lights came up, Deborra-Lee Furness and Norah O’Donnell told Lucas the film was “awesome” while top stylist Mary Alice Stephenson’s young son excitedly met Lucas.
The “Star Wars” creator sold his company Lucasfilm to Disney, putting the upcoming movie “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in the hands of director J.J. Abrams.
After telling us in December he hadn’t seen the much talked-about trailer for Abrams’ movie, Lucas added on Saturday he has since seen it, “I saw the trailer. I saw it in a theater because I don’t watch movies online.”
When asked if he liked it, he smiled. “Yeah, it was intriguing.”