*Update* Today is May 16, 2026, about 10 years after writing this blog post and I want to say I recently got the Making of Books regarding the Star Wars trilogy and so I made a video correcting what I said below. Some of the information is good, while other is not correct due to misremembering as well as going on bits and pieces of information that not only were taken out of context, but also just switching things around so what I said happened on one film actually occurred on another as people conflated what happened in one film and applied it to another. At the end of this blog post, I’ll leave a link to my video where I correct the information I got wrong. I’ve also changed the ending a bit as I didn’t mean to imply that Rick McCallum was as a Yes Man and didn’t challenge George, so if you ever read this before and notice a difference in the end, that is why. *End of Update*
Now I'm just going to say that Gary Kurtz has lying for a long time about the working relationship of himself and George Lucas. Kurtz may not have been thrilled of how Return of the Jedi and the Prequels turned out now, he may have been jealous of all the money Lucas made from the Star Wars films Kurtz wasn't involved with, but he was very instrumental in the reason he didn't get to be involved with those films also, since he left the company. Basically, Kurtz would've been compensated handsomely for his help with the films had he stayed on working with Lucas, but he decided to leave Lucasfilm after certain disagreements he had with Lucas and ever since, his career has gone down hill. I think Gary wishes he was part of Lucas' team after Empire so he could've wreaked some of the benefits that Lucas got. Kurtz is essentially someone who doesn't know how to handle a big budget film. He tries to take over the movies he produces and make them the way he'd want. George Lucas was influenced by Joseph Campbell, writer of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, a book that helped Lucas when crafting the story and characters of Star Wars, but Kurtz has tried to imply that he wasn't, and likes to insist a lot of what made Star Wars great was from him and him alone, while Lucas had little to no involvement in the creative process. Kurtz left Lucasfilm as he was unable to get the Star Wars series to go the direction he wanted, as well as clashing with Lucas regarding the budget for Empire. But I will now give you the reasons as to what all happens to cause Lucas and Kurtz’s partnership come to an end:
He basically wants to take over control completely from whoever was directing the film. Just as he did later on in other films he produced. I know it may seem like I'm repeating myself, but this is very important to remember. Something else that Kurtz wants people to believe is that certain things were changed to sell toys and Lucas didn't care about the story at all after the huge success of Star Wars and Empire action figures and merchandise.
Lucas was interested in the story of Star Wars. For instance: He changed certain things in Jedi, like Ewoks on Endor, as he wanted a species not familiar with using technology. Wookiees were supposed to be the species, but Lucas changed it as Chewbacca was familiar with technology, and thus suggest that all Wookiees are able to use technology, at least in Lucas' mind. Kurtz claims Ewoks were put in to sell more toys, yet Wookiees would probably be able to sell just as well, if not better, than Ewoks since we're familiar with the species at this point. Also, a good number of the Ewoks aren't that cute, aside from Wicket and a few others, the majority are fairly ugly to say the least and that isn't a good strategy if you're making a new species for your movie with the sole intent on have them sell toys, and you make the teddy bear like creatures ugly, to me that's a bad marketing strategy personally. That tidbit that's often brought up aside, Lucas had made a killing on toys and merchandise from the very first Star Wars film, so much so, the toys and merchandising money is what was used in part to fund Empire and Jedi, and the toys and merchandise from Empire helped fund Jedi as well. On the subject of the Ewoks, they are creatures you don't expect to be as big of a help as they become. In the end, they are a distraction for the rebels, as the Empire focuses half its time on the rebels and on the Ewoks, all the while the rebels destroy the shield generator so the Death Star is destroyed. Because of Luke convincing the others to give the Ewoks their weapons, and saying it'll all be alright it is reminiscent of what Luke learned with Yoda: Don't underestimate a creature that is small. Also, Luke using the Force on C-3PO, do demonstrate the "Power" 3PO has, since the Ewoks view him as a God, it's this which convinced the Ewoks to not cook and eat him, Han, Chewbacca and do whatever to R2 and eventually welcome the rebels as their own. Lucas made certain changes that worked with the movie better, as some things needed to either change or be compromised in the script. That's something that happens often in movies, ideas change. Maybe Kurtz and Lucas talked about certain things that would happen in Jedi, and upon looking at his story he drew up, he didn't think Kurtz's ideas would be able to work with the story he made, without doing a major rewrite to the whole story he already laid out for the third film in the trilogy.
I mentioned the Death Star earlier, which many people do complain about with Jedi, and the reason for the second Death Star in the film is because in the first (fourth) film, it's said in a important scene, which is the Death Star board meeting, that the Republic and Senate are now gone thanks to the Emperor and that the systems will be controlled by the Empire with fear of the Death Star. And once the senate and republic were gone, the Death Star was destroyed and the Rebels probably got more support, so the Empire needed another Death Star to instill more fear, since they're not as feared as they were before. I know in the 300 page Star Wars script with basically the whole Original Trilogy told, and a brief prologue with the Prequels for some context of certain events and characters, the Death Star was shown at the end of the script, but because Lucas wasn't certain if he'd get the other films made after the first film, he put the Death Star in the first film, and with that little dialogue that was mentioned in the board room Death Star meeting in A New Hope, this ties with the unfinished Death Star shown in Return of the Jedi, since the Death Star was put in place of the Senate and Republic and that the Empire were then essentially the government to the galaxy, with the Death Star being a weapon to persuade planets to aligned with them, or else the planet would be destroyed if not complying with the Empire. Thus, when the Death Star is destroyed, the Emperor had put that in the place of a Republic and Senate, therefore another Death Star was needed as a Death Star was the policy of the Empire. Due to the little dialogue ANH had, this gives credence for a second Death Star by the time ROTJ comes along. Three years pass between ANH and ESB, so construction could've begun months later, hence it's not finished when we see it in ROTJ. Another thing that Kurtz also wanted was a dark ending, with Luke turning to the dark side, basically declaring himself the new Vader of the galaxy and will crush the Rebellion.
So, let's talk about this dark ending that has been heard for sometime about Return of the Jedi. Essentially with the whole ending of Jedi is what seems to be the big disagreement that Lucas and Kurtz' had. Kurtz basically wanted a dark ending for the film and the overall trilogy. And while Lucas may have took the suggestion of the dark ending, with Luke turning to the dark side, under advisement and thought about it, when looking at the story he made, it wouldn't work to him. Mainly because the films are space opera with some fantasy elements. And the fantasy element comes into play with some of the general stuff with the story, such as the character arcs, and he wanted the films to reflect that while the melodrama story would be there for the major Space Opera moments like the theatrical acting and melodramatic dialogue with a science fiction background was there for the space ships and lightsabers and guns and all that fun stuff. And fantasies usually have happy endings, particularly for the heroes. Many will often have a fairy tale type ending where the heroes win and all is good with the world they live in. In Star Wars, the balance of the force was restored and things were peaceful again. The whole point of the story was for Luke to redeem his father and bring balance to the force. That's not something that would happen if he went evil, as the force would be temporally balanced only for it to go back to the way it was as soon as Luke went to the dark side. Nothing was really accomplished as Luke went on to the dark side, the easy route and just essentially said "screw the Rebellion and Jedi, I want to rule the galaxy." That doesn't seem like it would be a good ending to the Star Wars trilogy to me. To Lucas, the idea of a dark ending didn't fit with the story he wanted told. And because he wanted these movies made, he got other directors to make them for him while he helped a great deal in the creative process so that both his vision and the directors vision would make up the film, and certain compromises would be made, but something as huge as the story and how the trilogy would end, isn't something Lucas wanted to compromise entirely. Some tweaks here and there throughout the film sure, to stay within the budget and not go over, but as long as the vision of his story was realized that's what mattered to him. He got directors who would respect and see his vision through while putting their stamp on the film as well. Kurtz didn't like his vision so he left Lucasfilm for good.
Now, with all this said, all this was from Kurtz's side I've just explained. Though half way through the production on Empire, when production was stalled and Lucas came in to fix things, Kurtz was actually fired just before the last few weeks of filming finished. I'd suggest reading J.W. Rinzler's 'Making of the Empire Strikes Back'. Gary Kurtz says lots of things mostly out of spite. Lucas was actually advised not to rehire Kurtz for Empire, though Lucas and him worked together on American Graffiti and Star Wars so he got hired again anyway. But as the film production went on, and things went behind schedule, Lucas ended up relieving Kurtz of his producer role towards the end of the production of Empire, as already mentioned, and Howard Kazanjian and Robert Watts took over direct control of the producers role on the production from there. Kershner thought little of Kurtz, as he kept trying to take control of production as well as being ignorant to making a big budget movie. It seems that these "Ideas" Kurtz was talking with Lucas about, were most likely little discussions of the possible future of Star Wars after Empire finished up and production on the third film would then go underway, but Kurtz makes it sound like he was involved in the early stages of Jedi before leaving. He's basically taken these little discussions he and Lucas may have had early on of where the series would go, based on Lucas' story treatment, but nothing was set in stone, as Lucas wanted to get the making of Empire done first, then he could think about the next sequel, though as we know Lucas made Raiders of the Lost Ark between Empire and Jedi, since Indiana Jones was something Lucas wanted to get made as that was an idea he had that was as old as Star Wars, but he got Steven Spielberg to direct that franchise, not only due to his stressful time directing Star Wars, but quite possibly, an unspoken reason too, was in part of Kurtz trying to get the film Lucas was making into the direction that Kurtz wanted instead, and not doing the role of a producer properly, though this might not be as clear with ANH as there were many things that happened to cause problems during the making of that film that's been documented in books and documentaries/behind the scenes footage during the making of that film.
Basically from all of this, Kurtz would try to tell Lucas they should do this and that, and it would appear as if Kurtz was the director and Lucas was just the producer. Kurtz just wanted to take control of every aspect on Empire that he could, as he tried to do on Star Wars, but while Lucas took some suggestions of his on that film, he did things the way he wanted on the first film as Lucas knew what he wanted and did what he could with the budget they had. Again, I don't really want to blame the problems the production Star Wars IV had on Kurtz as many things happened out of the control of Lucas and Krutz. Though, Kurtz has played a part in the now popular "Lucas didn't have free control of Star Wars" argument. Lucas actually did, the only thing the studio executives would do and say to Lucas was "you have a deadline and we will not give you any extension for it, so you better be finished filming your silly movie, otherwise this thing will never see the light of day." Alan Ladd, Jr. was the only one on Lucas' side when he was making Star Wars, and could only do so much to convince the studio to let him finish filming the movie. Plus Star Wars' production went over budget due to Kurtz not knowing how to handle a big budget movie. When Empire was directed by someone other than Lucas, Kurtz tried to take over creative control again, and again, production stalled as a result of Kurtz not knowing what he was doing money wise, so the film went over budget and Lucas came to the set more often than he wanted and had to make things go back on schedule by paying for this and that so that filming could commence again, which is telling from the set photos of Lucas, Kershner and the actors together on set.
Kurtz, in the end I believe, is jealous of how smart of a filmmaker and business man Lucas is. I say business man, as you kinda need to be one in the film business when being a producer. He was able to come in and within a matter of time, fix any money problems the film would have, as Lucas financed Empire himself and for the first Star Wars, he had to fight to get the film completed the way he envisioned it himself while Kurtz would occasionally tell him if they could or couldn't do something due to the budget. And again, Kurtz is also the reason the first two Star Wars films went over budget. I'm trying to make sure this is a point people understand. Kurtz doesn't know how to handle producing a big budget film. With the Star Wars films, the big budget being handled by him and Lucas, Kurtz probably saw an opportunity to make a film the way he'd like to see it. But, Lucas was the one with the 250-300 page outline for the Star Wars trilogy, with some pages in the beginning about the friendship Obi-Wan, Anakin and Darth Vader had before Vader turned evil. Lucas was the director, and was the one who directed the acclaimed "American Graffiti". Kurtz did share a producers credit for that film, but Francis Ford Coppola produced the film with him as well. With Star Wars, Kurtz probably didn't understand the story, as only Lucas was the one who understood it and it was hard to get people on board to take a chance on a film where "Dogs fly Spaceships" and a bar has a bunch of Aliens in them. Alan Ladd, Jr. took a chance on Star Wars because he saw George Lucas had talent with "Graffiti". Another thing I think is good to mention is Lucas was able to fix the problems Kurtz put some of the films he produced later on too. The sequel to Wizard of Oz, Return to Oz, was able to continue production as Lucas came in and gave enough money for the film to continue production after Kurtz screwed up money wise, as they went over budget. Before this, the film had to halt it's production as they needed to figure out how to be able to get back on track, and then Lucas came into the picture to help. Lucas also saved Kurtz from being fired as a producer on Dark Crystal, as Jim Henson wanted to fire Kurtz for being a terrible producer and trying to take control of direction, yet again, on a film he had no idea how to make. Lucas convinced Henson to let Kurtz stay as a producer and I recall reading years ago that he even helped pay some of the money they lost due to Kurtz's negligence, but it’s been sometime since I’ve read regarding Lucas and Henson when it came to Dark Crystal. I do know that the two were in contact for years, mainly since Henson was Lucas’s first choice to be Yoda, but Henson turned it down due to being busy and suggested Frank Oz who then portrayed Yoda. Because of this friendship and Lucas’s past working relationship with Kurtz, I don’t find it outlandish that he prevented Kurtz’s firing as a producer and I think it’s not too out there to believe Lucas even covered the cost of the money that was gone as a result of Kurtz’s fumbling with money. He did it before with Empire Strikes Back, which was Lucas’s film and then as mentioned earlier, Lucas helped out with Return to Oz in order to get that back on schedule and finished in as timely a manor as one could after the film was halted due to going over budget.
At the end of it, Kurtz's career was saved by Lucas, and he seems to resent how much of a better filmmaker Lucas is than him rather than be happy his career didn't just crash and burn. Another thing I also have seen a lot of is that people make it as if the relationship between Lucas and Kurtz had were that of best friends or something to that effect. Lucas and Kurtz were not best buds. If you look at Lucas, like most people, he has friends, and he has business partners/co-workers. Walter Murch, Brian de Palma, John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg are all friends. In fact Lucas' friends have been friends with him for decades, he clearly values friendships. Heck the evidence that Lucas and Kurtz were never buddies can be found in Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola and Lucas had an enormous and public falling out, mainly based on Coppola's resentment of Lucas' success (Coppola said as much) of Star Wars when he couldn't direct Apocalypse Now, a film that Lucas helped write in the early stages of the films inception and was going to direct the film as Coppola was set to produce the film after Lucas' THX-1138, but that didn't pan out as THX-1138 tanked at the box office, and by the time both men had hits under their belts, Coppola with The Godfather and Lucas with American Graffiti, Lucas got busy with Star Wars and wasn't able to make Apocalypse Now like they planned on, plus the success of Star Wars, which pretty much meant that the next two films of the Original Trilogy could get made and his time would be focused on those films instead, there friendship ended for some years. plus Lucas and Spielberg also started working on Indiana Jones between Empire and Jedi which may not helped matters with Lucas and Coppola.
But eventually, that relationship was patched up as we know and they remain close friends to this day. You see, Kurtz was never in that inner circle like Coppola or Spielberg have been; he was a guy hired to do a job. Heck Lucas even attempted to "bury the hatchet" years ago and invited him to his AFI Awards dinner, and tried to involve him in a number of Star Wars anniversary projects, even while Kurtz was bad mouthing him on the convention circuit. Say what you will about Lucas as filmmaker, but at least he knows how to tell stories and makes them the way he wants. I think Kurtz is in part of a reason Lucas had a bunch of "yes men", as people say, with him on the prequels, as he didn't want a producer that would try to take control of his vision he had and as a result he got people that wouldn't challenge him a whole lot in a constructive way. If anything it was an alternative decision that would either be really good, or really bad. Kurtz tried to take direction away from George as he never worked on a such a big budget before and wanted to take advantage of that, while Rick McCallum had worked on producing projects at Lucasfilm from the 90s, like working on Adventure of Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, which had quite a bit of effects in it, and so he had an idea as to what would work and what wouldn’t when it came to ensuring Lucas had as easy of a production on the prequels as possible.
When it comes to the whole “Yes Men” accusations, if you look at behind the scenes featurettes and documentaries, you can see that there were people who did question certain things Lucas was doing in the Prequels and they even convinced Lucas to change certain things or put certain things in the movies he hadn't thought about before. They didn't always agree with Lucas, so I wouldn't say he was around a lot of "yes men" myself. I know I implied in my writing that I thought George had hired Yes Men, but I don’t think that’s actually true. Plus most of the things Kurtz says about his huge involvement really comes from himself, you know a lot of "hear say", as I don't recall other people involved with the films talking about these things that Kurtz talks about. I rarely heard in the many interviews I've seen with the cast and crew of The Original Star Wars Trilogy where people talked a whole lot about him. Sure occasionally, Mark, Carrie or Harrison would mention him, but they'd talk about Lucas or the other actors more. They'd just mention Kurtz in a few sentences or so when talking about the making of the movie compared to George. Even when talking about Empire or Jedi, Lucas would get mentioned more than the producer. They'd talk as much about him just as much as they did the directors of those two films than the producer, but then again, Lucas was heavily involved with those two films as well. That's all I've got to say on the matter. Thank you for reading.
*So now, click this link to my over hour long video regarding my discussion on the Making of Star Wars. To get into correcting the inaccuracies of this blog, go to about 10 minutes.*
