George Lucas: Prequel Fan Film Better Than Force Awakens
Darth Maul has returned in an all-new fan film that’s been tearing up the web since Saturday. Shawn Bu’s Darth Maul: Apprentice has already garnered nearly four million views on YouTube, and we’re happy to add another very influential viewer to that count, The Maker himself! Sir George Lucas stopped by our Chicago offices yesterday for an exclusive screening of Bu’s fan film. Keep reading to see what Lucas thought of Darth Maul: Apprentice. Warning: Uncle George don’t care.
FakingStarWars had the honor of hosting the Creator, the Maker, the Father of the Force, the Bearded One, the Flannel Slayer… no, not JJ Abrams as we doubt the director of The Force Awakens can even grow a beard. We’re referring to George Lucas, of course! Imagine our surprise when The Maker actually took us up on our open invitation to pass by any of our offices whenever he pleased.
Lucas was in town dealing with the pending court hearing over The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Fortunately he managed to sneak away for a half hour chat with FSW. Great to see he has his priorities in check!
Given our limited time with Lucas, we decided to screen Darth Maul: Apprentice in order to gauge his reaction and perhaps get an exclusive review. The Maker was hesitant to go on record, since he’s still a bit sore (butthurt is the technical term) over recent “white slaver” comments on a Charlie Rose appearance that were blown out of proportion. After some small talk involving his experimental film work, however, he agreed to view the Maul fan film that’s gone viral.
SPOILER ALERT: STOP READING IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN DARTH MAUL: APPRENTICE
SPOILER ALERT: STOP READING IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN DARTH MAUL: APPRENTICE
If you recall, Apprentice follows Darth Maul as he completes his Sith training by fending off a group of Jedi on a forest-rich planet. Led by a deliciously evil performance by Ben Schamma as Maul, Apprentice is a spectacle of light, sound, and fury. The amazing fight choreography by Vi-Dan Tran alone is worth the price of admission. (It’s free. Go watch it again!)
FSW sat silently with Lucas for the 17-minute screening, the only noise coming from the pork grind/popcorn mix as The Maker crunched away in darkness. Having already seen the film, we pretended to be looking at the monitor, but in reality, we were studying Lucas, and boy were his faces very telling.
Lucas smiled as soon as he heard the voice of Darth Sidious, and was thoroughly engaged throughout Apprentice. When the lights finally came up, Lucas actually clapped and pumped his fist into the air. “Now that’s a Star Wars film!”
Needless to say, we were thrilled by his warm reception. Afterwards he agreed to go on-the-record and below is his uninterrupted commentary:
As a prequel to my prequels, Darth Maul: Apprentice really nailed what it set out to do. Honestly I really haven’t seen a Star Wars film as good since Revenge of the Sith. Nothing against The Force Awakens but it certainly didn’t live up to the prequels and only barely came close to the originals.
Listen, I gave JJ a script. I didn’t have to do that. But what do I know, right? I only created the whole damn thing. So rather than use what I gave him, JJ decides to rehash, reboot, and recycle my B-roll into a hundred million dollar fan film.
This Apprentice film though. That’s how it should be done. Anything with Sheev Palpatine in it is destined for greatness. Real talk, as Mellody likes to say: Snoke was a joke. But in this epic film, both Palpatine and Maul are very scary. The lightsaber waggling was also very impressive and the CG work wow’ed me, despite being on a shoestring budget.
The story was brilliant. Maul was protecting a huge secret. And seeing as how I’m no longer in charge, I’ll let you in on what it was from my ultimate Maker’s point of view, which is one level above official Disney canon. Haha. Isn’t that ironic?! I sold out, got a ton of Disney stock, and my word is still more powerful than JJ or Gavin or Gareth or Jimmy Joe or whomever the hell they hire to film the next repeats.
Where was I? You have any more of the pork grinds? (Pause) The secret Maul was protecting involved the location of Sidious’ Force laboratory – the birthplace of Anakin Skywalker and the entire Star Wars saga for that matter.
Shawn gets it. In fact, I’m thinking of having him film my vision for Episode VII then sitting on it… until the time is right to take back what is mine.
Wow! Shots fired. Never change, Uncle George! There you have it, Darth Maul: Apprentice has received a glowing endorsement from George Lucas and is part of his official Maker canon. We’re not sure what’s next for Shawn Bu and his talented team, but we suggest placing a call to Lucas when they have a minute. Then maybe Bu should enter the Star Wars Fan Film Awards once he’s cut Darth Maul: Apprentice in half in order to meet their requirements. Oh the irony.
What did you think of Shawn Bu’s fan film? Better or worse than JJ Abrams’ fan film? Let us know in the comments section or on our new messageboards!
-William “Willybobo” Bobo
P.S. We reached out to Pablo Hidalgo as well as his altar ego Hablo Pidalgo for his thoughts on Lucas’ comments but one account blocked us immediately, while the other did not reply in time to be featured.
