Return of the movie moguls

Press, 21 June 1984, Page 15

Return of the movie moguls

From

The two most successful filmmakers in Hollywood’s history are at it again. Between them, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have produced or directed seven of the dozen top-grossing movies of the century, from “Jaws” in 1975 to 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.”

Altogether, their goofy, epic versions of Saturday-serials for the Space Age have netted well over a billion dollars in nine years. Along the way they have drastically changed the economic outlook and habits of a near-moribund industry. Before this year is out, the young moguls seem certain to add two more blockbusters to their remarkable list. A new collaboration, a $35 million Boys Own spectacle preposterously called “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” has already broken every box office record in the United States, grossing $45.7 million in its first week alone. Industry brokers expect it to gross more than $2OO million. This month, in some 2000 cinemas across America, a second product from the Lucas-Spielberg factory opened: a “horror comedy” called “Gremlins.” “Gremlins are kind of like ET with teeth,” according to Hoyt Axton, one of their human co-stars.

WILLIAM SCOBIE

in Hollywood

Warner Brothers, the distributors. are peddling a mountain of “cute” Gremlin tie-ins — children’s lunch-boxes, pyjamas, dolls, video games, pens, books, posters, even an air-freshener. The critics rave, cinema queues stretch round the block, and “Variety,” the showbiz journal, predicts another take of around $2OO million. Who are these “moguls”? Lucas is 39; his friend and co-worker (they produced, directed, and wrote the new Indiana Jones movie together) Spielberg is 36. They lead quiet reclusive lives, work 16-hour days, avoid drugs and Hollywood parties, go home at night early to watch TV.

Their names rarely surface in the gossip columns, but when Lucas parted recently from his wife of 16 years and Spielberg separated from his girl-friend, a United States magazine found the moguls on holiday on a Hawaiian beach. They were photographed together building sandcastles. “Movies as an industry died around 1965.” says Lucas. “That was when Jack Warner left Warner Brothers and the old studios began to be taken over by conglomerates, people who knew how to make deals and run companies but had no idea how to make films.” Now

Lucas, Spielberg, and their growing school have clearly revived the corpse. “There is one small difference between these two,” says a Universal executive. “Steven can ask for anything he wants and any Hollywood studio would be glad to hand it to him. George Lucas doesn’t have to ask. He’s got it all.” The secret of their success? “Films that are pure escapism, that have nothing to do with the real world,” concedes Spielberg. The pair plan to go on making them, mining this odd vein of Reagan-era nostalgia until the ore runs out. — Copyright, London Observer Service.