• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Gary Kurtz (Star Wars producer) has died

Uzumaki Goku

Uzumaki Goku

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,444
Breaking now.

I can't link because I'm on mobile but I didn't see a thread. He was primarily known for being a producer on the original Star Wars trilogy. So we lost a great one.

Mod edit: I am going to add some context, since we have had duplicate threads.

https://variety.com/2018/film/news/gary-kurtz-dead-dies-star-wars-1202954316/

"Star Wars" producer Gary Kurtz died of cancer on Sunday, his family said in a statement. He was 78.

In addition to helping bring the Skywalker stories to the big screen, Kurtz produced "American Graffiti" and "The Dark Crystal." His career was closely aligned with that of George Lucas, but the two parted ways after the troubled production of "The Empire Strikes Back."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
kswiston

kswiston

Member
Oct 24, 2017
3,693
We had a few threads on this topic so I added in some info to this one (and clarified the title). Hopefully that helps.
 
Soapbox Killer

Soapbox Killer

Member
Oct 28, 2017
27,446
If you have not done so, please watch An Empire of Dreams. My dude had a massive impact on the success of Star Wars.


At one with the force he is.
 
P-Switch

P-Switch

Alt Account
Member
Jul 15, 2018
966
5ba912b7d7c1762b1c000001.jpeg
 
-JD-

-JD-

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
3,493
"The toy business began to drive the [Lucasfilm] empire". "It's a shame. They make three times as much on toys as they do on films. It's natural to make decisions that protect the toy business, but that's not the best thing for making quality films."

Thank you, Gary. RIP.
 
PeskyToaster

PeskyToaster

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,318
RIP, you were right in the end though tbh they could've made RotJ dark as anything and toy sales would be fine. It seems George went all in on the same direction he took for Jedi when making the prequels. I still respect both of them. It takes a lot of work and effort to create a phenomenon like Star Wars. A lot of seemingly random and unrelated stuff has to go right.

Soapbox Killer Returns said:
If you have not done so, please watch An Empire of Dreams. My dude had a massive impact on the success of Star Wars.


At one with the force he is.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I second this, Empire of Dreams is well-made and is a really interesting story. Kind of a beautiful cluster how the whole thing happened.
 
Orb

Orb

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,465
USA
Kurtz is a hero and he made Star Wars what we know it as today, in spite of Lucas' hackery.

RIP
 
CreepingFear

CreepingFear

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
16,766
RIP. So many people collaborated and gave us the treasure of the Original Trilogy. He was a big part of it.
 
Son of Liberty

Son of Liberty

Production
Verified
Nov 5, 2017
1,261
California
I remember a few years ago I went to the London Film & Comic Convention. That year they had a lot of Star Wars actors there for pictures and autographs. At the end of aisle was Gary Kurtz's booth and sadly it seemed to be the only one that wasn't crowded with fans waiting to get an autograph or photo. Seeing that surprised me a bit, because I knew how important he was to creating Star Wars. I went up to him, said I really appreciated all the work he's done, got an autograph and said my goodbyes. He didn't seem to be in a talking mood that day, but hopefully he had more fans wanting to meet him.

Rest in peace, Mr. Kurtz. Hopefully more people will understand how much of an impact you made on Star Wars.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.