The erotic thriller George Lucas had his name removed from: “I didn’t want my family-friendly brand tainted”
If there is one name in Hollywood that no one would ever associate with a saucy neo-noir erotic thriller, it’s Mr Star Wars himself, George Lucas. Amazingly, though, in the early ’80s, Lucas did find himself in a producing capacity on such a film, which he signed up for as a leg up for one of his best friends in the industry. However, as the release date got closer and closer, Lucas got cold feet about his name being on the picture and insisted that it be removed. Was he scared about his family-friendly brand being dragged through the mud, or was the truth more nuanced than that? Let’s find out.
In 1977, Lucas and his good buddy Steven Spielberg were developing a movie that would hearken back to the rip-roaring adventure serials of their youth. They had created a character – a whip-cracking archaeology professor and part-time globetrotting adventurer – and had some rough ideas for the spectacular story he’d find himself caught up in. What they didn’t have, though, was a writer – someone who could help them turn their ideas into an actual screenplay.
Luckily, though, Spielberg had recently bought a script entitled Continental Divide by an unknown scribe named Lawrence Kasdan, who has precisely zero produced credits. Spielberg felt Kasdan’s style would translate perfectly to the character he and Lucas were calling ‘Indiana Smith,’ so they invited him in for a meeting. As a stunned Kasdan later said, “George, Steven, and I talked for about 20 minutes. Then we stood up and shook hands, and George said, ‘Let’s make this movie.’ I had just met the guy, and a few minutes later, I’m in business with him.”
Obviously, ‘Indiana Smith’ soon became ‘Indiana Jones’ and the script they devised was titled Raiders of the Lost Ark. Amazingly, though, before Lucas even read the first draft of Raiders, he hired Kasdan to rewrite the Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back, telling him, “If I hate Raiders, I’ll call you up tomorrow and cancel this offer, but basically, I get a feeling about people.”
This incredible vote of confidence in Kasdan paid off – both movies were stratospheric successes, and Kasdan became a valued member of Lucas’ inner circle. In fact, he was so valued that Lucas wanted to help him get his directorial debut off the ground in ’81, the same year Raiders was released. That movie was Body Heat, a steamy erotic thriller starring William Hurt and Kathleen Turner, which Fox head honcho Alan Ladd Jr had agreed Kasdan could direct on one condition: that he be “sponsored” by a more well-known director. In stepped Lucas, who would act as producer, and the deal was done.
“It was very hard to get movies off the ground, and I wanted to help people who I thought were talented,” Lucas once revealed at the Cannes Film Festival. “I thought I could use my pressure to make it happen somehow, and I did it. That’s why I became a producer.” Interestingly, though, Lucas came to believe that it would be more beneficial to the project if he was a silent partner, as opposed to someone whose name was up there on the screen next to Kasdan’s.
“I said, ‘Larry, if I put my name on that movie, it’s all gonna be about me,'” Lucas revealed. “It’s all gonna be about me making these kinds of movies, and we don’t want that. I want it to be you making this movie.”
In this scenario, Lucas didn’t dislike the film or worry about Star Wars fans being upset about him being involved in an “adult” movie. Instead, he felt his name stood the chance of negatively impacting his friend’s film, so he graciously decided to remove it. This seems likely to be the whole truth – although it should be mentioned that a quote does appear in some sources in which Lucas supposedly said, “I didn’t want my family-friendly brand tainted by association with the R-rated Body Heat.”
