George Lucas’ favourite science-fiction movies
In 1977, George Lucas established himself as a leading figure in the New Hollywood wave with the first movie of his era-defining franchise, Star Wars. A New Hope. The movie was an instant global success, ushering in a golden age for sci-fi cinema.
Although Lucas’ success with Star Wars would mark his unstoppable rise to global stardom, he had become a notable cinematic presence in the early 1970s after co-founding American Zoetrope with his fellow filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and releasing his earlier pictures, THX 1138 and American Graffiti.
While seeking funding for American Graffiti with Coppola in the early 1970s, Lucas also made moves to adapt the classic television series Flash Gordon into a movie. Sadly, Lucas’ adaptation never materialised because the Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis already held the rights.
“I especially loved the ‘Flash Gordon’ serials,” Lucas said in Michael Kaminski’s book The Secret History of Star Wars. “Of course, I realise now how crude and badly done they were… loving them that much when they were so awful, I began to wonder what would happen if they were done really well.”
Incidentally, Star Wars may never have existed had Lucas obtained the rights to the Flash Gordon movie franchise. “I’ll invent my own,” Lucas told Coppola, as recorded by Kaminski. On August 1st, 1971, Lucas registered the budding idea The Star Wars at United Artists.
Lucas ultimately created the most iconic work of science fiction in his first Star Wars trilogy. An immoveable milestone in cinematic history, the movies consolidated past genre submissions and sent a timeless shockwave into a future littered with Star Wars sequels, games and merchandise.
Below, we list Lucas’ favourite science fiction movies, including two selections from Stanley Kubrick, one of his most beloved luminaries. “Stanley Kubrick made the ultimate science fiction movie, and it is going to be very hard for someone to come along and make a better movie, as far as I’m concerned,” Lucas once said, discussing 2001: A Space Odyssey. “On a technical level, it can be compared [to Star Wars], but personally, I think that 2001 is far superior.”
George Lucas’ favourite sci-fi movies:
- Metropolis – Fritz Lang (1927)
- The Blob – Irvin Yeaworth (1958)
- Planet of the Apes – Franklin J Schaffner (1968)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey – Stanley Kubrick (1968)
- A Clockwork Orange – Stanley Kubrick (1971)
- Flash Gordon – Mike Hodges (1980)
