George Lucas Did Movies Other Than 'Star Wars' Part 1: ‘Howard The Duck’
Image Source: New On Netflix UK
The Great Maker of Star Wars has occasionally made forays into other filmmaking throughout his long and distinguished career. While none of them have achieved the same level of popularity and recognition as Stars Wars, some of them have been better (or worse) received by moviegoers. Today, we will be discussing the movie that George Lucas is most infamous for (and one he is most likely to want to completely forget about), Howard The Duck.
The 1986 movie featured Howard, a humanoid duck from an Earth-like world, who was accidentally transported across the galaxy to our Earth during a scientific experiment. He landed in Cleveland, Ohio, where he befriended a struggling rock star while he sought to find a way back home. In the process of trying to send him back to his homeworld, another mishap inadvertently brought back a malevolent alien that threatened the earth. Howard and his new friends now had to save the planet. The character of Howard originally came from a Marvel comic series, which featured Deadpool-style humor. The writers sought to tone its raunchiness down for its intended younger audience, even though there was definitely still some adult-oriented humor in the movie, particularly regarding Howard’s behavior and some off-key sexual humor.
RELATED:
The film starred Lea Thompson (Back to the Future), Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption), and Jeffrey Jones (Beetlejuice). While it did not launch her into a singing career, Lea Thompson and the other actresses in their fictional movie band, Cherry Bomb, actually performed their songs themselves. John Barry, Sylvester Levay, and Thomas Dolby (She Blinded Me With Science) also contributed to the soundtrack, which got a limited three-disc Intrada Special Collection Release in 2019.
To say that the movie was a colossal failure would be a massive understatement. However, it was not without a silver lining. Howard The Duck was made on an estimated $37 million budget and grossed only an estimated $15 million. The film currently sits at 14% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomato meter and has a 38% Audience Score. In addition to its general unpopularity, the failure of the film was so contentious that an argument over who was to blame for greenlighting the film between two Universal executives literally ended in a fistfight between them. Additionally, at the time of the film’s release, Lucas had just built Skywalker Ranch and was counting on this film to help him get his money back from that venture. When the movie spectacularly bombed, leaving Lucas strapped for cash, he was forced to sell some of his assets to stay afloat. Luckily, a CEO named Steve Jobs offered to help out by buying Lucasfilm’s new CGI animation division, which ended up becoming the animation studio that we now know as Pixar. It was perhaps the only good thing that came out of the entire fiasco.
Image Source: CinemaBlend
Although the 1986 movie remains controversial, Marvel and others have not completely forgotten about the character. Our space duck has slowly crept back into various Marvel projects in recent years. Howard appeared in a 2012 YouTube series, Marvel Superheroes: What The…? A live-action Howard, voiced by actor Seth Green, appeared in a post-credits scene from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), hanging out with The Collector in his ruined museum. He had subsequent brief appearances in Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), and even during the final battle against Thanos and his army in Avengers Endgame (2019). Howard also appeared in a trailer for the What if….? Series that premiered on Disney+ in 2021.
Actress Lea Thompson, who previously starred in the 1986 movie, reportedly pitched a new Howard the Duck movie to Marvel, although it was turned down. Even though there is currently no plan for a standalone Howard the Duck movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thompson has stated that Marvel does have something in mind for the character.
While the movie was infamous for its lack of success, Howard the Duck is a pioneer as one of the first Marvel comic book characters to get their own movie, almost four decades ago. Hopefully, the character will have another chance to shine.
READ NEXT:
Source(s): Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, Wikipedia, Screen Rant
Latest News
Featured
