Lucasfilm quitting the movie business

His career is a blueprint for transitioning from ‘bright young thing’ to Hollywood heavyweight, he’s been at the top of the Hollywood pile for almost 30 years and has an enviable catalogue of material waiting to be made an viewed by half the world – but George Lucas is currently considering walking away from movies.

“We don't want to make movies, we're about to get into television,” the bearded helmer told Variety. “As far as Lucasfilm is concerned, we've moved away from the feature film thing, because it's too expensive and it's too risky. I think the secret to the future is quantity, because that's where it's going to end up.”

Before Indy fans start hyperventilating and feverishly scribbling begging letters to Skywalker Ranch, Lucas set the record straight on the upcoming Indy 4 – though his comments sound a little unconvincing.

“Steven Spielberg and I are still working away, trying to come up with something we're happy with. Hopefully in a short time we will come to an agreement, or something.”

While a start date for Indy 4 is starting to look as likely as an Oscar finding its way to Paris Hilton’s mantelpiece, Lucas is continuing to plough his efforts into growing the animation side of his empire – which, in time, he sees moving from television into feature films.

“Right now we're doing television, which looks great. I'm very happy with it and out of that we're getting the skill set and the people and putting the studio in place so we can do a feature. But it's probably going to be another year before we have the people and the systems in place to do a feature film.”

In the meantime, Lucasfilm is busy crafting scripts and casting for a Star Wars TV show, set to hit small screens sometime… well, when George feels like it really.