Despite HOWARD THE DUCK's status as one of the worst films of all-time (although like everything I'm sure it has its fans; I once met a guy whose favourite film was MEET THE SPARTANS. He didn't just like it, it was his favourite film) the character has enjoyed a recent resurgence with a brand new comic and a cameo in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. While speaking at a Tribeca Film Festival discussion moderated by Stephen Colbert, Lucas brought up the film during conversation about the media's habit of publishing scathing reviews.
(Even the worst-reviewed films can) float up to the surface of the lake, and then they become cult classics. It means you made an interesting movie or a weird movie, and a small group of people love it. Even Howard the Duck is a cult classic, I have a feeling that Marvel's gonna redo it, because the technology they have today.
George Lucas has apparently seen Howard's GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY cameo and began thinking of the possibilities a digital Howard would have over his predecessor saying "it's a digital duck. When you have a digital duck, you can do anything. You can make it act." If there's one thing Lucas knows, it's making those bombad digital characters "act."
It wasn't all duck-talk during the Tribeca Film Festival discussion, George Lucas also mentioned that he was hoping to return to his experimental film roots.
Experimental films — that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve always wanted to do it (return to indie filmmaking), and kept saying I would do it after Star Wars. Most of my friends who made experimental films scraped money together from their families. Then there’s another way to make them: becoming very rich. A lot of my friends have yachts. I said no to that. I put my money in a vault and (planned) to waste it on movies that won’t make money. The key to experimental films is you don’t know what will happen with them. And that’s not how the movie business works.
No conversation with Lucas would be complete without someone asking him about the upcoming STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS, and while he didn't have any new information to share, he did say that he wished the film success and that he's looking forward to seeing it up on the big-screen.
The one thing I regretted about doing Star Wars is I never got to see it. I'd seen [the footage in the editing room] a hundred times, so I never got to have that thrill. This time, it'll be very different because they're doing a kind of a different story. I don't know anything about it.
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS will premiere in theaters on December 18, 2015, so if you find yourself seated next to a bearded man in flannel attire…you never know.