Set to obtain the honorary Palme d’Or at this yr’s Cannes Movie Competition, George Lucas isn’t any stranger to the Croisette. The legendary filmmaker — whose first function, THX-1138, screened at Cannes’ Administrators’ Fortnight in 1971 — introduced Willow to the pageant in 1988.
Directed by Ron Howard and counting Lucas as a producer, Willow follows the eponymous farmer, performed by then-17-year-old Warwick Davis, becoming a member of disgraced warrior Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) on a mission to avoid wasting a child prophesized to finish the reign of an evil queen (Jean Marsh). The film hit theaters on Could 20, 1988, and picked up $57 million worldwide ($151 million right now), which was lower than Lucas’ earlier hits like Star Wars and Raiders of the Misplaced Ark. THR’s overview known as Willow “relentlessly flat” however famous that Howard’s “ever mild however strong directorial contact is at all times in proof.”
Forward of the film’s theatrical launch, throughout a Cannes press convention, Lucas criticized the U.S. media’s concentrate on field workplace and mentioned that some pundits “appear to have misplaced the sense {that a} movie is greater than a commodity.” His remarks in regards to the obsession with a film’s monetary backside line nonetheless ring true: “I believe that’s a tragedy, and hopefully that complete facet of the movie trade will diminish and other people will begin discussing the content material and artistry of filmmaking.”