It’s kinda like George Lucas. Everyone was shocked when the prequels came out with how bad they were but if you look into the original trilogy he had equally crazy ideas, he was just kept in check by a team because he wasn’t such a success he couldn’t have ALL the reigns.
If you ever get rich, hire someone whose job it is to tell you no and keep you humble.
I am currently booked solid. Alas, pro bono.
That’s the thing. Once you get rich, you’ll just see that guy as a nuisance and get rid of him. Source: all of human history.
Counterpoint: Marcus Aurelius hired a servant to do this exact thing
It’s funny watching some documentaries about it. The OT Star Wars we got was because of a lot of studio meddling, and GL had the foresight to negotiate merchandise rights.
The PT was entirely self-funded so studios didn’t really have a say in things, plus he surrounded himself with Yes-Men.
It was less about the studio meddling and a bit more about the people who were involved weren’t in awe of George. His, at the time, wife was the editor on the first movie and she made a lot of changes in the editing bay to improve what was a bit of a mess they say. And don’t discount the amount of rewrites done on the fly by the cast. Carrie was taking everyone scripts and punching them a lot and she went on to become one of best punch up writers in Hollywood. Even Harrison Ford, a notoriously shy and conflict avoidant guy, was improvising his lines because he knew that Han wouldn’t say “I love you, too” even facing being frozen in Carbonite.