For Lucas, the force was strong on this project

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George Lucas (with “Red Tails” actor Tristan Wilds) financed the movie himself.

Updated: February 16, 2012 8:02AM

NICASIO, Calif. — George Lucas is the billionaire lord of a sci-fi empire and a Northern California land baron.

But drill down to his core and Lucas is still the same fiercely independent kid from rural Modesto who grew up enamored of fast machines and great movies.

Those simple roots help explain why a 67-year-old white guy has spent $58 million of his own money to produce “Red Tails.”

“For those of us in my group of filmmakers, like Steven [Spielberg] or Ron [Howard] or Marty [Scorsese], we want to make movies that enthralled us when we were little,” says Lucas. “For me, ‘Red Tails’ is like ‘Flying Leathernecks’ [the 1951 John Wayne charge through Guadalcanal]. It’s corny. It’s uber-patriotic. And it’s a really exciting action-adventure movie. As for the racism in our story, it’s embedded in the material, so we just had to be careful not to overdo it.”

And there’s even a “Star Wars” analogy: “ ‘Red Tails’ is Han Solo deciding to join the rebels. He’s saying, ‘I’m cynical about this, I’ve been treated like dirt, but ultimately there’s something to banding together to not let our way of life get destroyed.’”

More than 23 years have passed since Lucas first was told about the fabled Airmen and their battles with both German pilots and American racists. “It was a project that I instantly was attracted to and was determined to get made,” he says.

Scripts came and went. Special effects improved. His personal fortune mushroomed enough to contemplate making a labor of love without an assist from a major studio. Finally, in 2009, principal photography began in the Czech Republic and Croatia (doubling for Germany and Italy), followed by more than a year of special effects work.

“I have only one agenda, and that’s for a lot of young people to see this movie,” says Lucas, adding that corporations are sponsoring screenings at schools. “I think kids who see this, be they black or white, will walk out thinking these [Airmen] were cool.”

“Red Tail” actor David Oyelowo insists “no one but George would make sure this movie got made. It’s crazy to call him an independent filmmaker, but that’s what he was on this. He bankrolled it and saw that a lot of young black artists could spread their wings.”

Lucas didn’t expect to pony up the film’s entire budget; he met with a half-dozen major studio heads to suggest a financial partnership, but none accepted.

“They felt there was no evidence that this sort of film would draw a big audience. I said I disagreed,” he says. “The most important thing to me is my freedom. I’ve been investing in my own movies since ‘Empire [Strikes Back]’, so it was just time to do it again.”

The duels-in-the-skies aspect is what makes the movie especially timely, says Lucas. For many young people today, heroes — be they athletes, entertainers or presidents — aren’t defined by skin color.

“My girlfriend [Chicago financial exec Mellody Hobson] is black,” he says, “and I’ve learned a lot about racism including the fact that it hasn’t gone away, especially in American business. But on a social level there’s less prejudice than there was. So I figured, let’s put another hero up there.”

Gannett News Service