George Lucas Says 'Red Tails' Suffered in Production

Race, all-black cast caused snafus with funding, says Lucas

Lucas back!

Nothing short of candid with his statements on his views on blacks and Hollywood, George Lucas in an appearance on The Daily Show Tuesday night said that he couldn’t get funding for his new movie, “Red Tails” because of its all-black cast.

"This has been held up for release since 1942 since it was shot, I've been trying to get released ever since," Lucas said. "It's because it's an all-black movie. There's no major white roles in it at all...I showed it to all of them and they said no. We don't know how to market a movie like this."

Red Tails is a feature film about the Tuskegee Airmen, black pilots who fought for the U.S. during World War II. It stars Cuba Gooding Jr. (Boyz In The Hood, Jerry Maguire) and Terrance Howard (Hustle & Flow) and is set for a Jan. 20 release.

Lucas also told USA Today that the future of black filmmaking, at least in part, rests with this film.

"I realize that by accident I've now put the black film community at risk [with Red Tails, whose $58 million budget far exceeds typical all-black productions]," he said. "I'm saying, if this doesn't work, there's a good chance you'll stay where you are for quite a while. It'll be harder for you guys to break out of that [lower-budget] mold. But if I can break through with this movie, then hopefully there will be someone else out there saying let's make a prequel and sequel, and soon you have more Tyler Perrys out there."