The official Star Wars website was updated Nov. 30 with a send-off for Rick McCallum, who produced the Star Wars prequels, TV’s Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and the Tuskegee Airmen adventure film Red Tails.
As reported here previously, based on an Oct. 30 mention by Steve Sansweet on the ForceCast podcast, McCallum has “retired from Lucasfilm” in the wake of Disney’s acquisition of the studio and news that Kathleen Kennedy and others would be charting the future of the company’s franchises. But he doesn’t seem to be holding any grudges, at least officially:
“There’s only person in the world who could do this, and that’s Kathleen Kennedy. There’s no one more suited who is able to bridge the worlds of elite filmmaking within a studio context. The Star Wars saga will always be taken care of under her leadership. She is truly one of the greatest producers in America as well as being a great friend.”
McCallum isn’t all that “retired,” however, noting that he is working on several projects in Eastern Europe as well as a film about the boy soldiers of Sierra Leone.
As McCallum leaves, another longtime Lucas partner has returned to the fold: Former licensing director Howard Roffman recently announced he was coming out of semi-retirement at Kennedy’s request “to assist her in the heady task of managing the Star Wars franchise.”
