George Lucas's last blockbuster film, director moving towards smaller projects after studios reject 'Red Tails'

George Lucas is turning in the towel on action films after his latest, Red Tails, is released this weekend.

The 67-year-old director has made his name on some of the biggest blockbusters ever. But after interest in his latest project turned up a 'no' from every studio in Hollywood, Lucas has decided to return to the smaller, more experimental films he used to make in the 1960s and 1970s.

The New York Times reports executives from one studio didn’t bother showing up for the screening. “Isn’t this their job?” Lucas said in the interview at Skywalker Ranch in California. “Isn’t their job at least to see movies? It’s not like some Sundance kid coming in there and saying, ‘I’ve got this little movie — would you see it?’ If Steven (Spielberg) or I or Jim Cameron or Bob Zemeckis comes in there, and they say, ‘We don’t even want to bother to see it. . . .’ ”

It seems to be the last straw for the director, who finally convinced Fox to release Red Tails, though the studio refused to pay for any of the cost. “I’m retiring,” Lucas said. “I’m moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff.”

Careful to leave an out in case an opportunity for Indiana Jones 5 comes along, Lucas said backlash from Star Wars fans in particular has helped push him out of the limelight.

For the past 14 years, the very fans who built the Star Wars legacy have been griping and complaining at every turn. "They didn’t like how Lucas changed the old movies; they didn’t like the prequels, which seemed wooden and juvenile; and the Star Wars merchandising blitz they once gorged on had begun to drive them nuts," the New York Times says.

Fans even retaliated in a documentary, The People vs. George Lucas, indicting Lucas on his creative decisions, E! Online says. Two of the biggest changes that have outraged fans include "when he added Darth Vader shouting 'Noooo!' to the finale of Return of the Jedi for the film's Blu-Ray release, or even more notoriously had Greedo shoot first instead of Han Solo in the 1997 'special edition' of Star Wars."

Despite the revolt from fans, Lucas is unfazed by the outpouring of supernerd anger. "I'm saying: 'Fine. But my movie, with my name on it, that says I did it, needs to be the way I want it.'"

While some fans will be happy to see the Star Warsfilms returning to theaters starting next month, others will certainly argue that the 3D showings destroy their favorite galaxies.

Lucas is unlikely to fade into obscurity as easily as Obi-Wan. Hopefully the force will be with him at the box office this weekend, proving that he can "still make the kind of movie everyone in the world will want to see."