Lucas earns his own star

The force of Hollywood was with George Lucas on Thursday evening as the 61-year-old “Star Wars” filmmaker, producer and writer received the 33rd annual American Film Institute Life Achievement Award.

The man who gave the world wookies, droids, light sabers, Darth Vader, Indiana Jones, THX sound and who has pushed the digital envelope with his last three “Star Wars” installments joins the ranks of such directors as John Ford, John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Steven Spielberg (who gave Lucas his honor) and Martin Scorsese who have received the AFI award.

The two-hour presentation Thursday night at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood was a breezy, often irreverent affair.

William Shatner kicked off the evening, singing a version of “My Way” titled “Your Way” with a chorus line of “Star Wars” troopers kicking up their heels. As the troopers carried him off the stage, Shatner yelled “Live long. You already prospered enough.”

Even before the show began, Chewbacca held court, shaking paws and posing for photographs.

But it was Carrie Fisher’s acerbic, vitriolic valentine to Lucas that got the most laughs. “I’m Mrs. Han Solo and I’m an alcoholic,” proclaimed the actress/writer who played Princess Leia in the first three installments of “Star Wars.” She added that since Lucas owned the rights to her likeness, “every time I see my face in the mirror I have to send him a couple of bucks.”

Much kidding was made of Lucas’ writing skills. Even during his acceptance speech, Lucas referred to himself as the “king of wooden dialogue.”

Perhaps one of the most emotional moments was the on-stage reunion of Mark Hamill, Fisher, Ford, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Chewbacca -- the audience gave them a long, thunderous standing ovation as a still from the last scene of the first “Star Wars” release flashed on-screen.

On the eve of the AFI event, Lucas said in a phone interview that receiving the Life Achievement Award was “surreal. The fact that the people who have received this award, I am not sure I belong in the same company.”

Lucas said he became a filmmaker not to become a powerful mogul, which he is, but because he simply loved movies. He said film students today are driven by different motivations. “Now it is a career move. People are looking to get a really good job. They love movies but the idea is that they want to make hit movies. Those of us who have success basically didn’t care about any of that stuff.”

With the “Star Wars” films finally completed, Lucas has projects on his desk he’s set to produce, including the fourth installment in the Indiana Jones series. Then he hopes to direct other films, but on a more experimental scale. “I am going to push the aesthetics of cinema a little bit and see if I can tell stories in a little bit of a different way and just play with the medium,” Lucas said. “That is where I started and I’ve always been kind of anxious to get back to that.”

USA Network will air “A Tribute to George Lucas” at 9 p.m. June 20.