Kathleen Kennedy has been regarded as one of the most hated people to be a part of the Star Wars franchise. Working as the president of Lucasfilm, it is as though every failure the franchise faces has been put on her back. Regardless of who is responsible for a project’s unfortunate performance, she is subjected to the brunt of the criticism from fans and critics alike.
Despite all of the hate that she gets, there is absolutely no doubt that she is good at what she does. Having started as a producer, she worked on an impressive number of highly successful projects, ultimately joining George Lucas’ side as co-chairman of Lucasfilm until she became president. Their dynamic took them to many places, making the Mark Hamill franchise as successful as it is today.
However, many might not know that Kennedy and Lucas were involved in one of Steven Spielberg’s biggest films. Their involvement ended up saving the movie and another one of the director’s classics.
Steven Spielberg Had His Hands Full
Steven Spielberg gave an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, where he talked about filming Schindler’s List while he was still working on Jurassic Park. When he was supposed to start working on the former, the latter was already in post-production. Despite this, it would seem that the studio was concerned about the director working on two high-profile projects at the same time.
“Tom Pollock, who was running the feature division of Universal, said, ‘I think it’s great that you’re interested in doing Schindler’s List, but you’ve got to finish Jurassic Park first.’ I was in post on Jurassic Park. I said, ‘I think I can overlap. I can do Schindler’s List while I’m finishing Jurassic Park.’”
The overlap between the two made Tom Pollock, the head of Universal Pictures at the time, nervous. He was concerned that working on both projects when Jurassic Park was being edited and Schindler’s List was being filmed in Europe would be impossible. During this time, the adventure film was given higher priority than the World War II film, as they believed it to be more profitable.
“Tom resisted that. He said, ‘Jurassic Park is a huge piece of business for this company; you can’t abandon it.’ I said, ‘Tom, I’m not going to abandon it. I’ve locked the film. All I have left to do is mix it, score it and correct the color.’ And he said, ‘Well, you can’t do that from Eastern Europe.’ And I said, ‘Yes I can.’”
When Pollock raised concerns that the Laura Dern movie would be abandoned, Spielberg told him that that would not be the case and that he would not go back on his commitment. However, even though he told the Universal executive that he would be able to finish the film, he was now faced with a conundrum about how he would do it, all the way from Europe.
Kathleen Kennedy and George Lucas Saved Steven Spielberg
Turning to his long-time collaborators and friends, Steven Spielberg called George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy, asking them for help. He explained the situation and asked if they could mix and finish the film for him while he made Schindler’s List.
“I called George [Lucas, Spielberg’s longtime friend and occasional collaborator]. I said, ‘George, I’m in trouble. The studio’s really upset with me that I’m going to not mix Jurassic Park and go off to Europe and make Schindler’s List. Would you mix Jurassic Park?’ I already had his mixers working on the film, so George said he’d take over. And he and Kathy Kennedy mixed the film.”
Since some of Lucas’ trusted crew members were already working with Spielberg, the transition was quite smooth. The Star Wars pair helped in the mixing of the film, and Spielberg was able to focus on making a film that would earn him his first and second Oscars.
Schindler’s List and Jurassic Park are both available for streaming on Netflix.
