As a wunderkind out of USC Film School, Lucas directed a wide range of movies: documentaries, making-of-movies movies and the prototype for THX-138. He expressed his kinship with Bay Area avant-gardists like Bruce Conner and Scott Bartlett. But by his early 30s, the kid who seemed poised to make all kinds of weird and wonderful movies had become the doting patriarch of his most popular franchise — its keeper and its captive. He hasn't directed a non-Star Wars movie since.