George Lucas may be scrutinized around the internet for various Star Wars-related things, but the auteur has shown his humility with a few of his projects. He has talked about More American Graffiti flopping, he also said he would burn every copy of the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special if he could, and he has admitted that one of his productions, Howard the Duck, was also a dud. However, Howard the Duck, starring Lea Thompson and Tim Robbins, is still a bit of a cult classic today.
Recently, Tim Robbins was a guest on an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience where he talked about his acclaimed movies like The Shawshank Redemption, Jacob’s Ladder and Bull Durham. He would also remember doing Howard the Duck in a whimsical reflection of the film. Robbins admitted he knew the movie wasn’t going to work early on, as he explained,
We walked on the set…I walked on the set…the first day, I knew we were in trouble. The puppet; it wasn’t ready. It was a little too cute. If you look at the comic book, Howard the Duck was not that cute. [He was] Kind of Fritz the Cat-ish. Really kind of borderline obscene. I walked on the set and I saw that cute duck and I was like, ‘Uh oh.'”sponsored content
Down the line in the conversation, they talked about other aspects of the movie, but Robbins eventually circled back to this original anecdote,
I just remember those poor puppeteers, man. They were trying to make this thing work and I don’t think the technology really existed. They were trying so hard and I just felt for everybody. Including the director. I felt he tried his damn best. Betrayal by puppeteering. And it wasn’t the puppeteers. It was the actual machinery.”
Robbins would also talk about one of his big sequences in the movie,
I spent six weeks on that film doing an ultralight [plane] chase…lasted maybe two minutes in the film. You know the ultralight planes? It’s basically you and wings and the motor. And so, there’s a chase sequence at the end that’s about two-and-a-half minute/three minute long. I got in a fake one [on a soundstage]. Cause [otherwise] you’d have to fly it.”
The Shawshank Redemption star would also be thankful that Howard the Duck didn’t kill his career, as he had a better movie released around that time,
That was early in my career, so, it was George Lucas! And he’d just done Star Wars, so it had to be good, right? So it was like, ‘Hell yeah!’ It doesn’t make sense on the page, but he’ll figure it out. They’ll figure it out. [laughs] I was so lucky too, because I got a movie called Five Corners — Jodie Foster and John Turturro — right around the same time. So, I had already done that movie when Howard came out, so it kind of saved my ass, you know.”