Gareth Edwards, director of new Star Wars spin-off movie Rogue One, said he cried when George Lucas gave him the nod of approval after he viewed the first of the planned anthology movies based in the Star Wars universe.
"To me, the most important Star Wars aficionado, if I'm honest, is George Lucas," the 41-year-old English filmmaker told RTÉ Entertainment.
"He watched the film about a week ago and I was very nervous. I didn't know when it was going to happen. It was an open invitation and he loved it and he said some very nice things and it was hard not to tear up.
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"It wasn't until I heard his response that I realised that was all that I wanted from this film. Whatever it does at the box office, whatever happens, it's just a bonus."
Read our review of Rogue One here.
To celebrate his 30th birthday a decade ago, Edwards travelled to Tunisia to visit the locations where the Tatooine scenes were shot for Star Wars: A New Hope.
He told RTÉ Entertainment that he is now starting to believe in The Force after he was given the chance to direct Rogue One, which is set just before the events of the very first Star Wars movie.
"It's weird because when you're a kid you get presented with the world and you believe anything and me and my generation we got presented with Star Wars and we thought, `OK, so there's spaceships and robots."
And as, Obi Wan will tell you, if you believe in something and you never give up, you can do it. So I went with that and I thought to myself if you want to make films, if you want to make Star Wars, it can happen."
.#Rogue One director Gareth Edwards tells us he's starting to believe in The Force after been given the chance to make a new #StarWars film pic.twitter.com/2E1LSXCvY2
— Entertainment on RTÉ (@RTE_Ents) December 15, 2016
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is in cinemas now.
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Watch the RTÉ Entertainment's full interview with Gareth Edwards
