Director George Lucas says it took 20 years to get his latest film made, "because it's an all-black movie".
Speaking on The Daily Show, Lucas said he had to self-fund Red Tails, the true story of a group of African-American pilots who fought in World War II.
He claimed major film studios would not back the movie because "there's no major white roles in it at all".
"I showed it to all of them and they said, 'No. We don't know how to market a movie like this,'" he said.
"They don't believe there's any foreign market for it, and that's 60% of their profit," he added.
Lucas co-wrote and produced Red Tails, which which was directed by Anthony Hemingway.
It features several well-known names - including Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding Jr, Terence Howard and R&B star Ne-Yo - and shows how the pilots were segregated and kept on the ground for most of the war, until they were called up to fight for their country.
The real-life airmen featured in the drama were given a Congressional Gold Medal by then-President George Bush in 2007.
'Invisible' audience
Lucas put $58 million (37.8 million) of his own money into the movie. It will be released by his company Lucasfilm, and distributed by Twentieth Century Fox.
He is putting a further $35 million (£22.8 million) towards the distribution costs, said trade paper The Hollywood Reporter.
"It's a reasonably expensive movie," Lucas told Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. "Normally black movies, say Tyler Perry movies or something, they're very low budget.
"Even then, the [Hollywood studios] won't really release his movies, it goes to one of the lower, not major distributors.
"This [film] costs more than what those movies make," Lucas added.
Source: BBC.co.uk
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