Slashdot Mirror

And as a slashdotting attempt to punish Google for suing people, here's a regarding the Star Ballz lawsuit.

The reason I say that (and I thought this was newsworthy) is because Lucas' actions and the public perception he attempts to display are so out of wack. On the one hand he's attempting a damage control campaign to placate fans by claiming that their criticisms of The Phantom Menace have been taken on board, while at the same time dissing them. From a recent Time cover story:

Lucas blames the anti-Jar Jar sentiment on "37-year-old guys who spend all their time on the Internet. But you have to remember that when we did The Empire Strikes Back, some people hated C-3PO. When we did Jedi, they just loathed the Ewoks. There was no Internet to jazz it up, but there was the same conversation. Fans are very opinionated, and that's good. But I can't make a movie for fans." Nonetheless, Jar Jar has a far less prominent role this time. In movie theaters you will hear a cheer from Binks-ophobes when, as he launches into an anecdote, Padme cursorily cuts him off.

Lucas is continually at the forefront of discussing how liberating digital technologies will be to filmmakers; the problem is his actions belie a complete ignorance and arrogance that denies there can be any other effect than making it cheaper for him to make his films in his own weird way. He seems to be totally unaware of the effect the universe he created has had on millions of imaginations; or if he is, he wants to control that in a manner that suits him. Thus fandom is a thing which can be used to promotional effect and to make his hardcore constitiuency feel that he adores them... But when he slips in caveats to a contest that he's controlling in order to limit how that can be expressed he's really saying, "You can use those new technologies, just as long as you don't do it how I want you to." He's opened up a can of worms and seems totally oblivious that he's done so.

I'm a paid, working filmmaker. My first film is coming out this fall. I would never make a fan fiction film; I prefer to make my own. But I do feel that as cultural artifacts (and in my opinion very cheesy ones at that) some of the fan made Star Wars films are impressive enough and show such hard work with limited resources that they deserve some genuine praise and are sterling examples of exactly what doors digital filmmaking are going to open.

God, if I had a dollar for every genuine working filmmaker I know of my generation who wasn't influenced or their imagination fired by the original Star Wars, I'd be funding my own damn movies. Under those auspices I believe that given the line Lucas likes to spout he ought to pay attention to them. After all, he continually revises the continuity of his own universe when it suits his franchises and spin offs into other media to make more money. He allowed and has even admitted to letting the marketing tie ins to The Phantom Menace run rampant. Read this even better Newsweek story. Does Lucas play through all the video games made from his Empire to ensure quality control of continuity? I seriously doubt it. In other words, it's fine to do this as long as he's making some money off of it, or it's unenforceable since he lost the Starballz suit.

Since when a couple of boobs is considered porn ?

Since when a couple of boobs is considered porn ?

(In a way, SB is almost a derivative of a derivative, since Lucas borrowed some ideas from Akiro Kurosawa movies, but that's another message thread...)

Hey, I think these guys are simply cool..
Check out this BSA guy.. =D