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The Star Wars Money Machine
Darth Cola writes " The Star Wars franchise has made George Lucas plenty rich. But his fortune is only a peice of a much bigger financial pie, one which Forbes.com estimates at just shy of $20 billion. They have a rundown of the Star Wars financial empire, and a market by market breakdown of where the money comes from." From the article: "It all started with a story treatment, handwritten in pencil on a few sheets of lined yellow legal paper. That's all that existed of the multibillion-dollar financial empire, now known as the Star Wars universe, when filmmaker George Lucas sat down in 1974 to write what, within three years, would be the biggest meteor to hit Hollywood since there's been a Hollywood."
Apparently he had to force himself to write Revenge of the Sith - including setting fixed hours to be a at a desk... no wonder it's "dark."
Will George Lucas "go Hollywood" now that he's joined filmdom's elite? Not likely, the San Francisco-area resident indicates in a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine. When asked about the folks who run the film industry, Lucas replied, "They're rather sleazy, unscrupulous people. L.A. is where they make deals, do business in the classic corporate American Way, which is screw everybody and do whatever you can to make the biggest profit."
I laughed until I cried.
Source: Saint Petersburg Times (pops)
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order- Ed Howdershelt Via Tass
To quote the relevant bit:
Also, there's no point just throwing comic characters at me as if I'm saying all comics are better than film, because I'm not. I'm just saying I can blatantly see Lucas' influences and I prefered New Gods to Star Wars. (New Gods had Darkseid and the Source, Star Wars has Darth Vader and the Force. Orion is revealed to be Darkseid's son; Luke is Vader's son. New Gods had a spiritual leader/father figure to Orion called Highfather; Star Wars has spiritual leader/father figure to Luke called Obi Wan Kenobi. New Gods:1971. Star Wars: 1977. George Lucas was a comics fan. Say no more).
Sound convincing enough to me.
Cheers,
Ian
I can't speak for Lucas but I did hear a similar sentiment from jazz clarinetist Artie Shaw. I'm a jazz fan and picked up on Artie Shaw in a history of jazz program, then later heard an extended series of interviews with him. He spoke of the right to fail as a prerequisite to great playing. He was of the opinion that people who play it safe and play to a known recipe aren't able to make great music. He went on to say his best playing always contained errors because he was reaching beyond his present abilities in an attempt to conquer new heights (my loose paraphrase). I think Lucas means something similar when he talks of the right to fail as the right to go beyond the status quo ante and break new ground even if in the attempt he is seen to fail.
cheers
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
All the problems in the Star Wars universe (at least in episodes 1-3) are being blamed on the Trade Federation and the Banking Cartel. I don't really like being lectured on the evils of capitalism by a filthy rich jerk who has made a fortune by selling franchise rights to any asshole with a checkbook.
-- Will program for bandwidth