The Star Wars Money Machine 248
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."
Re:George Lucas (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:George Lucas (Score:5, Interesting)
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) [sptimes.com]
It startde with the New Gods comic in 1971... (Score:5, Interesting)
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
Re:George Lucas's wealth (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't speak for Lucas but I did hear a similar sentiment from jazz clarinetist Artie Shaw [npr.org]. 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
Re:George Lucas's wealth (Score:1, Interesting)
As directors go, he's really inept (that's not to say anything about his special effects talents, which are arguably more impressive).
I suspect that the reason why Lucas keeps saying things like "I've earned the right to fail" is that he is either justifying the fact that (1) he doesn't care about what he produces anymore, and just wants to make money with as little effort as possible, (2) he is sensitive to the fact that he has been producing nothing but crap since the original trilogy, and is trying to justify it as some sort of crazed genius vision, or (3) both.
The man has narcissism written all over him. It's not so much that he doesn't seem himself as being "allowed to fail" before, it's that he sees himself as not failing before. Narcissists reflexively manage to recharacterize all of their failings as positive attributes. Thus, it's not that he's failing recently, or in the future, it's that he is making "really great movies" that it just happens that "no one wants to see."
For what it's worth, I am a psychologist, but that doesn't mean anything I'm saying is worth anything because I've never met the man.
Forbes writers need to do better research (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, there were quite a few more rereleases than that:
1977 - Star Wars original release
1978 - Star Wars rerelease
1979 - Star Wars rerelease
1980 - Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back original release
1981 - rereleases of both Star Wars (now retitled Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope) and Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
1982 - rereleases of both Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope and Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
1983 - Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi original release
1985 - Star Wars - Episode Vi: Return of the Jedi rerelease
Note also that 1971's THX 1138 and 1973's American Graffiti were both rereleased in 1978 as well, More American Graffiti was released in 1979, Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981 and rereleased in 1982, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was released in 1984 (the only year from 1977 to 1985 that no Star Wars film got at least a limited theatrical release).
Re:George Lucas (Score:2, Interesting)
In the 80s and 90s, Lucas put a lot of effort into convicing people that Star Wars was Great Art and he was a Great Artist And Thinker. All that Joseph Campbell stuff that Lucas read in English Lit 101. Funny how people still see "Indiana Jones" for what it is (good fun, with Nazis!) and haven't been marketed into thinking it was some sort of pinnicle of drama like they have with Star Wars.
Lucas wanted to remake Flash Gordon (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mstarwar.html [straightdope.com]
Here it is, straight from Lucas' first Hollywood boss and fellow USC graduate, Francis Ford Coppola: "George wanted to do Flash Gordon
Re:The ultimate geek franchise. (Score:3, Interesting)
GL is said to have used WW2 aerial footage when pitching Star Wars back in 1975.
Star Wars Bad Guys (Score:5, Interesting)