Poverty stricken special effects maven and some-time filmmaker George Lucas™ © ® is sensibly defending his final few billion dollars in the face of a cruel onslaught on his Star Wars™ © ® franchise.
George™ © ® has launched a legal case in UK courts against Andrew Ainsworth, the designer behind the original and iconic Stormtrooper™ © ® outfits. In 1976 (a long time ago… etc., etc.) Lucas™ © ® recruited Ralph McQuarrie to draft some pictures of “spooky white space armour” ™ © ®, which he then recruited Ainsworth to bring to life. Ainsworth did as he was told, selling the first 50 helmets for £35 each. Not a bad deal, seeing as the outfits went on to become an integral part of $12 billion merchandising operation™ © ®.
So anyway, while Ainsworth was clearing out his shed or something in 2004 he found one of the original moulds for his (or ‘his’) designs and started producing them again. At which point, the might of the evil empire™ © ® turned up at his door.
Lucas™ © ® successfully sued him in the US for $20 million bucks – enough to keep him in beard trimmers – for breach of copyright, but now he needs a UK court to uphold the injunction. For his part Ainsworth is trying to – wait for it – Strike Back™ © ® (sorry) by counter-suing for a share of the licensing lolly.
The story is all over the internet (yeah, yeah, we’re a bit behind the curve – we have a magazine to make. Sue us. No don’t!) but you can check it out here if you like.
Here’s hoping the case runs and runs – anything that distracts Lucas™ © ® from filmmaking has to be for the best.
Lucas is a greedy man. This case just proves what we all knew already and sheds light on the real motivation for the “prequels”.
No, not a creative urge to finish telling a story, but a grubby little desire to squeeze every single dollar out of misguided fans…
Written by Graham on April 14th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
This makes me even gladder I’m one of the few people who has zero interest in the Star Wars films. Well, once I reached puberty anyway.
Written by Payne on April 14th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Lucas doesn’t come out of this story well and for many people this will confirm what they already suspected after watching his rotten prequels - that’s he’s all about the money now.
However I saw the trailer for the Clone Wars animation the other day and at first wanted nothing to do with it, but later thought that, as a stand alone cartoon for kids - it doesn’t look that bad - it’s just that it’s got all of Lucas’s baggage attached. If the series turns out to be even half decent though, that’ll probably be despite George’s best efforts, rather than because of them.
Written by Jon on April 15th, 2008 at 9:43 am
The Tartakovsky Star Wars cartoons were pretty great - all the visceral action and spectacle and humour that was missing from the more recent films, and none of the ponderosity.
Obviously Lucas is a greed sunuvabitch, and this guy shouldn’t be sued for millions of $$$, but at the same time, it was a bit idiotic of him to start producing/selling these things again.
Written by Graimito on April 25th, 2008 at 12:51 pm