Post by Falconer on Oct 15, 2010 14:15:58 GMT -6
Interesting quotes from the book, The Making of The Empire Strikes Back:
Many potential problems loomed, not least of which was that his visual effects company, Industrial Light & Magic, had ceased to be upon the release of Star Wars. Not a single employee of ILM was on the payroll as of June 1977. Those men and women had of course sought work elsewhere. Many former key members had simply reorganized in the facility's original warehouse in Van Nuys, forming Apogee, whose founding members were: John Dykstra, Grant McCune, Bob Shepherd, Richard Alexander, Alvah Miller, Lorne Peterson, and Richard Edlund.
"Right after Star Wars came out, there was a period where George didn't know what to do," model maker Steve Gawley says. "He owned the equipment. But in the meantime, he didn't need it, as far as I understand. And so the same group of folks got back together and rented the equipment, and we made a television miniseries for Universal called Galactica."
"They rented the equipment back to John Dykstra," says model maker
Lorne Peterson of the effects supervisor on Star Wars. "And so we were doing
Galactica. Dykstra and Apogee ran their group as a cooperative. They all shared in responsibility and shared in profits equally. At least, I think it was equally. I also had my own really small company. We were struggling and then we were also working on Galactica."
"We got hornswoggled into doing this project with Glen Larson for Universal, the Galactica," says Edlund.
"Glen Larson came in to ILM, the old ILM in Van Nuys, after George had moved out," says art director Joe Johnston. "But all the people were still there and he hired the entire group, including me, to design, build, and photograph all these visual effects."
"I left ILM and then it turned into Apogee and they were doing Galactica," says Ken Ralston, assistant cameraman. "I got on two smaller films that never saw the light of day. But I learned a lot during that time, six months on one that was a disaster, but you have to learn those things." '
While not everyone at the former ILM stayed at Van Nuys—special effects photographer Dennis Muren had departed in March 1977 to work on Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which was released in November—the reality was that Lucas was going to have to start a visual effects company for a second time if he wanted to make a second Star Wars. And the Galactica project was going to be a thorn in his side for some time to come.
As Lucas began preproduction on the sequel, one collaborator was of paramount importance: production illustrator Ralph McQuarrie. But he, too, had begun working for Universal. He had met with Glen Larson, the producer of Galactica, back on June 16 and 17. Thanks to his work on Star Wars, McQuarrie's exceptional talents had been very much in demand by a variety of filmmakers, from Douglas Trumbull at Future General, who was working on Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters; to the producers of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979); to publishers eager to make Star Wars books featuring McQuarrie artwork on the cover.
On July 20, McQuarrie noted in his calendar, "George says we'll go to England again. S.W. 11" But his July and August days were dominated by the Universal project, with McQuarrie doing illustrations for Larson's 500-page script, which was titled, Galactica: Saga of a Star World and dated August 30, 1977. Not long afterward, Universal sent the script to Lucas for perusal, already aware that its project was similar to his. After reading it, Lucas asked them not to call it Star World; not to use the names Starbuck and Skyler; not to call robots "droids"; and so on.
"It was a problem for George," McQuarrie says, "because they had an emperor, stormtroopers, rocket fighters; they had a lot of things that figured in Star Wars, and it was beginning to look like a Star Wars rip-off."
"I thought the series, especially the two-hour pilot, was very derivative of Star Wars," Joe Johnston would say.
The show's title was changed to Battlestar Galactica, but many other changes were not made. While Lucas prepared to hire McQuarrie and other former ILMers off that project, he also knew he would have to replace some of his special effects personnel, notably John Dykstra, with whom he had a difficult working relationship on Star Wars.
"I think we would have gotten rid of him except for the fact that there were about five key people that worked directly with John and were very close friends of his," Lucas says. "We felt we only had half the time we needed to finish the movie. If we had lost five or six of our key people at that point, it would have been really disastrous. But there were some very upsetting times, a lot of yelling and screaming going on."
On December 8, 1977, Fox lawyers sent a letter to MCA, the parent company of Universal and ABC, asking them to halt production of Battlestar Galactica, referring specifically to work being done at the "ILM facility." MCA refused.
Last but not least for the busy month of June, Twentieth Century-Fox commenced civil action against MCA, Universal, and ABC, charging the three companies with having infringed upon its Star Wars copyright with their TV show Battlestar Galactica.
"We all felt that Battlestar was a rip-off of Star Wars," says Kazanjian. "And we immediately sued Universal Studios because not only were they copying Star Wars, they were using ILM's equipment on Battlestar Galactica.
It was up to me at a certain point to say, 'We now need the equipment back.' They knew they didn't have it forever, but I had to get it out of that plant, get it away from Los Angeles, and take it up north."
"It made us all feel like traitors because we had done the work," Johnston says. "We all felt like we were betraying George, but he didn't hold it against us."
"There's a line between just doing something similar and doing something that is trying to copy it directly, especially when you move it to a different medium," says Lucas. "People felt something like Battlestar Galactica was a television version of Star Wars; it was the same thing and they tried to sell it like it was the same thing, as if I had made it. Not only does it upset me because I didn't think the quality was very good, but it also upsets me because, if I wanted to do a TV series of Star Wars, I couldn't. They've already spoiled the television market."
"There's no question it's a very big gamble," says Glen Larson, producer of Battlestar Galactica, "and we are very vulnerable."
...MCA and Universal countersued Fox in November, and Galactica was an ongoing sore spot as Empire evolved. "They had done a show which was based on a snow planet," says Bruce Nicholson. "So George was upset that they had ripped him off, which they probably did, and there was a lawsuit. I remember him talking about that when we first came up to ILM."
The Battlestar Galactica lawsuit took longer to play out. On October 2, 1980, US District Judge Irving Hill threw out Fox's case. On May 8, 1981, the countersuit, pitting MCA and Universal against Fox, was thrown out in turn. In early 1983, the US Court of Appeals ruled that Fox's case "should be settled in a courtroom," according to a United Press article in which the court said, "After reviewing the Star Wars and Battlestar motion pictures, we conclude that the films do in fact raise genuine issues of material fact as to whether only the Star Wars idea or the expression of that idea was copied."
On November 18, 1983, an Agreement for Settlement of Lawsuit and Release was agreed upon and, on March 5, 1984, a $225,000 settlement was paid to Twentieth Century-Fox.
"Right after Star Wars came out, there was a period where George didn't know what to do," model maker Steve Gawley says. "He owned the equipment. But in the meantime, he didn't need it, as far as I understand. And so the same group of folks got back together and rented the equipment, and we made a television miniseries for Universal called Galactica."
"They rented the equipment back to John Dykstra," says model maker
Lorne Peterson of the effects supervisor on Star Wars. "And so we were doing
Galactica. Dykstra and Apogee ran their group as a cooperative. They all shared in responsibility and shared in profits equally. At least, I think it was equally. I also had my own really small company. We were struggling and then we were also working on Galactica."
"We got hornswoggled into doing this project with Glen Larson for Universal, the Galactica," says Edlund.
"Glen Larson came in to ILM, the old ILM in Van Nuys, after George had moved out," says art director Joe Johnston. "But all the people were still there and he hired the entire group, including me, to design, build, and photograph all these visual effects."
"I left ILM and then it turned into Apogee and they were doing Galactica," says Ken Ralston, assistant cameraman. "I got on two smaller films that never saw the light of day. But I learned a lot during that time, six months on one that was a disaster, but you have to learn those things." '
While not everyone at the former ILM stayed at Van Nuys—special effects photographer Dennis Muren had departed in March 1977 to work on Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which was released in November—the reality was that Lucas was going to have to start a visual effects company for a second time if he wanted to make a second Star Wars. And the Galactica project was going to be a thorn in his side for some time to come.
As Lucas began preproduction on the sequel, one collaborator was of paramount importance: production illustrator Ralph McQuarrie. But he, too, had begun working for Universal. He had met with Glen Larson, the producer of Galactica, back on June 16 and 17. Thanks to his work on Star Wars, McQuarrie's exceptional talents had been very much in demand by a variety of filmmakers, from Douglas Trumbull at Future General, who was working on Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters; to the producers of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979); to publishers eager to make Star Wars books featuring McQuarrie artwork on the cover.
On July 20, McQuarrie noted in his calendar, "George says we'll go to England again. S.W. 11" But his July and August days were dominated by the Universal project, with McQuarrie doing illustrations for Larson's 500-page script, which was titled, Galactica: Saga of a Star World and dated August 30, 1977. Not long afterward, Universal sent the script to Lucas for perusal, already aware that its project was similar to his. After reading it, Lucas asked them not to call it Star World; not to use the names Starbuck and Skyler; not to call robots "droids"; and so on.
"It was a problem for George," McQuarrie says, "because they had an emperor, stormtroopers, rocket fighters; they had a lot of things that figured in Star Wars, and it was beginning to look like a Star Wars rip-off."
"I thought the series, especially the two-hour pilot, was very derivative of Star Wars," Joe Johnston would say.
The show's title was changed to Battlestar Galactica, but many other changes were not made. While Lucas prepared to hire McQuarrie and other former ILMers off that project, he also knew he would have to replace some of his special effects personnel, notably John Dykstra, with whom he had a difficult working relationship on Star Wars.
"I think we would have gotten rid of him except for the fact that there were about five key people that worked directly with John and were very close friends of his," Lucas says. "We felt we only had half the time we needed to finish the movie. If we had lost five or six of our key people at that point, it would have been really disastrous. But there were some very upsetting times, a lot of yelling and screaming going on."
On December 8, 1977, Fox lawyers sent a letter to MCA, the parent company of Universal and ABC, asking them to halt production of Battlestar Galactica, referring specifically to work being done at the "ILM facility." MCA refused.
Last but not least for the busy month of June, Twentieth Century-Fox commenced civil action against MCA, Universal, and ABC, charging the three companies with having infringed upon its Star Wars copyright with their TV show Battlestar Galactica.
"We all felt that Battlestar was a rip-off of Star Wars," says Kazanjian. "And we immediately sued Universal Studios because not only were they copying Star Wars, they were using ILM's equipment on Battlestar Galactica.
It was up to me at a certain point to say, 'We now need the equipment back.' They knew they didn't have it forever, but I had to get it out of that plant, get it away from Los Angeles, and take it up north."
"It made us all feel like traitors because we had done the work," Johnston says. "We all felt like we were betraying George, but he didn't hold it against us."
"There's a line between just doing something similar and doing something that is trying to copy it directly, especially when you move it to a different medium," says Lucas. "People felt something like Battlestar Galactica was a television version of Star Wars; it was the same thing and they tried to sell it like it was the same thing, as if I had made it. Not only does it upset me because I didn't think the quality was very good, but it also upsets me because, if I wanted to do a TV series of Star Wars, I couldn't. They've already spoiled the television market."
"There's no question it's a very big gamble," says Glen Larson, producer of Battlestar Galactica, "and we are very vulnerable."
...MCA and Universal countersued Fox in November, and Galactica was an ongoing sore spot as Empire evolved. "They had done a show which was based on a snow planet," says Bruce Nicholson. "So George was upset that they had ripped him off, which they probably did, and there was a lawsuit. I remember him talking about that when we first came up to ILM."
The Battlestar Galactica lawsuit took longer to play out. On October 2, 1980, US District Judge Irving Hill threw out Fox's case. On May 8, 1981, the countersuit, pitting MCA and Universal against Fox, was thrown out in turn. In early 1983, the US Court of Appeals ruled that Fox's case "should be settled in a courtroom," according to a United Press article in which the court said, "After reviewing the Star Wars and Battlestar motion pictures, we conclude that the films do in fact raise genuine issues of material fact as to whether only the Star Wars idea or the expression of that idea was copied."
On November 18, 1983, an Agreement for Settlement of Lawsuit and Release was agreed upon and, on March 5, 1984, a $225,000 settlement was paid to Twentieth Century-Fox.
