Privately, however, Guinness had dismissed the script to friends as “fairy tale rubbish” before accepting the part for which he will forever be best remembered. He only did so after 20th Century Fox agreed to his demand that they double the initial offer ($150,000) and — rather ingeniously — tack on 2 percent of the backend grosses, with Lucas throwing in another .25 percent as a goodwill gesture once filming had wrapped.

 

On June 3: “Am pinning my hopes on Star Wars percentage which could bring me £100,000 or more if it does Jaws business, as predicted.”

 

The film..., grossing over $300 million in its initial release — earning Guinness more than $7 million immediately ($33 million today) and an estimated $95 million by the time of his death in 2000 at 86. Despite that unheard-of salary for what amounted to 20 minutes of screen time, Guinness was reluctant to come back for a sequel.

how bout avatar: the last airbender for lucas, the animated show not the movie?

Art and money. Value and worth. How does art get from studio to museum? Journey back to the early sixties, to the beginning of the market for contemporary art, when the art dealer and tastemaker Dick Bellamy (1927-1998) made history but chose not to make money. At the fabled Green Gallery on Fifty-Seventh Street, Bellamy launched the careers of Pop, Op and conceptual artists, as well as mavericks and minimalists, artists such as Claes Oldenburg and James Rosenquist, Donald Judd and Dan Flavin, Mark di Suvero and Lucas Samaras, and Robert Morris and Larry Poons. The story of Dick Bellamy, a beatnik with a legendary eye, unfolds as postmodernism elbowed the past aside.

someone want to bullet point this for me? lucas, maybe? youre a big boy now.

time to step it up, lucas.

Our friend Megan, who runs Marble Valley Farm, told us an interesting story the other day. Her tomato plants are infested with tomato hornworm. This has always been a very difficult infestation for her to deal with (she is totally organic, so can't just drop death spray on them.) But after much research she came across a brief mention on the internet of using a black light in order to find them. She consulted several of her farmer friends and all were skeptical of this technique since none had heard of it before. Still, out of desperation, she made a trip to Spencer Gifts at the local mall, bought a black light, and went out into the fields with it that night. Amazingly, the black light light up the bugs perfectly. She said it was like picking lights off a Christmas tree. In a few hours they picked over a thousand hornworms off the plants (over 10 pounds!) And thus the tomato crop was saved.

One of her hippie workers fried one up and ate it, claiming it was "not too bad". Lucas was unsure of this verdict.

In one of the most unexpected news stories in recent memory Disney has just purchased Lucasfilm , for $4.05 billion—a business deal that will spur the creation of more Star Wars movies, beginning with the release of Star Wars: Episode 7 targeted for 2015.

apparently george lucas needed some extra dough to finance red tails.

who says hollywood is out of fresh ideas?
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"The original "Star Wars" and its sequels are echo chambers of tropes and images from literary science fiction, used in ways that strike a careful balance between affectionate familiarity and outright plagiarism. The first glimpse of Luke Skywalker's desert homeworld, Tatooine, evokes the setting of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel "Dune"; Lucas even throws in a shot of a skeletal desert serpent reminiscent of Herbert's gigantic sandworms. The amazing visuals suggest an eye nourished by the magazine art of Frank R. Paul, John Schoenherr, Kelly Freas and Chesley Bonestell."

will harry potter melt the titanic or can george lucas make a movie that we all want to see? and what do the sci-fiers make of this spielberg project? i have a feeling this soundtrack will outsell the movie. maybe the movie was made just to push the cd.

20th Century Fox has set the U.S. release of "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" for Thursday, May 16 -- "one day earlier than expected" (Variety).

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" will open this weekend "on an historic 7,000-plus screens" (Variety).

Anybody care to comment on the prospects for future film technology? This story has Qualcomm and Technicolor teaming up to foot the bill for initial installation of digital projectors in theatres nation wide (in exchange for a future percent of profits.) I seem to remember a story about Hughes offering a similar deal (becasue they own the satellites which would be delivering the content to these digital theatres.) I can't find the link to that one now, mabe they are part of the Qualcomm Technicolor coalition. I know Lucas screened the Phantom Menance at a couple of digital theatres using the Texas Instruments digital projector. Reviews I read were sharply mixed with the digital crowd being totally wowed, and the analog cinema crowd basically seeing the digital demon as the end of art as we know it.

Roger Ebert (what's the take on this guy?) is pretty convinced that digital is a no go:

"I have seen the future of the cinema, and it is not digital. No matter what you've read, the movie theater of the future will not use digital video projectors, and it will not beam the signal down from satellites. It will use film, and the film will be right there in the theater with you.

He goes on to describe MaxiVision48 a new 48 frames per second analog film technology that is described as 500 times "better" (whatever that means) than old 24 fps film, OR digital, "take your pick."

I've shot a bunch of miniDV footage, and while it is quite sharp, this is almost a criticism when compared to the gorgeous look an expert (like, say, Steve) can get with decades old super8. So what's the deal? Does a new analog technology (like MaxiVision48) really have a chance? Or are we going to be watching all the big hits on digital projectors in the next year or two? Or will 24 fps trudge on by default? Does it matter? Will the resolution on digital simply get so high that any of these other technologies can just be simulated (right down to imitating specific types of film stock, or specific personalities of different camera equipment?)