Well! I want to thank you all for your enthusiastic response to this latest update! This is one which I've been planning for quite some time - perhaps the first really potent shocker since the now-infamous Humphrey Revelation from way back when. (And to my delight, the wonderful custodians of my TV Tropes thread caught on to my intent.) Many of you are already outlining your predictions for the future of both Paramount and Lucasfilm as a result of this verdict, which are great fun to read. Obviously I won't confirm or deny anything in particular, other than to remind you that this saga will have two more parts - and those of you with a passing knowledge of the judicial system in the United States should be able to connect the dots on that point alone. In any event, that said, as always, the time has come for me to respond to your comments...
I must admit that I didn't think that the slang meaning of "Birds" was well enough known Stateside for the pun to work. Since both you and e of pi say that it is, obviously I'll take your word for it. It makes
Birds of Baltimore a good cultural translation of
The Liver Birds (in fact almost
too good for Hollywood
).
I'm sure they'll screw it up somehow
Oh, you two
But in all seriousness: shows crossing the Pond have had such a hit-and-miss record IOTL, it really does seem to be dumb luck as to whether each one succeeds or fails. However, I've usually found that those which were, in fact, successful were able to find their own niche distinct from their parent program. And lest we forget, not a few shows have crossed the Pond in the other direction, and
far less often with positive results. For every
Law & Order: UK, there must have been a dozen or so
Brighton Belles.
Amazing what you can get away with when you control the media, isn't it? So much for the Fourth Estate holding the other three accountable...
stevep said:
You also hint that, it being an election year, there will be some unforeseen consequences. Possibly this will mean a lot of candidates making commitments for legislation to prevent such frauds then seeking ways of wiggling out of it?
I
can tell you that the fallout from Hollywood accounting will lead to it becoming an election issue. Whether any victorious candidates who campaign on a platform of ending the practice then renege on their promise upon taking office is something that will remain to be seen.
Paramount is finished. The only question is who snaps up the remains, and how soon till the other dinosaurs collapse.
I admire the boldness of your claim, but don't forget that Paramount has filed an appeal, which it could very well win (or at least
drastically reduce the damages it owes).
You've made a great wrong in the worse, the timeline would have been better if Paramount would have won and leave Lucas kicked out of Journey of the Force(as OTL the was the only responsible of Star Wars Fiasco)... But the trial was Amazing and kudos to Andrew T(you're a lawyer) because the trial was so realistic and all, even the verdict.
Thank you, Nivek, but I feel that you're being unfair to George - he hasn't yet... "matured" into the character whom I call
Jorge, the man wholly responsible for the prequels. And he won't ever become so, for as long as he continues to accept criticism and challenge from others (particularly Marcia, who alone could talk him out of a bad idea).
Nivek said:
So the Paramount is now in life support? maybe Sony will goes and buy the scraps of the company?(and what will Sony do here? will buy Columbia as OTL?)
Sony did not purchase Columbia Pictures until 1991 IOTL, and recall that, at this point (IOTL
and ITTL), they still have the Betamax years to get through.
But Marcia is now there to restrain him, and has IIRC more creative veto than OTL.
An excellent observation, Francisco. Beyond her
own narrative arc, Marcia
also functions as a ballast to her husband George, the solid ground to his flights of fancy.
Now why would an electronics company buy a movie studio? That's the one thing I don't get.
Sony had aspirations to form a media empire as far back as the era of the POD, in fact, forming what would eventually become Sony Music in
1968, and then diversifying into home video with Betamax, and then buying the MGM Studios in 1989, and Columbia in 1991. At the same time, they formed a lopsided partnership with Nintendo in the video games industry - fortunately, Nintendo cottoned on to them, but alas, Sony then decided to go it alone and were very successful in doing so. So it's something that happened gradually, over a long period of time, and (as Nivek points out) can be attributed to a change in the corporate culture at Sony.
Anyways, great update, Brainbin! Someone should turn that into a film or TV series.
Thank you, Dan! There's actually a pretty good chance that we could see a "Trial of the Century" television movie - though I imagine those producing it would be
far less concerned with legal accuracy than I was in writing the actual update
(No doubt our friend Taylor - who doesn't much care for legal dramas - would be most displeased.)
It's obviously going to be a while before the Lucases see any of the money - assuming that they don't lose on appeal somewhere down the line. They're also still going to be blackballed by the large Hollywood studios; The court case has effectively indicted all of the studios for their creative accounting practices.
Very well said, Nigel. By no means is this over - not by a longshot. Even though the Lucases may have won their very own Battle of Yavin, the rebellion continues.
NCW8 said:
In any case, I would expect that Paramount (or whoever buys them) will still own the copyright on Journey of the Force. It's quite likely that they will not be in the mood to make a sequel and they definitely won't be involving either George or Marcia in the production if they do make more movies.
Well, the rights to
Journey of the Force will have a monetary value in and of themselves, don't forget. George has enough pride that, if Paramount ends up owing even a token sum to Lucasfilm at the conclusion of the appeals process, he'd almost certainly be willing to accept owning
Journey of the Force in lieu of the equivalent value in cash.
NCW8 said:
I wonder if George might decide that his career would progress better overseas. He might end up making a film at Elstree after all. He could even write some scripts for the BBC as a freelancer. Would he write SF for
Doctor Who or
Blake's 7 or would he be more interested in straight Drama ?
Play for Today was still going strong and that might give him a platform.
I
really don't see that happening, to be honest. George Lucas
really does not strike me as a freelance teleplay writer. Even if he did, remember that Marcia is working at Desilu Post-Production in Los Angeles, and the two of them would become separated for long stretches of time if he were to work in England, and he'd be away from his daughter.
NCW8 said:
I can't wait to see what sketch show comedians make of the trial. Imagine a court room scene populated with characters from Journey of the Force. The Empire is suing the Rebellion for intellectual property theft, trespass and malicious damage ...
I like that idea a lot! And maybe one of them could end with Captain Kirk and the crew of the
Enterprise interrupting the trial?
A great and unorthodox twist to the TL. I wonder what projects Lucas will pursue in the future, it's likely this experience will have an effect on him. For example, in any future dystopian works a la THX-1138 he might push the 'all-powerful evil corporation' angle a bit more, albeit hopefully more subtly than in the Star Wars prequels.
Thank you, Thande, and you're absolutely right. An elephant never forgets, and neither does George Lucas!
Thande said:
One hopes that Lucas' company also goes into videogames in TTL as well, albeit perhaps not in the same way...
Well, Lucasfilm needs to make money
somehow, right? And Marcia
does have an in with TWR, who has the deal going with Syzygy...
I'm glad that you liked that
And that somebody commented on it - including that line was originally a joke by
e of pi. He quoted that as I was writing Taylor's lines in the previous paragraph (about how low the odds were) - and with his encouragement, I wrote George's impassioned (by his standards, anyway) speech around the line.
nixonshead said:
A fascinating and highly entertaining read. Also a very topical one w.r.t. massive corporations that somehow manage to operate for years whilst reporting nothing but losses at the end of every tax year. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...
I'm glad you enjoyed it, nixonshead! As you point out, Hollywood studios certainly aren't the only ones who play games with their bottom line - but sadly, they're the only ones who
are allowed to so brazenly continue doing so, without any repercussions. At least those
other companies which are caught get a slap on the wrist!
Very interesting spin. This is going to have big effects going forward...
Thank you, vultan, and that is certainly a
massive understatement...
Why can't Desilu buy a bankrupt Paramount, and get back in the movie business?
Desilu was never
in the movie business. They're strictly a television outfit - the studio was formed to produce
I Love Lucy. Desilu
Post-Production does editing and effects work for movie studios, that's all. Not to mention, they've been
phenomenally successful sticking to television and its ancillary revenue streams - why bother getting into movies?
That would depend on whether Lucy could afford it in light of already expanding her post-production side recently.
Glad you're still reading, drakensis! You raise an excellent point. In fact, TWR also has
plans for some of the surplus money she's been accumulating, which you will discover in very short order. But they're certainly
far less expensive than buying out a movie studio would be - I don't think that's too much of a spoiler.
Excellent stuff. The more I learn about Hollywood Accounting, the more amazed I am that an equivalent Trial of the Century never happened IOTL. Yes, there have been lawsuits (Stan Lee vs Marvel over the Spider-Man movie, for example), but nothing I can think of that grabbed the headlines and made everyone say "They're doing what?"
Thank you, Daibhid - and of course, you're absolutely right. But when every studio is part of various conglomerations that control all the means of disseminating this information - which run the gamut across the entire political spectrum, from hard-left to hard-right - it's not surprising that you can only find useful information about Hollywood accounting practices in sources outside the mainstream media. Back in the late-1970s, conglomeration was not nearly as complete as it is today - all three networks were still unaffiliated with any of the movie studios, for instance, and the independently-owned newspapers of the era all had much larger circulations - which allows for the "Trial of the Century" to be an actual
story which is thoroughly covered (and dissected, and repudiated, etc., etc.) Today? The story wouldn't stand a chance of getting proper coverage.
