Gone The New Hope

I think that Guiness would do the reshoots, yes. It would Be unprofessional Not to.
He might Be very reluctant to do more than Extended cameos in the following Films. As soon As this becomes apparent, Lucas might find it most convenient to kill the character off....heroically and Not without having told solo where to find another Jedi in hiding...

You're close. ITTL Guinness has more respect for Lucas, Ford, and the franchise in general and is never ashamed of his involvement. The lack of Kenobi's death, the real life death of Hamill, the overall improvement of the original film and the increased box office, as well as the casting of some highly respected actors in the next installment all serve to make Guinness' relationship with SW one that is much improved from OTL.

I haven't commented on this in a while, but I'm just bumping this thread in order to express my continuing interest.

Thanks a lot, friend! I may need a little more Academy Award help in the near future so be prepared for an inbox if you're interested.

I have a miniature teaser update prepared for the next hour or so and would welcome notes on what I'm proposing.

This teaser will include statements from Francis Ford Coppola about a cabal of filmmakers, record producers, game and special effects developers and engineers, as well as actors who unite to form a multimedia and multi-purpose production and effects company helmed by Lucas, Spielberg, and Coppola who enter the eighties more successful, more respected, and unlike OTL united...

I've done a lot of research to make sure this idea is valid and from what I've found, it is, although I take some license with people involved and, of course, the name of the company itself in order to further promote the premise of wanking New Hollywood, George Lucas, Harrison Ford, and comic book, fantasy, and science fiction media.

However, if anybody finds it too much of a stretch (and can convince me) I'll either revamp or alter.

Keep your eyes open for the update tonight.
 
“A lot of people assume that before we bought United Artists, Solofilm was little more than a merger of Lucasfilm and American Zoetrope that would also include Harrison Ford, Frank Marshall, Alan Ladd Jr., David Geffen, and Steven Spielberg, but it was a little more complicated than that. Those companies and people owned Solofilm but our separate companies remained intact as effectively semi-independent subsidiaries of Solofilm, allowing us to effectively share and utilize the technology, money, studios, and wisdom of our peers to excel in our work. George Lucas and Lucasfilm owned most of the company, obviously, and he would serve as CEO but it was pretty democratic since we all invested heavily into the project – to the extent that we effectively merged large portions of our companies and stock into Solofilm.


Those of us that typified what they called 'New Hollywood' were all very good long time friends who wanted to work together independent of the major studio system. We were all very successful so that helped, of course. It was to be a privately run film and television production studio, record company, publisher, video game company, and multimedia technology developer also focusing on special effects and sound. Solofilm would be able to augment the budgets of films we were making or wanted to help get made, and to a lesser degree augment the distribution but really we were an add-on to other studios in order to make potential good films better and support one another with money, technology, and guidance all in house.


Lucas built the Solofilm Studios' compound and headquarters on his new land, Skywalker Ranch but we had an office in the Sentinel Building in San Francisco When the opportunity arose to buy United Artists we jumped on it, although in hindsight it might have been a big risk. George became head of both Solofilm Studios and United Artists in one fell swoop and subsequently merged those companies into Solo United and we signed a very limited distribution deal with MGM. Me, Steven, and George were the majority owners and directors of Solo United with George as the head, David was in charge of the music division, Frank Marshall in charge of production, and Harrison, although like Ron Howard he was for all intents and purposes simply a board member and investor with a pretty minority share, became the face and spokesman for the company.


We suddenly had a lot of film rights we had never imagined obtaining, Beatles films, Pink Panther, the Rocky Franchise, and of course James Bond. All of these franchises were now owned by us and at this point we hadn't even bought back the Tolkien rights from Zaentz yet. This is how, in my opinion, the eighties came to be the flourishing decade of film and of course, tremendous amounts of financial and critical success that we eventually experienced. There was a lot of talk about what the flagship SU film would be other than the obvious 'big two' of Rebellion and Raiders. Harrison Ford had become an enormous fan and fast friend of Ridley Scott who was working on Dune and he wanted to enlist Solo United's help on that project which was derailing...”



  • Francis Ford Coppola




“I was brand new to Marvel at that time and focusing on 'Daredevil' which was a favorite of mine. The series had a bump in popularity after I came on board, but it was very slight. I was approached to develop a mini-series based on 'Splinter of the Mind's Eye' by Alan Dean Foster which was very nearly a bestseller – almost as popular as the Star Wars novelization. I was a little skeptical about writing and drawing Star Wars for Marvel but I liked Han Solo and so I agreed. That was the beginning of the roller coaster for me. The comic was successful enough for me to be asked to do a kind of darker series on a young Han Solo and I got to work pretty closely with Lucas on that. The popularity of that series is pretty well-known by now so I won't go into it but long story short, Solo United contacted me with the idea of developing a Batman script...”



  • Frank Miller





“I wasn't so sure I wanted to do Batman because I was pretty busy and I didn't want to do any more costume stuff. Solo United was going to do it with Warner Brothers and CBS with Guy Hamilton at that time interested in directing. When Rebellion ended up finishing ahead of schedule I had some time between that and Raiders of the Lost Ark to fill and I vacationed a little and handled some business. I asked to read the script that Frank Miller and Michael Uslan had come up with and I was pretty shocked and impressed. It was extremely dark, intelligent, and unique, even the traces of humor were pretty black. It looked like a very physical film and the way it went back and forth from a powerful origin story in flashbacks to a surprisingly interesting modern day 'mafia infiltrating defense satellites' story was intriguing to me. I accepted on the condition that I could co-produce.”



  • Harrison Ford






“Hamilton eventually turned down the film, but expressed interest in co-directing a crossover with 'Superman' if the film was a hit. I didn't really want to do it at first; I had other projects I was interested in but George insisted, telling me he'd always wanted to see what I could do with sci-fi. I liked the script and was familiar with the motif and themes if not the genre. So myself and Ridley Scott were racing to finish pre-production with me on 'Batman' and him on 'Dune'. Meanwhile, George and Steven were finishing up filming 'Raiders'. It was interesting because Ridley Scott and myself shared both producers and conceptual artists. We both were using the team of Ralph McQuarrie and H. R. Giger for our concepts. It was during pre-production that we realized the system we set up when we agreed to form Solofilm was a good one. We had three major motion pictures being developed simultaneously with very little stress and we were thriving as a studio and as a community.”



  • Francis Ford Coppola
 
My mind = blown...
Seriously, Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Indiana Jones AND Batman! Now the last thing for him to do is becoming U.S. president outside of the movies and he would be the most recognized individual on the PLANET! Wow...
 
You say Ridley Scott's making Dune. Hmm... so how's Alien gone down?

In addition, I wonder: if Star Trek: The Motion Picture is anywhere near as disappointing as OTL, perhaps Paramount could be convinced to sell the rights to that franchise...
 
Great to see this back! And with a bang, too! Despite the relative brevity of the post, there's a good deal to discuss...

“A lot of people assume that before we bought United Artists, Solofilm was little more than a merger of Lucasfilm and American Zoetrope that would also include Harrison Ford, Frank Marshall, Alan Ladd Jr., David Geffen, and Steven Spielberg, but it was a little more complicated than that. Those companies and people owned Solofilm but our separate companies remained intact as effectively semi-independent subsidiaries of Solofilm, allowing us to effectively share and utilize the technology, money, studios, and wisdom of our peers to excel in our work. George Lucas and Lucasfilm owned most of the company, obviously, and he would serve as CEO but it was pretty democratic since we all invested heavily into the project – to the extent that we effectively merged large portions of our companies and stock into Solofilm.
The "New Hollywood" generation pooling their resources together into a megacorp is a logical conclusion of the mega-success of Star Wars, IOTL and ITTL. And Lucasfilm - though largely a solo effort by the Lucases, with their other New Hollywood brethren serving largely as outside consultants - did very well for itself IOTL, though obviously it was marred by the emerging of the infamous Jorge hubris ("I can do everything all by myself, with no input from anyone else"). Their decision to purchase United Artists - which, ironically, was driven into ruin by another notorious case of New Hollywood hubris, Heaven's Gate - is a very sound one, and poetically appropriate, given its origins as an independent studio founded by three of the biggest luminaries of their day (D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and some fourth guy who nobody remembers).

TheInfiniteApe said:
Those of us that typified what they called 'New Hollywood' were all very good long time friends who wanted to work together independent of the major studio system. We were all very successful so that helped, of course. It was to be a privately run film and television production studio, record company, publisher, video game company, and multimedia technology developer also focusing on special effects and sound. Solofilm would be able to augment the budgets of films we were making or wanted to help get made, and to a lesser degree augment the distribution but really we were an add-on to other studios in order to make potential good films better and support one another with money, technology, and guidance all in house.

Lucas built the Solofilm Studios' compound and headquarters on his new land, Skywalker Ranch but we had an office in the Sentinel Building in San Francisco When the opportunity arose to buy United Artists we jumped on it, although in hindsight it might have been a big risk. George became head of both Solofilm Studios and United Artists in one fell swoop and subsequently merged those companies into Solo United and we signed a very limited distribution deal with MGM. Me, Steven, and George were the majority owners and directors of Solo United with George as the head, David was in charge of the music division, Frank Marshall in charge of production, and Harrison, although like Ron Howard he was for all intents and purposes simply a board member and investor with a pretty minority share, became the face and spokesman for the company.
Which means that George and Marcia aren't doing everything by themselves. In fact, in this situation, I would imagine that Skywalker Ranch would be much smaller and less intensive in its construction. Perhaps it would be constructed solely as a company retreat and refuge as opposed to the birthing place for big ideas that was intended IOTL. I also notice that everybody else is pitching in on both the creative and the business angles. This allows George and Marcia more time for their home lives, including doting on their adoptive child(ren). All evidence points to Marcia (despite her own very successful and well-regarded career in film editing) wanting to settle down and raise a family once their circumstances were financially stable, so as long as George makes time for that, they should be doing just fine.

TheInfiniteApe said:
“We suddenly had a lot of film rights we had never imagined obtaining, Beatles films, Pink Panther, the Rocky Franchise, and of course James Bond. All of these franchises were now owned by us and at this point we hadn't even bought back the Tolkien rights from Zaentz yet. This is how, in my opinion, the eighties came to be the flourishing decade of film and of course, tremendous amounts of financial and critical success that we eventually experienced. There was a lot of talk about what the flagship SU film would be other than the obvious 'big two' of Rebellion and Raiders. Harrison Ford had become an enormous fan and fast friend of Ridley Scott who was working on Dune and he wanted to enlist Solo United's help on that project which was derailing...”
Great overview of the various properties that UA has at its disposal. I'll touch on them briefly, and their status at the time of the sale (assuming it happened in 1981, as IOTL):

  • The Beatles: The Sgt. Pepper musical film bombed in 1978, and of course Lennon was assassinated in 1980. Hard to exploit this property further.
  • The Pink Panther: Sellers died in 1980, and every attempt to revive the franchise in live-action form since has met with critical or audience scorn.
  • Rocky: The two Rocky films with the greatest impact on popular culture - III and IV, both of which helped to define the 1980s - have yet to be released. Rocky III came out in 1982, and was filmed in the summer of 1981. Who knows what might change here? No "Eye of the Tiger"? No Hulk Hogan? No Mr. T? :eek:
  • James Bond: For Your Eyes Only, generally regarded as the last decent outing for 007 as played by Roger Moore, was released in 1981. The famed "Battle of the Bonds" is on the way, with Kevin McClory finally able to produce his version of the Thunderball film in 1983, starring (of course) Sean Connery as 007, and going head-to-head with the official EON release, Octopussy. There's a lot of room for changing the finer details of both films' development ITTL, especially since Solo United has at their disposal a director who has always wanted to helm a Bond picture...
I'll assume that the Coppola quote is heavily abridged. He is incapable of speaking without rambling :p

TheInfiniteApe said:
“I was brand new to Marvel at that time and focusing on 'Daredevil' which was a favorite of mine. The series had a bump in popularity after I came on board, but it was very slight. I was approached to develop a mini-series based on 'Splinter of the Mind's Eye' by Alan Dean Foster which was very nearly a bestseller – almost as popular as the Star Wars novelization. I was a little skeptical about writing and drawing Star Wars for Marvel but I liked Han Solo and so I agreed. That was the beginning of the roller coaster for me. The comic was successful enough for me to be asked to do a kind of darker series on a young Han Solo and I got to work pretty closely with Lucas on that. The popularity of that series is pretty well-known by now so I won't go into it but long story short, Solo United contacted me with the idea of developing a Batman script...”

“I wasn't so sure I wanted to do Batman because I was pretty busy and I didn't want to do any more costume stuff. Solo United was going to do it with Warner Brothers and CBS with Guy Hamilton at that time interested in directing. When Rebellion ended up finishing ahead of schedule I had some time between that and Raiders of the Lost Ark to fill and I vacationed a little and handled some business. I asked to read the script that Frank Miller and Michael Uslan had come up with and I was pretty shocked and impressed. It was extremely dark, intelligent, and unique, even the traces of humor were pretty black. It looked like a very physical film and the way it went back and forth from a powerful origin story in flashbacks to a surprisingly interesting modern day 'mafia infiltrating defense satellites' story was intriguing to me. I accepted on the condition that I could co-produce.”

Harrison Ford is Batman! With a script written by (then-unknown) Frank Miller! This should prove an intriguing plot development. Especially considering that Ford is, by the early 1980s, approaching 40, and nobody plays world-weary and worn-out better than he does, we'll probably be seeing an older Batman (even if we didn't know that's what Miller likes to write). That also allows them to avoid showing Robin, as in the comics continuity there is still only one Robin (Dick Grayson) at this point, with Robin #2 (Jason Todd) not having been introduced until 1983 (with Grayson becoming Nightwing the following year). And who will be cast as the seemingly-inevitable main villain, the Joker?

The best part of Harrison Ford as Batman is, if he ever confronts the Waynes' murderer, he can shout "You killed my parents!" at them, instead of "You killed my wife!" ;)

TheInfiniteApe said:
“Hamilton eventually turned down the film, but expressed interest in co-directing a crossover with 'Superman' if the film was a hit. I didn't really want to do it at first; I had other projects I was interested in but George insisted, telling me he'd always wanted to see what I could do with sci-fi. I liked the script and was familiar with the motif and themes if not the genre. So myself and Ridley Scott were racing to finish pre-production with me on 'Batman' and him on 'Dune'. Meanwhile, George and Steven were finishing up filming 'Raiders'. It was interesting because Ridley Scott and myself shared both producers and conceptual artists. We both were using the team of Ralph McQuarrie and H. R. Giger for our concepts. It was during pre-production that we realized the system we set up when we agreed to form Solofilm was a good one. We had three major motion pictures being developed simultaneously with very little stress and we were thriving as a studio and as a community.”
Coppola directing, with McQuarrie and Giger working on visuals? Wow, this is going to be a very visually interesting movie...

In addition, I wonder: if Star Trek: The Motion Picture is anywhere near as disappointing as OTL, perhaps Paramount could be convinced to sell the rights to that franchise...
TMP was still a financial success for Paramount, despite a negative overall reception, because hardcore Trekkies went to see it dozens, if not hundreds, of times during its theatrical release. It was the #5 film of 1979 (and by far the highest-grossing for Paramount), and could easily have ranked as high as #2, with only a few million more dollars. That said, executives at Paramount were clever enough to intuit that successive films would have diminishing returns, and saw Star Trek II as their last hurrah. Still, as long as they could limit costs by kicking Roddenberry upstairs, I doubt they'd be willing to pass on the potential for a very substantial profit onto another studio.

Excellent update, TheInfiniteApe! More fascinating webs you're spinning here. I look forward to what you'll come up with next.
 
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Would Solo United be doing a WB property like Batman or Superman? Or, would they be merely doing the effects?

How is this affecting other studios? How is WB? Paramount? Disney? Are they using ILM or trying to do things on their own? (Or both in Disney's case...)
 
Well, that's very interesting! I wonder how the rest of Hollywood will react to this--successful high concept films raking in loads of money is a good reason to start imitating that kind of film. Solofilm can't make everything, nor is Harrison Ford fast enough to star in all the movies ever made. Provided you don't fall into the temptation to let them do that and give some thoughts to how the rest o the industry would adapt, this should be very interesting!

Their decision to purchase United Artists - which, ironically, was driven into ruin by another notorious case of New Hollywood hubris, Heaven's Gate - is a very sound one, and poetically appropriate, given its origins as an independent studio founded by three of the biggest luminaries of their day (D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and some fourth guy who nobody remembers).
Wasn't he a priest or something? I dunno, might as well chuck the entire discussion.
 
My mind = blown...
Seriously, Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Indiana Jones AND Batman! Now the last thing for him to do is becoming U.S. president outside of the movies and he would be the most recognized individual on the PLANET! Wow...

He will be known as Trilogy Man for years ITTL, haha.

You say Ridley Scott's making Dune. Hmm... so how's Alien gone down?

In addition, I wonder: if Star Trek: The Motion Picture is anywhere near as disappointing as OTL, perhaps Paramount could be convinced to sell the rights to that franchise...

In a previous post I showed how both Alien and TMP were significantly more successful ITTL, and to answer your question TMP is slightly better.

IOTL, Ridley Scott inherited Dune from Jodorowsky and planned on doing it in two pictures, but the project derailed when it became clear that the money and time required to complete it would prove prohibitive.

ITTL, with Harrison Ford having formed a good relationship with Ridley Scott (after his relatively minor role as Captain Dallas in Alien) he enlists Solo United to boost the budget, effects, and conceptual design of Scott's Dune (which will NOT feature Harrison Ford), realizing that in the current climate and trends, Dune could be a hit. Lucas and Spielberg are producing Dune and Dino DeLaurentis is EP.

The more gritty urban portions of the film serve as a good visual bridge between Alien and Blade Runner, the battle scenes are reminiscent of the Battle of Algiers, and the desert portions reek of David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia... which is a damn good thing.

Great to see this back! And with a bang, too! TheInfiniteApe: Thanks! Despite the relative brevity of the post, there's a good deal to discuss...

The "New Hollywood" generation pooling their resources together into a megacorp is a logical conclusion of the mega-success of Star Wars, IOTL and ITTL. And Lucasfilm - though largely a solo effort by the Lucases, with their other New Hollywood brethren serving largely as outside consultants - did very well for itself IOTL, though obviously it was marred by the emerging of the infamous Jorge hubris ("I can do everything all by myself, with no input from anyone else"). Their decision to purchase United Artists - which, ironically, was driven into ruin by another notorious case of New Hollywood hubris, Heaven's Gate - is a very sound one, and poetically appropriate, given its origins as an independent studio founded by three of the biggest luminaries of their day (D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and some fourth guy who nobody remembers).

Which means that George and Marcia aren't doing everything by themselves. In fact, in this situation, I would imagine that Skywalker Ranch would be much smaller and less intensive in its construction. Perhaps it would be constructed solely as a company retreat and refuge as opposed to the birthing place for big ideas that was intended IOTL. I also notice that everybody else is pitching in on both the creative and the business angles. This allows George and Marcia more time for their home lives, including doting on their adoptive child(ren). All evidence points to Marcia (despite her own very successful and well-regarded career in film editing) wanting to settle down and raise a family once their circumstances were financially stable, so as long as George makes time for that, they should be doing just fine.

Great overview of the various properties that UA has at its disposal. I'll touch on them briefly, and their status at the time of the sale (assuming it happened in 1981, as IOTL):

  • The Beatles: The Sgt. Pepper musical film bombed in 1978, and of course Lennon was assassinated in 1980. Hard to exploit this property further. TheInfiniteApe: Not necessarily. Lennon hasn't been killed yet...
  • The Pink Panther: Sellers died in 1980, and every attempt to revive the franchise in live-action form since has met with critical or audience scorn. TIA: Indeed. I'm not sure what I'll do with this series, but I would like to do it some justice TTL.
  • Rocky: The two Rocky films with the greatest impact on popular culture - III and IV, both of which helped to define the 1980s - have yet to be released. Rocky III came out in 1982, and was filmed in the summer of 1981. Who knows what might change here? No "Eye of the Tiger"? No Hulk Hogan? No Mr. T? :eek: TIA: Wait and see...
  • James Bond: For Your Eyes Only, generally regarded as the last decent outing for 007 as played by Roger Moore, was released in 1981. The famed "Battle of the Bonds" is on the way, with Kevin McClory finally able to produce his version of the Thunderball film in 1983, starring (of course) Sean Connery as 007, and going head-to-head with the official EON release, Octopussy. There's a lot of room for changing the finer details of both films' development ITTL, especially since Solo United has at their disposal a director who has always wanted to helm a Bond picture... TIA: Spielberg has already directed an insanely successful Bond film TTL, remember. Moonraker was his. He may or may not be done with the franchise, but the eighties are pretty busy for SS.
I'll assume that the Coppola quote is heavily abridged. He is incapable of speaking without rambling :p TIA: I know, right? It was easy to use him for exposition because of this fact. I was having a hard time with how to explain SU, until I realized I had the perfect talker sitting right there as a member of the Holy Trinity of SU.



Harrison Ford is Batman! With a script written by (then-unknown) Frank Miller! This should prove an intriguing plot development. Especially considering that Ford is, by the early 1980s, approaching 40, and nobody plays world-weary and worn-out better than he does, we'll probably be seeing an older Batman (even if we didn't know that's what Miller likes to write). That also allows them to avoid showing Robin, as in the comics continuity there is still only one Robin (Dick Grayson) at this point, with Robin #2 (Jason Todd) not having been introduced until 1983 (with Grayson becoming Nightwing the following year). And who will be cast as the seemingly-inevitable main villain, the Joker?

TIA: This is one that gave me a lot of trouble. WB and CBS ITTL are still pressuring the producers for a "Batman in Space" story, but everyone else is going to want an origin story. By splitting the story between Batman's origin (with a younger actor for at least a quarter of the film) and a current story which calls back to the origin story a la The Godfather Pt. II, I got the opportunity to have Coppola do a good Batman origin film, meets a violent Godfather-esque mafia film, meets a Moonraker-esque science-fiction action flick (the "In Space" portion will be another quarter of the film, tops).

Frank Miller's "flashback origin story" half of the movie is similar to both Batman Begins and Batman: Year One with shades of the 1989 Batman film.

The modern day half of the film is similar to Batman Begins and actually OTL's Ironman, in the sense that Wayne Enterprises is something of a high tech defense contractor working on something eerily prophetic of the Strategic Defense Initiative. They lose control of these incredibly dangerous satellites A powerful crime family is initially blamed on the hijacking, but it turns out that the League of Assassins used the criminal empire to gain access. Batman must travel into LEO to foil the plot in the film's climax.

I won't give too much away but Coppola uses many of the people who worked on The Godfather series to help make his Batman. The score is composed, arranged, and conducted by Carmine Coppola based off of themes written for the film by Nino Rota before his death. The soundtrack is almost entirely by Tom Waits. Mario Puzo served as a consultant on the story and script, specifically the parts involving organized crime. All in all, this is an incredibly Godfather-esque Batman, with the exception of the science fiction climax.

And of course, this means no One From The Heart...

The best part of Harrison Ford as Batman is, if he ever confronts the Waynes' murderer, he can shout "You killed my parents!" at them, instead of "You killed my wife!" ;)

TIA: Haha! Well now that HAS to happen...

Coppola directing, with McQuarrie and Giger working on visuals? Wow, this is going to be a very visually interesting movie...

TIA: Imagining it is delightful.

TMP was still a financial success for Paramount, despite a negative overall reception, because hardcore Trekkies went to see it dozens, if not hundreds, of times during its theatrical release. It was the #5 film of 1979 (and by far the highest-grossing for Paramount), and could easily have ranked as high as #2, with only a few million more dollars. That said, executives at Paramount were clever enough to intuit that successive films would have diminishing returns, and saw Star Trek II as their last hurrah. Still, as long as they could limit costs by kicking Roddenberry upstairs, I doubt they'd be willing to pass on the potential for a very substantial profit onto another studio.

Excellent update, TheInfiniteApe! More fascinating webs you're spinning here. I look forward to what you'll come up with next.

I am so glad you approve!

Would Solo United be doing a WB property like Batman or Superman? Or, would they be merely doing the effects?

How is this affecting other studios? How is WB? Paramount? Disney? Are they using ILM or trying to do things on their own? (Or both in Disney's case...)

That is an excellent series of questions. To answer the first, I'll say something in the middle. WB is working in tandem with CBS Theatrical Films and this is the latter's first film venture. WB and CBS have some rules about the film and they provide a sizable chunk of the budget. SU will be doing the effects of course, but they are the artistic directors of the film (within the limits set forth by WB and CBS, of course) and will contribute to a percentage of the money that goes towards distribution and since Solo United is getting into the home video business post-haste, this will be an investment that pays off.

The second question is easier. They're all doing as well or slightly better than iOTL. ILM is being used by most other studios, including Disney who, as you guessed will be attempting to develop their own technology while using SU's.

ITTL, my bet is on Harrison Ford as Inspector Clouseau. :D

Very funny...:p

No, after the Batman series Harrison Ford won't be any busier than OTL for some time.

Still not sure what to do to improve future attempts at Pink Panther, but I have some ideas...

Well, that's very interesting! I wonder how the rest of Hollywood will react to this--successful high concept films raking in loads of money is a good reason to start imitating that kind of film. Solofilm can't make everything, nor is Harrison Ford fast enough to star in all the movies ever made. Provided you don't fall into the temptation to let them do that and give some thoughts to how the rest o the industry would adapt, this should be very interesting!

Wasn't he a priest or something? I dunno, might as well chuck the entire discussion.

I'm taking care to check Ford's OTL schedule, after Batman there is only one other film series I'm throwing him in (as I hinted at in an earlier update) and IOTL he was already involved in that series. His inclusion in the first film is a departure from OTL and makes the series a true trilogy.

Note too that in the next update I'll be wrapping up the second Star Wars film and explaining how the film took less time to make than OTL. Rebellion is not the hard shoot that OTL's Empire was. Ford's got the time and energy to do the odd Batman flick, in spite of the fact that he's about to get...

...well, you'll see. :D

wow, that was not a tease, that leave demading more.....

Thank you! The eighties are going to rock a lot harder than OTL, that's for sure. Too bad one of our favorite voice actors had to die to make it happen, but a sobering experience like that can change an awful lot of things.

Keep an eye out for new updates this week!

THANK YOU FOR READING!
 
Holy crud, you weren't kidding about this being a Harrison-Ford wank. I love it!

I thought he deserved one. I also wanted to do some wanking of Lucas and New Hollywood, which in turn wanks a lot of other people and movies we like. I'm having fun writing it.

Thanks for loving it!

One big Ford question- will he take up piloting for fun? If so, will he still do volunteer SAR work?

I don't see any way of butterflying it, so yes to both. With a relatively increased schedule he may start slightly later and do less, however.

Hope answers your question!
 
I would like to commend you exploiting the timeline's premise to the fullest. A lot of people don't realize just how devastating it was for Lucasfilm when Marcia divorced George - she took tens of millions of dollars in the settlement! Armed with much more capital, the skies the limit for Lucasfilm (er, Solofilm... personally, I think Lucasfilm-Zoetrope has a nice ring to it, but hey, it's your timeline).

Anyway, it occurs to me that during the late 80's, Lucas was involved in producing three movies that were supposed to be huge hits, but they ended up being terrible to mediocre. Here, there's a huge possibility that Lucas could take the same basic concepts, and make them successful. Consider...

The Movie Based on a Lesser-Known Comic Book Property: IOTL, we got Howard the Duck. Need I say more? Here, why not have The Adventures of Tin Tin adapted earlier. I could see Spielberg lobbying for such a production. In addition, I could see one Tim Burton in the director's chair...

(FWIW, regarding Howard the Duck, my plan with my suspended 80's timeline, Totally Tubular, was having it produced by Lucasfilm, in partnership with some animation studio, as a cartoon series, keeping the heavily surreal elements from the comic, essentially becoming an earlier Ren and Stimpy.)

The Whimsical Fantasy Movie: IOTL, we got the extremely interesting but also extremely flawed Jim Henson production, Labyrinth. Here, why not have Henson turn his talents to adapting Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic (that's right... Discworld).

The Action-Adventure Fantasy Movie: IOTL, we got Willow. Here, I think it's already been implied that we're going to get a production based on the works of Tolkien. I think it makes sense. Think of it: Lucas could take LOTR produce a film trilogy that's essentially the sword-and-sorcery version of Star Wars, with all the potential success that entails. Personally, I believe the headway ILM was making into go-motion and other optical effects in this period, before they were side-lined by CGI, could plausibly be used to adapt the LOTR series.

EDIT: And yes, I'll be that guy... could any of the butterflies effect the 1980 election cycle? The CIA involvement in the Canadian Caper (see Argo) goes public? Ford jumps into the Republican primaries? Reagan picks someone like Jack Kemp or Donald Rumsfeld as his running mate? Ted Kennedy successfully takes the nomination from Carter? John Anderson's independent campaign makes more of a splash? I could go on...
 
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1. I would like to commend you exploiting the timeline's premise to the fullest. A lot of people don't realize just how devastating it was for Lucasfilm when Marcia divorced George - she took tens of millions of dollars in the settlement! Armed with much more capital, the skies the limit for Lucasfilm (er, Solofilm... personally, I think Lucasfilm-Zoetrope has a nice ring to it, but hey, it's your timeline). 2.

3. Anyway, it occurs to me that during the late 80's, Lucas was involved in producing three movies that were supposed to be huge hits, but they ended up being terrible to mediocre. Here, there's a huge possibility that Lucas could take the same basic concepts, and make them successful. Consider...

The Movie Based on a Lesser-Known Comic Book Property: IOTL, we got Howard the Duck. Need I say more? Here, why not have The Adventures of Tin Tin adapted earlier. I could see Spielberg lobbying for such a production. In addition, I could see one Tim Burton in the director's chair...

(FWIW, regarding Howard the Duck, my plan with my suspended 80's timeline, Totally Tubular, was having it produced by Lucasfilm, in partnership with some animation studio, as a cartoon series, keeping the heavily surreal elements from the comic, essentially becoming an earlier Ren and Stimpy.) 4.

The Whimsical Fantasy Movie: IOTL, we got the extremely interesting but also extremely flawed Jim Henson production, Labyrinth. Here, why not have Henson turn his talents to adapting Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic (that's right... Discworld). 5.

The Action-Adventure Fantasy Movie: IOTL, we got Willow. Here, I think it's already been implied that we're going to get a production based on the works of Tolkien. I think it makes sense. Think of it: Lucas could take LOTR produce a film trilogy that's essentially the sword-and-sorcery version of Star Wars, with all the potential success that entails. Personally, I believe the headway ILM was making into go-motion and other optical effects in this period, before they were side-lined by CGI, could plausibly be used to adapt the LOTR series. 6.

EDIT: And yes, I'll be that guy... could any of the butterflies effect the 1980 election cycle? The CIA involvement in the Canadian Caper (see Argo) goes public? Ford jumps into the Republican primaries? Reagan picks someone like Jack Kemp or Donald Rumsfeld as his running mate? Ted Kennedy successfully takes the nomination from Carter? John Anderson's independent campaign makes more of a splash? I could go on... 7.

1. Thank you so much for the extremely high compliment! The exciting thing about what's about to come is that it totally butterflies that divorce. TTL's analog of Empire doesn't require much Lucas involvement as it is a far easier production. Therefore, Lucas has more time to focus on the business end of Solo United and his marriage. Not only that, but consider that with Solo United a new and unstoppable "force" in the industry, Lucas won't receive as hard a fight from the Director's and Writer's Guilds and he's more willing to compromise on the point of his ending credits. The compromise favors Lucas, as you'll see, but in the end Lucas will not leave the guilds or the MPAA. That in and of itself would have been wank enough, without the increased success of Star Wars and Lucas basically owning United Artists ITTL.

2. I like Lucasfilm-Zoetrope too! You have to consider three things: 1. It's not just those two companies uniting. 2. Lucas is the CEO. And 3. and perhaps the most important, we're talking about some of the most independent filmmakers of all time (or at least the most successful). The fact that they own a megacorps that they can come to or go from freely is a big appeal to these guys, and therefore, it makes sense that they be considered "Solo". Solofilm lasts only a number of months before United Artists goes up for sale, and I like the ring of Solo United, don't you? :eek:

Remember too that Lucasfilm and American Zoetrope still exist as companies that are subsidiary to SU while technically owning it. There will still be a Lucasfilm logo before any SW film, for example, and an American Zoetrope logo before Batman. There will just also be a Solo United logo.

3. Also keep in mind that Lucas won't simply be a Producer ITTL. Remember when Coppola was talking about Lucas in "The People Vs. George Lucas" and he lamented all the films that would never be directed by the George he used to know? You're welcome, Coppola.

4. Not sure what I'll do with Howard the Duck, but I like the ideas. An animated series would be amazing and it's something I would never have thought of. I have plans for Burton, though... These don't exactly conflict, but I'll have to consider.

5. Without spoiling too much, there will be no Labyrinth TTL. That Muppetfuck was a dark period for three men I admire: Henson, Lucas, and Bowie. I've actually never read Discworld, and I'm not sure how popular it was at the time or if Henson had ever heard of it. I'm gonna give some Henson love, though, rest assured.

6. Willow is a project that would probably still be made in a TL like this, however with Lucas having the rights to Tolkien works, it will probably be made later than OTL. Your guess is a good one to a degree, but a bit off. Suffice to say as a teaser just for you that Peter Jackson will NOT be doing either LotR or King Kong at the end of the nineties... But what he will do WILL be a trilogy.

7. Almost everything I would have wanted to change politically has already been changed in Jesus Walks... (EDIT: Or "An Era Of Limits") I wanted to have some butterflies begin to creep into the political realm and if you'd like to have a discussion on it through PM, I think we could make some progress, but I don't want to seem to be stealing so I'm rethinking an awful lot of things. Really stressing myself out about it, really.

By the way, with Tubular on the backburner, are you in the process of doing a TL currently? Sorry if that's a stupid question, I don't have internet so I have a hard time keeping up with all of my favorite TLs and TL writers (of which, as I've mentioned before, you are one...) and would like to either read your newest or collaborate a little on this. You're good at pop culture and I like your style, I think you could make a good sounding board at least.

To everyone else I'm going to finish '79 and tackle '80 in the next update and you'll finally see a (much abridged) synopsis of The Rebellion Strikes Back.

I'll think we'll have a lot to discuss concerning certain other new hires in the cast...
 
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Very funny...

Concerning Clouseau, I think you would need a complete "reboot", as we call it today, ignoring all earlier films; perhaps even giving a different backstory.

I think that it could perhaps work with Steve Martin in the 1980s when he was most funny (also imaginable: Dan Ackroyd). Also, get rid of Blake Edwards.

Here, there's a huge possibility that Lucas could take the same basic concepts, and make them successful. Consider...

These ideas are EPIC!

The Movie Based on a Lesser-Known Comic Book Property: IOTL, we got Howard the Duck. Need I say more? Here, why not have The Adventures of Tin Tin adapted earlier. I could see Spielberg lobbying for such a production. In addition, I could see one Tim Burton in the director's chair...

Though I enjoyed the recent motion-capture movie for what it was, I can imagine an excellent 1980s life-action version, somewhere between Indiana Jones and the Goonies. But I doubt that Tim Burton, whom I admire, is the right kind of visionary to this source material. Of course, you can turn Tintin darker; but in doing so, I would envisage taking the comic-figure and putting him in a story closely related to the real 1930s/40s; a bit like the Indiana-Jones-Chronicles. Either way, with a optimistic adventure, or on a tightrope between entertainment and the Swastika, Spielberg would be the right choice.

Christian Slater as Tintin? Or young Tom Hanks with dyed, short-cropped hair?

The Whimsical Fantasy Movie: IOTL, we got the extremely interesting but also extremely flawed Jim Henson production, Labyrinth. Here, why not have Henson turn his talents to adapting Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic (that's right... Discworld).

I am also skeptical, if the fandom would be large enough until the early 90s... Perhaps a good venture for Tim Burton, actually?

The Action-Adventure Fantasy Movie: IOTL, we got Willow. Here, I think it's already been implied that we're going to get a production based on the works of Tolkien. I think it makes sense. Think of it: Lucas could take LOTR produce a film trilogy that's essentially the sword-and-sorcery version of Star Wars, with all the potential success that entails. Personally, I believe the headway ILM was making into go-motion and other optical effects in this period, before they were side-lined by CGI, could plausibly be used to adapt the LOTR series.

Possible, I agree, and certainly intruiging to cast and to imagine. But I doubt that such a constellation could be superior to Peter Jackson's accomplishments.
 
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Thank you so much for the extremely high compliment! The exciting thing about what's about to come is that it totally butterflies that divorce. TTL's analog of Empire doesn't require much Lucas involvement as it is a far easier production. Therefore, Lucas has more time to focus on the business end of Solo United and his marriage. Not only that, but consider that with Solo United a new and unstoppable "force" in the industry, Lucas won't receive as hard a fight from the Director's and Writer's Guilds and he's more willing to compromise on the point of his ending credits. The compromise favors Lucas, as you'll see, but in the end Lucas will not leave the guilds or the MPAA. That in and of itself would have been wank enough, without the increased success of Star Wars and Lucas basically owning United Artists ITTL.

Oh, this alone will have MASSIVE ramifications...

I like Lucasfilm-Zoetrope too! You have to consider three things: 1. It's not just those two companies uniting. 2. Lucas is the CEO. And 3. and perhaps the most important, we're talking about some of the most independent filmmakers of all time (or at least the most successful). The fact that they own a megacorps that they can come to or go from freely is a big appeal to these guys, and therefore, it makes sense that they be considered "Solo". Solofilm lasts only a number of months before United Artists goes up for sale, and I like the ring of Solo United, don't you? :eek:

All perfectly logical... though isn't "Solo United" almost an oxymoron? :p

Remember too that Lucasfilm and American Zoetrope still exist as companies that are subsidiary to SU while technically owning it. There will still be a Lucasfilm logo before any SW film, for example, and an American Zoetrope logo before Batman. There will just also be a Solo United logo.

Since it wasn't explicitly stated, I have to ask, is Amblin in on this as well?

Not sure what I'll do with Howard the Duck, but I like the ideas. An animated series would be amazing and it's something I would never have thought of. I have plans for Burton, though... These don't exactly conflict, but I'll have to consider.

Alright. Honestly, I think animation would be a much better medium for an adaptation. It's too bad that the delightfully subversive comic is primarily remembered for being the basis for this bomb, but since George Lucas is a fan, I don't think it will be totally forgotten by him.

Without spoiling too much, there will be no Labyrinth TTL. That Muppetfuck was a dark period for three men I admire: Henson, Lucas, and Bowie. I've actually never read Discworld, and I'm not sure how popular it was at the time or if Henson had ever heard of it. I'm gonna give some Henson love, though, rest assured.

Well, you could just handwave in that some higher-up at Solo United gets his hands on a copy of the book, can't put it down...

Willow is a project that would probably still be made in a TL like this, however with Lucas having the rights to Tolkien works, it will probably be made later than OTL. Your guess is a good one to a degree, but a bit off. Suffice to say as a teaser just for you that Peter Jackson will NOT be doing either LotR or King Kong at the end of the nineties... But what he will do WILL be a trilogy.

See, I dunno if Willow happens if Lucas obtains the right to Tolkien's works. The only reason he made the movie IOTL was because said rights were "unavailable" (which probably meant he didn't have the money at the time, which we've already established isn't a problem here). As anyone can tell, the universe and characters of Willow are pretty blatant substitutes for Middle Earth, hobbits, etc. Why would he make such a movie if he has access to the real thing?

That being said, I can see Lucas producing another action-adventure fantasy movie in addition to whatever he does with Tolkien's works, but only if it's sufficiently distinguishable from Middle Earth. Hmm... maybe he draws on his love of Japanese cinema and produces a movie set in a fantasy world as inspired by ancient Eastern mythology as Middle Earth was Anglo-Saxon legend? Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon... but with magic, dragons, the whole nine yards! :eek:
 
would he make such a movie if he has access to the real thing?

That being said, I can see Lucas producing another action-adventure fantasy movie in addition to whatever he does with Tolkien's works, but only if it's sufficiently distinguishable from Middle Earth. Hmm... maybe he draws on his love of Japanese cinema and produces a movie set in a fantasy world as inspired by ancient Eastern mythology as Middle Earth was Anglo-Saxon legend? Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon... but with magic, dragons, the whole nine yards! :eek:
willow was more of a star wars ripoff
 
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