Spielberg's not tied down to Universal. He's just kinda doing as he pleases like IOTL, considering his next movies will be Close Encounters (at Columbia) and Raiders (at Disney/LucasArts). So I see no reason why it should be butterflied.
Laughin' Place: Redefining Disney
- Thread starter HeX
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Spielberg's not tied down to Universal. He's just kinda doing as he pleases like IOTL, considering his next movies will be Close Encounters (at Columbia) and Raiders (at Disney/LucasArts). So I see no reason why it should be butterflied.
Saviors of the Galaxy!
The Dakota Building, 1 West 72nd Street, NYC
August 23, 1978
With Yoko out with their son, John (and Paul, George, and Ringo) had free reign over the apartment. They'd had just enough space to cram in one of Ringo's old drum sets, and had been getting back into the swing of things. They'd resolved that the next time some big campaign came out for them to reunite and play a concert for the benefit of blue whales or the hole in the ozone layer or displaced peoples, they'd accept. That concert would be a stepping stone to maybe rejoining as the Beatles once more. Maybe.
Just for fun, though, they were all practicing together for the moment. Going through the classics... "Here Comes the Sun," "Hey, Jude," "Yellow Submarine," "Taxman," "Help." It had scraped the rust off their gears and gotten everyone into not just a musical mood, but a Beatles mood.
"You really think anyone will come out to see us dinosaurs?" asked George, strumming along to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."
"Seems like everyone's into disco nowadays," agreed John.
"Disco shmisco," said Paul. "You've heard the people. They've wanted us since we broke up."
"And if no one shows up?" asked John.
Paul shrugged. "We go home, call it a day. No harm done. Now, about that new song you were writing..."
--Except from the article "Bringing Back the Rock 'N' Roll," from the February 1994 issue of Rolling Stone
"Black Hole's development is starting off strong, looking to be a Space Invaders killer."
--Internal memo at WDI
"Vector graphics are the way of the future. They might work best for our Star Wars game."
--Tony Baxter to George Lucas
"Italy's getting a bit antsy with us setting up shop in their own backyard. One newspaper called us 'instruments of American imperialism', though luckily it seems like most people there like us."
--Roy Disney to Walt Disney
August 26, 1978
Another fabulous foursome of British musicians a whole continent away sat gathered around in a circle. While the deadline for Jazz was rapidly closing in, so was the deadline for the music for Star Wars: The Animated Series, which had significantly less work done on it.
"Alright," announced Brian May. "We've got some scenarios here we need music for... battle scenes, Darth Vader scenes, a heroic theme... and of course, the main theme, on top of everything else."
"For Vader, what do you think about remixing his song from the movie? The 'Imperial March'?" asked Roger Taylor.
"I like it," said Freddie Mercury.
"Disney also said that no songs could have lyrics except for the main theme, and even then not to get too carried away," added John Deacon.
"Alright, let's work on that one, then," said Taylor.
"I've got a guitar riff I've been thinking of for a while..." said May.
Grabbing his guitar from the wall, Brian May launched into an energetic bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum. "And we can have a break in there, like strum the chord really loud and stick in a lyric, like saviors of the galaxy!"
"Or, masters of the Force!" threw in Mercury.
"And we could have lines from the movie in the background, too," said Taylor.
"Like when Ben says, 'Use the Force, Luke'," suggested Deacon.
"Or when he says, 'That's no moon'."
"Or when Vader's like, 'I have you now'," said May. "Man, Star Wars is such a good movie."
"So, for the other songs, what do we want to do?" asked Taylor "John Williams did some amazing stuff with the score, so if we do more remixing we'd really have to do that justice."
"Oh, you people!" exclaimed Mercury. "Always talking! We're Queen! I have more than enough confidence in ourselves to take that music and make it better!"
"Thanks, Freddie," said Deacon. "Always pushing us forward. Now, let's go watch Star Wars again. We need another look at the source material."
"You just want to watch the movie again, don't you?"
Deacon shrugged. "Guilty as charged."
August 23, 1978
With Yoko out with their son, John (and Paul, George, and Ringo) had free reign over the apartment. They'd had just enough space to cram in one of Ringo's old drum sets, and had been getting back into the swing of things. They'd resolved that the next time some big campaign came out for them to reunite and play a concert for the benefit of blue whales or the hole in the ozone layer or displaced peoples, they'd accept. That concert would be a stepping stone to maybe rejoining as the Beatles once more. Maybe.
Just for fun, though, they were all practicing together for the moment. Going through the classics... "Here Comes the Sun," "Hey, Jude," "Yellow Submarine," "Taxman," "Help." It had scraped the rust off their gears and gotten everyone into not just a musical mood, but a Beatles mood.
"You really think anyone will come out to see us dinosaurs?" asked George, strumming along to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."
"Seems like everyone's into disco nowadays," agreed John.
"Disco shmisco," said Paul. "You've heard the people. They've wanted us since we broke up."
"And if no one shows up?" asked John.
Paul shrugged. "We go home, call it a day. No harm done. Now, about that new song you were writing..."
--------------------------------
"The 1980s was the decade that ensured rock 'n' roll would be sticking around for good. The comebacks of the Beatles and Elvis, the golden era of bands like Queen, AC/DC, Guns 'N Roses, Aerosmith, and so many other groups, and the rise of soloists like Michael Jackson and Madonna, made our collective jaws drop. But even in 1980, we had no idea what was just over the horizon..."
--Except from the article "Bringing Back the Rock 'N' Roll," from the February 1994 issue of Rolling Stone
"Black Hole's development is starting off strong, looking to be a Space Invaders killer."
--Internal memo at WDI
"Vector graphics are the way of the future. They might work best for our Star Wars game."
--Tony Baxter to George Lucas
"Italy's getting a bit antsy with us setting up shop in their own backyard. One newspaper called us 'instruments of American imperialism', though luckily it seems like most people there like us."
--Roy Disney to Walt Disney
--------------------------------
Mountain Studios, Montreux, Switzerland
August 26, 1978
Another fabulous foursome of British musicians a whole continent away sat gathered around in a circle. While the deadline for Jazz was rapidly closing in, so was the deadline for the music for Star Wars: The Animated Series, which had significantly less work done on it.
"Alright," announced Brian May. "We've got some scenarios here we need music for... battle scenes, Darth Vader scenes, a heroic theme... and of course, the main theme, on top of everything else."
"For Vader, what do you think about remixing his song from the movie? The 'Imperial March'?" asked Roger Taylor.
"I like it," said Freddie Mercury.
"Disney also said that no songs could have lyrics except for the main theme, and even then not to get too carried away," added John Deacon.
"Alright, let's work on that one, then," said Taylor.
"I've got a guitar riff I've been thinking of for a while..." said May.
Grabbing his guitar from the wall, Brian May launched into an energetic bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum. "And we can have a break in there, like strum the chord really loud and stick in a lyric, like saviors of the galaxy!"
"Or, masters of the Force!" threw in Mercury.
"And we could have lines from the movie in the background, too," said Taylor.
"Like when Ben says, 'Use the Force, Luke'," suggested Deacon.
"Or when he says, 'That's no moon'."
"Or when Vader's like, 'I have you now'," said May. "Man, Star Wars is such a good movie."
"So, for the other songs, what do we want to do?" asked Taylor "John Williams did some amazing stuff with the score, so if we do more remixing we'd really have to do that justice."
"Oh, you people!" exclaimed Mercury. "Always talking! We're Queen! I have more than enough confidence in ourselves to take that music and make it better!"
"Thanks, Freddie," said Deacon. "Always pushing us forward. Now, let's go watch Star Wars again. We need another look at the source material."
"You just want to watch the movie again, don't you?"
Deacon shrugged. "Guilty as charged."
Hmm... does TTL's jaws result in real-life sharks having a reputation as bad as the OTL movie caused?
All of that is OTL...dunno if too early or late to butterfly away Bersluconni...but all this OTL except the direct Disney impact
Over the years, I've dropped off the boards a few times, to be drawn back in by a good story. This time it was this.
One nit pik: the hole in the ozone layer wasn't observed until the mid-80s, so nobody would be asking the Beatles to reunite and play a benefit for an issue that isn't going to be on the public's radar for a good while.
Over the years, I've dropped off the boards a few times, to be drawn back in by a good story. This time it was this.
One nit pik: the hole in the ozone layer wasn't observed until the mid-80s, so nobody would be asking the Beatles to reunite and play a benefit for an issue that isn't going to be on the public's radar for a good while.
Thanks for reading! Glad to have you.
Oh, I genuinely didn't know that. Might change it, but I might not. I think the point gets across just fine.
Spot Check
Michael Eisner's Office, Universal City, CA
September 1, 1978
Leading Universal Pictures hadn't been quite as hard as Mike Eisner had thought it would be, but it wasn't easy, either. He'd never ranked this high in a company before, and was just now appreciating the huge gap in workloads between vice-president and president. Eisner had taken a week's break and gone on vacation to Fiji to get away from the hectic studio, but needed to come back at some point. In his absence, everyone had finally gotten settled into a state of normalcy that probably hadn't existed since before Sid Sheinberg's accident.
A stack of papers stretching to the ceiling sat in Eisner's inbox. Luckily, the gist of things had been condensed into a three-page packet of statistics, numbers, and paragraphs upon paragraphs comparing a man-eating shark to a wizard with a flashlight. Times had changed, and it seemed like the very idea of a blockbuster that Universal had created was being usurped by their new foe.
A single graph said it all. It displayed the total box office returns on Jaws, Star Wars, and Jaws 2. Of the three, Jaws 2 was doing the worst at the period of ten weeks, just below its older sibling's performance and far below the cultural phenomenon of Star Wars. But the film was by no means a slouch, and was rapidly rocketing up the charts in the terms of money.
Still, Eisner had a problem on his hands. Obviously Jaws wasn't going to be Universal's Star Wars, and no matter how hard he tried, Steven Spielberg was utterly disinterested in making a threequel. So they'd need something to replace it, and the studio was looking through their backlogs on what projects were being made with their money and promise of distribution.
One stood out the most, a screenplay written by Dan O'Bannon and directed by Ridley Scott named Alien. They'd pitched it as "Jaws in space," and that had been enough to get an increasingly Disney-paranoid Sheinberg to sign off on it. Now, they were still filming at a soundstage in London, but that was set to wrap up in about a month's time, and the whole escapade would be ready for release sometime next year. From what Mike Eisner had seen, the movie wasn't just scary--it was horrifying. The part where an alien hatchling burst out of some guy's chest... it had given him nightmares for weeks.
Of course, there was also the more immediate option, Halloween, a horror flick set to fittingly open up in October. Universal wasn't playing much of a role in its production, but again, Sidney Sheinberg had signed it on for distribution last year. The movie was also absolutely terrifying, and its serial killer antagonist Michael Meyers had also given him nightmares. Maybe that's why he was so tired all the time...
And then, there was also Woody Woodpecker. Re-establishing Universal's animation department hadn't been easy, but preliminary sketches and storylines were being written up at an astounding pace. Did Eisner think Woody could do anything to put a dent in Mickey Mouse's armor? No, probably not. The mouse was too damn recognizeable. But would it be a good launching point to bring back the bird as the mouse's rival? Yes, yes it would.
--From Going Global: A History of Universal Pictures, by Otto Friedrich
"Fox's biggest blunder was turning down Alien in the 70s IMO. If they'd taken the chance on it then maybe they would've been able to come back."
--Posted by user Mac_Z on moviemoguls.com, 2:34 AM, July 16, 2012
September 1, 1978
Just a few miles away, Walt Disney was also sitting at his desk and going through his papers, just like Michael Eisner. His stack was much shorter, though no less interesting.
The first item was more information on George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's new film, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Just like how Star Wars paid homage to the science-fiction comic strips of Lucas's childhood, Raiders walked the path of the 1950s adventure serials that played before movies, always with a cliffhanger to entice you to return next time. It was shaping up nicely, Christmas 1979 being the goal for release day. Harrison Ford, who had been a bit troublesome during the making of Star Wars (due to a subtle distaste of his character, Han Solo), was quickly showing his true colors as an outstanding actor, one of the best Walt had ever seen.
Zipping down past that, he then looked into how things were going with Don Bluth and the rest. Walt had screened the remade Steamboat Willie a few days ago, and had instantly fallen in love with it. It was so well done, and it perfectly captured what he and Ub Iwerks had been going for in 1928. And the animators had transferred that spirit into Mickey Mousecapade, the real deal. As usual, he refused to see the movie before opening night, but George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had both watched it, and had nothing but glowing remarks. The guys in animation were working around the clock at this point, trying to get everything done as November 18 loomed on the horizon...
What seemed like a novel's-worth of pages on pages of notes and synopses on shows coming to the Disney Channel was up next. Star Wars: The Animated Series was of course front-and-center (as was the record from Queen with the main theme on it, which he had to get around to listening to), but Hercules: Hero of Legend, Colorful, Welcome to the Hundred Acre Wood, it's a small world, and The Discovery Bay Chronicles all kept it in good company.
Finally, his favorite part of the whole bunch. Hood, set for a 1980 debut, would begin filming soon, with Walt, of all people, as the director. For the past three years, he and other writers at Burbank had been fine-tuning a script for their Robin Hood adaptation, which had, over the years, morphed into a modern reimagining instead of another retelling. It was Walt's passion project, the first live-action movie he'd put effort into since Mary Poppins.
The living legend decided to take a break for a moment. Sometimes, he worked himself too hard, something he was growing acutely aware of as he aged. Walt stood, stretched, and walked across the room to the far wall. Three arcade cabinets sat there, but he made a beeline for the middle game: Space Invaders. Tony Baxter and Rolly Crump were having some trouble with Black Hole's design, so Walt had figured he'd give them some help and get ideas by playing Atari and Taito's newest sensation. But as time went on, he was finding it harder and harder to justify his playing as "research" and not "pleasure." Hopefully, Walt could keep focused and ignore the possibility that Atari--and Universal--might be beating him at his own game.
September 1, 1978
Leading Universal Pictures hadn't been quite as hard as Mike Eisner had thought it would be, but it wasn't easy, either. He'd never ranked this high in a company before, and was just now appreciating the huge gap in workloads between vice-president and president. Eisner had taken a week's break and gone on vacation to Fiji to get away from the hectic studio, but needed to come back at some point. In his absence, everyone had finally gotten settled into a state of normalcy that probably hadn't existed since before Sid Sheinberg's accident.
A stack of papers stretching to the ceiling sat in Eisner's inbox. Luckily, the gist of things had been condensed into a three-page packet of statistics, numbers, and paragraphs upon paragraphs comparing a man-eating shark to a wizard with a flashlight. Times had changed, and it seemed like the very idea of a blockbuster that Universal had created was being usurped by their new foe.
A single graph said it all. It displayed the total box office returns on Jaws, Star Wars, and Jaws 2. Of the three, Jaws 2 was doing the worst at the period of ten weeks, just below its older sibling's performance and far below the cultural phenomenon of Star Wars. But the film was by no means a slouch, and was rapidly rocketing up the charts in the terms of money.
Still, Eisner had a problem on his hands. Obviously Jaws wasn't going to be Universal's Star Wars, and no matter how hard he tried, Steven Spielberg was utterly disinterested in making a threequel. So they'd need something to replace it, and the studio was looking through their backlogs on what projects were being made with their money and promise of distribution.
One stood out the most, a screenplay written by Dan O'Bannon and directed by Ridley Scott named Alien. They'd pitched it as "Jaws in space," and that had been enough to get an increasingly Disney-paranoid Sheinberg to sign off on it. Now, they were still filming at a soundstage in London, but that was set to wrap up in about a month's time, and the whole escapade would be ready for release sometime next year. From what Mike Eisner had seen, the movie wasn't just scary--it was horrifying. The part where an alien hatchling burst out of some guy's chest... it had given him nightmares for weeks.
Of course, there was also the more immediate option, Halloween, a horror flick set to fittingly open up in October. Universal wasn't playing much of a role in its production, but again, Sidney Sheinberg had signed it on for distribution last year. The movie was also absolutely terrifying, and its serial killer antagonist Michael Meyers had also given him nightmares. Maybe that's why he was so tired all the time...
And then, there was also Woody Woodpecker. Re-establishing Universal's animation department hadn't been easy, but preliminary sketches and storylines were being written up at an astounding pace. Did Eisner think Woody could do anything to put a dent in Mickey Mouse's armor? No, probably not. The mouse was too damn recognizeable. But would it be a good launching point to bring back the bird as the mouse's rival? Yes, yes it would.
--------------------------------
"In 1978, Universal and Paramount made a deal that would change the face of TV forever. It meant new Star Trek: Phase II episodes on Friday nights, and Woody Woodpecker cartoons on Saturday mornings, as well as the Paramount Television Service's new access to all the MCAUniversal properties."
--From Going Global: A History of Universal Pictures, by Otto Friedrich
"Fox's biggest blunder was turning down Alien in the 70s IMO. If they'd taken the chance on it then maybe they would've been able to come back."
--Posted by user Mac_Z on moviemoguls.com, 2:34 AM, July 16, 2012
--------------------------------
Walt Disney's Office, Burbank, CA
September 1, 1978
Just a few miles away, Walt Disney was also sitting at his desk and going through his papers, just like Michael Eisner. His stack was much shorter, though no less interesting.
The first item was more information on George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's new film, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Just like how Star Wars paid homage to the science-fiction comic strips of Lucas's childhood, Raiders walked the path of the 1950s adventure serials that played before movies, always with a cliffhanger to entice you to return next time. It was shaping up nicely, Christmas 1979 being the goal for release day. Harrison Ford, who had been a bit troublesome during the making of Star Wars (due to a subtle distaste of his character, Han Solo), was quickly showing his true colors as an outstanding actor, one of the best Walt had ever seen.
Zipping down past that, he then looked into how things were going with Don Bluth and the rest. Walt had screened the remade Steamboat Willie a few days ago, and had instantly fallen in love with it. It was so well done, and it perfectly captured what he and Ub Iwerks had been going for in 1928. And the animators had transferred that spirit into Mickey Mousecapade, the real deal. As usual, he refused to see the movie before opening night, but George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had both watched it, and had nothing but glowing remarks. The guys in animation were working around the clock at this point, trying to get everything done as November 18 loomed on the horizon...
What seemed like a novel's-worth of pages on pages of notes and synopses on shows coming to the Disney Channel was up next. Star Wars: The Animated Series was of course front-and-center (as was the record from Queen with the main theme on it, which he had to get around to listening to), but Hercules: Hero of Legend, Colorful, Welcome to the Hundred Acre Wood, it's a small world, and The Discovery Bay Chronicles all kept it in good company.
Finally, his favorite part of the whole bunch. Hood, set for a 1980 debut, would begin filming soon, with Walt, of all people, as the director. For the past three years, he and other writers at Burbank had been fine-tuning a script for their Robin Hood adaptation, which had, over the years, morphed into a modern reimagining instead of another retelling. It was Walt's passion project, the first live-action movie he'd put effort into since Mary Poppins.
The living legend decided to take a break for a moment. Sometimes, he worked himself too hard, something he was growing acutely aware of as he aged. Walt stood, stretched, and walked across the room to the far wall. Three arcade cabinets sat there, but he made a beeline for the middle game: Space Invaders. Tony Baxter and Rolly Crump were having some trouble with Black Hole's design, so Walt had figured he'd give them some help and get ideas by playing Atari and Taito's newest sensation. But as time went on, he was finding it harder and harder to justify his playing as "research" and not "pleasure." Hopefully, Walt could keep focused and ignore the possibility that Atari--and Universal--might be beating him at his own game.
Is the movie The Deer Hunter as OTL? (One WI is WI the studio heads had gotten their way and fired John Cazale (who was terminally ill; it's obvious he was ill from some of the scenes in the movie) from the production; Michael Cimino (in a moment he doesn't get much credit for, IMO (1) and Meryl Streep threatened to walk off the set, while Robert De Niro paid for Cazale's insurance...)
(1) Of course, the reason Cimino doesn't get much credit is because everyone remembers that it was his film Heaven's Gate that bankrupted United Artists...
(1) Of course, the reason Cimino doesn't get much credit is because everyone remembers that it was his film Heaven's Gate that bankrupted United Artists...
It should be. Disney's butterflies won't be affecting its innerworkings.
And I've got some plans for Heaven's Gate and UA. There is, after all, a spot open for a big film studio with Fox on its way out...
The opposite, that Sheinberg saw chance in aliens before died so was already in preproduction but for universal. rather Fox
It's just the troubles caused by the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, all OTL.
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