CT Marcia Lucas v. the Special Editions

I have a friend who, given the chance, will helpfully inform anyone willing to listen that the real reason Lucas made the Special Editions was to keep his ex-wife Marcia from reaping any profits. His source for this is an old friend of his who owned a comic book store and therefore, in his view, has the inside track on such things.

Personally, I'm hesitant to believe something like that, arising from comic shop chatter, unless there's some solid info to back it up. All I seem to be able to find on this story is an article by "T-bone" at StarWarz.com, in which he also claims that releasing the original versions as "Bonus Material" somehow also negates Marcia's claims. Not being a regular on that site, I don't know how reliable T-bone is meant to be. I'm sure we all remember SuperShadow, right? So, does anyone else know anything about his credibility? Or has anyone heard this story from a definitely reliable source? I'd like to be able to definitively refute or confirm this.

I find it a bit hard to believe, considering that Marcia's role in the first and third films was as an editor, and despite all the alterations that have been made to the effects, very little about the editing itself has changed. Certainly, not enough for Lucas to be able to argue that Marcia's work on the film has been obliterated, and that a new film has been made that didn't involver her at all and that she therefore has no claim to the profits. Besides, he could have pulled them from the market much eariler to cut her out. Instead the films were available to own for 12-14 years before the Special Editions came out.

 

I've heard this rumor before but I find it very hard to believe .

Lucas can be a bit petulant but he's generally very honorable , and Marcia's name is still on the SEs isn't it ?

 

Yes it is, and my further research suggests that Lucas's obligations toward her vis a vis Star Wars profits expired in 1993.

 

There may be a bit of truth to this, there may not. Given the amount of money Lucas has given away over the years I really don't think he'd begrudge his ex what she was owed. That, and the tinkering with the eps makes sense as its well documented in the late 70s, early 80s that he wished things looked differently.

 

California divorce laws are slanted very unfairly against the husband from what I understand, Lucas got screwed over really hard and lost a huge amount of money in the divorce.

I've always thought that the hibernation Star Wars went into after ROTJ was a result of something in the divorce settlement, something like Marcia getting part of all profits from Star Wars up until the years George decided to bring back Star Wars.

The existence of the Prequels and Special Editions could be because of something legal.

 

I've heard this story, but I can think of a lot of easier ways to make a few bucks than completely re-doing three 15+ year old films & making three new ones.

It might explain why GL refuses to re-release the OOT properly, other than as a DVD extra, but even then I don't see him being so spiteful. From what I've read about Marcia Lucas, I can't see her trying to screw him out of much money if he'd simply re-released a cleaned up version of the OOT anyway. People do get divorced & move on with their lives without plotting 24/7 about the best ways to ruin the ex.

 

Well other than the 10 year thing, which I can't be certain of, anyone know anything solid?

 

PPOR

 

I heard that Lucas put a keylogger on her computer to make sure she wasn't writing new Star Wars movies.

 

Now that's just plain cynical.

 

ANH mostly. Not sure that he ever mentioned being disappointed with the look of the other two films.

 

Interesting story, but purely speculative. My understanding was that Lucas was dissapointed with the way the OT looked back when they were originally released to theatres.

So, re-releasing the films to theatres w/added special effects & other revisions in January - March of '97 was great on a lot of levels. Not only was a it a very appropriate time for a re-release (i.e., 20 years after ANH hit theatres), but it also served several other purposes:

- Working on the revised effects in these films was a good test/preparation for working on the effects in the PT.

- The release of the SE's brought SW back to the mainstream public consciousness, in preparation for TPM's release in '99.

- These SE's came out long before before DVD's became popular, so it was nice for fans (and non-fans) of the films to see them on the big screen again, the way they were meant to be seen. After all, even if you were around when the OOT was in theatres, that had been years before. So, for the mid-later part of the '80's and most of the '90's, the only way to watch the films had been on pan & scan VHS tapes and/or TV/cable broadcasts. Yes, they were widescreen versions of the films (both VHS & laserdisc) but I'm not sure they were anamorphic.

 

I don't know if they were either but nobody had a widescreen tv so it didn't really matter.

 

Once again, judging by comments made by Lucas contemporary with the original release of the films ('77 -'80 - '83) this disappointment was true only of SW/ANH.

 

Yup. Prior to 1995, EMPIRE and JEDI even had some of the same promotional catchphrases pop up in discussion that the prequels later did (about how much more free and liberating it was compared to the uphill battles of the 1st movie)

 

But we know this didn't happen with George and Marcia.

Marcia lost many of their shared friends and didn't get any work afterwards, it was not amicable and George was really upset by it.I believe Marcia moved on but I think George is probably still not too happy about it.

 

I'm aware of that, but I still don't think it was a 'War Of The Roses'-type situation. GL's supposed reactions, if they're to be believed (hinting to friends how uncomfortable it was to have Marcia around, i.e. don't invite her over), seem more passive-aggressive than anything else, & bordering more on being defensive.

Regardless, as was pointed out above, Marcia wouldn't have been entitled to profits from a re-release of the OOT past 1993 anyway. Her name on the credits is a totally separate, non-monetary issue - she was one of the editors & is entitled to a credit, GL couldn't remove her name from the film if he wanted to.

Totally irrelevant to Marcia's entitlement to any of the profits. GL was kind enough to give a number of the cast & crew a share of the profits as part of their contracts, but this is by no means standard (other than for big name directors & stars), it's more typical of lower-budget productions where cast & crew aren't being paid all that well. For the most part, you're hired to do a job on a film, you do it, you're paid a certain amount of money, the end. Just like any other job.

By the same token, if you are granted profit participation for the work you do, it doesn't matter how much of your actual effort ends up in the final product (unless it's in the contract). If Koo Stark (Camie) & Declan Mulholland (Jabba) were paid points for acting in SW they would still be entitled to a share of the profits, despite not appearing in the final film at all.

 

I don't believe my argument was based simply on her name being in the credits. The fact is she worked on that film, regardless of Lucas's own habit of sharing profits. Residuals are standard practice. And as Lucas's wife, she is (or was) legal co-owner of anything produced during their marriage.

Now if we're both correct about 1993 being the deadline, that alone seems to seal the deal as far as Lucas being motivated by a desire to cut her out of profits.

What I have also argued is that the very idea of releasing an "altered version" of the film would also not be enough to deny her profits, if she would otherwise have been entitled to them. That is, if there were any way for her to stake a claim on profits of the release of the un-altered trilogy, simply making the special editions could not negate her claim, as her work as editor is still intact. Also, releasing them on DVD as a "bonus feature" would not legally affect her claim on profits either.

So, in short, if Marcia's claim to profits ended at 1993, then she cannot be considered a motivating factor in creating special editions. If it did not, then neither an altered version of the film, nor selling the unaltered film on DVD only as a bonus feature does anything to negate her claim.

 

Don't get me wrong, I agree with all of that. The only source of this theory seems to be a speculative article on T-Bone's site, it's not like anyone's privy to such details in anyone's contracts from 1976/77 beyond what's been made public.

I think the theory seems to be based on the notion that if the SE's could be considered 'different films', technically one could deny someone further profits, but I don't think it'd hold up in court, as SW was subject to various minor changes between 1977 & 1997 anyway. You'd have to argue along ridiculous lines to justify why the 1997 SE is a different film to the original 1977 release, while the earlier changed versions (different sound mixes, 1981 addition of the 'Episode IV: A New Hope' title in the opening scroll) aren't.

 

Well, those small changes all involved the same movie that Fox owned, as opposed to the movie that was later built from scratch out of the raw negative that george owns.
A California divorce with no prenup means she gets half of literally everything prior to June '83, so, yikes. No wonder those ewok movies look so cheap.

 

Exactly.

T-bone is more reliable since he goes off of established facts from magazines and television interviews. Supershadow is just a big fat liar, with nothing better to do than drum up traffic for his website.

 

The only reason I am hesistant to this claim is if you watch the SE Documentary on the Laserdisk, Lucas originally only wanted to re-release ANH, and not ESB or ROTJ. He said (I am paraphrasing), "After we cleaned up ANH, we had such a good time we decided to do ESB and ROTJ."

I guess my point is if Lucas had other motives to screw his ex-wife, why wouldn't he re-do Empire and Jedi from the beginning?

And Lucas was divorced in 1983, I'm pretty sure he could have done some special edition in 1987 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of SW to get him off the hook from Marcia.

Then again, is anyone here a divorce attorney???

 

Film Editors do not receive residual money for their work.

And whatever transpired between Lucas and Wife is absolutely none of our business.

 

True. Except points that the producer may want to share with them, as Lucas always did with Star Wars films. I don't really know, but my guess would be that Marcia was bought out of her "marriage contract" with some kind of one-time payment when the divorce was negotiated. And that would pertain to her position as Lucas' wife, not her work as an editor. After that, SW has not been her property.

 

OK, time out, people.

Marcia Lucas did receive residuals for the work she did on Star Wars. This was not necessarily due to her having simply been 'The Editor' of Star Wars, it was simply a bonus she was granted at the time, the same as a number of other people who worked their butts off on a film that wasn't expected to make a great deal of money. Alec Guinness negotiated residuals of the profits prior to working on the film, GL granted smaller points to a number of others (Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Marcia et al) during the making of it as a gesture of goodwill.

Such a percentage of the profits of any film, be it of the gross or net, is something that is negotiable at the time. For the most part, when someone is employed to work on a film production, he or she is employed & paid to perform a certain task, be it actor, director of photography, editor, assistant editor, electrician, set builder, caterer, runner, driver or whatever. Depending on the nature of the production (particularly low-budget ones), such employees might be granted a percentage of the gross or net profits, especially in cases where said employees are working stupidly long hours for Scottish Football Association-type money.

This may or may not happen on any production. Apparently GL was generous enough to grant such percentages to a number of people after SW was becoming a massive hit, but he could just as easily have kept the dosh for himself.

In realation to the Star Wars films, Marcia Lucas received, & was entitled to:

1. Her initial payments for editing the Star Wars films
2. Residual payments voluntarily granted to her as a participant in making the films
3. Her share of George Lucas' property as entitled to her as his wife since the early 1970s

All three of these are completely separate from each other. The topic of this thread is whether or not releasing any or all of the original three Star Wars films would affect any of these three entitlements. Number one, definitely not - already paid for. Guessing that number three was dealt with & sealed off. Number two seems to be the sticking point - was Marcia Lucas entitled to profits from any of the Special Editions?