Does Anyone remember the Lucas Lawsuit?

Bacho · January 13th, 2006, 03:46 PM

The most memorable part of the original series was the lawsuit filed by Lucas claiming that Battlestar was a ripoff of Deathstar.

I believe the lawsuit was laughed out of court.

Eric Paddon · January 13th, 2006, 03:57 PM

I wouldn't say it was "the most memorable part of the original series". Lucas was claiming plagiarism on questionable similarities in the storyline and FX work, but ultimately in 1980 a judge indeed dismissed the entire suit. That fact alas, tends to get lost in the shuffle when people who aren't fans of Galactica tend to recall it.

John Kenneth Muir's book on the series pretty much gets to the heart of what caused the lawsuit. Fox was influenced by how Universal had managed to extort a ton out of Dino De Laurentiis when the latter was doing his "King Kong" remake and Universal was claiming this infringed on their ability to do a competing Kong project. Ultimately, Universal dropped the suit (but retained the rights to do a Kong remake of their own in the future, which 29 years later became the Peter Jackson film) but got a load out of the threatened legal action. Fox, seeing what Universal got out of that, decided to play the same game, thinking a lawsuit would get them a chunk of profits off Galactica they could benefit from if they made a claim that BSG ripped off Star Wars.

One repercussion of the lawsuit by Fox and Lucas is that it almost caused Universal to prohibit Lucas from hiring Spielberg (who owed Universal a movie) to direct Raiders Of The Lost Ark, because they were that ticked off with Lucas. Only after further consideration did they finally let Spielberg do the project.

spcglider · January 16th, 2006, 11:03 AM

I've made it a personal mission to make sure I correct anyone who says that Lucasfilm won the suit.

They didn't.

Hooray! I'm for the other team!!
(Interjection from Schoolhouse Rock)

-Gordon

Senmut · January 23rd, 2006, 03:40 PM

Obviously, the Force was not with him.

Darrell Lawrence · January 23rd, 2006, 04:52 PM

Someone forgot to tell Lucas that the Jedi Council and Legal Council aren't the same.

That's why the Council of Twelve won

captmiloman · February 21st, 2006, 05:32 PM

I remember Lucas mentioning that Universal tried to tinker with "American Grafitti" when it was released in '73 by cutting out footage from the original theatrical release. Sounds like Universal were up to their usual games, even back then. Thinking back, it's actually no wonder he filed a lawsuit against TPTB. I'm thinking it had nothing to do with copywright infrigement. Lucas was possibly looking for a way to get back at Universal for messing with his earlier movie.

Charybdis · February 22nd, 2006, 07:35 AM

Yeah, who knows the reality behind these lawsuits, but what I can't stand is that George Lucas claims that he copies all of these other older filmmakers (Kurasawa, for example) and pays them homage with his movies, but when someone tries to do anything similar to his stuff, he slaps them down faster than your eyes can blink!!!

KamikazeAthena · February 22nd, 2006, 07:50 AM

I remember it from when I was seven. I thought Lucas was insane. Pretty bad when a seven year old can justify how you are nuts!

My husband is a Star Wars fan who hates Galactica. Even he bawks at how silly that suit was.

February 22nd, 2006, 09:10 AM

Goes to show that some people are just stuck in stupid. What I remember was that the laser beams from the Vipers and the sounds they made were too much like SW. Also the blasters were supposedly rejected weapons designs for SW that were secreted out of the studio. To me Lucas is just a big whiner, for all he does and says, he is always first to jump on anyone trying to do anything with SW. I remember the fan made resin kits and the plethora of other fan created Merchandise. What happened Lucas got snippy and took away licenses then gave them to whomever he wanted and now look at the price of those items. I guess in the end to Lucas it really is all about money.

Charybdis · February 22nd, 2006, 11:07 AM

Naw, I don't it's all about money to Lucas, it's just about being really obsessed with your own art and not letting anyone tinker around with it!

i have just read a great website called the Nitpicker's Guide to Star Wars. On there, they have lists of why you can hate Star wars and what's wrong with all the movies. Very funny.

i'm a big Star Wars fan but I can poke fun at it too!