The Savior of Star Wars (article)

[Y3k Bug]

Found this article about the studio exec. who green lighted Star Wars. Kind of interesting, albeit not really anything to do with Blu-Ray other than potentially one day getting the film. Hopefully.

The Savior of Star Wars

For those who may be blocked:

The Savior of Star Wars
A lament you constantly hear in Hollywood is today’s lack of risk-taking, and how so many great movies from the ‘70’s wouldn’t get made today. As odd as it to believe, Star Wars was a risky project that no one knew the potential of until late in the game. Recently, Variety celebrated the studio executive whose faith in George Lucas got Star Wars made, and it would be just one of many film gambles he was willing to make throughout his career.
Alan Ladd Jr. is of course the son of Alan Ladd, and the offspring of the famous Hollywood legend has made his own place in Hollywood history. He joined 20th Century Fox in 1973, and became president in 1976. Fox had a number of ups and downs throughout its history, most notoriously with the big budget Elizabeth Taylor debacle Cleopatra, which almost put the studio out of business. By the time Ladd became studio president, Fox was back on the upswing with the success of Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie, and The Omen.

[glenn22]

Interesting read.... I think he's right about studio execs today not wanting to take risks, and that's too bad really.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by glenn22

Interesting read.... I think he's right about studio execs today not wanting to take risks, and that's too bad really.

It is.

A few calculated and obvious risks now could end thing fast and neat. Desperate or not, I guess you have to give Toshiba that much credit with their hardware firesales. It's risky. It's aggressive. It's reckless.

That's what I'd like to see a more of on the BD side: A sense of urgency and "balls to the wall", if you'll pardon the term.

Heck, if Fox was able to just bring out Phantom Menace on Blu-Ray in time for Christmas, as a last minute shocker...I think that would probably create enough shockwaves to start wrapping things up for BD. The ramifications would be crystal clear and the name "Star Wars" speaks for itself.

Honestly. Why not do it, especially if Lucas is supposedly such a big BD supporter?

As much as I hate that turd, even I'd buy it just as a show of support and salute.

It's time for more calculated and aggressive risk taking on the BD side. Long overdue, in fact.

[radagast]

Originally Posted by glenn22

Interesting read.... I think he's right about studio execs today not wanting to take risks, and that's too bad really.

I disagree. Only a few years ago, no one wanted to do Peter Jackson's version of Lord of the Rings. He went to several studios. Some flat out said no. Some wanted to do the entire story in ONE movie.

When he went to New Line, he pitched doing the entire story in two movies. After thinking it over, the New Line exec said no. No, in that he wanted to do it in THREE movies. This is a well known story.

It was a HUGE gamble. They spent over 300 million dollars doing the three movies. The exec at New Line who green-lighted it would have been fired if it had been a failure and some analysts think it could have bankrupted New Line.

Instead, the first movie made so much money, IT PAID FOR THE ENTIRE THREE MOVIES .

[darinp2]

Along the lines of studio execs not wanting to take risks, I thought there was some interesting stuff in this interview with Dick Cook, Chairman at Disney.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/features/?id=2417&p=.htm

I thought the whole thing was interesting, but the part on page 3 that starts with:

Box Office Mojo: Studio businessmen are often regarded as people who say no to the detriment of the movie. Can you give an example where saying no—or yes—but in either case an instance of exercising your judgment that led to a creatively enhanced scene?

Dick Cook: Sure. The most recent example would be on the movie Enchanted. It became very clear that we could make the movie better if we added a couple of scenes that would solidify a major relationship in the movie—I don't want to spoil the movie—and when [director] Kevin Lima called, and he did an unbelievable job, and articulately stated exactly what he wanted, he was absolutely dead right. There was a sense that we're going to do it though we hadn't budgeted for it.

has the most to do with this discussion. It goes on from the above.

--Darin