The Disney company, Michael Eisner and George Lucas (creator of Star Wars and Indiana Jones) have a long and troubled history. While that makes them no different than most people in Hollywood, but few are played out in public like this one is.
First yes, the pre-Eisner Disney company did turn down the first Star Wars movie. And so did just about everyone else in town. Even Eisner turned it down when he worked for Paramount. Star Wars really is the classic Hollywood Cinderella story (pardon the metaphor) about the little movie no one wanted at first, but then everyone had to have.
Fast forward until after the first movies success: Disney was kicking itself for turning down Star Wars and for losing its magic. They tried to produce similar giant family blockbuster movies to cash in on the 'Star Wars' craze like The Black Hole and Tron. Both were financial disasters and hastened the end of the old management. Over at Paramount, Eisner too wanted a piece of the Star Wars action and more. He drove a big and expensive scheme to start a (then) fourth network based around a relaunch of Paramounts Star Trek series. A lot of money was spent on shows, buying television stations and all the stuff one needs to build a network and the entire business deal collapsed. Eisners career is put on the didnt he used to work here? path and he began looking for another job*. George Lucas, a novice filmmaker not all that long out of film school, finds himself as the leader of a tremendous entertainment franchise through some very shrewd business deals. He is on the look-out for ways of expanding Star Wars. A lot of people had been trying to cash in, and most of it was garbage (anyone got a bootleg copy of 'The Star Wars Christmas Special' knows the painful truth).
Fast forward a couple more years. Eisner has been hired by Disney to bring in some star power to the company. He sees the parks as being nothing more than the movie business, a business were a big name can open a movie. So Eisner goes out shopping for big names to buy. George Lucas grew up in suburban California and is/was basically as big of a Disney nut as a lot of people on these boards. In the press kit for The Empire Strikes Back hes quoted as saying that if he wasnt making Star Wars movies hed most likely be taking tickets at
Disneyland.
Anyway, phone calls are exchanged, meetings are taken and these people talk to those people. To say that both groups were excited is an extreme understatement. Lucas had found a way to bring Star Wars to life in exactly the same way Walt Disney brought his creations to life. Lucas found a way of expanding his world that was both creative and of high quality. Disney/Eisner found the one of the few names that was like Walts name in the publics perception for imagination and excitement. The marriage was perfect.
WDI found a source of stories for their rides that was both exciting and popular (howd you like to have been the guy that had to make a dark ride out of The Cat from Outer Space?). Ideas poured out. The largest and most grand was the second gate a Disneyland (a long held dream before Eisner showed up) which was a third Star Wars, a third Indiana Jones and a third Willow (hey, no one knew at the time
). Lucas spent many, many happy hours dreaming up ideas with all the people at WDI. In turn, WDI turned to Lucas for help and opinion on non-Lucas shows and rides. They got along great.
But, Disney was run by Eisner and dreams have a way of magically being diminished. A long series of exchanges between Lucas and Eisner began. Instead of a park, how about remaking all of Tomorrowland into a Star Wars spaceport? Nope, too expensive. Okay, how about just a couple of rides? No, too much money still. Okay, how about this big roller coaster through the Death Star? No
..? Well I guess we can still use these simulators which you bought for another ride we can still make something good out of these. Now for the Indiana Jones temple for Walt Disney World
Oh, you dont have the money for a ride, but you want to use the Indy character for the stunt show because MGM was asking too much money for the rights to James Bond. Well, I guess this can just be a start
..
It slowly dawned on George Lucas that Eisner wasnt interested in expanding Star Wars and mostly certainly wasnt interested in any ideas that Lucas had. All Eisner was interested in was the Lucas® brand name in the marketing campaigns. Instead of finding a partner to create with, Lucas finds himself with just one more person trying to extort money out of what George created (albeit one step above Bea Arthur signing the Wookie Christmas song). The relationship between Lucas and Eisner soured very quickly.
By the time The Phantom Menace came out, Disney and Lucas were only communicating through lawyers and royalty checks. Lucas feels Eisner is only out to sell t-shirts, Eisner feels Lucas is greedy and doesnt understand business. Other matters are coming into play: Eisners mistreatment of Pixar (founded by Lucas), Eisners relationship with Georges good friend Steven Spielberg (soured over Roger Rabbit and other issues long before Katzenberg), allegations of unpaid royalties and broken contracts, etc., etc., etc.
There are plenty of rumors currently floating around about the future between Disney and Lucas. The Star Wars events at WDW have been cancelled. There are no new rides planned. The fate of any update to the Star Tours attractions is unclear and there are strong rumors Eisner wants them gone. Lucas is rumored to be in talks with other theme park companies about attractions based on the prequel movies (not technically part of the Disney-Lucas contract). In short, its a mess.
So, enjoy Star Tours and the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. Just dont expect anything more to be coming.
* - an interesting side note from the whole fourth network fiasco. The work that was put into the Star Trek series was salvaged into Star Trek: The Motion Picture. At the time Eisner told everyone it was a surefire way to make a lot of money. But it turned out to be a very costly movie that didnt do all that well at the box office. Eisner took most of the blame for its failure but his young assistant, one Jeffrey Katzenberg, received a lot of credit for pushing the film through production. Many at the time thought Katzenberg would eventually replace Eisner at Paramount. Looks like that still will happen, only at a different company and at a much different level. And the idea about a fourth network Eisners boss at Paramount took the idea over to another company, found better idiots and started the Fox Network. The very same network that beat out Eisners ABC network last years ratings.
Hollywood is a very small town
Probably the most interesting thread I've read here! Thanks a bunch!
