George Lucas, What Would Dad Do (WWDD) Dad of the Week for 3/1/10

Some dads are cool. Some dads are not. Some dads fix cars, crunch numbers or wear a suit and tie or drive a truck or teach a class. But it is very rare that your dad is responsible for creating a merchandising empire of a franchise that has entrenched itself so deep in American folklore and modern mythology that it is never going to stop.

Well enter: George Walton Lucas, Jr., born May 14, 1944. For those of you who aren’t sure who he is, Lucas is an Academy Award-nominated American film producer, screenwriter, director and founder/chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. He is best known for being the creator of the epic science fiction and modern day fantasy franchise STAR WARS as well as joint creator of the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones. Today, Lucas is one of the American film industry’s most financially successful independent directors/producers, with an estimated net worth of $3.0 billion as of 2009.

HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE:
George Lucas co-founded the film studio American Zoetrope with Francis Ford Coppola—whom he met during his internship at Warner Brothers. Their goal was to create a liberating environment for filmmakers to direct outside the perceived oppressive control of the Hollywood studio system.

And this they did with Lucas’ first full-length feature film produced by the studio, THX 1138. It was a dark, slow paced negative utopian based movie that is still critically acclaimed today for it’s projections of a vapid and cold automated society. It was not a success, but his second film was: American Graffiti (1973). Beinga big sci-fi fan, Lucas then proposed a new Flash Gordon film adaptation, but the rights were not available. But his new-found wealth and reputation enabled him to develop a story set in space instead–STAR WARS. However, he encountered great difficulties getting Star Wars made. It was only because Alan Ladd, Jr. at Fox Studios liked American Graffiti that he forced through a production and distribution deal for the film, which ended up restoring Fox to financial stability after a number of flops.

But Lucas saw the bigger picture and changed movies and movie merchandising forever. During the filming of Star Wars, Lucas waived his up-front fee as director and negotiated to own the licensing rights—rights which the studio thought were nearly worthless. This decision earned him hundreds of millions of dollars, as he was able to directly profit from all the licensed games, toys, and collectibles created for the franchise and Star Wars is the monster it is today because of this cunning move. On a return on investment basis, Star Wars proved to be one of the most successful films of all time and it’s merchandising paved the way for the empire to take hold.

The money from Star Wars enabled Lucas to set up his own studio, Lucasfilm, in Marin County in his native Northern California. Skywalker Sound and Industrial Light & Magic, the sound and visual effects subdivisions of Lucasfilm, respectively, have become among the most respected firms in their fields and are on the forefront of filming technology. Lucasfilm Games, later renamed to LucasArts, is well respected in the gaming industry as well as the Star Wars Video Games like Knights of the Old Republic, the Force Unleashed and the Lego Games are huge fan favorites. And the Clone Wars cartoon has again reeled in a new generation of fans, like my children.

So George Lucas, you god of all media, we praise you with the force and thank you for your contributions to our culture. Star Wars will live on long after you are one with the force!

Below you will find my favorite George Lucas things. I can’t rave enough about the video games. They are a really big extension of Star Wars and some even say the Force unleashed is the best story next to the Empire Strikes Back. It revolves around Darth Vader’s secret apprentice who later goes on to become a historic figure in the rebel alliance. Check it out the trailer:

The Force Unleashed 2 is also coming out soon!
Here is its trailer:

Here are some Amazon Goodies as well.
Pre Order the Force Unleashed 2 Today

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