George Lucas donates $175 mil to USC

"Impressive, most impressive."

Regardless of my opinions of a few SW prequels, I really admire this man. To pull off what he did to become the most successful independant filmmaker of all time is admirable. "Merchandising? No one cares about merchandise... go ahead, you can have the rights to that...."

Albeit it is commendable to donate such a significant ammount to the upgrading and maintenance of a school of filmmaking, at the same time, I also feel students should be forced to make a film on a shoe string budget. Kind of like how we learn to build and dream of grander things while limited to a handful of blocks of lego.

$175 million huh? Wow.

PS - I am almost done a flash animated Star Wars short film... but give me a few more months. I'm in school again this time taking 3D animation and it's eating up most of my spare time.

How about he donates $100 to me -- for every VHS, Laserdisc and DVD version of "Star Wars" he's made me buy.

browbeat, I admired Lucas 25 years ago, when he was a maverick, independent filmaker. I admired him for his vision of marketing and merchandising and how he took an amalgam of stories and created the amazing Star Wars universe. I lost my admiration after Return of the Jedi, when the marketing and money became more important than the story. All I see now is a man who loves to play with visual and sound effects, has completely lost his once inspired story-telling ability, and bleeds his rebid fans of their money to pay for his toys.

Yeah, what he said.

I still like Lucas for what he did for Film. He was a maverick and his impact on movies will never change, but he himself has changed as a director and it seems less about the films(especially regarding SW1-3) and more about merchandising and F/X.
I was at an HMV the other day looking for a movie and came across the SW special special editions he just released. Dude, they were like £18($27) each. I`m not paying almost $80 bucks! That`s crazy! They don't have to be that high. Sell them for like 15 bucks a piece.

So does this mean in order to get a refund for my pucrhased tickets I now need to plead my case with USC, or can I still just show up at his ranch demanding my money?

So what you guys are saying is that George Lucas is in this buisness to make money!? GOOD LORD! That is rediculous, how gare he make thousands of very popular toys that people buy and enjoy, how does he sleep at night knowing that he has made 72 different versions of his films!!! HOW!!!! I'll tell ya how, on a mattress filled with money, thats how. Way to go George... and it's good to see ya know where ya came from.

Ok. Did Lucas really go around to everyone, reach in to their pockets and *steal* the money from you? Or did he put his product out there, and like a bunch of brainwashed zombies, we all bought them? Yes, it pisses me off when studios put out 5 different versions of movies. That's why I didn't buy Sin City, or the SE LOTR movies. That's why I'm not buying X3. They've already announced an SE, so I'll probably wait for that. Is there a chance I'll bite the bullet and buy it anyway? Yes, but if I do, that's my own damn fault. Not Brett Ratner's.

Amen #8

You guys need to stop bashing Lucas. If it wasn't for him you wouldn't have your precious Star Wars. Besides, I know damn good and well that most of you would suck his tallywacker without a moments hesitation.