George has finally done something I can smile about!
I love it!
a working archived link:-
‘George Lucas Does Something Likeable For a Change: Revenge on Rich Neighbors’:-
Heh, that's a real 'Sith'-like revenge that George is about to inflict on his nice, rich, obstructive neighbours, lol...
If you do the right thing for the wrong reasons, is it still right...?
Rich People: That's not what we agreed on for the neighborhood!
George Lucas: I am altering the neighborhood, pray I don't alter it any further.
Other rich people stop Lucas' studio.
Lucas' moves in poor people.
Other Rich people move away.
Lucas builds studio and hires poor people....
Might happen.
It's fun and a rather satisfying comeuppance. On the other hand, he could have just opened his studio in a somewhat less affluent area - someplace that could benefit by the infusion of jobs.
"Close the blast doors!"
Puggo’s website | Rescuing Star Wars
That would all depend on if he could find a comparable plot of land in such an area, and being able to buy it though.
There was once a story in my local paper about Sony owning a large tract of lemon groves they wanted to build a new studio complex on. Twenty years later, and nothing ever happened.
If George ever wants to build the Skywalker theme park in Florida, I happen to own some swampland. ;)
Where were you in '77?
Lucas has given away tons of his money through philanthropy and has obviously brought joy into the hearts of many. Much as I have decidedly harsh feelings towards him for his attitude about a work of fiction, there's no denying he's done a ton of great things on a personal level. Kudos to him for giving to those in need. He deserves the credit, and that's a great thing.
“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”
Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death
I love it!
“First feel fear, then get angry. Then go with your life into the fight.” - Bill Mollison
This was pretty cool. And I generally find GL to be fairly likeable, especially as hollywood bigshots go. (It's just that one...friggin...thing that makes me nuts, which actually makes it even more maddening and annoying).
One of my favorite things he's done, we know he gave bonus points to the SW cast that he didn't have to, but I believe he also did the same for the kid who played Short Round (which is pretty amazing when you think about it, that kid was literally on a refugee boat from Vietnam not much earlier)
Baronlando said:
One of my favorite things he's done, we know he gave bonus points to the SW cast that he didn't have to
Bonus points? I'm not even sure what that means.
What about the crummy treatment of David Prowse? I agree George provides money for a lot of great causes, and this Marin County low income housing thing, if it pans out and is more than just a threat, is pretty cool, but I don't think we can really say he has always treated his actors and employees awesome.
CP3S wrote: Bonus points? I'm not even sure what that means.
Some actors contracts specify that their wages are set by a percentage of the profits of the film, not a flat fee. This article goes into Alec Guinness' points/percentage fee for Star Wars:
http://edmondson.blogspot.com/2007/11/alec-guinness-in-star-wars.html
CP3S said:
Bonus points? I'm not even sure what that means.
It means he gave them profit sharing that wasn't in their contract that he didn't have to. Which is basically unheard of in 100 years of Hollywood.