45. George Lucas Was Fined For Creating The Iconic Opening Crawl
One of the most iconic pieces of the Star Wars films is the opening crawl that opens the fils. It’s been parodied time and time again, and has become a defining quality of the franchise.
But it has cost George Lucas dearly over the years, for really lame reasons.
As part of the rules involved with the filmmaking unions, movies are supposed to list the credits before a movie starts, or at some point in the beginning of the film. Obviously that doesn’t happen in any of the Star Wars films, as the credits don’t appear until the very end of each movie.
Lucas wasn’t fined for A New Hope, because the “Lucasfilm” card before the film counted as credit for his involvement in the film; however he was fined by the DGA for the use of the opening crawl in Empire Strikes Back. Because Lucas didn’t direct the film, Irvin Kershner needed to be credited before it started — and he wasn’t.
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