20 Mind-Blowing Facts About Star Wars

18. George Lucas Severely Cut His Pay To Get A New Hope Made (And It Made Him A Billionaire)

These days, Star Wars is so unfathomably popular that it's difficult to comprehend a time when people might have scoffed at the idea of its very existence. But back in the 70s, when George Lucas and producer Gary Kurtz were attempting to get the film made, various studios did exactly that, including Universal Studios and United Artists. It wasn't until Lucas and Kurtz met with Twentieth Century Fox that they managed to make some progress, and even then the project was mostly received with scepticism. In the end, however, the Head of Creative Affairs Alan Ladd Jr. decided to fund the project, but there was one interesting condition. Lucas was so desperate to get the film made that he offered to cut his directorial fee from five-hundred thousand dollars to one-hundred and fifty thousand. In exchange for this cut, Lucas would own the film's distribution and merchandising rights. In reality, this was a massive gamble for Lucas. Five-hundred thousand dollars is a substantial amount of money to lose out on, and there was absolutely no guarantee the film would be successful enough to justify the creation of merchandise. In fact, difficult production and the fact that many people didn't really understand Lucas's vision (Alec Guinness famously thought the entire plot was nonsense) meant that Lucas was taking an enormous risk. The gamble, of course, paid off €“ the merchandising rights alone are worth enough to make a person a multi-billionaire (in part made possible through Star Wars' subsequent sequels and the prequel trilogy).