Star Wars: 20 Things You Didn't Know About The Empire Strikes Back
15. George Lucas Quit The Writers & Directors Guilds Over A Credits Dispute
Of all the creative battles which George Lucas found himself locked in throughout the original trilogy, one of the strangest involves the series' signature opening title crawl.
When putting A New Hope together, Lucas insisted upon moving the traditional credits to the end of the movie in favour of the title crawl, which the Writers and Directors Guilds reportedly only agreed to because they didn't expect Star Wars to be much of a success.
But when Lucas understandably expected the same allowance for The Empire Strikes Back, the Directors Guild of America kicked up a fuss, unhappy that director Irvin Kershner's name wasn't upfront.
They even tried to get the original prints pulled from cinemas and edited to include Kershner's name at a cost of $500,000, but considering that Kershner was entirely on Lucas' side, Lucas elected to pay a fine instead, rumoured to be as high as $250,000, to keep the titles in tact.
To make his protest clear, though, Lucas then followed up by rescinding his membership in both the WGA and DGA.