Didnt Lucas buy the rights to some Star Wars books before creating the movies?

[warcrow]

I thought I remember reading somewhere about Lucas buying some Star Wars books, or Luke Skywalker books and then changing some things around and making the movies. I could be terribly wrong, or maybe I'm right?

Anyways, discussing this with someone at work. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Got any links? Google has failed me.

 

[Goosemaster]

That guy banked. That guy banked like a fox.

 

[supez]

Hmm I havent heard anything about him buying books. Here is a good website though that shows things that might have inspired him.

http://www.jitterbug.com/origins/

 

[DaveSimmons]

No, the novelizations for the trilogy were based on the scripts. All of the other books came out later.

There was some crackpot who tried to sue Lucas for "stealing his ideas" but it was a lame extortion attempt (his stuff was dated after the first movie was already in production IIRC).

But Lucas obiviously borrowed from WW2 bomber movies, Saturday matinees, Flash Gordon, and The Hidden Fortress (probably all mentioned in supez's link).

 

[bunnyfubbles]

There are similarities here and there to things such as Dune and other sources already mentioned by others but Star Wars is a far cry from a flat out copy cat and is pretty original as it is. The original movie was actually a small budget film as the concept was a "risk" if it was already such a "sure thing" then it wouldn't have been as much of a gamble as it was. Even if it was a copy cat idea he had balls enough to put it out there and make it a success. Obviously someone else should get credit for the original idea if it isn't Lucas' but that doesn't appear to be the case.

 

[chuckywang]

If anything, Lucas was influenced by Kurasawa. (See a movie called The Hidden Fortress)

 

[DaveSimmons]

True, and the reason why Lucas owns the Star Wars empire instead of 20th Century Fox is that he put up a big chunk of his own money to fund it. Just like Mel Gibson's little religious movie, no one expected Lucas' sci fi project to be much of a success.