Star Wars fan in £40k settlement
MOVIE EMPIRE DISNEY LEFT LOOKING ON DARK SIDE OVER INTERVIEW COURT ORDER
A STAR Wars megafan has made Hollywood giants Lucasfilm feel the force, after a top judge ordered the company to pay him £40,000 in damages.
Marc John staged a one-man rebellion against the movie empire, owned by Disney, after they scuppered his plan to make thousands from a live interview with Darth Vader in Trafford Park.
Mr John, 46, protested that Lucasfilm had stopped him selling filmed highlights of the Star Wars fan convention – with an interview with Darth Vader actor David Prowse ‘forming a centrepiece of the broadcast’ – to cinemas worldwide.
A judge at London’s High Court yesterday found that Lucasfilm had unlawfully ‘interfered’ with the making of the documentary, because they were worried that it might affect the success of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, which went on to gross more than $2bn.
Mr John, of Thornley Close, Aylesbury, Bucks, claimed the Vader interview and other scenes from the ‘For the Love of the Force’ convention in Trafford Park in 2015, would have netted him £1.35m had he been allowed to proceed with the broadcast as planned in December 2015 – just prior to the release of The Force Awakens, when ‘anticipation and hype for Star Wars’ was ‘sky high.’
His plan was torpedoed when Lucasfilm’s lawyers contacted the organisers of the convention and threatened to sue them unless they backed out of an agreement to let Mr John film there.
Yesterday, Judge Veronique Buehrlen QC ruled that Lucasfilm Ltd LLC and Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd LLC had ‘unlawfully induced a breach a contract’ by shutting down his plan, because they were worried it would ‘dilute’ the success of their film.
She threw out Lucasfilm’s claims that Mr John ‘would most likely have made a loss’ had he been allowed to go ahead with his plan, but also rejected Mr John’s assertion that he would have netted a seven-figure sum and reached 1,200 cinemas with his movie.
Instead she awarded him £39,504, as his share after costs of just over £100,000 she reckoned the film would have made from 150 cinema screenings.
The judge said: “It is clear that Lucasfilm did not want a broadcast of the convention interfering with the launch of Episode VII: The Force Awakens.
“Mr John was clearly very keen to make his proposed film, believing that it would be a success. He was candid about his lack of funds, low budget and lack of any marketing or sales to fans experience.”
However, she refused to award him the £1.35m he wanted, saying that his artistic vision for the film was ‘disjointed and lacking in overall direction.’
But she found that Mr John had a ‘real and substantial chance’ of getting 150 cinemas to show the film, and netting just over £100,000 – his share of which would amount to just under £40,000.
Disney has been contacted for a comment.