Disney is expanding the Star Wars universe at a massive clip in the coming years, with new Disney+ shows and some big movie plans in place even if the Skywalker Saga is apparently wrapped up. And though much of the extended Star Wars canon was largely dismissed when The Mouse bought the franchise’s rights from George Lucas, some of its biggest beats have been readdressed in shows like The Mandalorian.
Which is why it’s particularly of interest that a new report says some authors of Star Wars books say they haven’t been receiving royalty checks from Disney since they bought control of the franchise. The Wall Street Journal laid out their claims on Saturday, detailing how several authors of Star Wars and other novelizations say the checks stopped coming when Disney took control of the franchise and its many, many works.
The story largely focuses on Alan Dean Foster, who famously wrote the novelization of the original Star Wars movie in 1977. Foster had received royalties for decades for it and several other projects, and he’s certainly a notable figure in the extended Star Wars universe. But in 2012, when Disney bought the franchise, the checks stopped coming.
Now, Mr. Foster and other authors from Disney purchased franchises are in a heated dispute with Hollywood’s biggest empire, which they say refuses to pay royalties on book contracts it absorbed in the $4 billion Lucasfilm deal and other acquisitions. The amount of money at stake is minuscule to a company of Disney’s size but important to the writers seeking it. While Disney has mined Lucasfilm for new movies that have collectively grossed nearly $6 billion at the world-wide box office, these writers say the company has delayed dealing with their complaints and stiffed them on checks that rarely total a few thousand bucks apiece.
Since Mr. Foster’s dispute was taken public by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America association, other authors of books tied to projects from Indiana Jones to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” have come forward with similar stories of royalty checks that stopped after Disney acquired the properties. In each case, Disney threatens to alienate an obscure but vital tentacle of the franchises, as these novelizations helped build and maintain fan loyalty. Complicating matters: The exact amount of money at stake is unknown, since sales and royalties for the books involved have fluctuated wildly over time.
Disney responded to the report with a statement, saying “We are carefully reviewing whether any royalty payments may have been missed as a result of acquisition integration and will take appropriate remedial steps if that is the case.” But that’s apparently not what the company had said in the past when it came to other books Hansen wrote that Disney now controls.
In response to queries about the “Alien” checks, a Disney attorney told Mr. Foster that the company had acquired the rights to these books, but not the obligations to pay out royalties. But in the case of “Alien,” Ms. Hansen said, the rights to Mr. Foster’s novels had been reassigned several times, with no interruption of royalty checks, before Disney bought Fox.
“Disney has acquired a house with a mortgage on it. They want to keep living in the house. They don’t want to pay the mortgage,” Mr. Foster said.
As is pointed out in the piece, many of the authors who write these books are not the big-name writers and directors that make the box office hits or big-budget TV shows that power the Star Wars universe, but the more modest artists whose income largely relies on royalty checks, however small they may be. Hopefully things get sorted out soon, but it’s certainly a clerical issue that’s far more pressing for those cashing the checks than the company that should be cutting them.
[via The Wall Street Journal]