When George Lucas dies who will own Indiana Jones?

Dr. Gonzo

New member
Maybe this question has an obvious answer but in thinking "who will own the rights to Indiana Jones after Lucas passes on?" I came upon several different scenarios...

A. Lucasfilm will retain the rights after Lucas' death and an unknown will have control.

B. Spielberg will take the reigns.

C. Paramount will be the entity in control of the franchise.

D. Is it possible since Raiders is based on a story by Lucas and Philip Kaufman that Kaufman will get his say?

E. One of Lucas' (adopted) children?

I ask these questions because usually in the US the studio owns the property, but I think Lucas or "Lucasfilm" is in charge. But it was really created by Lucas, Spielberg and Kasdan. I know for a fact Kasdan is not in contention. I'm not really a legal buff.

So what do you all think? Who will legally own Indiana Jones after Lucas "becomes one with the force"?
 
Last edited:

indyclone25

Well-known member
it is a Lucasfilm property, and Paramount ony distributes, much like 20th century fox, does for the star wars films.
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
I guess what my real follow up question is then is who becomes the chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm? Just some guy? Does one of his kids get promoted? Who gets the say so?
 

Indy's brother

New member
Knowing how truly stubborn and eccentric George Lucas is towards his creations, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he had some legal instrument that dictates the destruction* of every reel of film he has the rights to upon his demise, along with explicit instructions to never release them again, on any format, or in any theater, ever again. He's gonna try to take it all with him, and be buried with his rotting middle finger protruding skyward from his grave.

*well, maybe not destroyed. Maybe launched into space.
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
Where's the 'Disney will buy out and own Lucasfilm" option?

I think that one's inevitable even if Spielberg got the rights beforehand. Coz after Spielberg's gone, that will probably happen next.

I've always been of the mind, that Indy (and SW) were more Lucasfilm properties than they are the studios (however it could be that I am confusing merchandising and ancillary rights with the intellectual property and copyright of the films themselves). I guess this would be all in the wording of the original contract, (or revised version, considering five Raiders movies were never delivered).

In any case, what does Spielberg have in terms of legal rights over the series right now? Other than his directing pay and percentage from the merch and ancillaries.
 

Finn

Moderator
Staff member
Opening a law book would most likely answer most of these questions.

While there might be some differences depending on country, state and region, generally the following three principles apply to all intellectual property in the western world:

1. IP, unlike physical property, is not transferable by a simple will.
2. If the holder of rights is a natural person, the benefactors would be those who are considered his legal descendants by default.
3. If the holder of rights is an organization, nothing changes in case a key person from said organization passes on. It will retain the rights as if nothing happened.

Pointer #1 dictates that Lucas can't just state that in the case of his death that whatever IP there is in his name solely will go to a random person, say Bob Johnson from Adelaide simply because he decided so. He can't state that "I want all copies burned" either. Well, unless there are some crafty loopholes in law, that is. And realizing those would likely take years in court with a very little chance of actually winning.

Of course, to answer the question thoroughly, we'd have to know who owns the rights to what. I don't think there's any single entity who owns ALL the rights to whatever is related to the IP that is Indiana Jones. They're probably out there somewhere in the books, but I'm not sticking myself into that quagmire just for this purpose.

Anyway, in case there are rights that Lucas holds himself, the benefactors in the case of his death would indeed be his children. It doesn't matter if they're biological or adopted, as long as the process of adoption is considered legal.

If the holder of rights is a company such as LucasFilm, then LucasFilm will retain the rights at least for as long as its Board doesn't decide to sell 'em someplace else, be it a company or a natural person. Though this is something not dependent on Lucas' death, may as well happen even when he is still alive.

Dr. Gonzo said:
I guess what my real follow up question is then is who becomes the chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm?
Answering THIS one is relatively simple. It's whoever the company board of directors will pick to the role. Might be someone from within the company or a complete outsider, as long as they consider him or her competent for the duties. Bob Johnson from Adelaide is suddenly back in contention.

Of course, this is something that can also happen while Lucas himself still exists in full body & mind. He can simply step down and retire. From a legal standpoint it still doesn't mean anything to those parts of Indy's IP that is owned by LucasFilm. Nor to those parts that are possibly owned by the man himself, unless he hands them over to the company.


So, the bottom line is that any of A to E can and will happen depending on who owns what. A is of course the most likely, with the exception that the one who has control is not an unknown, as it is the company. As it is now.
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
Very interesting answers. Did you ever study law Finn?

Finn said:
Of course, to answer the question thoroughly, we'd have to know who owns the rights to what. I don't think there's any single entity who owns ALL the rights to whatever is related to the IP that is Indiana Jones. They're probably out there somewhere in the books, but I'm not sticking myself into that quagmire just for this purpose.

I guess what I would be interested in is who would control the rights to the creative future of the existing films and (if there were any) subsequent "releases" if they did so choose. Like if some one (god forbidding) said, "George is dead, let's do a reboot." Who would be the person to give that the (n) or the (y) ?
 
Lucasfilm owns the rights -- and Lucasfilm is 100% family owned. It is not a publicly traded company.

So the correct question to ask is "What happens to Lucasfilm in the event of George retiring (or passing)?"

I know several LFL employees that have been asking that question for over a decade now.
 

Crack that whip

New member
Violet said:
Where's the 'Disney will buy out and own Lucasfilm" option?

I think that one's inevitable even if Spielberg got the rights beforehand. Coz after Spielberg's gone, that will probably happen next.

I've always been of the mind, that Indy (and SW) were more Lucasfilm properties than they are the studios (however it could be that I am confusing merchandising and ancillary rights with the intellectual property and copyright of the films themselves). I guess this would be all in the wording of the original contract, (or revised version, considering five Raiders movies were never delivered).

In any case, what does Spielberg have in terms of legal rights over the series right now? Other than his directing pay and percentage from the merch and ancillaries.

I'm really surprised people here wonder. I always thought it was pretty clear the character / franchise is owned by Lucasfilm.
 

Sakis

TR.N Staff Member
I read once in a magazine that Lucas on his will he clearly states that his Star Wars films will remain untouched and no continuation will ever take place on film. He never mentioned if similar restrictions will affect other of his properties, like Indy.
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
Violet said:
In any case, what does Spielberg have in terms of legal rights over the series right now? Other than his directing pay and percentage from the merch and ancillaries.

I mistakenly thought that Spielberg became a producer on Crystal Skull. One of the documentaries mentioned something like that but it wasn't the case. That's why... I'm mistaken.
 

Finn

Moderator
Staff member
Dr. Gonzo said:
Very interesting answers. Did you ever study law Finn?
Information science. Being a subject that deals with maintaining and transfering information, it does require extensive knowledge of copyrights and other issues that deal with intellectual property.

Sakis said:
I read once in a magazine that Lucas on his will he clearly states that his Star Wars films will remain untouched and no continuation will ever take place on film. He never mentioned if similar restrictions will affect other of his properties, like Indy.
Sounds almost like LucasFilm might become sort of a mausoleum firm, run solely from some lawyer's file cabinet with the sole purpose of maintaining the non-continuation of Star Wars franchise.

But if the rest of the licenses are up for grabs, I guess the correct answer to "Who can make more Indy once George is dead?" is "Anybody with enough moolah." Make the Lucas kids an offer they can't refuse and hey, Indy is yours.
 

foreverwingnut

New member
Interesting thread...

I never gave much thought concerning the rights to Indy once Lucas would one-day pass-on because I always assumed that the next of kin would naturally be awarded ownership. However, this thread has been a fascinating one and I never knew that the finer points of law concerning property ownership of film could be so complicated. So complicated, in fact, that it sounds to me like there may be a few catch-22 loopholes. Might there be a precidence for a legal war between the various parties over control? I'd certainly hate to see the franchise ripped apart in such an ugly way.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
George will never die.

He has Spaarti cloning cylinders installed on sub-level nine at Skywalker Ranch, just below the bicycle parking area.
 

foreverwingnut

New member
Montana Smith, you have my vote for most clever comment on The Raven ever! I was afraid I was in for another lousy morning, but I'll be smiling about your comment for the next few days. Thank-you!
 

No Ticket

New member
I think this is precisely what he is thinking about right now in terms of the future of his career. That includes what happens to his properties if and when he retires and after he has died.

I think the obvious answer is that Lucas is a man who likes to control his properties himself and doesn't trust studios or Hollywood. He is also a man who cherishes his children. It is therefore a very likely conclusion that when he dies he will leave the reigns to LucasFilm to his children. LucasFilm will continue to strike merchandising deals on properties like Star Wars. It's likely that video games and such will still be made according most likely to a strict set of "extended universe" guidelines. But no films. THX, Skywalker Sound, Industrial Light & Magic will continue to do their things.

But I don't see any future creative ventures out of LucasFilm and I think we will see a much more limited run of Star Wars and or Indiana Jones spin-offs like the tv series and what not.

If his kids plan to sell out the rights to some other company then it could continue on, but if George requests that no one else can make any future Star Wars films his kids will likely want to honor his wishes and keep that out of the hands of some movie studio/corporation/whatever.

So in a way, I think a lot of it would die with him because he doesn't trust that his vision won't be "tainted" by outside sources. I think that whole thing about that guy who wants to make a Boba Fett movie is giving Lucas pause as to whether or not he should really limit it like that and not let it live on through other people who obviously are passionate about it.
 
Top