I was working at the Paramount Theatre in Kelowna when the first Star Wars prequel came out. Everyone knew the movie was going to be big, and the question really was just how big was it going to be. It had been decades since the original movies first came out, and it was expected that Lucas' return to a land far far away was going to blow everything out of the water.
The demands from Fox and Lucasfilm placed on individual theatres was ridiculous. For example typically with advertising merchandise once the movie leaves the theatre all of the posters, buttons and what have you are up for grabs. With Ep1 Lucasfilm wanted physical proof that all advertising materials had been destroyed. The word was any theatre that failed to provide proof would risk not getting the film.
By the second and third prequel nobody really worried about those conditions. Lucasarts had lost its clout, at least where Star Wars was concerned, because despite the strong box office numbers it Ep1 turned out to be just another movie.
Over at Metroblogging Vancouver I've got an FAQ about the iPhone's upcoming arrival in Canada [mbv]. What struck me is that Rogers and Apple are being as controlling as Lucasfilm and Fox were over that wonderful piece of Jar Jar Binks film footage. Anyone who helps a customer with a grey market iPhone (an unlocked iPhone from out of country) will be fired on the spot with no severance. This includes existing Rogers customers with American iPhones whose money everyone has been fine taking up until now.
Apart from the questionable legality of firing someone with no severance for helping out a customer they sold a service to a month ago, it would be interesting to see if anyone believed that was just cause, it's the sort of inane controlling attitude that brought us midi-chlorians [wp].
The sad thing is the iPhone is good, really good and Rogers and Apple have no reason to treat it like Jar Jar Binks shows up halfway through to crap on it.
