Rishi Vaja

Gym Patriot, a short film I wrote, is now available to watch on @stream_klipist #shortfilm klipist.com/watch/gym-patr…

@stuarthazeldine @DeliciousDarth @AnishA_Moonka @back_the_BBC Wherever I see long posts like that, it just screams written by AI

@DeliciousDarth @AnishA_Moonka @back_the_BBC This isn’t ‘multiple sources’. It’s a single vague claim with no sources or names. Read a biography. George’s agent Jeff Berg sent to David Chasman @ UA who passed, then Ned Tanen @ Universal who also passed. Alan Ladd @ Fox was next, who bought it. No submission to Disney.

George Lucas traded $350,000 in directing salary for something Fox executives thought was worthless: the right to sell Star Wars toys. It was 1976. Over 40 studios had already passed on his script, including Disney. Fox only greenlit the project because they wanted Lucas for other films. Nobody at the studio expected to make money on a space opera with no stars, so when Lucas offered to cut his directing fee from $500,000 to $150,000 in exchange for merchandising and sequel rights, Fox said yes on the spot. Movie merchandise was a dead business. Fox had lost money on Doctor Dolittle lunchboxes a decade earlier. They thought they were getting the better deal. Lucas couldn’t even find a toy company that wanted in. Kenner, a division of cereal company General Foods, finally bought the licensing for a flat $100,000. Then Star Wars opened. Between 1977 and 1978, Kenner sold $100 million worth of toys off that $100,000 investment. They couldn’t make enough for Christmas ’77, so they sold empty boxes with IOUs inside, promising to mail the action figures later. Parents paid real money for cardboard and a promise. Nobody around the production saw any of this coming. Alec Guinness, who played Obi-Wan, privately called the script “fairy-tale rubbish.” But he was shrewd enough to negotiate 2.25% of royalties instead of a flat fee. About 20 minutes of total screen time earned his estate somewhere between $50 million and $100 million. Lucas himself was so convinced the film would flop that he offered Spielberg a bet while visiting the Close Encounters set: swap 2.5% of each other’s profits. Spielberg took it. That handshake has paid him around $40 million. And then the money started compounding. Lucas poured his Star Wars profits into ILM, the effects house he’d built for the film. When its computer graphics division got too expensive to maintain, he sold it to Steve Jobs in 1986 for $10 million. Jobs renamed it Pixar. Disney bought Pixar twenty years later for $7.4 billion. Then in 2012, Disney came back for the rest, buying Lucasfilm itself for $4.05 billion. Total franchise revenue today sits around $46.7 billion, over $20 billion from merchandise alone. The filmmaker 40 studios passed on is now worth $5.3 billion according to Forbes. Fifty years ago today, cameras rolled on a desert in Tunisia. The $350,000 pay cut that made it all possible might be the best trade in business history.

@WestHam Congrats! But please don’t get injured!

Dinos will join up with the Greece squad for their friendlies against Paraguay and Hungary 🇬🇷

Old enough to remember when Levi jean adverts would be an “event” and start a cultural trend like instant number 1 song in the charts and people watching adverts just to catch it #nostalgia #90s

@si_underwood Be good to hear your thoughts!

@Rish1 Just on the way to the cinema now!

I will not be deterred (nor will my father who loves Jessie Buckley)

@Monkeypaw @rebeccawwrites

Happy International Women’s Day 💐✨

@SkySportsNews They really want to give Spurs a fighting chance of coming straight back up next season!

BREAKING: The EFL Championship play offs will be changed from four to six teams from the start of next season 🚨

@I_amMukhtar @franklinleonard disgraceful

This is what Vinicius Jr. was dealing with as well. Benfica fans were making monkey gestures towards him.

Here he is! No skis, no mask, no ski equipment, rocked up in a t-shirt and walked away with a gold #Biathlon #winterolympics

@westhamnetwork Worried about the injuries that Nuno has alluded to. A draw would be good at this stage and hope wolves do us a favour!

Tomorrow we take on Manchester United at Home. How are you feeling about the game ?

@westhamnetwork TAKE HIM! PLEASE! TAKE HIM!

🚨LATEST TRANSFER RUMOUR 🚨 Crystal Palace are keen on Kilman Thoughts?

@WestHam Don’t want to see Kilman in a West Ham shirt ever again

Nuno reacts to tonight's fixture ⬇️

@westhamnetwork Yes. I don’t want to see Kilman in a West Ham shirt ever again

The turning point in the game ? Leading 2-1 Nuno decided to sub off the hardworking Pablo playing in the number 10 role to put a defender on. On the 66th minute. Thoughts ?

@WestHam You bring on Kilman and we ship 2 goals. Please. Sell him

It's defeat in West London.

@westhamnetwork No. Thought under NES he might flourish but it’s the complete opposite. Sell him, take the money and bring in a solid defender

Is there even a route back into the team for the Paq man ? Do we miss Paqueta ?

Want Stephen to win so he can say to the remaining faithfuls in that delicious Scottish accent that he is a “traitor” #TheTraitors #TheTraitorsUK

#NowWatching The Pope’s Exorcist Father Amorth will return in Avengers: Doomsday

@WestHam Just send us straight to League 1

QPR equalise. ⚒ 1-1 🔵 (64')

@edgarwright @petethepanda We watched The World’s End in the Letchworth cinema after doing one half of the pub crawl (and then finished off the pub crawl the following day). One of the best movie going/immersive experiences ever

@petethepanda What theatre was it?

i've recently been dwelling on the theatrical experiences of years past and i've come to the conclusion that the advance screening of @edgarwright's Hot Fuzz in Chicago was one of the pinnacles of my moviegoing life. 2007 was a hell of a year.

Did they ever catch “H”? #TheTraitors #lineofduty