Lucasfilm threatened suit

Friday May 27, 2005 - Posted 11:30 AM EDT (1530 GMT) - Brad Watkins, Editor

Chatsworth, Ca - It has been a tough week for Wicked Pictures owner Steve Orenstein. An emotional roller coaster ride has ended on a down note for the company.

"Each year the adult industry and consumers alike wait to see what Wicked will do to top itself. We've garnered many AVN awards for our high quality features and we had hoped this year would continue that proud tradition," said Orenstein.

"I wanted to take a different approach and look outside the company for some fresh ideas. Jonathan (Morgan), Brad (Armstrong), and I decided to solicit script ideas and reward one lucky writer, giving them a chance to have their story produced, much like the Project Greenlight TV series."

Wicked received hundreds of submissions. "We immediately eliminated any treatments which included gaping, double anal, or people having sex next to dead animals," commented Armstrong. "At this point we were only left with a handful of scripts to choose from, but one stood out."

The winning story idea (Revenge of the Seth) came from an unlikely source, industry performer Seth Dickens. "Like most kids my age, I grew up a huge Star Wars fan. I was scheduled to make an appearance with Nacho Vidal, Katsumi, and Rita Faltoyano at the 2004 Mexico Erotic Festival."

"I decided to leave early though and catch the last day of the Comic Con in San Diego before I headed back to LA."

"At the convention they revealed the final Star Wars movie title and I knew immediately, this was my big chance, it had my name written all over it! As soon as I got back to Canoga Park I started working on the script. I failed to make the list of 27 nominees for AVN's 2005 Best Male Performer (AVN has assured Dickens he was #28 and they had to draw the line somewhere) but I knew 2006 was going to change all that."

"I loved Seth's characters and immediately saw opportunities to development Revenge of the Seth as a prequel to Space Nuts," said an enthusiastic Jonathan Morgan. "Fans are always coming up to me and asking, how did the Evil Overlord get to the Clitorian System, and why didn't Princess Hubba Hubba just have Jeeves start counting cards to get them thrown out of the space casino?"

Speculation on these topics has raged for years on Space Nuts blogs, chat rooms, internet forums, spoilers pages, and at Space Nuts regional conventions all over the country. "I'm flattered by all the interest, but the bottom line is, they aren't even close. Now I'll finally be able to give the fans what they have been waiting for," commented Morgan. "Seth's concepts for the Nookies, C3inputsEO, and Scrota will take the saga to new heights!"

Excitement about the project was building, but as Wicked started planning pre-production they hit the first bump in the road. "I commended Seth on his detailed budget proposal and even though it was only 10% of what Lucas spent on his latest movie, $13 million was still way too high, even with the Playboy rights and foreign sales factored in," described Orenstein. "We later agreed on something in the neighborhood of $43,000."

"The 99% budget cut dealt a definite blow to my original vision for the movie," stated Dickens. "I stayed positive and knew it just meant I'd have to work even harder. Originally I wanted to use CGI for the Scrota and DVDA2 characters but that wasn't possible at $43,000. Brad came up with a great idea. We'd pre-apply green makeup to Bridget the Midget and then stuff her in an aluminum trash can for the DVDA2 shots. Once inside, she could be quickly removed for any Scrota scenes."

They weren't out of the woods yet. Seth and Jonathan could not agree on certain plot elements. Dickens insisted that his characters Princess Layme (Keri Sable) and Luke Fordwalker (Brad Armstrong) be in the prequel.

"Layme and Fordwalker don't even exist until Episode IV: Return of the Sack, he's crazy," exclaimed an angry Morgan. "Whatever dude!," responded Dickens.

Orenstein knew he had to get the team back on track. The website, RevengeOfTheSeth.com was getting millions of hits and the two page spread in AVN hadn't even hit newsstands yet. "Interest was incredible. We knew this project was a winner and I wanted to make sure it got done."

Days after the website launch, things took a turn for the worse. "I got a call from a Lucasfilm representative. Apparently many Star Wars fans were accidentally reaching our site looking for information about their movie, Revenge of the Sith. They demanded an immediate termination of the website, the movie and any related advertising materials. If we didn't comply legal action would be taken," stated Orenstein.

"I responded, we have invested nearly $11,000 so far! Many of our customers have mistakenly browsed the Lucas site expecting hardcore pornographic images and video clips. What they find is a rated PG-13 movie trailer, it's bad for OUR business! Expect a countersuit!"

Lucasfilm didn't budge. Orenstein realized that a protracted legal battle with George Lucas would be costly. "For the good of Wicked Pictures and it's employees I pulled the plug."

Dickens took the news hardest. "I put everything I had into this project. One phone call and now it's over. Months of work down the toilet."

Wicked contract star Jessica Drake helped console Seth. The two had become friends during the production. "Jessica had a great idea. She offered to write George Lucas directly on behalf of myself and Wicked. I thought this was awesome. If Lucas can resist Jessica then he is obviously a fag!" exclaimed Dickens. "I told her she should include a Jessica Drake Pocket Pussy to sweeten the deal but WickedStore.com was out of stock."

A mix up in the Wicked mail room doomed the project forever. Apparently Lucas received a letter previously delivered to Steve Orenstein.

Lucasfilm representative Chad Remming wrote back: "We have no idea who Jessica Drake, Keri Sable, or Brad Armstrong are. It remains unclear how these people wanting to have anal group sex in a movie called the "Collector 2" affects our decision to pursue legal action. We cannot be clearer, terminate all production on Revenge of the Seth."

Wicked is now left without a big feature to compete against New Sensation's upcoming vampire drama, Dark Angels 2: Bloodline, or Digital Playground's pirate themed movie, in the 2006 AVN awards. Rumors have been spreading Wicked Pictures is for sale. Many in the adult industry cite the failure of "Revenge of the Seth" as the reason.

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