Having “resigned” from LucasFilm, and having the news plastered all over Marin County, I found it difficult to lead a normal Marin life. The excitement of sitting in a hot tub at sunset or putting on my Birkenstocks in the morning or riding my Gary Fischer up Mt. Tam or going to see the Dead just didn’t bring me joy anymore.

I was in a quandry. I really felt that I was wronged by Norby and that Lucas, being as detached as he was, would not get involved with the very real issues at hand. I tried many times to reach GWL, but for whatever reason ( maybe because he didn’t know who I was or what I did), I could not get through the gatekeepers. I felt strongly that if GWL could hear me out and speak to the artists at LucasArts, then he would understand that Norby should be the one to go, not me.

A few weeks later, I was granted my wish. George fired Norby. “There is a God”, I thought. I immediately rang up one of the board members and explained that with Norby gone, I was the only rational choice to come in and run the show… I mean who else knew the ins and outs of THX, SkyWalker Sound, Editdroid/Soundroid, ILM, Lucas Commercial Productions, LucasArts Attractions, etc.? Well, this certain board member disagreed with me and reminded me that I had quit. Well, yes, I had quit, but only because I had to report to the Norbster, not because I didn’t love the Company!!

That seemed to make no difference. I was told in no uncertain terms, that I was not welcomed back. In fact, not only was I not welcomed back, but that I was banned from the ranch. Me, banned from the ranch….. What had this come to?

Now, the cat was out of the bag. I was unemployed, my fellow ILMers that were so keen on a management buyout… all disappeared, the phone was not ( to my surprise) ringing off the hook with folks looking to hire someone with my skills, George wouldn’t return my calls, headhunters like Korn/Ferry couldn’t quite figure out what I did, the mortgage on the Marin house and the Tahoe house were due, my kids went to private schools and my stay at home wife was trying to remain calm. I was anything but.

A year before this all unwound, Norby had come up with an idea to break LucasFilm Ltd. into two companies. LucasFilm which would be the company that produced films and TV as well as the licensing associated with LucasFilm properties and LucasArts, the new company that would be comprised of ILM, SkyWalker Sound, THX, LucasFilm Commercial Production, LucasFilm Games, Droidworks and LucasArts Attractions. This, at the time, had several purposes.  LucasFilm was a company that made money and LucasArts was a company that didn’t.  Also, according to Norby, LucasArts would be a company that could IPO.. go public… and finally offer executives and key creative people some equity. Now a lot of us naively wondered how we could take a company that was in the services business and that was not profitable, public.

DD S1 Digital Domain S1 registration to IPO May 2011

But, nonetheless, Norby pursued this vehemently. I wonder if it had anything to do with his large chunk of equity in LucasArts? In the process of setting up this new entity, LucasArts, we needed a board of directors, a new logo and various and expensive outside legal and consulting services.  I always wondered who approved these expenditures?

The effort to design a new logo was indicative of Norby’s fiscal restraint and his understanding of the capabilities of the Company. Instead of allowing any number of incredibly talented designers and artists that were presently employed at the Company to design this new logo, he hired an outside firm. An expensive one.  After several weeks of “creative exploration”, a design was agreed upon.  Norby liked the logo that had a little man standing with up-stretched arms holding his head.

Within the Executive Group, the logo became known as Headache Man….

With the logo underway, the task of finding a board for the new LucasArts was at hand.  Norby, decided on the process by which we would chose candidates, interview them and then finally approve a director.  At the time, Norby had several direct reports, his assistant Maureen, Gordon Radley ( the other Sr. VP responsible for Business Affairs, Finance, Licensing and Ranch Operations), Steve Arnold ( the VP in Charge of LucasFilm Games)  the GM of THX and me. The process Norby had decided upon was that he, Doug, would chose the candidates, that the Sr VP’s ( Gordon and myself would interview them ) and then the other VP’s would interview them and finally Doug would unilaterally make the choice as to who would sit on the board of LucasArts. Seemingly with no input from any of us!

One of the candidates I was keenly interested in was Robert (Bob) Cohn, known for the founding of Octel Communications, the company that commercialized voice mail and was largely responsible for making it ubiquitous on cell phones, in companies and on residential phones. Bob met with Gordon and I and then went on to the next round with all the VP’s.  Bob is a unique person, bright beyond belief and he has the uncanny ability to get to the heart of the matter in three quick questions.  Which he did with all the LucasArts VP’s. After his third question, he came to a conclusion… the problem with LucasArts was its CEO, R. Douglas Norby. Needless to say, Bob was not asked to join the LucasArts Board, but several of Norby’s cronies were.

With the board and the logo in motion, an incredible amount of costly legal work was needed to be done to set up this new entity.  I can’t quite recall the name of the legal firm used ( Could it have been Dewey Phuckem and Howe?), but once all was in place it was time to buy our LucasArts options and dream about the potential IPO when we could all get rich!  We never got a look at the full option plan but rumour was that Norby got most of the options whilst people like Dennis Muren and Ken Ralston barely got any, if at all.

After an outrageous amount of money spent ( and remember, bonuses were unable to be paid because there wasn’t any money available), LucasArts was ready…. except for one small item.  It seems that Norby forgot to get GWL’s approval to take the company public.  According to Norby, it seemed that Mr. Lucas was unwilling to have the SEC nosing around in his affairs. So, though I paid for my options by going to the local ATM and withdrawing enough to do so, they would never see the light of NASDAQ.

But, I digress…. back to first quarter 1992.  So, there I was unemployed and desperately needing some income.  I sat, in my office on Greensburgh Lane and wrote the first draft of the Digital Domain Business Plan. I had a great deal of help from Bob Cohn, whom I befriended. I mean anyone that Norby thought to be useless HAD to be brilliant… and Bob sure was.  Not only did Bob help me craft a really well executed business plan but more importantly he gave me the courage to “stay the course”.  Bob’s mentoring and insight were invaluable to me and for that I am forever grateful.

Armed with a well crafted Business Plan, a rolodex and a phone… I started dialing for dollars. Bob Cohn introduced me to the folks at Electronic Arts ( though Bob was turned down by Norby, he was embraced by Larry Probst, EA’s CEO and was given a board seat).  I felt strongly that videogames at some point would need the capabilities of hi-end CGI animation and that given the trajectory of the videogame market, at some point videogame companies would be in the media business, which would also include film and TV.  Personally, I saw a great fit with EA.

I met with many of the EA board members, spent time with EA management and after a few weeks, EA was ready to make an offer.  While this was all happening, I had also received a phone call from Scott Billups, a director/DP with a great deal of experience in digital film ( unheard of back then).  Scott told me that he was having a conversation with James Cameron, the director, and had mentioned that I was starting a new VFX company and that Cameron was interested.  Jim Cameron and I had worked together back at ILM ( THE ABYSS, TERMINATOR 2 and the Miller Lite spot).  At first, I got the director as partner willies… but after thinking it over, thought that Jim would make a great partner in this new venture.  I called Jim and we spoke at length, we both seemed to be interested in building a similar company. We got together and Jim introduced me to Stan Winston, who of course, I had heard of, but never met.  Jim decided that he, Stan and I would be equal partners and that together we would look for investors.  Given the fact that I was unemployed, and that Jim was, well, is, the “King of the World”, I kept my mouth shut and agreed.

I informed my EA pals that Jim and Stan were now involved as partners, and I informed Jim and Stan that the EA folks wanted to meet with us in LA ASAP. The meeting was set. The dinner was ordered. Everyone listened to Jim. The dinner ended.

As we were walking out, EA’s CEO put his arm over my shoulders ( Larry is quite tall, I am… well, Jewish tall) and said ” Scott, EA could use an organization like the one you and your partners are building”. He continued, “And I would be thrilled to have you as its CEO”. I thought, fantastic. And then Larry said ” But as your boss, I could control you, but no one could control Jim Cameron…. so we pass”.

How prescient.