Alan Dean Foster wrote several books in theStar WarsandAliensfranchise, and now that Disney owns the rights to both, it’s decided to stop paying Foster royalties.
That’s the short version of the dispute between Foster and Disney, which abruptly went public this week as Foster’s representatives in the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) attempt to resolve the dispute. Disney has simply gone no-contact, reportedly refusingto discuss the issuewith Foster at all unless he signs a non-disclosure agreement. Foster has turned to the SFWA’s Grievance Committee, a group that helps authors deal with legal and rights problems, in an effort to sort out the entire mess.
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Foster is coming up on his 50thyear as a working science fiction and fantasy author. While he has a few dozen original novels to his name, such as theSpellsingerseries, he may be best known for his film novelizations, includingAlien, Aliens, Terminator: Salvation,The Chronicles of Riddick, Dark Star, The Thing, Krull,andThe Last Starfighter.
AmongStar Warsfans, Foster is famous for writing 1978’sSplinter of the Mind’s Eye,an out-of-continuity sequel toA New Hopethat’s also the firstStar Warsnovel ever published.Splinteris decidedlyout of step with laterStar Warscanon, because it was written before George Lucas had put any thought into what would happen inThe Empire Strikes Back, but fans still consider Foster the first author to contribute to what would become theStar WarsExpanded Universe. Foster also ghost-wrote the 1976 novelization ofStar Wars, From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker,and wrote the 2015 novelization ofThe Force Awakensunder his own name.
Foster’s dispute with Disney is specifically overSplinter of the Mind’s Eye,as well as his novelizations ofStar Wars, Alien, Aliens,andAlien 3. All five novels are still in print, and followingDisney’s purchases of Lucasfilm in 2012and Fox in 2019, Disney technically took on the liabilities of each company as well as their assets. That entitles Foster to continue to receive royalties from the sales of those novels. Disney simply hasn’t paid him, and won’t negotiate on the subject at all until such time as Foster signs their NDA.
In an open letter to Disney, published on the SFWA’s website, Foster writes, “You continue to ignore requests from my agents. You continue to ignore queries from SFWA… You continue to ignore my legal representatives. I know this iswhat gargantuan corporations often do. Ignore requests and inquiries hoping the petitioner will simply go away. Or possibly die. But I’m still here, and I am still entitled to what you owe me. Including not to be ignored, just because I’m only one lone writer. How many other writers and artists out there are you similarly ignoring?”
Further complicating the issue, both Foster and his wife, JoAnn Oxley, are unwell. Foster notes in his letter that Oxley has “serious medical issues,” and that Foster himself was diagnosed withan advanced form of cancerin 2016. It’s not his major point in the letter overall, but Foster does note that he could really use the money, and it does mean that Disney is now officially withholding payments for no stated reason from a long-standing creative partner…who has cancer. It’s a great look for the company.
In addition, the dispute between Foster and Disney has the potential to establish some troubling legal precedents, as SFWA president Mary Robinette Kowal(The Calculating Stars)notes in her post on the subject on the SFWA website. “Disney’s argument is that they have purchased the rights but not the obligations of the contract,” Kowal writes. “In other words, they believe they have the right to publish work, but are not obligated to pay the writer no matter what the contract says. If we let this stand, it could set precedent to fundamentally alterthe way copyright and contracts operate in the United States. All a publisher would have to do to break a contract would be to sell it to a sibling company.”
Kowal and the SFWA have requested that fans of Foster, or those who “believe that a writer’s work has value,” should let Disney know about it. Two hashtags on social media, #DearMickey and #DisneyMustPay, are devoted to the topic.
This may sound quixotic, since Disney owns and operates much of the known universe, but a campaign like this one has been successful in the recent past. Marvel Comics author Bill Mantlo suffered a traumatic brain injury in 1992, after being struck by a hit-and-run driver, and was left unable to care for himself. Among many other credits, Mantlo was the co-creator of Rocket Raccoon. Upon the character’s introduction to the Marvel Cinematic UniverseinGuardians of the Galaxy, fans rallied to demand that Disney and Marvel Studios step in to help Mantlo’s family. Eventually, they did so, and Mantlo now lives in a house that Marvel bought for him. It’s not beyond the pale that a similar social media campaign could work for Foster.
Foster’s most recent work,Madrenga,an original fantasy novel about a young boy with hidden powers on a journey to deliver a message for his queen, was released in hardcover and on Kindle on November 17th.
