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Disney just entered into an agreement to purchase Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion. The plan is to make Star Wars Episode 7, which is currently slated for release in 2015. And that’s just the beginning. Some fanboys might groan, but if you love Star Wars, this is exciting!
According to the deal, Disney is acquiring the whole Lucasfilm shebang from George Lucas, who still owns 100-percent of the company. In addition to massive properties like Star Wars, Disney will also get Lucasfilm’s hugely profitable film technology and marketing companies including Lucasfilm Ltd., LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic, and Skywalker Sound.
Kathleen Kennedy, current Co-Chairman of Lucasfilm, will become President of Lucasfilm. She’ll report directly to Walt Disney Studios chief Alan Horn. Kennedy, who was apparently “hand-picked” by Lucas, will executive produce the new Star Wars films. George Lucas will remain a “creative consultant” on the projects.
Yes, we said films. Many films. This deal is all about Star Wars and the unstoppable juggernaut that it is. Disney’s plans extend far beyond Episode 7. From Disney CEO and Chairman Robert A. Iger’s prepared remarks to investors on a call today:
In 2015, we’re planning to release Star Wars Episode 7 – the first feature film under the “Disney-Lucasfilm” brand. That will be followed by Episodes 8 and 9 – and our long-term plan is to release a new Star Wars feature film every two to three years.
In other words, as with the acquisition of Pixar in 2006 and Marvel in 2009 before, Disney wants to leverage the brand for its cultural capital, and cash in on Star Wars. It’s already a massive multi-film franchise with lunch boxes, neckties, and toys. But it could be so much more.
And that’s where this deal starts to get pretty exciting. A lot of hardcore Star Wars fans are going to see all the negatives right away. This is very lame, they’ll say, because, you know, Disney. Disney is colossally uncool. But consider how well Toy Story 3 and the Avengers turned out. They were freaking awesome. Disney’s track record in recent years has been impeccable.
Now, think about what George Lucas has done in recent years to our beloved Star Wars franchise. It’s been nothing but stagnant rehashing. We don’t need a new Blu-ray of The Return of the Jedi. We need something huge and impressive. Lucas just wasn’t capable of it any more, but maybe Disney is. At least here, we’ve got a chance for a Star Wars movie wrenched free of George Lucas’ hubris.
Lucas’ words from the release ooze the resignation of a man who knows he did his best work long ago:
It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.
Plus, Iger hints at a Star Wars theme park material? Can we suggest a TIE fighter roller coaster, please? Now we’re talking. [Disney]
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OMG the end of the world is nigh
Is it just me or does Lukas look like Rolf Harris? To be honest I have never been into Star Wars but Disney could not so a worse job than Lucas did with the last movies.
I will obviously watch them. whether they are any good is a different matter.
let me guess…. han solo and leia have kids that are jedis?
i would love to see more han solo though. coolest movie character when i was a nipper. closely followed by indy!
theres bound to be an animated series featuring C3PO and R2D2
Well Han and Leia having jedi kids is what happened in the extended universe books…
Seems like they got a bargain (in the days when Facebook is valued at $100 billion). Merchandise alone is worth that. Seems like the perfect home for Star Wars and hopefully any new films will get decent directors (instead of Lucas). Wouldn’t be surprised if Disney didn’t open up a whole new theme park dedicated to Star Wars when the new films come out.
“Can we suggest a TIE fighter roller coaster” – you are thinking way too small. I suggest a space battle rollercoaster. Two tracks that intertwine with each other, with TIE’s on one and X-Wings on the other. The cars movement is so timed that they will pass close to each other at several points in the ride at which time you can fire a laser cannon at the opposition. At the end of the ride you can buy the obligatory photo with your score on it.
plus you should get to choose if you want to stand in the line for the dark or light side. They should build the cars like the swivelling gun pods in the Millennium Falcon so you can move around to stay on target.
Make those weave around the surface of a Death star and you have my money.
The way that Disney has handled Marvel gives me some hope that this will work well. ANd as the article says it really can’t be any worse than George Lucas has handled the films lately.
i didn’t know they had did marvel too.
i like the marvel stuff thats been out,
trouble is we all look back at the first three films in awe so we sort of forgive the last three,they weren’t horrendous films in their own right, they just didn’t have a patch on the originals
I hate the Disney banner films cause they aren’t funny and they’re quite cheesy mostly. They preach morals.. unlike Warner Bros that just makes you laugh. Pirates Of The Carribean is an anomaly thuogh. And their films are made for children, not for adult children.. like some of Dreamworks’s stuff !
Star Wars didn’t preach morals? It’s the ultimate Good vs Evil story!
Now this news is interesting. I’m wondering exactly what Episode 7 is going to be all about, especially since the immediate aftermath of Episode 6 is chronicled in the Heir to the Empire books. Now that I’d want to see!
Haven’t they butchered my childhood enough?
There goes another part of my childhood, down the drain.
http://updates.io9.com/post/34667628718/5-possible-storylines-for-the-next-star-wars-movie
I’m a big fan of the novels that take place during and after the original trilogy like The Hand of Thrawn trilogy, my concern is whether these new movies will follow the cannon laid down already or just totally ignore it like Lucas did for the new trilogy.
Come one guys, get pass the obvious cynicism and think about
Star Wars Toy Story, with all the Kenner action figures
Personally, Darth Vader with the voice of Mickey Mouse would soooo improve his public image….
I appear to be the only person to hear this news and think it was great! Not only does modern Disney have a good track record with acquisitions like Pixar and Marvel as well as the resurgence of the Muppets, but they also have huge pockets and have actually made an theme park in Paris work after a disasterous start in the 90s.
They can now make Star Wars with Lucas at arm’s length, which given the prequels can only be a good thing. We may even get a release of the original films in blu-ray and dvd without all the CGI that Lucas crapped all over them.
Having seen their management of Marvel Studios, I’m quite optimistic about all this.
If they can get in a good director, this could be great. Lucas’s strength for me was in the long-form story arc and plotting, not in the directing – Empire is many people’s favourite and it was neither screenwritten nor directed by George.
Exactly, he is a good ideas man, but not so much on the script or directing, and he is awful at CGI implementation.
There is now a big enough Star Wars universe from which to draw ideas and in the hands of a good script writer and director it could and should be amazing.
It might even help revitalise Indy as well although I’m not sure Spielberg would be happy without Lucas’s involvement and working with Disney given Pixar’s competition with Dreamworks.
Am I the only person that actually liked Eps 1-3, and thought Lucas did a pretty good job*?
*with the exception of casting Hayden Christensen.
I’m all for it, If theyre rubbish then we can lump them in with the last three but if they’re good…they’ll be great.
Does this mean they get Indiana jones too?
I’m getting rather excited about the posibility of a Joss Whedon directed Star Wars film.
That’s the one up-side I could see, but I’m not sure it will out-weigh the risks of Disneyfied characters and the relentless merchandising
Best way to kill a franchise…
Forget Star Wars for a second, I just hope they reincarnate Monkey Island!
Wasn’t the truely dull and dreadful – Being John Connor made by Disney, a true bore fest. Lets hope they don’t use that as a format plan.
Well at least the childrens entertainment franchise is with the company that it deserves to be with. Starwars is a horrible diversion from anything approaching art. Its cowboys and indians in space folks and not as good as the genre it apes.