Disney to acquire Lucasfilm, Star Wars franchise

[James]

Breaking news: Disney to acquire Lucasfilm - including Star Wars franchise, ILM, and Skywalker Sound

Episode 7 coming in 2015!

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/blog/d ... -lucasfilm

[ShyViolet]

No way! That's awesome!

[Dan]

I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw the news at work just minutes after it was first announced. I was so stunned that I was slowing down a bi at work. Fortunately I only had two hours left in the work day, but man. I didn't know whether to be excited or unconscious.

And just now, UDON Comics artist Gonzalo Ordóñez Arias posted this on his deviantART page:

[Vernadyn]

So Brenda Chapman is working for yet another branch of the Walt Disney Company now...

[Randall]

Every third item on my FB page was about this today! Huge news. I think the Internet just broke in half. This is win-win all around. Kathleen Kennedy stays on to head the company, George gets to remove the albatross of past successes (and makes a mint and a half!), Disney gets a huge new property to exploit, and fans... The fans get new Star Wars projects from a new wave of filmmakers. Let's face it, George had lost his perspective on what made Star Wars great; the best SW material in recent years (Clone Wars, comics, novels) had limited involvement from him, while the prequels that he helmed... could have been better. It'll be fascinating to see what happens next. Disney has done well with Pixar and Marvel, so I'm optimistic. Also interesting to me is that Disney now owns all the subsidiaries too--- ILM, LucasArts, and Skywalker Sound. Wow.

[GeorgeC]

Wish I were as optimistic as you guys, BUT...

...I'm NOT.

This is even after you-know-who has decided not to direct more films and let others have more free reign to guide his business empire.

Anytime an albatross of an entertainment company gets ahold of an existing property, the greatest likelihood is that they're going to screw it up. They will milk as much as they can from it, shrink wrap and deliver it to Wal-Mart and Amazon.com for a couple of years if they make money off it, and then have a firesale after the property's been drained and all used up.

Not much of a long-term business plan and a big reason why I and many other fans have lost faith in Disney and most entertainment companies. Sturgeon's Law has hit the entertainment industry with a vengeance that even Montezuma's revenge doesn't equal.

Two generations of CEO's and a Pixar executive staff willing to produce sequel after sequel to its films -- and face it, most of those films DO follow a formula(!) -- have put the final stake through what used to be an innovative, FAMILY-ORIENTED company.

Walt's vampire has long been put to rest. Long live the newer, less child-friendly Frankenstein Monster of a corporation that's been cobbled up from all the other companies bought by McEisner-Bigger Igor over the past quarter-century.

Don't know about you but I've noticed the bigger the company gets the more impersonal it becomes and the less I like the newer product being made.

I, for one, liked it better when there were more companies, these entities were smaller, and more choices existed than there are now... Ya know, when something called competition actually used to exist!

Disney is Hollywood is Disney... and it's fairly mediocre like its competition is, too.

That didn't used to be so.

***********

The worst thing that can be done with Star Wars now is to go straight ahead and make even more Star Wars.

The best thing done with the Original Trilogy was to take a rest after '83 and let it sleep a bit.

Churning out more films and TV shows now is just going to bore more people even as the older fan set has moved on since it's real obvious Lucas doesn't listen to anyone but yes-men and his screenwriting/dialogue skills haven't improved since Return of the Jedi...

It's sad to see how company that was set up to allegedly do different and new projects has devolved to be just like the rest of its industry. Sequel after sequel... reimagining after reimagining of characters with subtle differences that often equal up to charmless, dull caricatures with no humanity.

And you could be talking about either LFL or Disney before and after this merger.


Star Wars has become like Bonanza and Bond in the worst possible senses. It's an entity that just keeps chuggging along no matter how pointless and mediocre an exercise it's become. The point is all money; art is a happy coincidence and not a planned result. In the end, if "Wars" continues enough it becomes irrelevant and long forgotten like the TV Westerns became.

I'm not ashamed to say that I HATE what Star Wars has become; I hope for the sake of many things that it dies as soon as possible.

This Disney deal just ensures that the mediocrity will continue. The march to oblivion of the series can't accelerate fast enough where many people are concerned. A lot of what is wrong with entertainment and movie-making today is encapsulated by the Star Wars franchise and the rippling effects it's had on both the filmmaking process and marketing.

[Dacey]

There is NO WAY that Disney is going to release a Star Wars film in the same summer that they already have a major tentpole like The Avengers 2. Plus with all of the planning it will take, I'm seeing 2016 as a far more likely release date.

But anyway, more Star Wars is more Star Wars, and since I like the prequels--as I'm guessing most fans do with the ammount of money they made, regardless of what the internet may want you to think--, I'm excited to see what they come up with next. I'm guessing it will focus largely on new characters, with Mark and Carrie showing up for sure and Harrison appearing as Han Solo for at least a cameo if we're lucky. But Chewbacca, R2-D2 and guys like that should easily be able to be players, and there's no reason that they can't bring Boba Fett back as well, especially since his "death" has been debated ever since he fell into the Sarlacc Pit. And it's nice that George will remain involved in some way, even if it's not as a director.

But does this mean that Disney owns Indiana Jones now as well? And if it does, does that mean that we'll be seeing Indy 5 now after all? My gut feeling is telling me that we will, although Disney rebooting the series is by no means out of the question either.

[Dan]

But does this mean that Disney owns Indiana Jones now as well? And if it does, does that mean that we'll be seeing Indy 5 now after all? My gut feeling is telling me that we will, although Disney rebooting the series is by no means out of the question either.

My understanding is that Indy is indeed part of the deal, so now he's part of the Disney family.

[LotsoA113]

I'm personally hoping for an animated Indiana Jones show in the vein of the Clone Wars.

Personally, I'm excited by the possibilities, especially new Star Wars movies that won't be written or directed by Mr. Lucas. Honestly, I have a good feeling about this.....

[Randall]

Lucasfilm's interest in Indy was included in the deal, but Paramount also shares an interest in the franchise.

My generation needs to face up to the fact that Star Wars ceased to be "ours" a long time ago. It's a whole different thing now. And GeorgeC is right--- the "thing" it had become wasn't entirely great under Lucas. Star Wars was going to plod on ahead regardless of whether this deal was made or not, and I think I'd rather see Star Wars removed from Lucas at this point. I sense that Lucas is relieved to be rid of it too.

[ShyViolet]

I would actually love to see more prequels as long as they are well handled.
I think it would be so awesome to see Qui-Gon's early relationship with Obi or Han Solo's swashbuckling days before he met Luke.
I realize new people will be taking over but I hope they will retain what makes SW SW. I know many will disagree with me but I didn't see that with the new
Trek. Also I love that Mickey pic!
I also think it's weird how everyone is congratulating Iger but everyone was down on Eisner for buying the Muppets.
(Sorry about the weird line arrangement, I'm doing this on my phone.)

[EricJ]

I also think it's weird how everyone is congratulating Iger but everyone was down on Eisner for buying the Muppets.

Eisner was obsessed for fifteen years with closing the Muppets deal, and even other Disney board members never knew why.
(Later on, we found out it was partly Henson's idea, trying to rebuild all the bridges he'd burned during the Labyrinth/Creature Shop debacle; we didn't really respect him for that either, so we all just felt better piling the blame on Eisner for it.)
As for why he was so obsessed in the first place, there are some quotes that suggest he wasn't clear whether Sesame Street would be included in the deal...

This deal, OTOH, sounds more like it had been Lucas's idea, and has enough precedent, in that Lucas and Disney had already creatively worked together on Star Tours and the Indy ride at Disneyland, and were already old chums to begin with. Disney may have been less interested in "Episodes VII-IX" as they were in just cementing the rights to Star Wars Weekends at the Studios park.
As for actually getting an Episode VII, seems more like a "Muppets Wizard of Oz" symbolic project to promote the bragging rights of the deal, as Lucas pretty much painted himself into a corner by turning the SE of Ep. VI into The End, even when he hadn't originally intended it to be.
Sounds more like any new entries will be a sort of next-generation live-action Clone Wars (taken out of that live-action TV spinoff he was toying with), with a new story arc and characters, and only cameo references to the prequel/OT's.

[Dacey]

I've been thinking about this, and the more I do, the more I feel that the best choice would be to just re-cast Luke, Han and Leia. I know that many would find even the thought of that unacceptable, but with a new cast, J.J. Abrams was able to capture the spirit of Star Trek while still making it feel fresh. I can see the same thing happening with Star Wars if they play their cards right.

[Ben]

When You Wish Upon A Death Star?

I actually had an inkling of this last week, from the JAK office at Elstree Studios and was just stunned. When this broke I was sitting staring at the screen for minutes just saying "that is insane...that is insane..."

I think it's pretty cool...we get Star Wars back - well, if not exactly "back" then at least away from George again - and the fans get more movies. I hope they don't mess with Indy although they have that Spielberg relationship so I don't think too much harm will happen there.

They've bought LucasFilm outright, so the personnel involved will come across to the new movies: Disney is smart and will let it run itself, as they have done with Marvel. Personally, though, I think Lucas is ill, and it'll be interesting to see if he's still around in five years or so. I think he's done a Henson deal: Jim wasn't exactly sick when he was trying to sell the Muppets to Disney but he was thinking about the future and where his characters would be safe.

Disney has the unique position to maintain and renew franchises like these. George is a big Disney fan (he took SW to them first, they said it was too expensive, now they paid $4b for it!) and licensed the characters to the park years ago. But this deal has nothing to do with the park and all to do with movies and merchandising: he's handing over treatments for the next three SW films, which is what Disney wants to exploit. You may see more characters walking the parks but the money is in the $1b-plus each movie makes.

Notice he didn't even offer it to Fox: he just knows that if there is anywhere safe for SW to go it's Disney, who now have a handful of the biggest brands and properties on the planet, including their own franchises, and know how to exploit them through every possible outlet.

It's a very smart deal on both sides, cementing a decades-old relationship. My personal hope is that they don't rip up ILM and Skywalker Sound and keep them both going as world-class facilities. I'm not too bothered about SW itself: for me the magic was lost with the prequels and the other spin-offs (even back in the day I wasn't a huge Ewok or Droids fan, I just liked the original three movies).

Sure, I'll see 'em, and probably like some of them, but I'm quite happy for others to tackle the universe. If Disney want to get into the Indy business and make more I can see that happening despite the Paramount involvement: since the 1980s Disney has worked with Paramount and for any other doubters just see what both parties did with their Avengers partnership.

Fox still has a hold on the original 1977 Star Wars but, really, I can't see that being too much of a problem since some kind of arrangement can be made. Maybe Disney could give them the first two Narnia films they don't own: no, they're not Star Wars but it could go some way to hammering out a deal. I'm sure a license can be reached to include Episode IV in a box set some time in the future.

In short, there was never ANY doubt that we would ever see more SW...it was just a matter of time, whether through the TV series, more Clone Wars, other animated shows or indeed new movies. And so there would have been two outcomes: it would have been more Lucas-controlled stuff along the lines of the prequels, or he could have given the control other to others.

Thankfully he's done the latter, releasing his grip (even if a little) and allowing for a fresh - and perhaps therefore more classic - take. Remember that SW was always better when George didn't have full control (Empire, Jedi). We're in that territory again...

May The Mouse Be With You!

- Darth Goofy

[ShyViolet]

LOL Ben!