Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm, Star Wars Episode 7 Due In 2015 816
Jason Levine writes "Disney will acquire Lucasfilm, including the Star Wars trilogy. Additionally, Star Wars: Episode 7 is due to be released in 2015, with more feature films on the way. George Lucas said, 'For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next. 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. I'm confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come.'"
Joss Whedon's Star Wars (Score:5, Interesting)
Pixar + ILM (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Joss Whedon's Star Wars (Score:5, Interesting)
You know, if Joss Whedon takes over writing AND directing, it might actually work.
Irony (Score:5, Interesting)
Back in 1979 Disney produced a film called "The Black Hole". As a 10 year old I actually really liked the movie when I saw it back in the early 80s (on the newly-created Disney Channel of course), but it was considered one of Disney's biggest movie flops. It was pretty much a blatant rip-off of Star Wars, and was certainly an attempt to try and cash in on the huge popularity of Star Wars. The film had all the basic pieces - spaceships, laser guns, "ESP" kind of extrasensory stuff going on (aka The Force), and of course Robots.
So now, 33 years later, it looks like Disney finally got the real thing. The actual Star Wars franchise.
On a different note, I can't help but wonder if Lucas is in poor health. He always hated Hollywood, and despised studios having any control over his creative process. So for him to sell his own film company, which he built from scratch, to a major studio goes against everything he's said and done for decades.
Possibility of original edition Blu-rays? (Score:5, Interesting)
So does this mean we might finally get high-definition releases of the original Star Wars films without all of Lucas's later alterations?
THRAWN! (Score:5, Interesting)
Now that he's selling it, who cares what his original "vision" was for episodes 7 and beyond? Grand Admiral Thrawn is the obvious direction to take.
Re:Because it worked so well before (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I felt a great disturbance in the Force (Score:5, Interesting)
Are you kidding? Great news!
Now there's a small chance that we'll at least get transfers of the film reels from the early '90s THX-enhanced theater releases to BluRay, if not an even better cleaned-up version of the originals.
Thank God George "we destroyed all the pre-Special Edition copies in the course of making it" Lucas' lying ass is finally out of the way. Bring on the hi-def, unmolested (well, mostly unmolested, at least) original trilogy!
Disney loves money. Doing this will make them truckloads of money and cost very little.
Re:I'm Optimistic (Score:5, Interesting)
Disney has confirmed plans for a new trilogy [theverge.com] (Episodes 7-9), and the movies are currently in "early stage development." They're looking to release a movie every other year, with 2015, 2017, and 2019 as the current target dates.
I'm personally rooting for expanding into some of Timothy Zahn's books as they move beyond those. I wonder how they'll treat the Extended Universe?
Re:Pixar + ILM (Score:5, Interesting)
In a little bit of irony, Pixar was originally part [wikipedia.org] of ILM -- 1/3 of the Computer Graphics division. 26 years later, the two companies are back under the same umbrella.
Secret of Monkey Island (Score:4, Interesting)
Does this mean we can get Secret of Monkey Island VI first?
Re:I'm Optimistic (Score:5, Interesting)
I think it more likely that the villains that run Disney will shut the whole expanded universe down. Lucas didn't mind it, because it kept Star Wars going while he was busy with other things. But Disney, they're going to capitalize the living fuck out of the whole thing, and that means anyone writing expanded universe material is likely going to meet a nice new gatekeeper, and watch out all you fanfic guys, Disney will tip you upside and down and shake you for whatever loose change you have.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
How about a re-boot of Episodes I through III? (Score:5, Interesting)
Episode I: Directed by J.J. Abrams
Episode II: Directed by Christopher Nolan
Episode III: Directed by Guillermo del Toro
comics licensees lose out... again (Score:5, Interesting)
Now watch Dark Horse Comics, which has had the Star Wars comics license for ages, producing some of the best "extended universe" material in the franchise, helping to maintain the fanbase during the dark time between RotJ and TPM... get screwed out of it, because Disney has its own comics publisher (Marvel). That's what happened with Boom Comics, which was developing a rather good line of comics featuring Disney-owned characters, but lost it when Disney bought Marvel. In both cases, good small independent publishers got screwed by The Mouse.
Re:Because it worked so well before (Score:4, Interesting)
Pixar reverse acquired Disney. Toy Story 3. About the best #3 movie you can get.
Marvel, they're comic book movies. None are great, but have given them massive amounts of cash.
Muppets, well, not a classic film, but they did give the film to a Muppet nut, and let him run his vision. I can't say he ruined anything. It had it's moments. Even won an Oscar, in an off category.
Re:What could possibly... (Score:4, Interesting)
I can even envision one of the teasers for the unmolested high def release.
Simply show the most infamous scene, remastered in high def but otherwise unmodified from the theatrical release... with only one shot fired, as it should be. You end the teaser as the scene normally ends: Han flips the money at the bartender, says "Sorry about the mess", and the screen cuts to a simple date on a pure black background.
Re:I felt a great disturbance in the Force (Score:5, Interesting)
Starship Troopers? NO WAY.
That movie is a masterpiece, dripping with satire. A PERFECT tribute to Heinlein and his crazy jingoistic views.
Directed by the same guy who did RoboCop, ALSO dripping with satire.