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.'"
Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
*checks date* ...Still October..
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
I think it's a Halloween thing, they try to scare us...
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Funny)
Darth Mickey?
But seriously....would have been better to sell it to Seth MacFarlane, he showed a good bit of love for the franchise with his Family Guy send ups of it....
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Darth Mickey?
How long before we see a T-shirt with Mickey holding a light saber and the text below it:
Minnie, I am your father.....
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
How long before we see a T-shirt with Mickey holding a light saber and the text below it:
Minnie, I am your father.....
Never, unless you happen upon it in the 10 seconds between when it's posted, and when Disney sues the everloving fuck out of the creator.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Minnie must be his sister, then. Donald would be a better choice behind the breathing mask, anyway. Anger leads to the Duck Side.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Sith MacFarlane? It would have been interesting.
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Insightful)
Seth Greene as well (Robot Chicken). In fact the two series usually "competed" on that topic.
On the other hand, I suppose Episode 7 will now feature wall-to-wall Macs, iPods, iPads, and iPhones... (I think Apple has a pretty big stake in Disney). All battling the (do no) evil Google empire and their droids.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Informative)
I really prefer that Seth Green guy better. The Robot Chicken sendup was funnier.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
*checks date* ...Still October..
Its the traditional "october surprise" we have toward the end of a presidential election cycle.
I'm not sure who is supposed to benefit by this one. Easily the weirdest one in history.
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Funny)
[Tinfoil hat]
It was clearly designed by the republicans, who are trying to pry the spotlight away from Obama and Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.
Since nerds are commonly liberals, this is targeted towards a core democrat constituency.
[/Tinfoil hat]
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Just imagine Leia and Amidala as Disney princesses...
I felt a great disturbance in the Force (Score:5, Funny)
as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.
Re:I felt a great disturbance in the Force (Score:4, Insightful)
Like they'll sell out more than Lucas?
Re:buncha depraved mammon worshippers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I felt a great disturbance in the Force (Score:5, Funny)
It took that long for the force to tell you about Episode 1? Jedi should maybe invest in cell phones.
Re:I felt a great disturbance in the Force (Score:5, Insightful)
I've really hated how so many movies lately has been redone, but I'd be hard pressed to come up with anything that deserves a proper reboot more than the Star Wars episode 1 to 3.
Re:I felt a great disturbance in the Force (Score:4, Insightful)
Starship Troopers and The Postman.
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.
Re:I felt a great disturbance in the Force (Score:5, Informative)
as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly...
It ain't no trick to get rich quick
If you dig dig dig with a shovel or a pick
In a mine! In a mine! In a mine! In a mine!
Where a million diamonds shine!
Heigh ho, heigh ho, we'll rape your memories you know.
Re:I felt a great disturbance in the Force (Score:4, Insightful)
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 felt a great disturbance in the Force (Score:5, Informative)
... and the mask comes off... (Score:4, Insightful)
"Walt, I am your father."
It is October (Score:4, Informative)
Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory links:
http://nooooooooooooooo.com [nooooooooooooooo.com] (seems to be down at the moment)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s [youtube.com]
Joss Whedon's Star Wars (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Joss Whedon's Star Wars (Score:5, Interesting)
You know, if Joss Whedon takes over writing AND directing, it might actually work.
Re:Joss Whedon's Star Wars (Score:5, Funny)
Careful, they might just jump ahead to directly buying Joss Whedon.
Re:Joss Whedon's Star Wars (Score:5, Funny)
Reports have confirmed Joss Whedon is going to harvest Yellow Stone National Park of all lumber. When confronted with this information Joss replied,
I am going to create the best and largest set of (wooden) actors that you will ever find. It will be a seamless transition from episodes 1 to 3. Even Lucas himself will not believe that he did not direct it.
Re:Joss Whedon's Star Wars (Score:5, Insightful)
There is so much star wars content (that has been blessed by way of licensing agreements) that takes place after the original trilogy that it seems like there would be no room to write anything original and not make it suck.
Re:Joss Whedon's Star Wars (Score:5, Insightful)
Joss Whedon's Star Wars would be a bigger disaster than three episodes about Jar Jar.
I disagree. Serenity made me feel like Star Wars all over again: fun, smart, adventurous, light-hearted, but also thoughtful. Joss aces that kind of stuff. See Avengers for details.
Re:Joss Whedon's Star Wars (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you sure you're not confusing Serenity (the movie) with Firefly (the series)?
The series was great. The movie was one of those great disappointments, where you feel like some studio exec said, "OK, we know we aren't getting a sequel, so let's ignore the entire back story and personality of our characters, throw in loads of gratuitous SFX and action scenes, and focus on only one or two characters out of a great ensemble cast while reducing the others to supporting roles or tragic-fate-fodder."
Whedon's done some good work in his time, but IMHO Serenity was a low point.
Re:Joss Whedon's Star Wars (Score:5, Informative)
No, Joss Whedon is the same as George Lucas: they both work well with supervision. Compare the Firefly comics with the series, so many things are just out of character and wrong in the comics, because Joss was unsupervised.
I will have to dispute that, and submit Dr. Horrible and Much Ado as evidence. Joss Whedon was 100% unsupervised when doing those.
Re:Joss Whedon's Star Wars (Score:5, Insightful)
Back in '06 Disney basically payed Pixar to come and fix the problems [nytimes.com] in their animation department, too. Disney's turned a corner since Michael Eisner left, and doesn't scare me as much as it used to.
Really ? (Score:5, Funny)
Can't wait for "Star Wars on Ice"
Re:Really ? (Score:4)
Seems like a great opportunity for yet-another-rehash of the battle of hoth.
Episode V (Score:5, Insightful)
ILM/PIXAR/DISNEY (Score:5, Informative)
Seems fitting as Disney has already picked up a few of the older ILM guys when they acquired Pixar.
Because it worked so well before (Score:5, Insightful)
Disney's acquisition of Pixar, Marvel, and the Muppets just worked out so well before. Although, they could hardly do worse than Lucas has.
Re:Because it worked so well before (Score:5, Insightful)
Your post reads as intensely sardonic and sarcastic, but I've seen only one failing from post-disney pixar(cars 2), and the marvel productions have been pretty good. Am I misreading sarcasm?
Re:Because it worked so well before (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah - Marvel was SUCH a bad buy for Disney, and horrible for Marvel...
5/7/2010 Disney Iron Man 2 $128,122,480
5/4/2012 Disney Marvel's The Avengers $207,438,708
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Because it worked so well before (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Because it worked so well before (Score:5, Informative)
No, for PIXAR to have "bought" Disney, Jobs would have to have ended up with over 50% of Disney holdings. Instead, he received approximately 7% of Disney stock as part of the stock swap. While this did make him the single largest shareholder of Disney, he did not end up with enough stock to control the company. Two of the top institutional holders together (4% each) could easily outvote him (and now his estate).
Then again, why let facts get in the way of a good story...
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.
Pixar + ILM (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Best hope now Mayan end of world event (Score:5, Funny)
Ok I just flipped my opinion from "so what the Mayans are just issuing a calendar for the next year" to "oh noos signs of the apocalypse".
Lucas also said: (Score:5, Funny)
"It's not my fault!"
Personally, I have a bad feeling about this.
Damn (Score:4)
If he had no other assets, Lucas is now the 91st richest man in America.
I'd sell out for that too.
Could be worse.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Could be worse.. (Score:4, Funny)
Two words: Uwe Boll
"Starting from -infinity, got nothing to lose" (Score:5, Funny)
It couldn't get any worse -
Holy Conception for Anakin?
Jedi's who are ruling the muther-phkin galaxy not realizing that one who will "bring balance to the force" would knock them down because at that time - it was out of balance - the GOOD side was winning!
And, Greedo shooting first?
These three things are a quick list to explain why an infant in a diaper scrawling on a wall with their own excrement could form a better Star Wars narrative than Lucas.
Care I not (Score:4, Funny)
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.
Re:Irony (Score:5, Insightful)
I have "The Black Hole", and watched as a kid too. To qualify as a blatant rip-off, I'd think the movies would have to be at least somewhat similar.
While technically the common items you mention are present in both... they are extremely different in presentation. There MAY be points where running away from stormtroopers in the death star could be similar to running away from Max in that huge ship... I don't really see much in common here.
Could "The Black Hole" be an attempt to capitalize on the interest in space Star Wars, etc created? Sure, it's possible. That doesn't make it a rip off. They're not remotely similar in feel at all.
The Black Hole gave me nightmares as a little kid (Max's spinning blades killing that guy). I've always seen it as really dark almost-horror film. It's a crazy mad scientist makes killer robots and turns people into freakish automatons. That's a little different than a rough group of rebels fighting a galactic empire.
Heck, Phantasm feels more like "The Black Hole" to me than Star Wars does. That may be the scarred little kid in me talking, though. ;)
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?
Re:Possibility of original edition Blu-rays? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes but only for a limited time before they go back into the Disney vault for a generation or until a new format comes out.! Buy the DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital copy super double Platinum edition today before it's gone!
Mickey Mouse and Luke Skywalker... (Score:5, Insightful)
Mickey Mouse and Luke Skywalker will both never leave copyright now. Ever.
Copyright (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the biggest problem with Disney getting their hands on Star Wars is the copyright issue. Lucas Film has always been really good about letting people parody Star Wars. There have been endless books, spoofs, homages and fan creations based around Star Wars. Disney is notorious for being dicks about, well everything, but definitely about copyright. If they take over Star Wars then I'm worried fan creations, spoofs and other expanded universe material will disappear under threat of legal action.
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.
I know the subtitle... (Score:5, Funny)
Star Wars 7: The Search for More Money!
Secret of Monkey Island (Score:4, Interesting)
Does this mean we can get Secret of Monkey Island VI first?
Buy Spaceballs - The Movie(tm) (Score:4, Insightful)
Can't we just get a spaceballs squeal instead? I mean.... episode 7? really? How many death stars could the empire afford?
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.
[cries] (Score:4, Insightful)
Episode VII will be a teeny-bopper musical staring The Jonas Brothers. On the plus side, that would still be better than Episode I.
Geroge Lucas is a whore (Score:4, Insightful)
I wish for Irvin Kirshner now more than ever (Score:4, Insightful)
Empire Strikes Back was considered by many to be the best of the first three, due much to Irvin's abilities as a director. Shame that he's no longer with us to pick up the megaphone and bring some decency back to the franchise.
2.000.000.000 in CASH!? (Score:5, Funny)
2 BILLION in cash? That must be a Calamari Cruiser full of bills! Don't these people have bank accounts? Whats the point of paying such a huge amount of money in cash? Does George intend to fill his house with money and perform some weirdo Scrooge McDuck impersonation?
Re:Star Wars: Episode 7... (Score:5, Funny)
Star Wars VII: A New New Hope
I'm Optimistic (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm pessimistic! (Score:5, Insightful)
For 35 years, George Lucas has permitted derivative fan-based works to thrive. He's a kid at heart who gains great personal pleasure from seeing so many people embrace his movies and characters.
Disney, on the other hand, is one of the ringleaders of the MPAA, pushing for crap like the DMCA and most noticeably the insane copyright extensions. They're infamous for cracking down on anyone who so much as fingerpaints mouse-ears on a poster of Obama without first licensing said use of mouse-ears. Under a Disney regime, I expect to see any post that so much as mentions a "light saber" as takedown fodder.
As far as extending the franchise, do you really want to watch "The Littlest Sith" or "Sleeping Jedi", or some other straight-to-DVD animated dreck?
Re:I'm pessimistic! (Score:5, Funny)
I have a bad feeling about this.
Re:I'm pessimistic! (Score:5, Funny)
The next trailer:
Scene filled with mist, lamentful orchestration of A New Hope
Narrator: A long time ago in a galaxy far away...
Mist parts and slow zoom in towards a small hut village
Narrator: It's just as hard being a kid as ever
Scene changes to inside a dark, wooden hut. You see the back of a woman wearing a long dress, but not her arms or the back of her head.
Mom: You had better eat all those vegitables!
Scene changes to a shot of a table with an 8 year old furry kid sitting at it, trying to feed his space broccoli to his pet alien dog thing.
Kid: Aw man!
Mom: Corbin! How will you ever become a big strong Ewok?
Narrator: Sometimes the world lines up against you...
Scene set in a schoolhouse. Music stops
Bully Ewok: You'll never amount to anything Corbutt!
Narrator: And tries to FORCE it's will upon you
Scene shot goes wider, and bully Ewok knocks the books out of Corbin's hand and all his fellow classmates point and laugh.
Scene changes to a shot of Corbin on his bed playing with his pet alien.
Corbin: I wish I could be a hero like uncle Skywalker...
Pans to a framed picture portrait on his desk showing a pregnant Ewok standing and smiling next to Luke and Leia.
Narrator: Until the littlest Ewok found his place in the universe
Song changes to Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Scene changes to the forest, and a smaller, pinker version of Jar Jar Binks shows her head out from behind a tree.
Car Car: Hi, meesah Car Car!
Laughing while they run through the trees, splash in rivers, meet Chewbacca's kid, etc etc etc
May the Open Force be with you (Score:5, Funny)
How about we form an open-source space drama with open-source characters? Open-source projects usually have StarWars-like names anyhow. I was certain "Ogg Vorbis" was a StarWars character when I first heard it.
Try this one out: R2buntu. Or Darth Vi-der vs. the Emoks.
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:I'm Optimistic (Score:5, Funny)
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?
Pirates of Coruscant
Johnny Depp as Luke Skywalker - you heard it here first.
First Sandy as a disaster, now this.
Re:I'm Optimistic (Score:5, Funny)
Hmm. Does this mean Princess Leia is now a Disney princess?
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.
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
I like where this is going (Score:5, Funny)
Episode IV: Directed by Quentin Tarantino.
"That's not a moon....that's a mother fuckin space station!"
Re:I'm Optimistic (Score:5, Insightful)
Because it's fucking DISNEY. The reason the copyright extension act was called (more appropriately) the Mickey Mouse Protection Act. Disney puts their stupid movies in "the vault" after a short run on shelves. (Saving them for "a generation" or some other marketspeak nonsense)... They pretty much emptied the Public Domain like a hemophiliac hooker in Queens. They also have been one of the largest herpe-stained-pricks when it comes to copyright tomfoolery and outright thievery. They love DRM. The kind of DRM that makes Yoda say "shit, this is."
Truth be told, we didn't NEED another Star Wars movie (not Indiana Jones either), and with a few glaring exceptions the Clone Wars TV series has been pretty good... I mean, they reboot Star Trek every few decades, why not let Disney yank their collective puds and splooge out some new restarted Star Wars "adventure" with fuzzy bunnies and fucking MUSICAL NUMBERS. They put fucking musical numbers in ALL their animation. Hell, they do it to live action!
Mark my words.... Episode 7 will be all goddamned Ewoks. And Chewbacca will have a perm and PTSD from the final battle. Then we have to have the token black guy/chick... forget Billy Dee Williams. We're getting Will Smith or his bratty little kid. C3P0 will finally come out of the closet and admit he's been taking it up the exhaust pipe from IG-88 for years. R2D2 will be turned into a karaoke machine.... Luke will become a homeless religious nut while Han Solo and Leia will have 6 kids on galactic welfare... and the evil Ritt Momney will threaten to close the youth center Han and Leia run unless the duo can field a tiddlywinks team in time for the big tournament on Yaavin IV. Meanwhile, the Emperor's clones will become the universe's ugliest choir.
Now I know the franchise is truly dead. Thank goodness I got it on Blu Ray before Disney got their slimy dickskinners on the franchise. Disney fucked the Muppets... (I believe they killed Henson because he was having second thoughts on the sale... ok, so I made that up... but Disney's fucking evil!)
Re:I'm Optimistic (Score:5, Funny)
I forgot to add...
"Disney's JEDIS on ICE", "A Very Jedi Christmas", "Zack and Cody's Jedi Adventures", "Luke Skywalker: Jedi detective", "A Very Muppet Star Wars"... "Jabba's sweatin' to the Cantina Band"..... and my personal favorite... "Star Wars Holiday Special 2: Electric Boogaloo."
This has disaster written all over it. Lucas' new squeeze must want more money. :)
Re:I'm Optimistic (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I'm Optimistic (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I'm Optimistic (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I'm Optimistic (Score:4, Insightful)
There was a time, long ago, when Disney was a pretty innovative company, when its animation was state of the art and even its live action films were at least somewhat amusing. From Eisner onward it's been downhill.
Mind you, the above could apply to Lucas as well.
Re:I'm Optimistic (Score:4, Insightful)
They're also home to pixar, now a days. Although John Lasseter is busy, I wouldn't mind if he took over the franchise. He's probably one of the best story tellers right now. Plus, pixar used to be part of LucasFilms so it would be a nice fit.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What's the plot? (Score:5, Funny)
Emperor is dead. Vader comes back from the Dark Side and also dies. Luke & Leia know they're siblings.
Seriously, what's the plot going to be?
Jar-Jar becomes a Jedi!
Re:What's the plot? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Funny)
Let the wailing and gnashing of teeth begin! Then again, it couldn't be worse than episodes 1 and 2.
Oh yeah? Picture this: Luke Skywalker's son flying off to be trained in the ways of the force by an aging Jar-Jar Binks. After stopping on the way to pick up Chewbacca's son. On Life Day.
Bet that's the scariest thought you'll have this Halloween.
Re:Are we being trolled? (Score:4, Funny)
Is this a troll? Disney?
It's the Frankentroll and what's worse, it's true.
Episode 7: The Sandy Storms of Tatooine in theaters 2015, someone alert FEMA
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.