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.'"
Episode V (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
The original were mediocre children's movies (Score:1, Insightful)
So were the prequels, just for a different generation of children.
And now a new set of children can enjoy the next batch
Face it, the originals were decent, had some good effects but should hardly be remembered at all 35 years later.
Could be worse.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I felt a great disturbance in the Force (Score:4, Insightful)
Like they'll sell out more than Lucas?
I'm Optimistic (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
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.
Re:I felt a great disturbance in the Force (Score:4, Insightful)
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!
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: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.
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:Joss Whedon's Star Wars (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Compare the old trilogy to the new: When George Lucas was doing the old trilogy, he was a young upstart with a niche artsy film to his name (American Graffiti). He was surrounded by people who weren't afraid to say "No, George, that's a stupid idea". Flash forward to the turn of the century, and you have George Lucas surrounded by sycophants saying "Yes, Mr. Lucas, sir! You're a visionary!"
Joss Whedon's Star Wars would be a bigger disaster than three episodes about Jar Jar.
Re:I felt a great disturbance in the Force (Score:4, Insightful)
Starship Troopers and The Postman.
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:buncha depraved mammon worshippers (Score:5, Insightful)
... and the mask comes off... (Score:4, Insightful)
"Walt, I am your father."
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: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.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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: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. ;)
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.
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?
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.
[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.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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:I'm pessimistic! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The original were mediocre children's movies (Score:4, Insightful)
Hate to break it to you, but they made children's movies long before Star Wars. And very few were remembered 35 years later. You may not personally like them, but they were a hell of a lot more than just "mediocre children's movies", for several generations.
Hell, my 30-something parents (at the time) absolutely loved them and saw them several times in the original theatrical run. While that may be no big deal today, with adults regularly going to "children's" movies - 30 years ago it was COMPLETELY UNHEARD OF.
The originals completely defined the movie-going experience in ways we still don't fully understand. Damn near every movie made since then owes something to Star Wars - whether it's in merchandising, blockbusting, hype, promotion, special effects, genre-openness, sequel anticipation, or just plain cool factor.