Tuesday, October 30, 2012

IT'S A TRAP!  Apparently, Disney has bought Lucasfilm, which means George Lucas made $4 billion today.  This turns over to Disney full control of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones IP, as well as giving Disney ownership of Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound and buttressing Disney's interactive operations with LucasArts.  Share your hopes (Indy ride at Disney World!) and fears (cuddly animated Ewok movie!) in the comments.

ETA:  Disney's press release also states that "Star Wars Episode 7" is in the pipeline for 2015, with more to follow. No word on plot or how it will deal with the substantial existing "Expanded Universe" canon such as the Thrawn story.

added by Bonin on Weds: Linda Holmes with twenty stories sure to run when SW7 opens; did Disney buy Lucasfilm cheap?

32 comments:

  1. Adam B.4:12 PM

    Press release here: http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-news/press-releases/2012/10/disney-acquire-lucasfilm-ltd


    I've got a bad feeling about this.

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  2. Will Disney take the opportunity to finally do a real release of the SW trilogy on DVD?

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  3. Sounds like a good time for everybody to stream the documentary "The People vs. George Lucas" on Netflix.

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  4. Just to rebut the first geeky thought I had--Avengers 2 is already slated for 2015, which means that no, we're not going to get Joss Whedon's Episode VII, much as that would be more than kind of awesome.

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  5. I wouldn't be too worried -- Kathleen Kennedy is very smart, and has been involved with these projects from their ground floors, so this might actually be for the best.

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  6. Saw it. What a bunch of "George didn't do things the way we wanted!" complaining.

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  7. Jordan4:38 PM

    What's the worst that could happen, they make a bunch of poorly written sequels/prequels that replace the heart of the original movies with CGI?

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  8. Danny Novo4:43 PM

    Ten years ago we would have cried out in fear that Disney would screw up the franchise. Today, you can't tell me that the news of George Lucas giving up the reins doesn't make you a little excited.

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  9. Are you saying their complaints aren't valid?

    I mean, wasn't what they wanted just that he make good movies?

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  10. Sure, their complaints are valid, except that they keep paying money for his work. Just move on. An entire movie about how a director has disappointed you?

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  11. Ramar4:48 PM

    Andrew Stanton has to be feeling kind of like a chump right now.

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  12. On the surface, sure, but also a good document of what can go wrong when you fire your staff and go auteur.

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  13. This makes me nervous too but I do agree that Kennedy is smart. I also think there could be some interesting things here. I grew up on, and love love love, the original Star Wars films. But they have a mythology and a story structure one could compare to major comic book franchises, which are constantly rebooted and retold both in book form and on screen. Some of those versions are great and some are awful, but if they put inventive and intelligent minds behind new films and new stories, I don't shudder at the idea.

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  14. Adam B.4:57 PM

    I'm excited about what this could mean for the parks. Turn EPCOT's Spaceship Earth into a (fully operational?) Death Star?

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  15. That is a shame, because Joss Whedon directing a Rogue Squadron movie is a thing I would like to see.

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  16. Hell, there IS a comic book franchise. Dark Horse has been doing very good work with the franchise for quite a while now.

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  17. Jordan6:13 PM

    Temple of Doom mine roller coaster?

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  18. Rumored for years has been a "LucasLand" at Hollywood Studios, which would retool the "Backlot Express" restaurant into Mos Eisley Cantina, move Jedi Training to the former Sounds Dangerous space and maybe put in some sort of Indy ride. My bet would be that we wind up with that coupled with a "Pixar Place" expansion (likely either the Monsters Inc. family coaster or Radiator Springs Racers).

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  19. That said, a fully operational Death Star could take out Potterland, which I'm sure Disney would love to do.

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  20. My guess is the won't need to. Without new content, I don't think the fandom can sustain itself on fanfic alone, at least not to the levels that keep Hogwarts Orlando filled to capacity, mostly with people who might not even visit the park at all if it wasn't there.

    And I don't think that Rowling has either the geeky desire to see her creations taken in new directions by other hands, nor the avarice to authorize new stories just to keep the money rolling in. Potter fandom is going to fade slowly into the background noise of nerddom, taking its place with the fans of other moribund franchises.



    On the other hand, my kids are going as Ron and Hermione for Halloween (but before they started dating! my daughter declares) so what do I know?

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  21. Jason Carlin6:14 PM

    If Disney bought Atari and the Hardy Boys, they'd have my childhood packaged up nicely.


    The additional properties that belong to Lucasfilm, now Disney, have some interesting possibilities (if the rights are unencumbered): American Graffiti, Willow, Labyrinth. Could we finally see a BluRay of the original Star Wars series, unaltered?

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  22. Adam B.7:00 PM

    Howard the Duck; Tucker: the Man and His Other Dream ...

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  23. Joseph Finn7:14 PM

    I honestly had no idea Labyrinth was a Lucasfilms & Henson Associates production. Looking at their filmography, there's some other oddities as well: Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters, Radioland Murders.

    Come to think of it, this means anyone licensing Droid for their Android products is now licensing them from Disney.

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  24. I still want a David Simon-helmed Episode 7. It turns out that the Rebellion and New Republic are as corrupted and morally compromised as the Empire, you see...

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  25. @google-91d32fb8c2ab8533bf9171c2b42420cf:disqus did you actually the documentary? It's much, much more than people just complaining about crappy movies.

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  26. @google-91d32fb8c2ab8533bf9171c2b42420cf:disqus did you actually watch the documentary? It's much, much more than people just complaining about crappy movies.

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  27. I bet they corrected "Robocopalypse" to "Robopocalypse." Editors — ruining perfectly good jokes since the printing press was invented.

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  28. Jordan11:14 AM

    But if Harry is able to disable the shield generator in the Viking log flume, wouldn't the falling debris destroy all life in Future World?

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  29. Mel Umbarger9:15 PM

    The only reason we recently visited Islands of Adventure, during the off season, is because of Harry Potter. And even during the off season, on a Tuesday, we waited nearly two hours for some of the rides. We'll go back when they expand into Universal.

    But then, my husband and I went to pick up OotP on our wedding day, still in our wedding finery, so what do I know? :)

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  30. umm, Patton Oswalt does a routine about killing Lucas with a shovel; Probably NSFW:


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDCjIjsZp_Y

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  31. I'm just going to sit here quietly, quivering in the corner, fantasy cast all my favorite Eu storylines, and live in hope that they actually use said EU storylines.

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  32. The real issue they face is that the EU has now gone pretty far into the future (Leia and Han's kids have been the central characters for a while now), so they either have to do a big time jump or come into direct conflict.

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