Disney buys Lucasfilm, new Star Wars trilogy planned
Disney has bought out Lucasfilm in a $4.05bn deal and announced a new trilogy of Star Wars films under the leadership of the entertainment behemoth. "For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next," said George Lucas, CEO of Lucasfilm in a canned statement. " …
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Three trilogies
Sometime between the first two films, Lucas announced that he had plans for three trilogies, one set before the first film (which was, accordingly, renamed to "Episode IV") and one after the original trilogy. It took ages for him to make the prequel trilogy (and he messed that up pretty badly), so he thankfully dropped the idea of the third trilogy. Given that the title of the first Disney film is "Episode VII", my guess is that they will make the third trilogy.
In a way, Star Wars has always been in a Disney-like style, so I can't see anything horrible coming out of this.
Re: Three trilogies
And that may possibly have worked if not for the books covering the next 40+ years. When the original Thrawn trilogy came out they may have had an outside chance of filming those with the original cast, but I think their best bet is to go for the KotOR era, either basing them on existing games (nice tie-in already there) or new stories in the same era. Who doesn't want to see a mass battle between hundreds of Jedi and Sith?!
Sadly, like most people it seems, I fear for the worst...
Re: Three trilogies
The books are canon within the Expanded Universe, yes.
George Lucas has always maintained that the films and the Expanded Universe are separate canon though, which gives him a nice Joker for not having to respect the canon of the Expanded Universe.
Re: And the books are canon?
Yes, but you forgot the last word: fodder.
The shroud of the dark side has fallen........
Grabbed more money the Lucas did.
The way I see it...
The best Star Wars films were the ones where Lucas didn't direct them anyway. Perhaps this is a good thing, although I'll remain sceptical.
Re: The way I see it...
I'd say it's not so much the director angle as the money angle. It sort of acts as an editor: when you can't afford to do everything your mind's eye sees you have to cut the crap and keep only the good stuff. I think the same thing was true of the other big Star title as well. When Roddenberry walked as a god instead of just a producer who could be poked and prodded, the series suffered.
End of an Era...
The Big Bank Theory:
Raj: Come on Sheldon, it's Star Wars.
Howard: I'm going to press play, I mean it! Come on, we gotta hurry up and watch it before George Lucas changes it again.
One more obligatory quote
"The dark side clouds everything. Impossible to see the future is."
For a man who has just got 4 Billions , he sure don't look happy!
Waiting for 'The 'ittle Jedi Who Could'
Funny enough just talking to a friend of mine last night who had fought Lucasfilm for two years over the term Droid (Lucasfilm lost the case BTW)
Even he is in two minds about this sale, working on the principal that after a decent Clone Wars film, Lucas destroyed the success by producing the Clone Wars series.
Looking at the adverts for Red Tails I think it's probably best that he leaves films alone as even I know the laws of physics must be obeyed and no credible film maker would have allowed those action sequences to stay in the film
It's not just Star Wars we need to worry about...
Did they also get Lucas Arts and the games?
Pirates of the Caribbean - The Secret of Monkey Island.
sigh.
Re: It's not just Star Wars we need to worry about...
Monkey Island was always, um, "inspired" by Pirates of the Caribbean anyway though.
(Not forgetting that Pirates of the Caribbean goes back to 1967 as an attraction at Disneyland and has continued ever since, and the films were of the ride and not vice versa as many think)
O crap!
Guess my theme park tickets for next year are going up to cover this purchase.
Personally I liked jar jar binks, he reminds me of my dealer.
Bloody expensive way to get a new Disney Princess
And somehow I can't quite see her fitting into a Disney 3pm parade, even in the steel bikini...
Disney & singing
My hope is that will mean we get Yub Nub back!
Disney's already doing Mickey Warz figures
Given the Star Tours rides at the US theme parks, they've had the classic Disney toons as Star Wars characters for some time: http://www.figures.com/forums/attachments/news/8786d1278951492-disney-star-wars-series-4-1alldisneywars.jpg
Ha ha
I had to read El Reg's take on this. Predictably cynical, as always.
"After all, the entire franchise began by selling the audience on the idea that an engineer would build a Death Star capable of destroying a planet that could be knocked out with a single shot in one relatively unprotected weak spot."
To be fair, they did explain that the Death Star was designed without consideration for small one-man fighters, and the thermal exhaust port *is* ray-shielded, so they have to use proton torpedoes. Any plot hole here is certainly better covered than the exhaust port was. And surely I don't have to point out the obvious parallels with David & Goliath?
Of course, in the *real* world, an engineer would *never* make such a mistake.
Re: Ha ha
Of course the showdown between David and Goliath is as real as Luke Vs the Death Star
Cautiously optimistic.
I think this could be good news and I'm cautiously optimistic
Disney have already shown that they can nurture a franchise with their purchase of Marvel. "Avengers Assemble" was absolutely brilliant. And I for one really enjoyed "Tron: Legacy" as well.
They also have the potential to pull in some decent directors and writers. Let's face it, George Lucas isn't actually a very good director and he's not that good a writer either. His character development and dialogue in Episodes 1-3 was pretty dire. Especially the love story between Padame and Anakin.
Disney Star Wars? This is gonna be "The Black Hole" all over again.
don't knock The Black Hole
Impugn it not. The Black Hole brought us the silent, malevolent glory that is Maximillian.
He stands up there with Vader (the original, not the whinging ego-extension of Lucas) as one of the truly, utterly unforgettable foes of film.
Got take you to task for this one
"After all, the entire franchise began by selling the audience on the idea that an engineer would build a Death Star capable of destroying a planet that could be knocked out with a single shot in one relatively unprotected weak spot."
Come on. No one would make a mistake with measurements and plow a space probe into mars. O rings, scada systems, You name it. Government procurement,industrial design, it's probably the most believable aspect of the movie....
David Prouse saved lives
Damm sight more than George.
Green cross code everyone.
PLACE
Look and Listen
Safe- then Cross- Looking and Listening
Don't see George saving the lives of our drunken shag-products across the road ?
In the immortal words of Obi-Wan
That's no moon, it's an avaricious media empire!!
(and the Star Wars franchise being tractor beamed into the House that Mouse built completes the metaphor)
Whatever
This is really no big deal. The creativity behind Star Wars is a vast team, and Lucas may have originally brought us the galaxy, far, far away, but it will prosper without him for many years to come. Disney has a truckload of imagineers who will work hard to make the next films a success, commercially if nothing else*
And besides, for us ageing fans of the original films (of which the best are the 2 that Lucas *didn't* direct), this news is nowhere near as cringe-worthy as watching Yoda in those fucking Vodafone commercials.
*as long as they fire the ass-clowns responsible for John Carter, obviously.
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