Discussion A few questions about GL and his involvement...

It could be like a mood ring Yoda

 

Disney obviously has the final say, but there's no doubt they WILL use Lucas' story treatments. Kathleen Kennedy and Lucas hired Michael Arndt to adapt the treatments long before the Disney acquisition and he's still working on the script. I have yet to see a story or news article in which Disney fired Michael Arndt and brought in their own writers to make their own version of Episode VII. This reminds me of the fan concerns when Disney picked up Marvel and Pixar. There was a fear that we'd see Iron Man with Mickey Mouse ears, etc, but none of that happened, and the projects continued unabated. In the long run, Disney just wants to be able to use Star Wars in their promotional materials. I don't think they're interested in interfering with the actual film production, and so far, the film production says these movies will be based on Lucas' story.

 

well I was talking about lightsaber colours,

but now that you mention it,

blue yoda must be of vital importance to the trilogy

I will petition immediately to Disney

 

I'll bet Arndt penned a gem with the help of the treatment. Dudes got chops.. Wait and see. And to the involvement of GL its only to be sure his vision is realized. He is owed that.

 

that businessweek article does make it sound like following Lucas' treatments is part of the deal. The article seems to be saying that Eiger wasn't going to fork over $4 billion without first getting to read Lucas' treatments. If Disney can just ignore Lucas' ep. 7 treatments why did Eiger insist on getting to read them before the sale?

 

And I've never said they won't use them. The question was in how much control Lucas has retained, and the answer is none. You clearly were saying something else when you say it's "part of the contract that they have to follow the treatments", it's not. The treatments belong to Disney to follow as closely or disregard as they see fit.

 

Because those treatments were part of what they were buying, and they want to know what they are buying. That says nothing to the issue of control over the future of these films, it's all with the mouse.

 

Trust me sweetheart I know exactly what I'm talking about. Abrams isn't going to Alan Horn for advice, he's going to Lucas. Iger isn't the 'little Yoda' on Kathy's shoulder it's Lucas.

 

What I was trying to say is that Disney has the final say should something unforeseen or catastrophic happens (financially) and they need to step in. However, they could still be contractually obligated to follow Lucas' story treatments for 7,8, and 9. The article definitely seems to point in that direction. I suspect we won't have confirmation one way or another for quite some time. Bottom line: my guess is 7,8, and 9 are the ones Lucas has the most control over (contract or no contract), with the spinoffs and subsequent films being more in the hands of Disney/Lucasfilm in general. So far, the ST looks to be more akin to ESB, RotJ, and the Indy films, in that Lucas wrote the stories, then someone else wrote the screenplays and directed the movies.

 

You weren't talking about advice earlier, now were you. You were talking about "Iron Clad contracts".

 

We know everything we need to know. Disney has the treatments, they own them and the rights to the upcoming films. They can do anything they want with them. They have all the control, all of it. And all parties involved have already stated it.

And Lucas giving up that control was his own choice by the way. He is ready to move on. He doesn't want that control, he wants to focus on small movies and philanthropy and his museum. He's ready to walk, that was the point of all of this, fans just don't want to accept it.

 

It should be noted that the people involved--Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan and others--respect George Lucas and that's why they are involved in the first place. They aren't going to just take over the rights and do whatever they want; what they want is to work with George Lucas's framework and put it onscreen. George Lucas has ideas of what the Force is, what Jedi are, what Luke and Leia wouldn't be doing. This won't be like Hasbro deciding to let Bumblebee be a Camaro or having The Baroness an ex-girlfriend of Duke, but probably closer to Hasbro not minding that a director wants to make Optimus Prime a truck with a snout. I do think J.J. Abrams was probably given some flexibility because they wanted him so badly while also wanting his talents, but he is a STAR WARS films fan (note, "films") so he won't be one to just turn it into Ice Pirates.
If Lucas sold Lucasfilm just to completely step away, he wouldn't have been so concerned about offering it to Disney. He sees Disney as the right company to handle it properly. He didn't just sell it to anyone offering more money. Disney didn't approach him with this offer.
I must be the only fan who doesn't care about lightsaber colors. Watching the films dozens of times, I could have never told you whose was green and whose was blue and I definitely didn't get distracted by one being purple.

 

I must be the only fan who doesn't care about lightsaber colors. Watching the films dozens of times, I could have never told you whose was green and whose was blue and I definitely didn't get distracted by one being purple.
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you don't care about lightsaber colours

oh my

in all seriousness though

would be nice to see a few more colours around the place, i'm not talking about silly looking ones, like mulicoloured ones or "darksabers"

 

Captain Tom Coughlin You speak in some pretty broad strokes of knowledge of the contracts. How do you know what they say? Seriously? How do you know what they say? I'm basing my assumptions on the contract on Lucas' own business savvy. And when it comes right down to it, Lucas is very savvy in the business world. So yes I 100% believe that Lucas has an iron clad contract to protect what he created.

 

I think not caring about lightsaber colors is part of a wider indifference to emphasizing colors in my life. Yes I like color, but I just don't care. I'm not one to point out people by color, get distracted by eye color or be put off by a shirt if it is a certain color. Heck, I never liked playing with crayons. I might think "hm there's something about that" without really thinking of the color.

Not really. Making a movie involves so much, and writing a movie has various aspects. There is a lot between writing a summary and having a screenplay. A storytelling of The Empire Strikes Back could have been turned into crap with the wrong screenplay.

 

Keep in mind, that article also said that the people who read it said that the Lucas treatments "had high potential in terms of story".
We all know that at heart, Lucas is a storyteller. I'm certain that if they have as much potential as they say, they won't be altered too much.

Also, I'd love to see a yellow lightsaber somewhere in the ST! Those are my favorites, always use those in games like KotOR and Jedi Academy

 

Because the Disney people and Lucas have all been completely open about this. None of what I said is a secret You talk about assumptions when there is no need for assumptions. They have said all of this themselves. Do you really think Disney is going to spend 4 Billion on a property they don't control? Really? But that is neither here nor there, because if you don't want to believe me, believe Disney's CEO when he says they have total control over the project. Something he has said on numerous occasions.

That's just one quote of quite a few, and Lucas has been just as forthcoming about this. This is very simple and straightforward, Disney owns Star Wars. They can do anything they want moving forward. There are distribution issues with the older movies, but that is another topic.

Fans just can't or won't accept it.

http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2012/11/05/iger-disney-will-protect-star-wars/

 

George Lucas will be on the set saying you can do this but not that when it comes to canon, lore etc thats it,he said this in a intwrview. He made sure he could do that because of the signed contracts.
And thats a good thing, just imagine if we got jedi with red sabers, hutt sithlords and the force could make waffles the horror the horror.

 

can't wait for orange lightsabers so much orange everywhere

 

Just to throw in a question raised in the beginning...

Do we know how detailed Lucas' treatments for the new films are? Any information?

 

It's impossible to know, although the fact that they're treatments means they're not very detailed to begin with. Only a tiny bit of information exists on the ST treatments (or the ST to begin with). We know from the first video in that series of videos Lucas did with Kathleen Kennedy that there was extra room for the writers to explore, meaning we might get the expansion of certain character roles or plot points. Other than that, I'm sure everyone knows what Lucas has said about the ST over the years, so there's no need to repeat it. Probably the only person to read the treatments (before work started on the ST) was Dale Pollock, who had to sign a NDA. According to him, they're way better than the PT and the OT, with really interesting worlds, creatures, and characters, so take that for what it's worth.

 

Thanks for the info. I looked up Dale Pollock and found out that he looked at the treatments for 7,8,9 quite some time ago and then fell out with GL. So his interpretation may be out of date. New stuff may have been invented by GL especially as the PT was developed.

Here is the article I found:

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-11-02/star-wars-episode-vii-what-do-we-know-so-far