Disney Buys LucasFilm: Star Wars 7 Planned To Release 2015

I think you are totally on to something. I remember him saying earlier this year:

“On the Internet, all those same guys that are complaining I made a change are completely changing the movie,” Lucas says, referring to fans who, like the dreaded studios, have done their own forcible re-edits. “I’m saying: ‘Fine. But my movie, with my name on it, that says I did it, needs to be the way I want it.’ ”
Lucas seized control of his movies from the studios only to discover that the fanboys could still give him script notes. “Why would I make any more,” Lucas says of the “Star Wars” movies, “when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/magazine/george-lucas-red-tails.html?_r=0

Sadly I think you are correct. He's done. And I believe this is the ultimate "FU" to the haters. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but there maybe some truth to it...

 

This. exactly. While we don't know what the future holds, this is certainly more of a good thing than a bad thing. And I really hope people will get out of the mindset of Disney equaling Princesses and unicorns and rainbows and all that non sense only. Disney has a long history of being involved in several different forms of entertainment and ventures, and if you look in particular at their history of live action films going as far back as the 50s even - quite a lot of them are not nearly as kid friendly as you would think.

 

A rather ineffective FU if you ask me. I have seen some positive reception to this announcement because of how this opens up the possibilities to get new talent on board to tell something fresh without Lucas having complete and total control over everything. New writers, new directors, actors that can work with the director to come up with interesting characterizations instead of just doing what they're told... these films could be a creative collaboration to do something special and there are a lot of people realising this potential exists.

Also keep in mind that despite being produced by the Disney studios these new films are going to be independently overseen, much like the marvel movies. And the person who has been given the job to produce and maintain the license, Kathleen Kennedy, is an exceptionally talented woman who has overseen movies like E.T and Jurassic Park and oversaw the U.S release of Ponyo and Arrietty. She has also proven herself to be very shrewd in the movie making business as she co-founded and ran Amblin Entertainment until 1992.

There is potential for something special to happen here, so long as the project avoids certain pitfalls along the way (Nobody wants a direct continuation of Return of the Jedi).

 

Based on how you describe yourself and your history with Star Wars, you honestly sound exactly like me. I've been called an apologist with such venom you'd think people were calling me a Nazi. There's been things in the Star Wars mythos I've liked and things I've disliked, but over all I've always defended the majority of it as better than it gets credit for. I've always been baffled by the people who call themselves fans and then turn around and say they hate 90% of Star Wars just because it's not a simple rehash of the story they grew up with.

I even think I understand where your feelings of pessimism come from. If I thought that this news meant Disney was making Star Wars from now on, I'd be infuriated. If they had liquidated LucasFilm and taken the IP in house, I'd be going nuts right now. If LucasFilm had stayed it's own company, but sold off the rights to Star Wars to Disney, I'd crap a brick.

But that's not what's happening. The Mouse isn't taking the throne here. The Mouse is just dumping a bunch of money into the royal coffers and telling the new queen "Use it to make me more."

Practically speaking, the idea behind this deal isn't that much different than Fox financing A New Hope. Legally speaking, yes, it's very different. Legally, Disney has much more a say what goes on at LucasFilm than Fox ever did. But Disney's history shows that they will be loathe to exercise that control. As long as LucasFilm can operate autonomously and bring in a profit, Disney won't interfere with them. All they will do is hand them money and rake in the profits. The only situation in which Disney would step in and take control is if LucasFilm fails to deliver a profit. Let's face it, if that happens, it's LucasFilm's fault, not Disney's.

The question mark here isn't Disney. The question mark is Kathleen Kennedy and what she will do with control of LucasFilm. Seeing as Lucas trusts her as a friend, and she seems very keen to keep Lucas on speed dial, I don't feel threatened by her. LucasFilm is a big company full of people that have been managing the Star Wars legacy for years. These people will continue doing the same job's they've ever done. Only now, Lucas is finally seeing that if he's not going to do anything with it, he should let the people who still have a passion for it do so. I think Lucas would be offended at the idea that people think he would sign over his company to a "soulless media machine" without provisions to protect his creations and his employees.

Lucas isn't giving Disney Star Wars. He's giving Star Wars to LucasFilm, under the control of Kathleen Kennedy, and giving the responsibility of financing LucasFilm to Disney in return for future profits. This is a business deal, it's about finance, not creative control.

Now, as far as his business ventures and out of the box thinking, I can understand your disappointment in seeing him go. But the man is 68 years old, doesn't he deserve to retire? He has a family to think about too. What if his kids don't want to inherit the LucasFilm empire? What if they would prefer to have capitol to pursue their own dreams? Isn't it better for him to get this done now, on his terms, when he can look out for the people employed by his company and his creative works? Isn't it better than letting that burden fall to his children? The man isn't going to live forever, you know.

Also, he's now in a financially better situation to invest in ventures and causes he believes in than he ever was. His personal capital is no longer tied up in a company, and he can afford to pursue any business opportunity he wishes. This certainly isn't going to stop him from continuing to be a visionary if the opportunity comes before him.

In fact, Lucas has announced plans for major philanthropic action with his new found wealth and time. He plans to invest in education and health. As a signer of The Giving Pledge he has committed to giving a majority of his wealth to charitable interests. I don't think he's a sell out. I'll leave you with his open letter on signing The Giving Pledge if you still think he is:

​

 

I am happy
Fresh Star Wars with New Direction.
To all those that dont like additions sequels or prequels do what I did after seeing the first resident evil....dont go and see any more.It really that simple I have never complained once about any other resident evil movie.

 

That's awesome. My problem with the EU is that there's a lot of rehashing and deus ex machina going on, hopefully they can avoid that. Still a little worried about Lucas contributing his ideas, but hopefully they'll get a strong director that isn't afraid to say no if something doesn't work.

 

I seriously doubt Lucas has final say on anything or even if they have to use his treatments for 7,8, and 9. he only said he gave them to Disney, not that they are using them.

They don't even have a script, still sitting with writers. I think it will be good.

 

LucasFilm was probably absolutely fine and capable of doing most of what he was interested in doing. But I think he realized that under the control of someone else, they might have the passion and desire to produce the Star Wars content he no longer had the drive to produce. For that, they would need money. He made this deal to make sure LucasFilm would have the funding to do any project they wanted, and handed control of LucasFilm to someone he felt had the passion to use that money and engage in those projects.

If you recall, a big part of why the live action film series isn't in production is a lack of funds. LucasFilm is a strong company, but it doesn't have the size and capital to engage in the type of full scale production Star Wars is capable of. Lucas was fine with that, because he didn't really want to go on with it.

Besides, Lucas is a business genius. The way he did things was risky, but it payed off well. Perhaps he didn't feel anyone else was prepared to run the company that way. Maybe he felt the safest thing for him to ensure the health of his company upon retirement was to put it somewhere secure, rather than dumping the burden of running the company guerrilla style on someone who doesn't share his vision for that kind of business.

My guess is Lucas wanted to be able to give creative control to someone he trusted and insure the financial stability of his company.

 

Exactly. Guys, 3 years is a NORMAL development cycle for a movie. The story apparently was already decided a long time ago by Lucas. Now, it needs to be put into script form. That apparently is what Disney is doing now. They shell out the money to, I imagine, some of the top screen writers in the industry and give them a deadline the script must be done by. Choose the best script, line up a director and get going on production. Taking years and years just to get out of the script stage and into production is usually not a good thing. In fact it usually means you are over thinking and over complicating things. How long something takes, does not necessarily effect the quality.

How long did it take between a new hope and empire? Between empire and Jedi? About the same time as between now and 2015 or am I remembering wrong?

 

That's exactly how I feel. I don't agree that it's "arrogant" to feel that way, it's just my personal opinion, after all. We're talking about art. But I think that the Star Wars fans like myself who love all six movies feel much the way Yankees fans do about our franchise -- we are #1. We have the most World Series Championships of any team in any sport in the history of this world. We have a LOT of haters, a lot of people who love to see us fail, but at the same time, we have that sense of pride that our franchise will always be the greatest and will always have the best players, the best memories, the most ties to the history of the game itself. That IS Star Wars. Our franchise is the reason that modern films even have the special effects they do, our series is the reason why digital cinema got a strong push into the new Millennium, our series is the reason movies screen at midnight -- THE REASON -- there wasn't such a thing before The Phantom Menace, our series is the reason that summer is blockbuster movie season. Other movies ARE just movies, they didn't change anything. Lord of the Rings is a great series, I cannot wait for The Hobbit and I LOVED all three LOTR films. They are fantastic and some of the best made movies out there. But they are just movies. They are based on an extremely popular work of fiction that already had its devoted literary fan base. There wasn't anything revolutionary about the making, release, or technology in Lord of the Rings. Fans of that series are casual compared to our fan base. Star Trek, despite a lower level of success per film, still has a far more devoted and "real" fan base than LOTR, which is made up of people like myself who love the movies but otherwise don't really care. I won't go to LOTR conventions, I won't discuss the movies with other "fans," and if The Hobbit sucks I'll be disappointed for about a week maximum, then move on with my life.

Star Wars isn't like that for millions of people. It's something more, and I think any true (read: "non casual") fan of Star Wars understands that. That's actually a large part of HOW I became a fan, is the magic of Star Wars. I wasn't really a fan, I just loved the movies as a kid, then I went to a downtown theater on Saturday after Star Wars: Special Edition opened. We showed up at 2:30 p.m. and it was sold out until 10:30. I was just... shocked. What the heck?! But this movie is 20 years old, that doesn't even make any sense! Weird. Then we walked into a sold-out showing at 10:30 and it was young people, older people, guys, girls, and so many were in costumes, and they cheered throughout the movie. I felt something I had never felt before in a movie, it was like magic, it was more than just a movie, it was truly an experience, like I felt connected to everyone else there and it gave me tingles. From that day, I considered myself a Star Wars fan and it became a major part of my life.

That simply doesn't happen watching James Bond, I'm sorry. They are really fun movies usually and I look forward to them but it's a night at the movies and nothing more. Most people don't make friends through a movie franchise, or choose a career path, or find so much joy and entertainment over years of fandom. That all happened with me. Two years ago I joined the Director's Guild of America on my first feature film I wrote and directed, realizing a life-long dream that started with that day I saw Star Wars in a movie theater. I knew I wanted to work in the film industry, and I set out to pursue those goals, because of the impact Star Wars had on my life, so writing and directing my own movie was the end of one path, from moviegoer to filmmaker, and the start of another.

I just hope that Disney and the people in charge take that type of devotion into consideration and realize that for many of us, no, it is not enough to make a fun summer blockbuster. It needs to be more. It has to incorporate the type of timeless themes and mythology and sense of wonder that we've come to expect from the Star Wars films. I love the Transformers movies as a guilty pleasure, I think they're a ton of fun actually, and I loved The Avengers, but come on, seriously someone here wants to argue that a movie about superheroes fighting some evil forces is equal or better than STAR WARS?! You're kidding, right? The Avengers was a fun movie, I'd give it an A or A+, I mean I saw it a few times in theaters and bought it right away on Blu-ray, but that isn't what it's supposed to be. It's just extremely well done entertainment. There are no deeper messages there, nothing else to examine or see, nothing beyond just the 2 hours and 20 minutes of entertainment you paid for. I don't think you're going to see scholars writing about how philosophical The Avengers is. It's not even The Matrix, and speaking of "insulting," it's insulting grouping The Avengers with Lord of the Rings, let alone with Star Wars. Lord of the Rings has a lot more substance than The Avengers. I would laugh at someone trying to tell me that The Avengers is a deep film.

 

Yeah I don't think he'll have final say, I'm just worried about his story telling skills after the prequels. Not saying that in a "I hate the prequels" way, I just don't think the stories are very good.
It gave me hope that Kennedy said they're sitting down with writers and figuring things out. And I hope the writers are great, much better than Clone Wars writers (who aren't really bad)

Also kinda excited to see this from Mark Hamill:

https://twitter.com/HamillHimself/status/263497444862595072

 

Also to all those people who dont think he can let it go....just just got paid four billion reasons to do so.......he is 68 years old and lets be honest not in great shape ( hospitalised early 80's during filming of Jedi ).Even though we may not think so making movies is work. Three movies starting in three years he would be 80 by the time we got to the third movie.



Maybe just maybe he did'nt want work him self to death.

just maybe

Also for four billion dollars you can have my wife and kids

 

Don't read heavily into that. I think he's just letting his fans know he doesn't know anything more than anyone else, and to stop asking him about it. I doubt it means that he anticipates any involvement.

 

Oh I'm not reading into it. I'm just excited because Hamill seems to be the only main actor from the original trilogy that appreciates Star Wars and what it has done for him. He's pretty much the only one I wouldn't be surprised to see replay his role. Considering that I want a trilogy that has nothing to do with the Skywalker saga, I'd be OK with Hamill not being in it.

 

I am optimistic. I was a child when the original trilogy was released. Now I get to look forward to taking my sons (almost 2 and almost 4) to see Star Wars movies. Hopefully, they do justice to my childhood memories of awe and wonder. I will get to play with my boys with their new Star Wars toys, along with mine that I have handed down to them. As a fan, I am hesitant (after what the prequels did to me.) But as a father, I cannot wait to sit in the theater with my boys and have that blast and scroll hit the screen. i will likely cry.

 

I have no idea how anyone would direct a movie in their older age, except maybe if you just had a lot more money or were so respected for your talents that you were given more leniency in scheduling. I directed my movie with 6-day weeks and you shoot for 12 hours per day, with about 45 to 50 minute lunch breaks, during which as a director you barely eat if at all, you just focus on what you're doing the rest of the day. You show up 1.5 to 2 hours early, you leave 1-2 hours late, and when you get home you spend another 1-2 hours going over tomorrow's scenes and watching the dailies from a few days ago, trying to see if you notice anything you still have time to fix or any performance issues that may be possible to correct going forward. You get, if you're fortunate, 4-5 hours of sleep per night. It's absolutely brutal. I struggled to keep my eyes open on set sometimes, to the point where several energy drinks and 3-4 cups of coffee were barely sufficient and barely helped. I even smoked cigarettes sometimes -- and I don't even smoke -- just because cigarettes are a shock to the system and I needed anything I could get to keep me awake. It was the most challenging experience of my life. Even before shooting, I was working just as hard in pre-production trying to wear multiple hats from producer to director to writer, doing rewrites of my script at the last minute, making key decisions on cast and crew, and dealing with financial considerations (everything from product placements to locations). I wouldn't blame Lucas at all for not wanting to go through that grind again, which on a Star Wars movie would be way, way, WAY more complicated and longer than on my film. I put about a year of work into my film, not three.

I'm sure it sounds like fun and games to a lot of people, because it's the entertainment business, but in our business it's entirely based on 12 hour days (because of union regulations limiting it to 12, though on non-union shoots like music videos it's not uncommon for days to go 18 or 19 hours). It's mentally and physically exhausting. Before shooting, I ramped up my workout routine and started working out about 2 hours per day for 6 months, because I wanted to be in prime physical condition, knowing that what I would go through on set would tax my body in a way that I hadn't really ever done before. The first week is pretty bearable, but when you are on week 3 of 4 hours of sleep per night, it's hard to be rational and make the proper decisions that have to be made often very quickly. I suppose that's less true of a major blockbuster where there is money if it goes overbudget, but on a lower budget film a lot of decisions literally come down to, ok, we can do this, or do that, but not both, you have maybe 3 minutes to decide and your decision will change the outcome of the film. I think Lucas wasn't going to embark on that whole journey again from start to finish for a full trilogy. I am hoping, though, that he can at least lend his ideas and form the framework of what the movies will be about, so they can remain true to his creation.

 

^Yeah, I think that 12 hour day is pretty rare in film. I've worked as an extra on some shows and Alias routinely had 18 hour days! A TV show! I was like, just shoot me now. Although tv shows are more crunched for time than movies, so maybe tv in general has longer hours than movies.

 

I agree with everything you just said

 

Does anyone here know how I can listen to a rerun of last nights forcecast? It is saying when i hit the link that its off the air. Looks like just a link for the live feed. Do they archive them?

 

I wonder if he's had a health scare , the way he was talking about making sure it's passed on to safe hands etc.

 

EP VII: Jar-Jar Binks returns to team up with the Ewoks to battle the evil queen who intends to banish Princess Leia to Never-Never Land.
That or right after the scrolling text we see the whole Star Wars universe sucked up into a :::wait for it:::: Black Hole!!!!

 

"Giving fans what they want and expect" is not the way to deal with any movie franchise. The creator should stay true to his vision. Lucas did and deliver three great movies and a fantastic TV series.

He didn't remake the Original which is what most "fans" seem to have wanted.

Tell what it was exactly that you wanted from the prequels?

 

One big thing about this 'transaction' is that Disney now owns ILM.
Makes me wonder if they wanted to have the top F/X company even more than Star Wars itself.

Now, every f/x heavy movie they make saves them $10's (maybe $100's) of millions.

 

The last time I was on TheForce.net was just before Episode III came out. So almost 7 years ago. With news of an Episode VII I can running back so I could hear what all the other Star Wars geeks were saying and hear some good gossip on what the new movie could be. Instead I get 70% of the posts saying they have a bad feeling about this, bashing Disney and saying that the movie is going to be terrible. Then I remembered why I left these forums. Cynicism is just as disheartening as naivete. It is just as foolish to believe in nothing as it is to believe in everything.

For my part, I'm thrilled at the prospect of a new trilogy. I hope it continues Luke, Leia, and Han's storyline, though I'm okay if they're not the main characters and we move on to the next generations. I have no doubt that C3PO and R2D2 will provide the continuity thread. And no, I won't be bothered if they go in another direction from the EU. I'd love to see the Zahn books, but it's okay if I go into the theater not knowing where they're going to take the story. But the sheer idea of passionate quality filmmakers getting their chance to make Star Wars movies under the guidance of a studio that truly cares about quality and making top notch movies makes me absolutely giddy.