Discussion The Disney - Lucasfilm Relationship & EpVII Decision Making

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Lucas will have started and/or resumed work on treatments for the ST precisely because he wanted to sell Lucasfilm. He's a shrewd operator. Approaching Disney with nothing new to offer wouldn't have been the best approach to persuading them to buy Lucasfilm. Lucas knew that if he could wave ST treatments in the faces of Disney execs they'd smell dollars and be much more inclined to spend four billion of them on the acquisition. It's that simple.

 

4 billion = Disney will make the call

 

I'm not to sure about this.....

Star Wars, including the idea of an ST, has been evolving since day one. There is long history of things said about intentions for an ST, complete denial of an ST, cancellation of the ST, and everything in between. Personally, I don't believe anyone can say with any real proof, when GL thought about the reality of an ST. There are interesting and perhaps compelling points on both sides of the argument, but the history of backpedaling renders both sides "unprovable". So when we talk about this part of the subject, we are all stating what we believe to be, NOT what is or isn't. Anything anyone says about this is purely opinion and/or which article we choose to prove our point with.

If you are familiar with my posts, you know that I believe that GL began to set up what we will know at the ST as early as 2004. Many make the assumption that there was no plan for an ST at that point. We do not know that. We know it was said, but many things that turned out not to be were said. We all know that there was a plan for more than 6 films from way back. We know those plans changed at some point. We also know that Lucas made changed to Ep VI with the intention of ending it there.

At the end of the day, none of us know for sure what GL was thinking or when he was thinking it. This leaves to door wide open for the possibility that he was tinkering all the while.

 

After the sale was announced Steve Sansweet himself said that Lucas was tinkering with the ST during the production of the Clone Wars. Steve believed that all the meetings and what not got his creative juices flowing again and he went to work on them. Now that puts it in the range of 2005-2008. So Lucas had been toying with this for awhile. There's also the fact that Pollack saw outlines for 7-12 when he was writing Skywalking. The ideas for the ST have been around for a long time.

 

Wow, I love these kind of debates: Reason vs. Hope.

Potential = "potential for me, Robert Iger, to change them to something I like."

Total diplo-speak, as someone put it.

M&A contracts usually stipulate that the CEO and maybe assorted other C-level execs must stay on board for one or two years, to ease the transition. After that, all bets are off; the acquirer (and its BOD) control the leadership. Kennedy could be renewed, or be gone by 2015. That is reality, folks.

 

i think that Disney will be wanting to please the Star Wars fan base or they will have wasted their money, if the fans were harsh on GL, i think most will be harder on Disney/JJ

 

These films are a great opportunity in SW movie history. I think they have the potential to be great. There are a lot of great pieces in place.

 

Kennedy's contract runs through 2017. I'd be willing to bet that that is honored in the Disney sale. See it's all these little things that make me wonder exactly what kind of clauses are in the contract.

 

Fair enough. Could be honored, or could not be. These contracts are at-will. Either way, my point was that citing Kennedy as a sign that Ep 7 must adhere to the treatment GL supplied is not a defensible position, based on how M&A deals usually work. Acquirers tend to think of smaller companies as if they do most things right, but still need a lot of help to meet their...potential.

I agree with the thought that GL built the treatments to entice a sale, brilliantly, but there are absolutely zero requirements to use them.

 

Disney bought the whole franchise from him, they own Star Wars now. There's no ambiguity there.

However, he will be a consultant from here on out. They don't need his permission for anything to do with it, but they have a stellar relationship and he will be involved to some degree.

 

To be completely fair and honest we have no idea what the contract states. The contract could have a clause that says the treatments must be used. The contract could have a clause that says Kennedy stays until her contract is up in 2017. There are way too many variables involved that only a very select few know.

 

No facts to back this up but wouldn't ya think they will take a hard look at those treatments? Disney knows what the deal is... Star Wars is theirs, but they would be fools not to consider materials from the creator himself.

The good thing, is because this is Disney they might take what he gave them and drastically improve it. They are a quality company, and I think there's a possibility we get some damn (can I say that here lol) good movies over the next 6 or 7 years

 

I didn't actually contradict anything you say here per se, all I said was that George did a lot of work on the story in the last few years, and did this with selling it in mind (both of these things are positively confirmed by Lucas). Aside from that, I have no idea about when he started writing the story, or when he came up with any of his intentions or plans for the ST.

Eh, yes and no. Lucas clearly made a shrewd move. But he did not do this to persuade Disney to buy it; he did it to increase the value. Disney and any other movie company with a brain would buy a guaranteed money maker like SW, few such franchises exist, and none quite on the level of SW IMO.

 

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Yes, admittedly is wasn't done specifically for Disney but it was, in my opinion, done to make Lucasfilm an attractive acquisition and, ultimately, Disney bought it.

 

Understood. I was commenting on the idea that there are different opinions about when in fact GL started really thinking that the ST would/could happen that they insist to be fact.

 

I still can't get over this...$4.25 BILLION !!!

 

i still wonder what credit GL will get on the ST..... Creative consultant? story framework?

 

- i would hope for something similar

 

Rumors on the Disney sites point to Kathleen Kennedy being on the short short list to replace Bob Iger as CEO of Disney itself.

 

I'm sayin Lucas gets a story by & gets an executive producer credit. Hairdressers and agents get executive producer credits! Spielberg gets executive producer on all the Transformer movies and his contribution was apparently "Make it a story about a boy and his car" and getting Bay to work on it.

As for Disney having a hand in the direction of it, they'll work Lucasfilm the same way they work Marvel and Pixar. Throw a bunch of money at them and say "Don't bother us, just make us hundreds of billions. kthanxsbye."

 

Lucas credit is probably going to be something similar to what he was credited for "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Lucas presence will be felt during the ST trilogy(especially in the pre-production scripting phases). But I don't think he will have much or any input in shooting or post.

The thing I am interested in is the stuff after the ST(essentially the future of Star Wars)where he will have no involvement. Thats going to be undiscovered territory....