Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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Disney to Buy Lucasfilm for $4.05 Billion; New ‘Star Wars’ Movie Set for 2015
12:54 PM PDT 10/30/2012 by Alex Ben Block


Bob Iger George Lucas Signing Paperwork - H 2012
Disney/ABC Television Group

UPDATED: Kathleen Kennedy, current co-chair of Lucasfilm, will become Lucasfilm’s president, reporting to Walt Disney Studios chair Alan Horn as part of stock and cash transaction; company plans new Star Wars films every 2-3 years, a series on Disney XD, and theme park growth.

The Walt Disney Co. has acquired Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion in cash and stock and announced a new Star Wars movie to be released in 2015.
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Kathleen Kennedy, current co-chair of Lucasfilm, will become Lucasfilm’s president, reporting to Walt Disney Studios chair Alan Horn as part of the stock and cash transaction. Disney is paying approximately half the price in cash and will issue 40 million shares of stock, the company said Tuesday in a statement.

Kennedy will serve as executive producer on new Star Wars feature films, with the franchise’s creator and Lucasfilm founder George Lucas, 68, serving as creative consultant. There are plans to release a new Star Wars film every two or three years.

“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” said Lucas, chairman and CEO of Lucasfilm, in a statement. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I’m confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney’s reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment and consumer products.”

The deal comes on the heels of Disney’s 2009 acquisition of Marvel Entertainment and its 2006 purchase of Pixar Animation Studios, two potent entertainment brands that appeal to families. The Disney board has approved the Lucasfilm acquisition, but it is subject to antitrust scrutiny by the U.S. government.

While Lucas and Disney have had a long relationship, it has been most visible at the company’s theme parks, where Star Tours and other attractions have been popular for more than two decades.

However, the Stars Wars movies have been distributed through Twentieth Century Fox, which will now be cut out of future Star Wars and other related business. (Though Fox already has been set to release 3D versions of the past Star Wars movies, it is unclear if that relationship will be impacted by the sale. The acquisition also raises questions about the future of Stars Wars: Clone Wars, a highly popular series on Cartoon Network, which is owned by a Disney competitor, Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner.)

Disney also is acquiring Lucasfilm’s hugely profitable consumer products and merchandising businesses, which should be a good fit for the buyer.

“Lucasfilm reflects the extraordinary passion, vision and storytelling of its founder, George Lucas,” said Bob Iger, Disney chairman and CEO, in a statement. “This transaction combines a world-class portfolio of content including Star Wars, one of the greatest family entertainment franchises of all time, with Disney’s unique and unparalleled creativity across multiple platforms, businesses and markets to generate sustained growth and drive significant long-term value.”

In a call with investors, Iger said the first new Star Wars movie is targeted for 2015 and that the company planned for another movie every two to three years after that. Disney releases eight to 10 pictures per year, including one from Pixar and up to two from Marvel Studios. The plan is for a Star Wars movie in one of those tentpole slots.

Iger told investors that Star Wars is a perfect proerty for TV, particularly for the company’s young male-skewing network Disney XD, and plans to expand the franchise’s presence in its theme parks.

In addition, while Star Wars merchandise has been a big business, that business has mostly been domestic, Iger said. Using Marvel as a model, Disney plans to grow international marketing of Star Wars products by increasing the brand’s presence in their stores, with more toys and with with other products.

Just this June, Kennedy was named co-chair of Lucasfilm alongside Lucas, whose said then his role at the company would be phased out. The producer and seven-time Oscar nominee is a frequent Steven Spielberg collaborator whose credits include E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom (1984), Back to the Future (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993), The Sixth Sense (1999) and Nov. 16 release Lincoln.
Lucas always said he originally planned Star Wars as a trilogy of trilogies.

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The after math of the fall of the Empire, with Luke going on to become a teacher of the new generation of Jedis, the emperor’s “clone”, Leia trying her hand at the force, Her and Han’s daughter and so much more, CAN be a very good storyline WITH THE RIGHT WRITERS AND DIRECTOR !!!

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[QUOTE=sanjuro_ronin;1194474]WITH THE RIGHT WRITERS AND DIRECTOR !!![/QUOTE]

Therein lies the rub.

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[QUOTE=MasterKiller;1194476]Therein lies the rub.[/QUOTE]

Lucas had too much of an ego to allow anyone else to “take control” of his “baby”.
One hopes that since Disney is in this for the money, they will go with someone that will take this to the next level.

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it wasnt ego, it was more of maintaining a brand, and he was smart in doing that… lead to a 21billion dollar fortune for him. im going to repost what i just explained to a friend.

(repost from FB)

“i see why george did it thou…he wanted to make more star wars films… but i guess he is feeling his mortality, and he wanted to know the brand would live forever…and the way disney structures its companies…it compartmentalizes and autonomizes the various brands it owns…marvel while yes is owned by disney, runs its own ship.. lucas films will be the same way…just how miramax was back in the day…except they will be keeping an eye on the profit sharing(which they didnt with miramax, harvey and his baby bro, were getting the lions share of all the revenue made from their movies). so i think lucas films will actually be putting out a better brand of films now that its not all coming out of georges pocket.”

(repost2)

“thats what it looks like…if you notice, since the advent of youtube, he has loosened his grib on the star wars monopoly. having literally thousands of parodies, being made, back in the day if that was done those people would have been sued. instead he saw that, oh ****…look at all theses kids where born almost 30 years after the first star wars and still in love with it. he has always been a futurist in terms of cinema, so he saw the future.”

so im now declaring this a good thing… i hope they bring back ford and hamil, as han and luke. stay away from the books, and make the story entirely original. id love to see an older luke, with the skill of obi wan and the wisdom of yoda. and a old han solo still hard as nails and badass. as for leia… unfortunatley carry fisher has not kept up her appearance, and its not just because of age. drugs, bad health etc. maybe get helen mirren to play leia…id love that. or just kill her off entirely.

the film i feel should focus on the next generation. the children of han and leia. it would be awesome.

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[QUOTE=GeneChing;1194321]Lucas always said he originally planned Star Wars as a trilogy of trilogies.[/QUOTE]

Lucas???:confused:

He is a bit nutty isn’t he? I am not sure I would believe he had any responsibility for the Star Wars saga!

I’m sure he will show up here soon and try to take all the glory, but you know him, too much Starbucks and he’ll say just about anything!

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[QUOTE=sanjuro_ronin;1194477]Lucas had too much of an ego to allow anyone else to “take control” of his “baby”.
One hopes that since Disney is in this for the money, they will go with someone that will take this to the next level.[/QUOTE]

I think he just surrounds himself with sycophants now.

He seems to have forgotten than his ex wife edited the originals, Lawrance Kasdan and Irving Kirshner directed two of them, and the scripts for all three were written and/or polished by several writers.

This whole move seems like a temper tantrum anyway. He got ****y when a reporter asked him about new movies and said “Why would I make movies everyone hates me for?” or something to that effect,

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[QUOTE=MasterKiller;1194500]I think he just surrounds himself with sycophants now.

He seems to have forgotten than his ex wife edited the originals, Lawrance Kasdan and Irving Kirshner directed two of them, and the scripts for all three were written and/or polished by several writers.

This whole move seems like a temper tantrum anyway. He got ****y when a reporter asked him about new movies and said “Why would I make movies everyone hates me for?” or something to that effect,[/QUOTE]

i dont see this as a temper tantrum…i see him just passing the torch… to see what other filmmakers will do with it. just like he did when he let the books, and comic come out and when he let all the parodies happen.

all i want to see is..harrison ford back as an old han solo, and mark hamil back as an old luke skywalker… with one eye. like in the original piece of **** script,.

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A new breed of Jedis !

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Have you been to Disneyland lately?





I was there last month. Let me tell ya, Star Tours still rules. And the amount of Star Wars Disney merch is crazy. There are Mickey-eared Star Wars mash-ups for every character. I almost bought a pin set but it was $35 for several pins and I only wanted the jedi one.

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and Sith:

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hamil speaks…the nerds must listen!!

Mark Hamill weighs in on the future of ‘Star Wars’ – EXCLUSIVE
by Josh Rottenberg
Tags: Disney, George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Star Wars

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Mark-Hamill.jpg

Image Credit: Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images

Tuesday’s news that George Lucas is giving the keys to the Star Wars universe to The Walt Disney Company in a $4.05 billion mega-deal surprised fans around the world, including some famous filmmakers who grew up on the franchise. It even caught a key figure in that universe — Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill — by surprise. Reached by EW, Hamill — who currently does voice work on no fewer than four animated series and will co-star in the upcoming crime thriller Sushi Girl — shared a few thoughts on where Star Wars and its fabled creator go from here now that Lucas is handing over the reins (and the light sabers and blasters and all the rest) to new custodians and the next generation of filmmakers.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What did you make of the big news yesterday?
MARK HAMILL: Oh my gosh, what a shock that was! I had no idea that George was going to sell to Disney until I read it online like everybody else. He did tell us last summer about wanting to go on and do [Episodes] VII, VIII, and IX, and that [newly appointed Lucasfilm president] Kathleen Kennedy would be doing them. He seems to be in a really good place. He’s really happy. And that’s nice because I know that when we were making the movies, he was not a jolly guy on set. [Laughs] I always felt badly for him because he agonizes over details, and I’m sure after imagining it in his head for so many years, to see it realized — he’d look up and just hang his head and groan. Harrison [Ford], Carrie [Fisher], and I were always trying to cheer him up and joke him out of his doom and gloom. I missed his call yesterday, but I spoke to him maybe three weeks ago. But until we know more, it’s hard to make any comment other than congratulations to George.

So you met with George this past summer and he told you about his plans to make another trilogy?
Yeah, last August, he asked Carrie and I to have lunch with him and we did. I thought he was going to talk about either his retirement or the Star Wars TV series that I’ve heard about — which I don’t think we were going to be involved in anyway, because that takes place between the prequels and the ones we were in and, if Luke were in them, he’d be anywhere from a toddler to a teenager so they’d get an age-appropriate actor — or the 3-D releases. So when he said, “We decided we’re going to do Episodes VII, VIII, and IX,” I was just gobsmacked. “What? Are you nuts?!” [Laughs] I can see both sides of it. Because in a way, there was a beginning, a middle, and an end and we all lived happily ever after and that’s the way it should be — and it’s great that people have fond memories, if they do have fond memories. But on the other hand, there’s this ravenous desire on the part of the true believers to have more and more and more material. It’s one of those things: people either just don’t care for it or are passionate about it. I guess that defines what cult movies are all about. We’ll see. I’m anxious to know what’s going on, but the main story [yesterday] was the sale to Disney. I have mixed feelings about that, but they haven’t done badly by Marvel and the Muppets and Pixar. It’s one of those big decisions that at first seems unusual but then the more you look at it, the more it makes sense.

When you had lunch with George, did he get into any details with you about where the story would go in the next three films, or whether you would have a part in them?
Well, no, he was just talking about writers and the fact that he wouldn’t be directing. I guess he wanted us to know before everybody else knew. He said, “Now you can’t tell anybody!” [Laughs] Even now I’m nervous about saying anything. I just don’t know!

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100 years!

At least he’s donating a lot of it. BTW, speaking of Sushi Girl.

Oct 31 2012 10:03 AM EDT 57,647
George Lucas Says Disney’s ‘Star Wars’ Could Last 100 Years
Lucas says talks are already underway with writers for the upcoming 2015 seventh film, with two more planned after that.
By Gil Kaufman

At this point, we don’t know much about what the seventh “Star Wars” film will be about, but we certainly have some ideas about what we do and don’t want to see.

Along with fans, we were thrown into a frenzy on Tuesday when it was announced that Disney had purchased George Lucas’ Lucasfilm for more than $4 billion. The deal will not only bring Luke, Leia, Chewbacca, Han and the gang into the Mouse house, but it will also serve to re-boot one of the most popular and highest-grossing film franchises of all time.

After five-decade career in filmmaking, in a YouTube video explaining the deal, Lucas said he’s been contemplating retirement for a while and now seemed like the right time to hand over the keys to the Jedi kingdom.

“Obviously I’ve been talking about retiring for several years now,” he said. “I wanted to get into sort of another stage of life where I’m not in the film business anymore, where I don’t have to run a corporation. It occurred to me one day that the perfect person to run the company was [Lucasfilm co-chair] Kathy [Kennedy]. It’s just such a perfect fit, and I felt that I really wanted to put the company somewhere in a larger entity that would protect it. Disney is a huge corporation; they have all kinds of capabilities and facilities. There’s a lot of strength to be gained by this.”

Pointing to the success Disney has had with Marvel and Pixar, Kennedy said the family-friendly company with its legendary theme parks and merchandising power was the logical choice for Lucasfilm.

The good news for fans is that they will not only get an episode seven, but, in fact, an entire new trilogy. “I always said I wasn’t going to do any more, and that’s true, I’m not going to do any more,” said Lucas, who will not write or direct the upcoming films, but whose iconic imprint will be all over them. “But that doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to turn it over to Kathy [Kennedy] to do more. I have story treatments of 7, 8 and 9 and a bunch of other movies, and obviously, we have hundreds of books and comics and everything you could possibly imagine. So I sort of moved that treasure trove of stories and various things to Kathy, and I have complete confidence that she’s gonna take them and make great movies.”

Kennedy revealed that meetings have already begun with prospective writers for the new movies. “I’m doing this so that the films will have a longer life,” Lucas said. “So more fans and people can enjoy them in the future. It’s a very big universe I’ve created and there’s a lot of stories sitting in there.”

In a separate video announcing the deal, Disney CEO Bob Iger had nothing but praise for Lucas’ vision for the “Star Wars” universe, which he noted now includes 17,000 characters inhabiting several thousand planets spanning 20,000 years. “George Lucas is a true visionary and an innovative, epic storyteller who has defined modern filmmaking with unforgettable characters and amazing stories,” said Iger.

The pact will also spin off new TV shows, games and theme park attractions and Iger said the company fully understands the responsibility that comes with stewardship of such iconic, beloved characters. In the same video, Lucas said he’s been a fan of Disney all his life and that the deal will allow him to move into more philanthropic efforts as well as work on more experimental films that don’t fit into the Lucasfilm universe.

“It was a perfect match of two companies that are constructed similarly,” Lucas said. “It will give me a chance to go off and explore my own interests [and] at the same time feel completely confident that Disney will take good care of the franchise that I’ve built.”

The best news of all? “We have a large group of ideas and characters and books and all kinds of things,” Lucas said. “We could go on making ‘Star Wars’ for the next 100 years.”

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he donated all of it… like he really needs the money. lol..

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must…post…here…

Brad Bird For Star Wars Director - Give It To Brad Bird

Who here remembers the Xmas special? :stuck_out_tongue:

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matthew vaughn is up for the directors chair. hope he takes it.