Disney To Buy Lucasfilm For $4.05 Billion; Lucas Hands Over Star Wars - Page 4

I was just thinking about the releases in 2015 and I will say that will be an awesome year for movies. My kids will also be old enough to enjoy these movies by then too.

wonder how he'd be as thrawn

That was my first thought, too. Whedon writing/directing an adaptation of Zahn's Thrawn trilogy... I think I just wet myself.

Anthony Hemingway, director of Red Tails may beg to differ. While I understand that Lucas was EP, Lucas can still do a lot of damage as a "consultant".

There is no Indy 4.

Maybe we can get Howard the Duck II.

Although a Boba Fett movie would be cool.

It's not that he couldn't please people, he CHOSE not to please them. His attitude is that pleasing himself is all that matters.

It will be awesome to see Admiral Thrawn, who will now play Luke,Leia and Han ?

Im glad.

Disney is great at story telling. They actually know how to create characters you care about and actors that can act (see Hayden Christianson)

Well, it could be adapted to be about their children instead with cameos of the old cast, although a lot would have to be modified. Or use CG to make them look younger (think Jeff Bridges in Tron Legacy, also Disney), although that was still a bit uncanny valley. Or Nathan Fillion as Han Solo.

That is precious!!!!! LMAO

.....but really, Disney can probably make this work, only time will tell. Besides, who does not want to see a new Star Wars film. I am eager to see what Disney can do.


Paul

I agree with you hidefpaul. What I find funny is the complete thrashing of the last trilogy. People have forgotten that RotS got good reviews and provided a satisfying showdown that the whole prequel trilogy was leading up to. I would rank III above VI as far as well done movies in the franchise.

This news was completely out of left field, but out of all the companies that should take over the universe this is by far the best choice. My boys loved being on stage for Jedi training at Disney and having a showdown with Vader. It makes sense with the movies and theme parks.

As far as the new movies, I believe Disney realizes that after most of the negative reaction to the prequels that they have to hit this new trilogy out of the park if they want Star Wars to remain relevant in the entertainment universe.

Even though this saddens me.... I hope that if they do pick star wars back up and make the last 3 stories that they will be better than Edpisodes 1,2, and 3. I feel like George Lucas kinds used those as a Look what I can do! sort of CGI exercise. Dont get me wrong, i still like them as a movie but the quality of the story is not on par with episodes 4-6 and in many ways should have been better in my opinion....its how DARTH VADER became DARTH VADER for crying out loud!

That said, i think Disney is the best company to pick up where George left off.....can you imagine if Zach Snider got a hold of star wars?

Then again, Christopher Nolan could maybe do some good with it....I think he generally does a good job with story telling

Wow - But this is actually old news - I distinctly remember back about the time the second or third movie of the original trilogy was still showing in theaters, that Lucas has stated that he had plans to produce a total of 9 Star Wars episodes, and that in addtion to the original trilogy there was going to be a Prequel trilogy and then a Sequel trilogy... I never though that all 9 episodes would ever be produced, after it took so many years for the Prequel trilogy to be released, but now it looks like all 9 episodes are actually going to happen... awesome!

Overall, this strikes me as a positive development. I view George Lucas as a tired old close minded man who ran out of creative gas (not to mention he's a poor director and terrible writer) a long time ago. Let's have younger, fresher, more open-minded talent have a crack at this.

Hey Carrie! If you're reading....time to get the metal bikini polished up!

I agree that it is time for Lucas to retire.


Lucas was nominated for four Academy Awards:
best directing and writing American Graffiti
best directing and writing Star Wars

He also reiceived the Irving G Thalberg Award * in 1991.

*The Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award is awarded periodically at the Academy Awards ceremonies to 'creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production'.

Ok, just really not knowing what to say here. First off, to the poster on page one who imbedded Ice Cube...that's seriously funny and exactly what I did when I read it. Among many of you, I never ever thought I'd see the day for a number of reasons. I live in St. Louis and when Albert Pujols left for LA many were criticizing him about his "It's not about the money" comments. Well, the fact is, at some point, it HAS to be about the money. A $5 or $10MM difference (to a professional athlete of his "historical" caliber) is one thing. But a $30-40MM difference is a whole nuther thing! You have to sit down and have that discussion. So....ol' Georgy boy scored $4B on this deal! Uh....maybe he's not an idiot?!

Seriously, I'm not wanting to turn this into a Lucas bashing post (or thread for that matter). I've been a SW fan since 1977 though there are some things that have diminished the fun (for me) in recent years. I kind or accepted that the franchise would be what it is as Lucas deemed fit to manage it. However, I am honestly excited about this. Just Disney being in possession of it is a pleasing thought to me regardless of any future make or remake possibilities. I just always thought the franchise would be passed along in a will. Perhaps details are out there somewhere but I wonder if this was an exclusive negotiation with Disney or if another 2 or 3 studio's were bidding. And if it was only Disney, I'd LOVE to see the faces on other studio execs after reading this news!

+1!!!

This is exactly what i have been saying for 20 years. Lucas is a visionary idea man-he just can't execute. I thought the "story" for ep1-3 were great-just poorly executed. His dialogue has always been horrible. How you can make Ewan Mcgreggor, Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman all look like idiots on their first day of acting school shows a lack of directing talent unparrelled. The best movies were writtrn and directed by others as will be the case now. They have all Lucas' ideas for the films (which is good IMO), now just hire competent writers and directors and a decent cast. I'll echo others-No Shia Lebouf (sp?), No Michael Bay-EVER, nobody from the twilight franchise. Get real actors with talent and don't ever reboot any part of the franchise. Just write new stories and develop new characters. I would love to see Peter Jackson helm a Star Wars trilogy.

Maybe in 2015 we have Star Wars vs. Transformers...EHEHEHEHEHEH

7 is what people have been waiting for since 1983! Anyone would imagine that the empire was not totally wiped out in Jedi as the emperor dies, the base on Endor was destroyed, the second Death Star was destroyed and their fleet was destroyed, but not their army!

No no no....the prequels were clearly the way to go!

Wabbit season....

Duck season....

Wabbit season....

Ok, couldn't help myself

up until reading that post, i hadn't considered star wars movies singling out a character to devote an entire film to, much like the wolverine/x-men and various individual hero movies leading up to the avengers. i think this, more than anything so far, is the most exciting/interesting idea i've seen entertained.

Joss Wheadon, Peter Jackson... there are so many good filmmakers out there that are fans of Star Wars (or at least were inspired by the original trilogy) that I hope Disney lets many of them have a crack at the franchise. Some are already intimately familiar with the franchise (Joe Johnston) while others have already worked for Disney (Brad Bird). I remember when JJ Abrams was re-booting Star Trek, he admitted that he was more of a Star Wars fan.

Other directors who are fans of the franchise include: Jon Favreau, Frank Darabont, Kevin Smith, Drew Goddard, Seth MacFarlane and Zack Snyder. OK, maybe Snyder should continue being a fan rather than directing one of the Star Wars films, but you get the idea. I would love to see a Star Wars film from any of the other directors I mentioned. Any other directors that you would like to see helm a Star Wars movie? Del Toro? Blomkamp? Curon? Bigelow?

As an aside, it will be weird not to see the 20th Century Fox logo, especially not to hear that iconic theme, that I've come to expect at the begining of a Star Wars film.

^^^^ Did my post above really show up at 11:38 am?

Didn't think of that. There's not a movie that starts with that theme that doesn't make me think of Star Wars. Lucas might as well have owned the rights to that too. And I'm guessing we would still see the green Lucasfilm logo.

Speaking of the 20th Century logo theme. Is there anyone out there than can explain to me why I can tell beforehand if it includes the Cinescope extension? Feel free to PM me as I realize it's off topic. I've been trying to figure this out for years and I simply don't know anyone knowledgeable enough about music to explain it to me. I know there must be a cue in there somewhere but I can't figure it out and quite frankly it drives me nuts.

Well I hate to rain on the possibility of the original cut of the first 3 star wars but it appears that Fox News Corp (Ruppert Murdock), who owns 20th Century Fox Movie Studio, owns the distribution rights in all perpetuity to the original Star Wars The New Hope. Fox News Corp also owns the rights to the other five Star Wars worldwide until 2020 then the rights for the five Star Wars will transfer to Disney Corp. Any deal to redo the originals or release the first 6 movies after 2020 will have to include Fox News Corp going along with it as they will hold the rights to A New Hope. Any release of the 6 originals will be up to Fox News Corp up until 2020.
Same problem for the Indy Movies excpet that will have to involve Paramount.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tangled-rights-could-tie-up-384541

I suspect that the original negatives to the first 3 movies will have to be redone in order to release the unmolested versions as Lucas created new masters when he made the changes almost 2 decades ago. I had both the DVD and VHS copies of the originals and they did not look to good. It looks like Disney Corp will have to offer up a large sum of money to get New Hope if Murdock is willing to sell it.

Personally I think Disney will flop with this as the other rights they bought really haven't produced big results after they purchased them. What was Pixars last blockbuster release? I think it was WALL E. I haven't bought any movies made from Marvell characters since V for Vendetta and before that Constantine. The only Disney titles I have bought is the rereleases of the classic Walt Disney movies. The only benefit Disney brings to the table is that they do really good restorations of the film libraries for Blu ray releases. Maybe after 2020 they will do stellar restorations of the first three originals.

A paragraph from the article I linked says it all to why Lucas sold to Disney and what Disney really intends to get from Star Wars:
Edited by Jed1 - 10/31/12 at 12:24pm

Yes. Lots of lens flares and brow lifts of intrigue.

I try to tell myself the same thing.

I even apply it to other films. In my mind, there was only one Caddyshack, one Ghostbusters, and two Godfather films.

Tell me about it. That's how I've imprinted on it since childhood. And for good reason, since part of its history is connected with Star Wars:

"By the 1970s the Fox fanfare was only being used sporadically in films. George Lucas enjoyed the Alfred Newman music so much that he insisted it be used for Star Wars (1977), which features the CinemaScope version. Composer John Williams composed the Star Wars main theme in the same key (B♭ major) as the Fox fanfare as an extension to Newman's score. In 1980 Williams conducted a new version of the fanfare for The Empire Strikes Back. Williams' recording of the Fox fanfare has been used in every Star Wars film since. Since the introduction of the CGI Fox logo, Star Wars episodes 1 through 6 (beginning with the Special Editions of the original trilogy in 1997) have used a static angle version of the new logo, to allow for the animated Lucasfilm logo to appear during the extension."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Century_Fox#Logo_and_fanfare

Somehow we have come to believe that directors are important. I think it has something to do with Cahiers du Cinema. IMHO the important people in movies are the script writers and the editors. The writers create the story and the editors delivers it. The director just moves the actors around. Almost all Hollywood actors are very, very good. Good acting is a constant. It doesn't matter much in the quality of a movie.

Can a great director make a great movie from a bad script? I don't think so. Can a great director overcome a bad editor? Yes, but only if he is also an fine editor. Editors routinely make good movies out of a lot of mediocre footage provided by the better paid director.. But just as all Princes are presumed to be charming and all professors are presumed to be wise, we presume that the artistic heart of this hyper collaborative process is the nominal director. I think the evidence is that almost anyone can be a good to very good director. Look at all the movie stars who have succeeded in their very first movie. To be even a grip much less a Director of Photography requires a long apprentiship. Movies hire a number of carpenters. These people are usually the best in their profession. No one hires a novice carpenter on their million dollar movie but novice directors are quite common.

Dimiti Rostropovich, when he was maybe the best cellist in the world, mocked the fame of conductors. He recounted how when he on rare ocassions conducted he was always applauded. He said he doubted if any conductor could take his cello and play in front of an audience and be well received. Later of course Rostropovich became a full time conductor himself and we heard no more of such talk from him. But he was on to something. I myself have conducted one of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. I certainly couldn't play one of the recorders anymore than newly famous Ben Afflick could do any production job on a movie set other than director. Afflick was a script writer and he was pretty good. He was never a very good actor. Now as a director, if he just hires a good editor and chooses good scripts he will soon be acclaimed as a genius.

George Lucas was a bad director and an even worse screen writer. His real contribution to movies was franchising.