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Thread: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

  1. #1
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    Star Wars: The Force Awakens

    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 Originally Posted by sanjuro_ronin View Post
    WITH THE RIGHT WRITERS AND DIRECTOR !!!
    Therein lies the rub.
    He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher. -- Walt Whitman

    Quote Originally Posted by David Jamieson View Post
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    Quote Originally Posted by MasterKiller View Post
    Therein lies the rub.
    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.
    Psalms 144:1
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  5. #5
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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.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    Lucas always said he originally planned Star Wars as a trilogy of trilogies.
    Lucas????

    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 Originally Posted by sanjuro_ronin View Post
    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.
    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,
    Last edited by MasterKiller; 10-31-2012 at 09:24 AM.
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  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by MasterKiller View Post
    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,
    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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    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

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    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

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    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

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    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

  13. #13
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    A new breed of Jedis !
    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

  14. #14
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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.

    Gene Ching
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  15. #15
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    and Sith:
    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

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