New Star Wars Movie Coming in 2015
George Lucas has sold the Star Wars franchise to Disney, which has announced a new Star Wars movie for 2015.
George Lucas has sold the Star Wars franchise to Disney, which has announced a new Star Wars movie for 2015.
Walt Disney Company (“DISNEY TO ACQUIRE LUCASFILM LTD.”):
Continuing its strategy of delivering exceptional creative content to audiences around the world, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm Ltd. in a stock and cash transaction. Lucasfilm is 100% owned by Lucasfilm Chairman and Founder, George Lucas.
Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney stock on October 26, 2012, the transaction value is $4.05 billion, with Disney paying approximately half of the consideration in cash and issuing approximately 40 million shares at closing. The final consideration will be subject to customary post-closing balance sheet adjustments.
“Lucasfilm reflects the extraordinary passion, vision, and storytelling of its founder, George Lucas,” said Robert A. Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. “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.”
“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” said George Lucas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm. “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.”
Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Lucasfilm, a leader in entertainment, innovation and technology, including its massively popular and “evergreen” Star Warsfranchise and its operating businesses in live action film production, consumer products, animation, visual effects, and audio post production. Disney will also acquire the substantial portfolio of cutting-edge entertainment technologies that have kept audiences enthralled for many years. Lucasfilm, headquartered in San Francisco, operates under the names Lucasfilm Ltd., LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic, and Skywalker Sound, and the present intent is for Lucasfilm employees to remain in their current locations.
Kathleen Kennedy, current Co-Chairman of Lucasfilm, will become President of Lucasfilm, reporting to Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn. Additionally she will serve as the brand manager for Star Wars, working directly with Disney’s global lines of business to build, further integrate, and maximize the value of this global franchise. Ms. Kennedy will serve as executive producer on new Star Wars feature films, with George Lucas serving as creative consultant. Star Wars Episode 7 is targeted for release in 2015, with more feature films expected to continue the Star Wars saga and grow the franchise well into the future.
My Twitter feed is understandably anxious about this, given how uneven the prequels (aka, Episodes 1-3) were. Jar-Jar Binks alone induces shudders.
But I welcome the news. First, Disney is a first-rate outfit, and as likely as anyone to carry off a reboot of the venerable Star Wars universe. Beyond that, the notion that even a bad movie will permanently tarnish a franchise as iconic as Star Wars is silly. After all, not all of the Star Trek movies were good, either. Hell, not all of the Star Trek series were good. But that didn’t mean that the recent reboot wasn’t fantastic. Similarly, pretty much all of the non-Christian Bale Batman movies were bad. Certainly, neither the Val Kilmer nor the George Clooney turns from the late 1990s were very good. And goodness knows that not all 23 of the James Bond movies were stellar; indeed, most of them stunk. Yet, fans eagerly await November’s release of “Skyfall.”
It has been 35 years since “Star Wars” (Episode IV, “A New Hope”) debuted in 1977. There was a gap of 16 years between “Return of the Jedi” and “The Phantom Menace.” Assuming Episode 7 actually comes out in 2015, it’ll have been seven years since “The Clone Wars” and a decade since “Revenge of the Sith,” the last episode in the continuity. Frankly, it seems like much longer. If Episode 7 has Jar-Jar Binks as its lead character, with all of the other characters being more annoying, will it really impact your enjoyment of a movie that came out 38 years before?
Put it this way: In 2015, “Star Wars” (Episode IV) will be as old as “Gone With The Wind,” “Goodbye Mr. Chips,” “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington,” “Stagecoach,” and “The Wizard of Oz” were when “Star Wars” debuted.
If they put these films in the hands of a director that will respect the work — J.J. Abrams, Joss Whedon, and Peter Jackson come to mind but they are all already involved in franchise projects likely to keep them very busy the next few years — and decent actors, then perhaps they can pull it off.
The question I have is what the subject of these new movies would be. Presumably, we’re talking about the post-ROTJ universe but, as I noted, much of that universe has already been explored in the novels that have been released over the past 25 years or so.
Excellent news! For
John McCEmperor Palpatine!@Cycloptichorn:
Palpatine does make a reappearance in at least one post-ROTJ novel, so the character could return
I don’t think Disney is a “first-rate outfit, and as likely as anyone to carry off a reboot of the venerable Star Wars universe.” While it has successes with its theme park and some of its TV ventures, its movie history is troubled for the last few decades. It passed on Harry Potter, failed to make the Narnia movies a franchise, screwed up John Carter (which has a lot of similarities to Star Wars), and lost its place as the premier animation studio to Pixar (which it had to buy to beat and probably bought high)
Plus Han shot first.
@Doug Mataconis:
If they put these films in the hands of a director that will respect the work
How about Lawrence Kasdan?
I’m sort of halfway serious.
Uneven? Uneven!?! You’re the sort of guy who’d say Mitt Romney stretches the truth a little now and then.
The problem with the Star Wars universe is Lucas himself. He’s the one who bought his own bullsh!t, and it’s that b.s. that tainted the entire SW universe. I don’t think it’s salvageable.
The Trek universe was salvaged by re-booting Kirk and Spock, who were great characters. Which character from Star wars can be brought back into the mythology and ground a story? Luke’s boring, Leia’s boring. Only Vader is interesting. I don’t know, maybe they can do a riff on Han Solo. They could call it Firefly.
@michael reynolds:
I would say that the Trek universe was salvaged first by The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, mostly because both of them were mostly made after Roddenberry had died and the writers and producers went off in new and interesting direction. But yea, the Abrams reboot was an injection of new blood in to a franchise that had become a bit old and tired.
@michael reynolds:
Interestingly, Han Solo is the only major character who didn’t show up at all in the prequels (and thus the only major character whose story was not screwed up).
It’d be kinda hard to do anything after Return of the Jedi, considering all the books and such, but, they could do some really cool movies from before the time of Episode 1. Perhaps based on the Darth Bane books, the great Jedi Sith Wars, something like that.
@Doug Mataconis: I have mixed feelings on the Expanded Universe (I stopped reading a couple books after Del Rey took over publishing with the “New Jedi Order”), but I would love if they did a live-action television series based on the Rogue Squadron series of novels. Get the right people involved in the series and they might have the next “Game of Thrones”.
The question I have is what the subject of these new movies would be. Presumably, we’re talking about the post-ROTJ universe but, as I noted, much of that universe has already been explored in the novels that have been released over the past 25 years or so.
That hasn’t stopped Lucas before, and now that Disney has the green light…..you can basically kiss post ROTJ EU good bye.
BTW/ the comic book line is rebooting with new sequels to the original trilogy.
@William Teach:
Given that Lucas has said that the six Star Wars movies, taken together, are meant to be the story of Anikan Skywalker (and his offspring), I think trying to continue that story would make little sense. A series of pre-pre-quels might work.
Let’s hope they reboot the Christmas Special as well.
@Doug Mataconis:
I think the origins of the Sith would be the obvious choice.
@Modulo Myself:
Let’s hope they reboot the Christmas Special as well.
Bea Arthur and Art Carney are, sadly, unavailable.
I predict that the Disney-produced Star Wars movie will feature a princess heroine and music.
@Modulo Myself:
That thing has become such a cult legend that I bet they could make some nice cash by putting it out on DVD
I predict after Disney’s new movie, “The Hall of Presidents” flops at the box office; they will purchase the ownership of Angry Birds at the cost of the GDP of a small country and order the film writers to set the new story on the home world of the Angry Birds. Merchandising bonanza.
I rooted for Vader and the Empire in the first three flicks (The Empire Strikes Back was glorious), I never saw the one with the young kid or the Clones flick, and for the most recent movie I again rooted for Vader’s character, even though that actor was a joke.
I’d like to see a revisionist Star Wars movie. Basically for them to do for that franchise what Peckinpah did for the Western genre with “The Wild Bunch.”
Mercenaries working for the Empire hunt down and execute all the remaining Jedis. The Empire invades a neighboring galaxy and conquers it. The Emperor goes full Caesar Augustus and consolidates ever more and more power. Then he sniffs out and crushes a burgeoning resistance movement among his confidantes. Then the story arc follows the victorious, evil Emperor as he seeks to expand his empire further. Stuff like that.
I’m tired of the good guys winning all these flicks. Imagine for example how awesome “The Terminator” would have been, and all the crazy sick plot lines that could have been developed, if Arnold’s character had succeeded in offing Linda Hamilton’s character. The new bizarro Star Wars could be epic, I tell you. Epic!
@Tsar Nicholas:
I don’t think this revelation will surprise too many
“I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.”
@Tsar Nicholas:
So did Dick Cheney I hear.
I bet they do some sort of tie in with the MMO.
@mantis:
The Bea Arthur scene is the only good scene in that show!
@Tsar Nicholas:
I rooted for Vader and the Empire in the first three flick
I rooted for Rasputin, Nicky.
As for JJ Abrams… while I’m glad that he was able to bring new live to Trek the fact he had to buther the canoical universe to do it made me very sad. Abrams sated several times in interviews that he was more of a Star Wars fan so I hope he would treat it better than he did Trek.
@Vast Variety:
He didn’t butcher the canon, he found a way to get around it. Which is a good thing, because after Voyager and Enterprise and, other than First Contact, the sadly lackluster Next Generation movies, Star Trek needed a reboot.
@Vast Variety:
I really didn’t like the new Trek movie. There was very little ‘Star Trek’ about it. No science, no heavy moral questions asked. Just a bunch of action. Great to watch once, zero repeat value.
Another director who would be good for a new Star Wars trilogy is Christopher Nolan.
@Doug Mataconis:
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/10/12/mark-hamill-casts-the-candidates-as-star-wars-characters/
The Ewoks are back, baby!
I would love to see a David Fincher Star Wars movie. Having worked for Lucas and ILM in the early 80’s, on films like ROTJ and Temple of Doom, I think we could get a lot of cool ideas from him.
But what about a Howard the Duck reboot?
Thanks for that last paragraph. Now I feel really old.
It should be noted that Marvel/Disney has Joss Whedon on contract until 2015. I’d like to see what he could do with the series.
@Jay Dubbs:
Obligatory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvVYgTfqcKA
@Doug Mataconis: True. While it was supposed to be what, 12 episodes, with around at least 100 stories post Return would be difficult.
@Timothy Watson: Oh Gawd, the NJO and everything after is so bad. I’m not being sarcastic there, it is really just Grade-A bantha poodoo. One major upside I can see coming out of Disney is that they do an EU reboot. I’d like to see that.
I don’t terribly disagree with what you’ve written here, although I’m not convinced that Disney is a “first-rate outfit” and I honestly don’t think they could recapture the magic of the Original Trilogy–but then no one can (not even Lucas), so that’s an unfair accusation to make.
One thing I would argue with, though:
Uh, no. The Star Trek reboot sucked donkey balls. Beyond the soundtrack and special effects, it was terrible.
@Timothy Watson: Missed this on the first reading, but live-action Rogue Squadron would be THE VERY BEST THING EVER.
@ Doug
Not really seeing that. Roddenberry created TNG, he was still the executive producer in season 2, by which they had resolved most of the issues that made season 1 mediocre. The core concept and characters were created on his watch. TNG greatly expanded the philosophical basis of the show, the thing that made it something other than simply entertaining science fiction – that was almost pure Roddenberry.
DS9 was almost unwatchable, and I say that as someone who was tuned in when the original Star Trek premiered in 1966. Berman ran the franchise into the ground after Roddenberry passed away in 1991.
The original Star Wars movie was edited in the old Lucasfilm offices on the corner of my street in San Anselmo. Lucas still lives in San An.
It does not matter to me how many sequels or spinoffs of Star Wars they make, Nothing will ever cheapen the memory of how enthralled I was the first time I saw it, when I was five years old and sitting on my Mom’s lap at the drive in.
And while I respect George Lucas’ vision in the Star Wars franchise (if not always the end products) I am eager to see what happens to the stories in new hands. After all, some of the best Star Trek only happened once Roddenberry was dead and couldn’t meddle in it any more and some of my favorite Bond films are not based at all on the Fleming books (or have only the slightest connection to them).
anjin-san,
TNG changed significantly after Roddenberry died. For the better, I would submit. And we can agree to disagree, but I found DS9 to be perhaps the most compelling of the post-TOS endeavors, largely because it abandoned Roddenberry’s naive idea of a benevolent galaxy.
@Doug Mataconis:
This might possibly be the first thing you have said on this site that I agree with.
Mickey Mouse gives in to the Dark Side of the force.
I thought the alternate timeline they used was pretty clever – gives them a somewhat blank canvas to work with.
How many battles, conquests and wars were there in that “benevolent galaxy”? Not sure where you are getting that. His concept was not that the galaxy was benevolent, but that the federation had a vision of an interplanetary society that would one day outgrow war.
I thought DN9 was just bad. Avery Brooks is a good actor that never clicked in his role. I never gave a damn about Bajor, or Bajorian spirituality. The only interesting characters were the Ferengi and the Cardassians. The attempt to reference “Where no man has gone before” in the final episode was completely lame.
@superdestroyer:
Mickey Mouse _is_ the dark side of the force.
@Facebones:
Drive-in?!
@anjin-san: I’d written for Avery Brooks on Spenser: For Hire, and was really surprised to see how soft and uninteresting he was in the first seasons of DS9 — especially after the stories I’d heard about him on A Man Called Hawk. But somewhere around the beginning of the third season he grew back his goatee and turned into a very different character — strong, compelling, dangerous… they actor I’d wanted to see when he was first cast. The show got immeasurably better after that moment.
If no one has read the Timothy Zahn sequel novels, essentially forming episodes 7, 8, and 9 you’re missing out, as they are quite good (and thus Lucas-free).
@Dave Schuler:
Trying to turn the Star Wars universe into one of the Disney princess franchises is a huge mistake. Looked what happened when Disney tried to turn a Pixar movie into a princess franchise. It alienate boys and the movie was not very good.
Movie makers needs to remember that in the long run showing men doing action is a much better money maker than having princesses whine about their fathers and mothers.
@Doug Mataconis:
No way, man…. Peter Jackson is almost as self-indulgent as Lucas (See King Kong, The Hobbit as THREE movies) and Whedon got lucky with the Avengers. If it was a TV show, it would have been critically acclaimed…and swiftly canceled.
J.J. Abrams could do it, but that’s mostly because the guy has no original bone in his body. If he’s not involved in a remake, a sequel, or a blatant rip-off, he’s not involved.
Me, I’d give it to Gore Verbinski, who proved himself for Disney with the Pirates movies. Or John Favreau, who would have no issues with the sci-fi elements and would punch up the script for some Empire-like humor.
Fact is, they don’t even need a “name” director. A guy like David Yates (directed the later Harry Potter movies) would almost be better from a business perspective than an over-hyped auteur like Abrams or (gasp) Michael Bay. They just need a guy who can manage a big budget, a complicated shoot, and make a decent movie.
Okay……morning nerdiness –OVER.
Thanx James, thanx a lot.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Don’t feel too bad, man. It could be worse.
Rather than Star Wars in the 70s, you could have been watching “Stagecoach Part VII,” “Gone With the Wind: The Reconstruction Years,” and “Mr. Smith Goes to the UN.”
I’m of two minds here. Part of me things “ugh, another SW movie?” But the other part of me thinks it can only be an improvement on what Lucas did with the 3 prequels. If only he’d done this before he made those.
Anyway, if they pick up on the books written by Zahn, maybe it could result in a watchable movie or two. You never know.
…
Heh. Or, since it would be movie form, Serenity. Which I enjoyed quite a bit.
@Herb:
This is hardly an endorsement to me, as I thought that after the original film, the Harry Potter series got steadily worse and worse as it went on. The Half Blood Prince was particularly horrible, because in their desire to cram in more action sequences, they never actually got around to covering any of the major plot points.
@Steve V: Yes, drive in! They still exist.
Ah, drive ins. The first girl I made out with at the drive in is no longer speaking to me because I support Obama – hyper partisan politics even found a way to screw up that happy memory. 🙁
@Stormy Dragon:
Hmmm. Not having read the books, I didn’t even notice. I just thought they were good movies.
And I dunno….being a Star Wars nerd from way back, I just get the sense there’s more appetite for a good Star Wars movie than there is for a faithful “expanded universe” adaptation.
@Moosebreath: Especially if you are someone who believes in short copyright periods…..
I wonder how this will effect the fan versions of the star wars movies.
@PD Shaw:
I dont see why the word REBOOT is being used. It cant be Episode VII if its a reboot. Remember all novels games and animated content including comics have to be considered when continuing the story. I would hope that Lucas put in a clause to the sale that mandates a code of conduct to adhere to the canon that he so diligently created.
I suspect that after the second Dethstar was destroyed that the Empire FRACTURED. Ambitious generals Vying for power. A new Jedi Order and a new Acadamy need to be built.
A new EVIL needs to be found even more vile then the empire.