Disney is buying up the galaxy far, far away.
The Walt Disney Company announced today it has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm and is planning Star Wars Episode 7 for 2015! In a later conference call, Disney revealed that they are planning a new trilogy starting in 2015 with a new movie coming every other year. They were also asked about “Indiana Jones,” but said that they were going to concentrate on the “Star Wars” franchise for now. This is following such big purchases as Pixar and Marvel Entertainment.
At first blush this sounds like horrible news. Outrageous, even. But giving it a second thought, it’s probably the only thing that can possibly save Star Wars.
George Lucas has absolutely destroyed that franchise. He tinkers with the good ones and the prequels were disasters for the storyline. The only part of it that still holds any interest to me, a Star Wars fan since Han actually did shoot first, is in the games. The Force Unleashed was solid and probably more than half of the LucasArts games have been worth playing. The Battlefront games were pretty good. But the movies…eh. Out of the six, two and a half are still watchable. The prequels aren’t among those.
To kids, Star Wars is not cool. I don’t know if it was the prequels or the Clone Wars stuff, but kids now just don’t pay the whole thing any mind. I tried watching the Clone Wars series just to see if it was worth my time. It covers an interesting part of the story but the way it’s done is somewhere south of meh.
Can Disney make it any worse? Possibly, but not probably. They want to make money and they’re very good at not wrecking properties that they acquire. If you’re worried about Disney cartoonifiying Star Wars, well, Lucas already did that. He also made it political and ham-handed and kind of stupid. Lucas selling to them at least means that he’ll stop tinkering with everything that has managed to survive his butchery. It also means that we’ll actually get a new Star Wars movie directed by someone who knows how to direct real live people in a couple of years. Maybe Disney will hire Spielberg or Joss Whedon to direct one. Disney owns Marvel, Whedon did The Avengers. It could happen.
So after the initial feeling of outrage wore off,
If Disney fixes Star Wars, great. If not, well, I didn’t sink $4 billion into the swamps of Degobah.
Update: Heh, look who else is buying stuff. Obama is buying ads in Michigan for very different reasons than Disney bought Star Wars.
Why go out to Joss Whedon (which would be okay, I guess, seeing as how he did have a hand in Pixar’s success with Toy Story)? Brad Bird would be another highly obvious choice to helm Episode VII.
I thought the same thing about Brad Bird! He would do a great job.
I did see prequel #1 in the theater. Having The Force be explained away in that manner was worse than redoing the Han shot first scene. Watched part of #2 on dvd — couldn’t make it through. Didn’t even bother with #3.
It’s funny, usually we welcome directors’ cuts (see, Bladerunner where they dumped the voiceover.) but not with Star Wars. I could forgive the Ewoks, and even Jar-Jar, but the whole thing is now a mess.
Joss Wheadon direct a Star Wars sequel. Hmmm… Maybe about this smuggler whose kinda like Solo. But not Solo. And maybe split Chewie into one character whose a loyal sidekick. And another whose big, dumb and mean. And the Captain of this ship has some passengers. Maybe not robots but one whose been programmed.
And they;re all looking to make their way in a ‘verse run by an huge galactic… Alliance.
I feel very serene about Joss getting that gig.
See. It could work.
Shiny!
And then can we hire someone with a respect for the series to write the screenplay? Say Tim Zahn maybe? I have come contacts over at Baen, maybe we can draft him or something.
I had thought or some time that the series could be rebooted and actually made into a work of art, Shakespearean in level.
Or, they can just Nute Gunray it. With Ewoks.
Of course, I can only presume their will be anti-conservative messages in the series. Standard kit for Hollywood, even if just on the Game of Thrones “George Bush on a pike” level, so I’ll think I’ll just probably pass up the entire thing when it comes out. No reason to go out, pay a lot of money, and be the target of a gratuitous drive-by liberalism shooting. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…
P.S. I remember going to see Return of the Jedi 8 times in ’84, mainly–I kid you not–to determine if it was a good movie or not. I don’t think I ever really decided one way or the other.
’83. Trek III was ’84.
Oh, and maybe it will generate space exploration enthusiasm for the general public. Right now, I don’t see much else doing so before then.
Does it matter?
Call me jaded and cynical, but Lucasfilm and Disney could both be swallowed up whole by that thing that Jabba the hut tried to feed everyone to at the beginning of the 3rd movie. I don’t care. I’m not interested in watching anything either company produces.
Any future star wars movies will be mediocre to slightly good at best. The scripts will be derivative and formulaic. Like elevator music, inoffensive and sometimes mildly pleasant, but ultimately vapid and unmemorable.
That thing at the beginning of the third movie?
That was a young Gloria Allred. After that film she was hopelessly typecast and had to find a new career.
It was the Sarlacc, in the Pit of Carkoon. I know you weren’t really asking, but geek reflexes are, well, reflexes.
Even a geek like me isn’t that excited about a new movie, not unless they are doing a reboot and retelling the prequels. Otherwise, what, they are going to do movies on some of the EU? Most of that stuff is dreadful.
After trying to keep track of the economic, political, and cultural happenings of the last four years I find that most movie and TV plots are kind of dull in comparison. The lies, the treachery, the whole Deux ex Machina events that seem to be happening make Spielbug, Lukeass, and the rest seem kind of dull.
You are right. I am sick of acts of God, fate, control by spells. They tell me nothing about a character and do nothing for plot tension. With rare exception, it is lazy writing.
Of course not, everybody knows Mickey Mouse wields a keyblade.
*Ahem* http://browse.deviantart.com/?order=24&q=keyblade+lightsaber#/d1kop5w
The important thing is that they don’t let Lucas write ANY of it.
I recall hearing years ago that Lucas was rumored to have gotten quite a bit of input from Francis Ford Coppola in writing the script for Star Wars Episode IV.
If that’s the case, it shows and is a superior movie to all the rest of them combined.
Episodes V and VI are nowhere near as good even though they did wrap up the story and tied up all of the loose ends, and Episodes I through III just sucked. When I saw a blood test incorporated into the storyline in Episode I that explained “the force”, I knew they had completely left the reservation.
I honestly couldn’t get into watching through all of the rest of the prequels.
Disney getting their hands on the franchise can’t do any more damage than has already been inflicted, and if they get back to the spirit of the original Star Wars they may even be able to resuscitate it!
I also remember hearing when the original Star Wars came out that Lucas had originally planned 9 movies, so if Disney makes the last three happen – and does it right – then so much the better.
Star Wars not cool to kids? I disagree! After all, the signup for the Jedi Training Academy at Disney is a mad rush every morning at the Disney Hollywood Studios. It’s as bad as trying to get them on Dumbo. In Disney World there are three stores where kids can build their own lightsabers, (and I think one spot in Disneyland).
The recent iterations of Star Wars don’t much appeal to anyone, but the first three movies are classics. At least kids have seen them- how many have EVER seen a Mickey Mouse movie? Disney is not a stupid company, and they’ve had plenty of experience with the whole Star Wars concept, from Star Wars Weekends in May to the recent refurbishment of Star Tours.
Disney knows what will make them money. In fact, they’re about to part me from about $5,000 of my own this December- some of which undoubtedly will be spent by my kids building droids at Tattooine Traders.
At this point, separating Lucas from Star Wars can only result in better Star Wars. He lost what few writing and directing chops he possessed somewhere between VI and I. He’s a brilliant technocrat but not a deep thinker. The last three movies suffered from Joseph Campbell myth-by-number storytelling, Howard Zinn politics, and high-school-level acting. They were only viewable because Lucas and his special effects shop are so damn good at creating beautiful alien worlds, realistic alien characters, and amazing alien technology.
I’m hoping Disney can bring in some real pros – seasoned writers and directors who know how to create interesting characters and bring out the best in their actors. Wheadon would be a good first choice. Novelists, comic book artists, and game designers have been generating new stories for decades. It’s about time some equally creative people were allowed to try their hand in movie realm. As long as they don’t depart too drastically from Lucas’ “vision,” of the SW universe, Disney should do fine.
Queen Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman): like Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, only much “hawtter”. And Jar-jar Binks? Joe Biden (well, certainly not as crass and profane as ol’ Joe).
– of the new rides!
Joss Whedon to direct? Ya mean, this guy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TiXUF9xbTo
Not sure I’m gonna watch Avengers 2, now. Prolly wouldn’t even trouble myself with a continued Firefly series (after Nathan Fillion broke my missus’ heart with HIS input about Romney). =’[.]‘=
Lucas did have one moment of unquestionable genius:
Passing on his salary. In lieu of that he managed to not get just the merchandising rights, but a percentage of the gross profit as well.
The expended universe novels, currently at ~ 31 Y AD (after death star) offer plenty of storylines that are not meh and strong enough to “reboot” the series.
I recommend Timothy Zahns “Heir to the empire” series as a good starting point and go onwards from there.
Oh joy, oh, frabjous day! Yet another opportunity to invent ways to terminate Jar Jar Binks in the most inventively horrible way possible!
One more reason why, when I think of Hollywood these days, the Biblical phrase “like a dog to its vomit” comes to mind. Or the opening of Waterworld where Costner is recycling his urine.
Apparently the deal comes with 3 “treatements” so we’ve not escaped the baleful influence of Lucas yet.
Lucas has to be given credit for the original series and ILM. Let’s face it, at that time, no movies ever made had that feel and tone to them, and that’s why they were so successful. People feel it was the story and characters and I disagree. Look what happened with the prequels.
No one has been able to success write Conan or Tarzan stories although they’ve been successful outside their original medium. In the case of Star Wars, you can’t go home again.
If you reduce Star Wars to story and character, there’s nothing that crazy cool about them. If Star Wars had been made by the people who made Logan’s Run, 2 and 3 never would’ve been made.
Merchandising is such a heavy part of the deal, I wonder if the next 3 films will have the courage to strike out on their own, with totally new characters. The franchise has some built-in bucks and power to it, but unless the new films are done in some very original way, it’s hard to predict the outcome. Disney has a knack of putting good people on projects with sometimes unexpectedly good writing and casting.
As for Whedon, if he puts his Serenity face on, it’ll be a smash. If he puts his Avengers face on, it’ll make a lot of money, and bore me.