Star Wars Episode VII in 2015

In an otherwise fairly quiet week in the entertainment news world, this announcement hit like an atomic bomb a few hours ago.

The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm and is already planning "Star Wars: Episode VII", the first of a new trilogy, for release in 2015.

The subsequent two films will be released in 2017 and 2019 respectively.

What does this mean for a fifth "Indiana Jones"? The companies are reportedly going to concentrate on the "Star Wars" franchise for now.

The $4.05 billion deal will see Disney paying Lucasfilm's sole owner George Lucas half of the consideration in cash and issuing approximately 40 million shares at the closing price of Disney stock on October 26th 2012 for the remainder.

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Lucasfilm and its operating businesses in live action film production, consumer products, animation, visual effects, and audio post production.

This includes all its subsidiary offshoots beyond Lucasfilm Ltd. itself including LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic, and Skywalker Sound. Lucasfilm employees are expected to remain in their current locations.

Lucasfilm current co-chairman Kathleen Kennedy will step up to become President of Lucasfilm and report directly to Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn.

She will also serve as brand manager for "Star Wars" which will allow Disney to fully exploit the property though its various interests including movies, television, consumer products, games and theme parks .

Yay! More crappy Star Wars films!

Actually, I think Disney will do better than those last 3, which are a bit unbearable for me to watch. Terrible acting, confusing plots, etc.

Anything to take Lucas out of the mix can only be an improvement. $4.5 billion.
He can go build his own personal Death Star now.

If Disney hires the right creative team to make the film, it could be good. I would have to imagine that Disney is well aware of the critical failure (but money generation) of the prequels and I would have to imagine that they will want to make a good film to keep the franchise going.

I read somewhere that Lucas already has ideas/treatments for the three films....

Of course, if they want to start out the next trilogy right, they need to show the new evil rising....... and what a better way to show that then have the first scene be genocide of the Ewoks........ O, and the captured Jar Jar Binks will be with the Ewoks when they are wiped out of existence!!!!!

If they do half as well, as they are doing with the Marvel Characters then Star Wars should be in good hands.

it will be interesting to see what happens, but I am not holding my breath. Disney has the potential to put out really good movies (National Treasure, Pirates of the Caribbean) but their track record for sequels is extremely poor (Aladdin, Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure). My opinion is that Disney will put out a sequel to anything if it has the potential to make a few extra bucks for the corporate coffers and story and plot are optional.

I didn't mind the prequel trilogy that much so this will be something to check out. I wonder if it would include any existing characters (Luke,Leia,Han, etc) with the original actors. They'd probably want a huge paycheck for it.

007 wrote:

I didn't mind the prequel trilogy that much so this will be something to check out. I wonder if it would include any existing characters (Luke,Leia,Han, etc) with the original actors. They'd probably want a huge paycheck for it.

They would have to pay Harrison Ford a huge paycheck - Hamill and Fisher not so much, they don't command the big bucks these days. Personally, I think they'll try to introduce a "next generation" of characters. I could see Hamill coming back as the old, wise Jedi Master with a limited role (like Yoda in the prequels). Wookies live a long time, and C3PO/R2D2 will probably continue their bromance. Leia/Solo would probably just be background characters, if the come back at all. Ford always wanted Solo to die in one of the films, I guess now is his chance for a Han Solo death scene.

Then again, they could blow it and it could royally suck and destroy the franchise. Early reviews will suck and the film could fail.....

Ahh, who am I kidding - I am sure I will see it opening weekend.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Anything to take Lucas out of the mix can only be an improvement. $4.5 billion.
He can go build his own personal Death Star now.

Either that or there will be an American Graffiti III.......or maybe a prequel.

SpectreFate wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Anything to take Lucas out of the mix can only be an improvement. $4.5 billion.
He can go build his own personal Death Star now.

Either that or there will be an American Graffiti III.......or maybe a prequel.

God enough of the prequels!!!

Quote :

I wonder if it would include any existing characters (Luke,Leia,Han, etc) with the original actors.

It'll be a stretch, but I'm sure they'll find a way to shoe-horn them in. Ford (70) & Hamill (61) will be older than "old" Alec Guiness (63) was in the original. And Carrie Fisher (56) looks like hell these days.

Check that. Mark Hamill looks more like Emperor Palpatine these days...

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Check that. Mark Hamill looks more like Emperor Palpatine these days...

I would expect a line item in the budget to be "personal trainers" for Hamill and Fisher. Ford probably has his own from his Indy 4 days.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Check that. Mark Hamill looks more like Emperor Palpatine these days...

Yikes ! I sense a disturbance in the Force !

I imagine there will be a re-boot a la Star Trek coming out of this. I used to be a huge SW fan but I dont really have much interest anymore. They missed their window after Jedi to continue the story.

I'm not on par with all the Star Wars novels and all that jazz, but if I remember correctly, George Lucas did have basic storylines drawn-up for another trilogy that would take place after 'Return of the Jedi' with Han and Leia having boy/girl twins, Luke becoming the next Yoda-like Jedi Master, and so on.

Novels were based on those stories, so I'd think Disney would have something to build upon and hopefully not have to re-boot the franchise by redoing the original 'Star Wars'.

Maybe someone more schooled in the extended Star Wars universe could elaborate.

More power to them, I haven't really cared about Star Wars since I was 13 or so. I lost all respect for Lucas when he went back and added CGI to the first 3 films, completely unnecessary.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I'm not on par with all the Star Wars novels and all that jazz, but if I remember correctly, George Lucas did have basic storylines drawn-up for another trilogy that would take place after 'Return of the Jedi' with Han and Leia having boy/girl twins, Luke becoming the next Yoda-like Jedi Master, and so on.

Novels were based on those stories, so I'd think Disney would have something to build upon and hopefully not have to re-boot the franchise by redoing the original 'Star Wars'.

Maybe someone more schooled in the extended Star Wars universe could elaborate.

I saw an interview with Lucas about the sale and he said he handed over the treatments for the next three episode (7,8,9) with the deal and they are supposedly using those for the framework.

No good can come out of this. Look what Disney did to Pixar..... Sequels galore all around! They'll make 4 new Ewoks movie too, I reckon!

I'm OK with this, but so much has been mapped out through the novels and computer games about what happened after Jedi, that a movie version would appear either confined to plots and events already written and therefore redundant or another cash in. They probably couldn't do more damage than Lucas already did with the prequels! It could actually be brilliant, given their success with Pixar, or it could also be complete rubbish!

I'll see it. However, they must replace the current R2D2 with this:

DallasBlack wrote:

I'll see it. However, they must replace the current R2D2 with this:

R2-DD?


Eps 7-9 could work, focus on new characters like Anakin, Jaina & Jacen Solo, & Ben Skywalker. Han, Leia, & Luke would cameo via holonet, etc. Or go post-Legacy(100+ years after Jedi) with completely new characters. I say do the Yuuzhan Vong War with Heavy Metal-style animation. We'll probably end up with more Ewoks, Gungans, or some other crap, in 3-D.

What they should do is do the Thrawn Trilogy written by Timothy Zahn. Those books are excellent. He is the best of the Star Wars book authors by far.

The problem with all of this is they need to find the right director and the right actors. If it's done by the right guy (like Joss Whedon for The Avengers) it could be awesome.

I admit I do have reservations seeing more Star Wars movies being made.

I just hope that the new ownership means that Lucas can no longer tinker with the original three films whenever he gets a bug up his ass. I'm tired of him making unnecessary "improvements" to 'em every couple of years.

First it was: "Okay, I added a whole mess of unnecessary CGI scenes! NOW Greedo shoots first!"

Then ...
"NOW they're in 3-D!
"NOW they're in IMAX!"
"NOW Hayden Christensen's face is in the final scene of 'Jedi'!"
"NOW Yoda's not a Muppet anymore, he's a fully animated digital character!"

... GET YOUR FREAKIN' O.C.D. MITTS OFF OF THE MOVIES GEORGE!!

Quote :

their track record for sequels is extremely poor (Aladdin, Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure).

"Shrek" is Dreamworks, not Disney. Just sayin'.

Fat Freddy wrote:

I just hope that the new ownership means that Lucas can no longer tinker with the original three films whenever he gets a bug up his ass. I'm tired of him making unnecessary "improvements" to 'em every couple of years.

First it was: "Okay, I added a whole mess of unnecessary CGI scenes! NOW Greedo shoots first!"

Then ...
"NOW they're in 3-D!
"NOW they're in IMAX!"
"NOW Hayden Christensen's face is in the final scene of 'Jedi'!"
"NOW Yoda's not a Muppet anymore, he's a fully animated digital character!"

... GET YOUR FREAKIN' O.C.D. MITTS OFF OF THE MOVIES GEORGE!!

Quote :

their track record for sequels is extremely poor (Aladdin, Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure).

"Shrek" is Dreamworks, not Disney. Just sayin'.

Disney did say that they plan to re-release on Blu-Bay/DVD the ORIGINAL theatrical versions of the original trilogy....... which shows they are smart enough to figure out to get people to buy the original trilogy for home viewing again. I know I want the originals!!!!

I think if Disney hires the right people, they will be fine. Hell, Lucas hired the right people to make Empire and that was by far the best of the series!

Plus, Disney hasn't screwed up Pixar (who have yet to release a bad movie and Toy Story II was one of the best sequels ever made, truly amazing considered it was originally going to be a direct to video film)

And they did an amazing job with The Avengers.

I suspect they will be good and better than episodes 1,2,3..... at least I am hoping. I am sure I will be there on opening night.