Taking Star Wars away from senile consta-meddler George Lucas is bad because........?
Yes, I'm butthurt. Fuck George Lucas. Fuck him with a bantha prod right in his motherfucking goddamn idiot eye.
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
Taking Star Wars away from senile consta-meddler George Lucas is bad because........?
Yeah, as a long time SW fan, I had pretty much had it with Lucas, so it's good to see that A) more movies will be made, and B) that someone besides Lucas will get a crack at it.
This is a very good thing.
As long as they don't fuck it up.
(Had to double check and make sure this wasn't an article from The Onion).
No wait, what? There doesn't need to be anymore SW movies. The last three were so fucked up it would have been better left alone. What the hell is Episode 7 going to be about? The more serious fans have cannonized Zahn's follow up trilogy, so now I guess that is going to be shit all over as well. Fuck Lucas, and fuck Disney.
You're really going to regret those harsh words after Disney releases a cleaned up original trilogy on Blu Ray with all of Lucas's added bullshit removed (because they will).
And I predict a solid Star Wars 7 out of them, for those of us who don't really give a shit about Star Wars novels (a demographic otherwise known as "most of the moviegoing public"). Seriously, release a solid film sequel and it'll be like the books never even happened, whoosh!
Taking Star Wars away from Lucas but (hopefully) giving him some creative input is the best thing possible for the franchise. I'll happily take sequels that don't fucking suck, thanks.
Great news!
I seriously doubt this will happen, I'm sure Lucas put in some kind of provision against it.
The Zahn trilogy was actually pretty damn good, but I'm assuming Disney will go off in a different direction. The saga was always rumored to pan out this way:
Ep 1-3: focus on Anakin
Ep 4-6: focus on Luke
Ep 7-9: focus on Leia
so we'll see if they stick to that.
Come to think of it, wasn't there supposed to be a live-action Star Wars TV show released a few years ago under Lucas' direction? I wonder if that's just deader than dead or if Disney will resurrect that too.
Edit: Let me just say too that I'd love to see even a single movie based completely on Han from before he met up with Luke & Ben at Mos Eisley. Something showing his history as an Imperial officer and how he hooked up with Chewie by freeing him as a slave, and how he won the Falcon from Lando. That would rock.
Last edited by Brethren; 30th Oct 2012 at 19:22.
I think you're outnumbered here fett. I think this is a good thing. The real Star Wars has not been in the hands of Lucas for a long time. The fans have had to take it and protect it from him. The Star Wars books are pretty fantastic, I haven't read all of them by a long stretch, but I have read about half a dozen or so. Lucas said "Fuck you" to the lot of us a long time ago. I say Disney probably knows what to do with it better than anyone else would.
That and by the time my kids are old enough and I've got enough money to go on vacation for the only time in my entire life, it will probably be to Disney land, and I'm going to ride the hell out of all the Star Wars rides.
How exactly are those sequels going to work though? Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher at 70 trying to reprise roles (which neither of them will do). A whole new story set in that universe? It would have to be awfully compelling to square with a universe that spawned some of the most beloved sci-fi/fantasy characters of all time. It'll be their kids, but they themselves don't show up in the films? Someone else plays the characters? None of these scenarios seem tenable in the least.
As for the Blu-Ray, I've seen these movies a million times. Am I really going to go ga-ga over yet another version just because it's on Blu-Ray? I might watch it once. Not worth it to potentially have what was once a great story cocked up by the same team that made Speed Racer or whateverthehell.
And that demographic that actually gives a shit about the books? They manage to put almost every single one that's released in the NYT Bestseller list for about 20 years running. It's a substantial group in terms of support and money. It's not that the franchise can't survive without them, because the masses will go see anything with Star Wars plastered on it. But they're largely the group that continued to buy merchandise and clamor for new movies during the 80's and 90's and Lucas has regularly disregarded and disrespected that. This feels like more of the same. I guess I can see the gain in him not being able to fuck with it anymore, but it will likely just become another insipid movie franchise rather than being held apart as the cultural phenomenon it was/is.
edit: My point being that some things are better left alone. If the prequels didn't teach us that...
Last edited by fett; 30th Oct 2012 at 21:38.
If sequels have to be made this is the best possible way. At least someone can say "Yeah George, you may think that but it's balls and we're not having it."
Telepathy is not mind reading. It is the direct linking... ...of nervous systems... ...separated by space.
Supposedly Fox is retaining the rights to the films that they distributed, so an un-fucked OT release would require Disney and Fox cutting some sort of deal for a restoration.
What about the same team that made The Incredibles? Or The Avengers? You're really not thinking through all the ramifications of this acquisition. (and Speed Racer was amazing, so shut your mouth).Not worth it to potentially have what was once a great story cocked up by the same team that made Speed Racer or whateverthehell.
I wonder how all of this would have played out back in the day if David Lynch did Return of the Jedi instead of Dune. Maybe the Ewoks would have never existed, and then maybe Jar Jar would have never existed. Maybe the first/last 3 movies wouldn't have sucked. Maybe maybe maybe.
I DO get what fett is saying about disney turning it into something it should never be. Yeah... the Avengers was awesome.. SORT OF. I just hope they do what nobody ever seems to and listen to the fans, since they've been the ones keeping SW alive for the past 20 years.
Forget about the Star Wars franchise for a moment, the deal is much bigger than that. The jewels in the Lucasfilm crown are Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound. These two companies, along with Pixar (which was spun off from Lucasfilm), are George Lucas' real substantive legacy. These companies are the key assets of this sale. Not a couple of tired old movie franchises that peaked in the 1980s.
ILM and Skywalker Sound have been instrumental in producing many, many good films, developing key technologies, and consistently pushing the state of the art. And until now, their services have been available to any studio. As much as I hate what Lucas did to Star Wars, I will always be grateful for what he contributed to the art form by building these companies. I don't want Disney to own them. It was bad enough when they acquired Pixar; now with Lucasfilm they look more and more like a monopoly. And if ILM and SS are dedicated to Disney productions, that will be a big loss to the industry.
As for Star Wars, I've no desire to see a new episode and I'm not sure I'd bother watching the original original trilogy again if it gets re-released. I gave up hoping for that years ago, and Star Wars just isn't interesting to me anymore.
If they do this I will take back at least 1/4 of the bad things that I have ever said about Disney. I've got the OT on VHS, but it's not letterboxed, so there's actual stuff that happens on the sides of shots that I can't see.You're really going to regret those harsh words after Disney releases a cleaned up original trilogy on Blu Ray with all of Lucas's added bullshit removed (because they will).
Ford is especially unlikely. He's got a tremendous sense of loyalty to Lucas for some reason. Like, for launching his career or something.How exactly are those sequels going to work though? Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher at 70 trying to reprise roles (which neither of them will do).
As for Fisher, I guess her gigantic butt could be another Death Star.
Years ago this would've made me weep and wail, but now I see it as a good thing. Lucas crapped so thickly all over his own creations, this can be a positive turn. Or just insignificant, but most likely not worse.
As for the new movies, I'd like to see story of Leia between ep.1-3 and 4-6, but I guess they're not making "mid-quels".
Yeah, how about NO and WRONG. Do you really think freaking ILM/Skywalker Sound are going rake in anywhere near what a new trilogy plus merchandising plus a new movie every 2-3 years after that can for Disney? Wake up dude. I don't know where you get your delusions.
The prequel trilogy might have sucked bad, but there's no doubt it made an big gigantic assload pile of money for Lucas. Way more wealth than you can imagine.
(see what I did there)
This.
I was soooooooooooo looking forward to the new trilogy before they came out. But then to see how average they were. Well I quite liked the 3rd one but still. My love of Star Wars pales in comparison to what it used to be. Lucas has ass raped the franchise to the point that people barely respect it at all anymore which I find quite sad.
I hope that Disney can turn things around. Really happy to hear that George doesn't have his hands on it anymore.
Do you have ANY idea how many major blockbuster movies these companies have worked on? It's enough to make the six Star Wars movies look insignificant. ILM in particular is credited in hundreds of films not to mention TV shows and commercials. It is *the* most important production company in the industry and you're comparing that to one movie franchise?
The Lucasfilm empire is private and doesn't disclose financials, so we have no way of knowing for sure how much profit the last trilogy made compared to the other business units such as ILM, SS, and LucasArts. But I did find this quote on Bloomberg
So if their annual revenues are around $860M, and about half of that comes from ILM, SS, and LucasArts, then these businesses are worth ~$400M annual income. Compare $400M annually to the $550M one-year income from Revenge of the Sith.Originally Posted by Bloomberg
Last edited by heywood; 31st Oct 2012 at 04:00. Reason: Added Bloomberg quote
The way I see it, even if Disney make a Star Wars 7 starring no-one but Mickey Mouse and some ewoks, it will still be better than anything George Lucas would put out.