Disney Buys Lucasfilm for $4 Billion

[SzczerbiakManiac]

http://www.businessinsider.com/disney-buys-lucasfilm-for-4-billion-2012-10

The copy was fairly straight-forward until I got to the third paragraph:Disney announced today it will buy Lucasfilm for $4 billion in cash and stock.

George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars franchise and CEO of Lucasfilm, owns 100% of the company.

Even better: A new Star Wars movie, Episode VII, will debut in 2015. More Star Wars feature films are planned after that.whatWhatWHAAAAT!?!

[Moonliner]

Beat me posting this by 1min....

[Ghoulish Delight]

Holy. Sh*t.

[Ghoulish Delight]

"The agreement has been approved by the sole shareholder of Lucasfilm."

heh.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

Beat me posting this by 1min....What do I win? ;)

[Snowflake]

Lookout for more Disneyland Updates! Tomorrowland is now Tatooine-land! Tarzan's Treehouse is now an Ewok House!

More Star Wars films? Really?!

Where's :iSm: ;)

Also, was this the result of Lucas' problems getting the new studio ranch built in Marin County?

In any case, he's laughing all the way to the bank, literally.

[katiesue]

Ok so where does 7 fit then? After 6 which is really three or after three which is really 6?

[Moonliner]

On the plus side, if anyone knows how to make a movie about trade wars and bureaucratic drama it's Disney.

[Kevy Baby]

Didn't Lucas long ago (before episodes 1, 2, and 3) say that there were nine episodes outlined in the whole Star Wars series? If so, would they be using his drafts for 7, 8, and 9?

[cirquelover]

So wait, that means Lucas isn't doing 7 but Disney is? Does that mean they have to hire Lucas and he gets another big paycheck from them?

[Capt Jack]

moreso does it mean Lucas will stop doing all the revisionist BS to the existing movies? can we talk Disney into starting over with Ep's 1-3 and maybe make them...I dunno, GOOD this time?

[Kevy Baby]

George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy discuss the future of Star Wars movies (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyqlTi7lkhY&sns=em)

[Moonliner]

moreso does it mean Lucas will stop doing all the revisionist BS to the existing movies? can we talk Disney into starting over with Ep's 1-3 and maybe make them...I dunno, GOOD this time?

No, it means they will re-edit the movie's to insert various Disney characters, but in a tasteful way that keeps the spirit of the originals of course.

[Moonliner]

Didn't Lucas long ago (before episodes 1, 2, and 3) say that there were nine episodes outlined in the whole Star Wars series? If so, would they be using his drafts for 7, 8, and 9?

He said a lot of contradictory things in the early days, but based on what we got in episodes 1,2,3 I simply can't accept he had any grand design when he was making 4,5,6.

[Capt Jack]

almost a direct translation from Jar Jar to Goofy, so eh...Im not sure anyone would notice

[Moonliner]

So wait, that means Lucas isn't doing 7 but Disney is? Does that mean they have to hire Lucas and he gets another big paycheck from them?

One of the potential good things about this purchase is that perhaps Lucas won't be involved with any future franchise movies.

[Alex]

Lucas may not be involved in future Star Wars movies. Or he might be involved in lots of Disney movies.

Depending on how much of the deal is stock, this probably makes Lucas the second biggest Disney shareholder behind the Jobs estate.

ETA: Apparently half stock so this will give him about 2.2-2.5% of Disney. I believe Jobs was around 6% when he died.

[Moonliner]

Speaking of Jobs, I wonder if Lucas is having health problems as well. Selling his baby does strike me as a bit odd.

[Moonliner]

Also, let's not forget Lucasfilm's is a lot more than just Star Wars. I can't wait for the Willow and Howard the Duck sequel's

[innerSpaceman]

BTW, Lucas did not have any grand design when he was making "5" and "6". He made up Darth Vader being Luke's father well after Star Wars was completed, and otherwise used stuff that was in his original long draft of the bloated and frankly crappy script to fill in the action bits of the O.T. episodes (which is why there's, um, another Death Star to destroy in Episode 6 - - that was the end of the story, and I'm kinda glad he didn't make something else up).


I'm more excited over this news in relation to Disneyland than new Star Wars movies. Maybe there will be some new attractions that are not barely-repeatable films. As for future films, I'm glad Lucas is out (except as a consultant), but I feel Disney will also stress the purportedly kid-appealing Jar-Jar-ish aspects of the series. So far, there's one work of classic genius, two sequels to that which are tons of fun, and three god-awful so-called "prequel" sequels that were made 16 years later and sucked ballz.

By the time so-called "7" is released, it will be 32 years after Episode 6 was released. How is that a recipe for quality? I don't think anything bodes well about this deal as far as future Star Wars movies goes.

But getting George Lucas out of the Star Wars business is a step in the right direction. And there's nowhere to go but up from where he left it. So I'm cautiously optimistic.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I find the ILM part of the deal far more interesting than the Star Wars part. Takes out a Pixar competitor and gives Disney a stake in just about every big effects movie out there.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I don't know what to think about any of it. Though already it's starting to seem inevitable.

I knew an Ep 7 would eventually exist, as eventually Lucas would die and someone else would be sitting on the rights and unable to resist.

As for whether all this bodes well or not....I'm unable to parse any of it.

[Strangler Lewis]

Since at least 80 percent of the Star Wars saga is unforgivably bad, experience teaches that it won't make a difference who makes it.

As for Howard the Duck reprises, I was an extra in Howard the Duck, so I guess it's time for a comeback

[Gn2Dlnd]

Hoping this at least results in Star Wars Land going into Hollywood Studios instead of Cars Land, and maybe, just maybe, the dropping of Avatar Land.

[innerSpaceman]

I'm with SL. Empire and Jedi are fun, but as films - they are crap. They would never have been hits as standalone movies.

I'm sure I need say nothing about the quality of the prequels.



I think ILM is the prize in the package (but how it it a competitor of Pixar, Ghoulish Delight?)


Star Wars still has lots of merchandising potential, especially if they make new films - which would, like the prequels, be excuses to generate merchandise sales. Still, the film library of two good franchises, one of which still has potential legs, is not worth 4 billion as I see it. Neither is ILM. I really don't understand this deal, but there's nowhere to go for the Star Wars franchise but up.

[Alex]

50 years later we are surprisingly getting good Bod movies again, so who know.

That said, what interest I've ever ha in Star Wars (always preferred Star Trek) has long since crumbled to dust. Maybe it can be revived but I don't care if it isnt.

[innerSpaceman]

I'm a pretty big Star Wars fan, but I wish this sleeping dog had just been let lie.

[Morrigoon]

Disney's seriously angling for the geek market these days, aren't they? Seems to me their next best move would be to go after Blizzard.

(But forms a protective human barricade around the BBC headquarters just in case)

[Ghoulish Delight]

I think ILM is the prize in the package (but how it it a competitor of Pixar, Ghoulish Delight?)
They aren't. I had Rango in mind, which while flawed was quite good and beautiful. But that's all they've done in terms of animated feature, so not exactly a competitor. Consider that aspect retracted.

[€uroMeinke]

Maybe we'll get a Star Wars or Raiders ride out of the deal?

[Alex]

Red Tails Land

[Ghoulish Delight]

http://boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/NewImage200.png

[Alex]

That I'd go to see. Especially not long after dark when it slowly rotates to point towards World Showcase and then suddenly a massive laser erupts out of it and it blows up the Illuminations globe.

I might even go see that twice.

[Alex]

And just to save a lot of reposting: The Fark photoshop thread (http://www.fark.com/comments/7408888/Fark-Instashop-contest-Now-that-Disney-owns-Star-Wars-what-subtle-changes-should-we-expect-from-both-franchises).

[Alex]

I like this one:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8326/8140079056_01604d211c_b.jpg

[Ghoulish Delight]

OMG, it's right under our noses! This is the final piece of the puzzle. The lynchpin in Disney's secret plot, hiding under the radar. Star Wars and Indiana Jones are just smoke screens. For now, Disney controls ALL rights to...Labyrinth.

[Snowflake]

OMG, it's right under our noses! This is the final piece of the puzzle. The lynchpin in Disney's secret plot, hiding under the radar. Star Wars and Indiana Jones are just smoke screens. For now, Disney controls ALL rights to...Labyrinth.

Thanks, I just ruined my keyboard spilling coffee in it! Bwahahahahaaa!

[Gn2Dlnd]

George Lucas was surprisingly (at least to me) tolerant, even encouraging, of the fan freecycling of his creations. Disney is known for being rather not so. I'd hate to lose brilliant things like this (http://youtu.be/7ezeYJUz-84). (Though we certainly will be seeing a lot more of things like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUbH1SEsqiE&feature=colike)!)

[Snowflake]

Jim, that was awesome!~ Loved it! :snap:

[Kevy Baby]

(Though we certainly will be seeing a lot more of things like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUbH1SEsqiE&feature=colike)!)Wow, talk about recycling (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4_dZPVg8KI). Couldn't Disney do something NEW?!?

[Gn2Dlnd]

:rolleyes:

[LSPoorEeyorick]

I've got a bad feeling about this...

[flippyshark]

Yeah, I always figured that when Leia gives Luke that totally tongue-y kiss in Empire, Lucas had not yet figured that they were brother and sister. (And oh, that is the basis of my favorite gag in the Robot Chicken specials. "That was so wrong." Ha!)

[innerSpaceman]

Yeah, I hadn't thought about that aspect. Lucasfilm wink-winked at the fans who've shown them up by restoring Star Wars and the other O.T. movies far better than official releases. I doubt Disney will be as forgiving.

[CoasterMatt]

http://i.imgur.com/guyQW.jpg

[cirquelover]

Did anyone else see Leno last night?

[Melonballer]

This definitely make me like Lucas more.

Lucas gives windfall to charity. (http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/11/george_lucas_is_giving_all_4_billion_of_his_disney .php)

[Moonliner]

This definitely make me like Lucas more.

Lucas gives windfall to charity. (http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/11/george_lucas_is_giving_all_4_billion_of_his_disney .php)


Noooooooo!!!!!


.

[Alex]

Here's hoping that in two generations when people are having to hear "Consideration provided by the George Lucas Foundation" most people react with faint interest in who George Lucas might have been the way we now do to the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Fund.

[Kevy Baby]

We have a great, relatively new performing arts center here in Orange County that I have been to a couple of times and I do not know the people it is named after (they are still alive), nor do I care!

[Moonliner]

I wonder what effect Disney ramping up to make a gaggle of new Star Wars movies will have on the plans to re-release the originals in 3D. Weren't we supposed to be getting more of those?

[flippyshark]

I'm wondering if the 3D release of Phantom Menace did well enough to justify doing more. Hey, I like 3D more than most, especially at home, but I have no interest in seeing converted versions of these movies, even the ones I like.