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Disney Buys Lucasfilm for $4 Billion; Sets 2015 Release for STAR WARS: EPISODE 7 | Collider

Cue internet explosion. In a “holy ****” piece of news, Disney has purchased George Lucas’ Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, and has earmarked a 2015 release date for Star Wars: Episode VII. Yes, you read that right. Not only will Disney be in command of the Star Wars empire, but a seventh entry in one of the most popular franchise of all time is in the works and set for release the same year as The Avengers 2 and Justice League.
I’m still in a fair amount of shock here, but with this move Disney has solidified its plans to take over the world as the company now houses Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm. The new was announced by both companies, so this is no hoax. We’ll update this story shortly with more information.
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Are you kidding me? That almost warrants its own thread. New Star Wars movies? By Disney?? I mean they can't be much worse than the prequels but seriously, who saw that coming?
 
The original link has been updated with the following info

The story was confirmed by THR, whose report includes the following statement from George Lucas:

?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, in a statement. ?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.?

We recently learned that Kathleen Kennedy, longtime producing partner of Steven Spileberg, had been chosen as the new co-chair of Lucasfilm. She will now become the studio?s president under the new deal, answering directly to Disney chair Alan Horn.

As for that new Star Wars film, Lucas will remain onboard as a ?creative consultant? while Kathleen Kennedy wil serve as executive producer on Star Wars Episode 7 and future Star Wars movies. The release of Episode 7 in 2015 will kick off a new trilogy that Lucasfilm already has mapped out.

For all intents and purposes, though, this is a clear sign that Lucas is letting go of the beloved franchise. He stated earlier this year that he was looking to move away from Lucasfilm in order to make ?experimental movies? in his garage, so this move isn?t exactly a shock. Disney has had a strong relationship with the company since Star Tours opened in Disneyland years ago, and the studio?s relationship with Spielberg/Kennedy likely gave Lucas reassurance that his franchise would be in good hands.

We all knew that further Star Wars films would be made someday, be it with a reboot, remake, or proper sequel. Disney has handled Marvel quite well, so hopefully they can do the same with the Star Wars series. A few entanglements will still have to be worked out, as 20th Century Fox is still set to distribute the 3D re-releases of Lucas? Star Wars films over the next few years. The television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars is also owned by a Disney competitor, Turner Broadcasting, so it remains to be seen how these extensions of the franchise will be sorted out.

Update: A conference call with shareholders just ended, in which a few more details of the deal were revealed:

Star Wars: Episode 7 will be the beginning of a new trilogy that has been mapped out.
The treatment for Episode 7 is already completed, on which Lucas consulted.
Episodes 8 and 9 will be released approximately every other year following 2015, so expect the sequels in 2017 and 2019.
20th Century Fox will not be involved with these future releases.
Disney ?really likes? the potential of expanding Star Wars into television on their Disney XD channel, so expect more than a few new animated series.
The studio?s concentration is on the Star Wars franchise, so as of now there are no plans to toy with Indiana Jones. The reason being that those films are tied up in some legal shambles with Paramount, who distributed the films. Indiana Jones was not part of the valuation of Lucasfilm when Disney was eyeing the acquisition.
Disney plans to leave Lucasfilm?s visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) ?as it is.?
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that last bit appears to confirm that ILM was indeed part of the deal.
 
Not sure why people think this is a bad thing. Maybe I'm missing something, but haven't a lot of folks been practically begging Lucas to let someone else run that franchise? Or was the concern that now with Disney owning it they would do things like make Star Wars cereal and lunchboxes and cartoons and...oh wait. All I see is that now you'll have a company that has a proven track record of making some pretty quality films running the show.
 
Wow, jaw-dropper for sure. But it sounds like good news to me. Getting ILM and Skywalker Sound is huge too.
 
SmytheKing said:
Not sure why people think this is a bad thing. Maybe I'm missing something, but haven't a lot of folks been practically begging Lucas to let someone else run that franchise? Or was the concern that now with Disney owning it they would do things like make Star Wars cereal and lunchboxes and cartoons and...oh wait. All I see is that now you'll have a company that has a proven track record of making some pretty quality films running the show.
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I could give a **** about the relative quality of any future Star Wars projects. I stopped wanting "new" Star Wars stuff when I was about 10 years old. But that's just me...

My concern is that Disney is continuing it's track record of gobbling up every single successful property that exists.

In 20 years will there be anything else for kids to enjoy other than Disney owned properties? Obviously there will be and I'm being deliberately melodramatic but it's troublesome for me that Disney and Nickelodeon own such an oligopoly on children's entertainment. It's bad enough that kids are already branding sponges now you have all the things their folks loved involved too? Plus the amount of money Disney sinks into maintaining and extending Copyright and Trademark lengths....

NO BUENO.
 
I think whatever was "sacred" about Star Wars, between the prequels, animated series, digitally enhanced versions, video games etc, is long gone. I don't really care, it doesn't anger me. If it looks good I'll watch it. Hopefully they try to actually do something with it and it isn't just two and a half hours of "Hey, isn't Star Wars awesome? Look they're in the same Mos Eisley cantina as Han and Luke were, and now they have statues of them outside!" and other dumb and bland revisits of areas from the original trilogy. That's probably what they'll do though.
 
Yeah...I agree to a point with Doc, my concern is that when all the major properties emanate out of a single studio a)studio competition takes a hit and b)the lack of competetion leads to 'safe' results. Disney isn't known for challenging the norm and the larger and more corporate they get, the more homogenized the product will be. More Happy Meal movies and less adult fare. After Disneys self inflicted Jon Carter incident I really don't expect anything challenging to be initiated till they not only earn back every red cent that cost, but the projected earnings from it too. Is it good that Lucas has been removed from his boondoggle? Yeah, but the damage has been done. And Star Wars is a corporate brand name at this point so it's right where it needs to be.
 
Dr. Naysay said:
I could give a **** about the relative quality of any future Star Wars projects. I stopped wanting "new" Star Wars stuff when I was about 10 years old. But that's just me...

My concern is that Disney is continuing it's track record of gobbling up every single successful property that exists.

In 20 years will there be anything else for kids to enjoy other than Disney owned properties? Obviously there will be and I'm being deliberately melodramatic but it's troublesome for me that Disney and Nickelodeon own such an oligopoly on children's entertainment. It's bad enough that kids are already branding sponges now you have all the things their folks loved involved too? Plus the amount of money Disney sinks into maintaining and extending Copyright and Trademark lengths....

NO BUENO.
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That's an angle that I hadn't considered and one that I can get behind. I wasn't thinking of the grand scheme of things. Only in the Star Wars is now a Disney property.
 
SmytheKing said:
That's an angle that I hadn't considered and one that I can get behind. I wasn't thinking of the grand scheme of things. Only in the Star Wars is now a Disney property.
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Which I feel like is kind of exactly where the legal team at Disney wants people focused. I harbor no ill will towards the creative elements of these gigantic megolpolies of entertainment... but I get the heebie jeebies when I think about the back door machinations that go on in order to raise an entire generation planet wide of mickey mouse ear wearing consumer zombies.
 
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