Disney to acquire Lucasfilm

[Havok]

Stop it.

[Havok]

So does anyone know how much input Disney has in what Pixar and Marvel do? I mean if this is just left to the people at Lucasfilm I don't see much changing. It's not like Lucasfilm needed money or anything.

[the atom]

I......I don't know how I feel about this. I don't know how I should feel about this. It's like my inner OT puritan and my inner fanboy are wrestling for control.

Does the franchise get more raped than 'actually boba feet survived and had hilarious adventures'?

You mean the idea that a space marine armed with a raygun, rocket launchers, space grenades, cool armour, and a jet pack survived after being swallowed whole by some sand creature bothered you?

[Havok]

Also any live action show is now going to become an ABC figure head.

[Pelranius]

So does anyone know how much input Disney has in what Pixar and Marvel do? I mean if this is just left to the people at Lucasfilm I don't see much changing. It's not like Lucasfilm needed money or anything.

Well, with Pixar at least (judging from a family friend's husband who works there) Disney has a pretty hands off approach to them, and what interference that happened was to make sure that movie projects weren't colliding with one another in terms of release dates and similar subjects.

But if Episode VII doesn't do to well financially or critically, I imagine that the Mouse Empire will become a lot more proactive.

[Galvatron]

I can't find anything on Google about Kevin Feige's boss. I imagine Kathleen Kennedy would answer to the same people at Disney.

[Batman]

You mean the idea that a space marine armed with a raygun, rocket launchers, space grenades, cool armour, and a jet pack survived after being swallowed whole by some sand creature bothered you?

If I'd have to make a guess, I'd venture the idea of a background nonentity with like 3 lines in two movies whose main contribution to the story was being fed to the Sarlacc by a blind man somehow ending up a major character in the EU is what bothers him.

[Darksider]

The biggest immediate question is what they'll do with TCW. It's broadcast and in syndication on a channel disney has no control over. Are they going to be ok with that, or will they want to move future seasons to whatever their cartoon channel is called these days?

[Boeing 757]

This could go in either one of two ways:

1. If they make too many Star Wars films too quickly, they may run the risk of cheapening the franchise much like what happened to the early Star Trek films. I value quality over quantity, and I think most folks share that sentiment.

Or....

2. They may just pull it off, and make a trilogy that could knock our socks off. Though I reckon the odds stand against them. I'm a little weary of Disney's intentions frankly, but I prefer to wait and see what it can provide us before I hold it in contempt. I also don't see the bloated corpse of the EU surviving, albeit I don't see it being declared "fantasy" just yet.

[Galvatron]

The biggest immediate question is what they'll do with TCW. It's broadcast and in syndication on a channel disney has no control over. Are they going to be ok with that, or will they want to move future seasons to whatever their cartoon channel is called these days?

Isn't this its final season?

[Darksider]

When it first started they said they were only going to do five, but I haven't heard them say anything about it being the final season recently. Honestly I don't know. It's not like they can pack many more events between Ep2 and Ep3 anyways, so it may very well be.

Also, bollocks to your idea to have Whedon do an SW movie. His style is all wrong and every time he does Sci-fi he includes too many close-ups of Summer Glau's feet.

[Srelex]

I get you Bean.

I'm just reactionary right now.... I honestly feel... numb I guess is the word... I don't know if this is good or bad.

This for me, pretty much. I guess Disney could breathe new life into franchise...maybe...or do the opposite? Just have to wait and see, I suppose.

[Simon_Jester]

My only thought on this is that I'm not really happy about Disney owning everything in American entertainment, and it looks like they're trending that way. With the big franchises at least.

Also that it would kind of suck if the Disney attitude toward copyright enforcement starts shutting down the fan community; we've got enough overzealous enforcement out there as it is.

[Darksider]

My only thought on this is that I'm not really happy about Disney owning everything in American entertainment, and it looks like they're trending that way. With the big franchises at least.

Also that it would kind of suck if the Disney attitude toward copyright enforcement starts shutting down the fan community; we've got enough overzealous enforcement out there as it is.

I'll second that.

[Connor MacLeod]

At this point I can't really muster up enough interest to care. I've had a faint interest in Star Wars that lingers but its never really been serious enough for me ot actually buy any of the novels for awhile (or rather, buy only certain ones). And its unlikely that the movies already out are going to be tossed out or anything, so everyone sitll has that to enjoy (and its not like there was any odds of the universe being added to in a non-EU way prior to this either.)

What I'm really wondering is how this will impact a live action TV show (will it happen sooner or not), and whether or not the franchise is going to get a reboot at some point. The falluot from that should be.. interesting.

Other than that it wouldnt surprise me if they decide to borrow from the books to make movies either in some way or another - its been a well established practice in Hollywood already and its a ready source of recycable material for plots and shit.

[TK-984]

RIP Lucasfilm, Redtails did it in.

[Darksider]

Was the sale necessary? How bad were Lucasfilm's financial straits? I know Redtails bombed, and so did the TPM 3d re-release.

[LMSx]

I'm curious how Kathleen Kennedy being the voice will differ. Not unexpectedly, she's got roots with Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment, so I wonder how an Indy-esque collaboration would work.

[Pelranius]

If Disney shoots the sequel trilogy out, to say, a decade or so past the Legacy Comics, it would allow them to continue milking the current EU for all it's worth.

[Havok]

Doubtful. The money Lucas made from SWS, ILM and just licensing allowed him to make things he wanted, not things he needed to.
I would be utterly shocked if this were a decision that was made because of a any financial situation other than "Yes please, I would like 4 BILLION dollars."

[LMSx]

Interesting article

There are only a few reasons why, if you're Disney, you announce that you're buying George Lucas's film studio for $4 billion today, in the middle of an impenetrable news cycle surrounding a major natural disaster, and when U.S. stock markets are closed:

1. You want to cheer up the citizens of storm-damaged cities on the East Coast by giving them a new Star Wars film to look forward to.

2. You were going to announce the deal this week anyway, and somewhat callously decided not to delay the release just because Hurricane Sandy happened.

3. The deal is a financial dud, and you want to get the news out with minimum scrutiny.

Based on what little we know of the finances of Lucasfilm (which was private, and 100 percent owned by George Lucas, until today), I'm guessing that something closer to option 3 is happening.

....


Compared to its other acquisitions (most notably, its 2006 purchase of Pixar for $7.4 billion), Disney is buying LucasFilm for a steal. And at a glance, $4 billion does look low for an iconic movie series. Earlier this year, 24/7 Wall Street ran some back-of-envelope calculations and estimated that the Star Wars franchise alone was worth upwards of $30 billion.

But there's no way a $30 billion valuation is even remotely accurate, given that George Lucas was willing to sell his entire company for roughly one-eighth of that.

[Darksider]

Well he said in the interview that he wanted to put his company someplace safe when he retired, he might have gone with Disney because it's such a huge entity and could insure the security of his company and its employees.

[Havok]

If Disney shoots the sequel trilogy out, to say, a decade or so past the Legacy Comics, it would allow them to continue milking the current EU for all it's worth.

I don't have any hard numbers, but creatively it is worth crap.

People need to get over this whole EU thing. The new movie makers and story writers are not going to sift through the mass of garbage that is the EU to find anything worth while. They will have their own ideas.

And if they do end up with some EU fanboy that has grown up with it that knows the ins-and-outs, then the franchise is doomed, because he would clearly be an idiot that doesn't recognize quality.

[Darksider]

*Snip*

There might be some truth to this. Not sure what Lucasfilm's reported financials are like, but the SW brand certainly isn't worth 30 billion anymore. The Ep1 3d re-release didn't even gross as much as Ep3 made on it's first day. TOR is hemorrhaging subscribers and went F2P faster than any other MMO ever released. I don't know what the book and comic sales numbers look like, or the toy merchandising. It seems like the only successful thing SW has going on financially and quality-wise is the Clone Wars animated series, and that might be ending this year.

[Pelranius]

If Disney shoots the sequel trilogy out, to say, a decade or so past the Legacy Comics, it would allow them to continue milking the current EU for all it's worth.

I don't have any hard numbers, but creatively it is worth crap.

People need to get over this whole EU thing. The new movie makers and story writers are not going to sift through the mass of garbage that is the EU to find anything worth while. They will have their own ideas.

And if they do end up with some EU fanboy that has grown up with it that knows the ins-and-outs, then the franchise is doomed, because he would clearly be an idiot that doesn't recognize quality.

It being creatively worth crap wouldn't stop Disney from trying.

EDIT: Pushing the sequels out to 200 ABY or whatever means that they don't have to worry about recasting the big 3 (and the hullabaloo that will cause). Milking the EU would be the cherry on top.