So the big news at the moment is that on 30 October 2012 Lucasfilm Ltd has been purchased By Disney for $4.05 Billion US. That is S4,927,250,000 Pacific pesos.
That is roughly 2,357,535,885 Flake bars from countdown. And that is type one diabetes!
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| Not so hot after you have scoffed a billion m'dear. |
George Lucas has said in regards to the star wars films
"Why would I make any more,when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/magazine/george-lucas-red-tails.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
Lucas feels that Disney is large enough and was the best fit for the franchises future. Included in the deal is shares in Disney, so he is set for life.
And Disney? Well for them it means they own Marvel, Pixar, The Muppet's, and now Star wars and Indiana Jones. That is a sizable slice of pop culture right there. If they Merged with Warner Brothers they could probably buy Greece and make the best theme park in the world! Actually they could probably buy Greece, Portugal, and have Armenia thrown in for free.
Lucasfilm have had ideas for episodes 7,8, and 9rolling around for years, or so the rumours have it. And George will consult on the production of Episode seven which is being developed now.
So for the Star wars fans, die hard or other wise what does this mean?
Well lets look at the pros and cons.
Pros
Donald Duck as Han Solo is still better than Jar Jar
Frankly the films cannot get any worse. I am not a fan-boy, but Star Wars was a seminal trilogy for me. The original three films are still cool and enjoyable to watch to this day. I was as excited as anyone to hear that the prequels were being made and as disappointed as most. I can still find many good things about the first three episodes, but they are bad movies. If Disney create a Micky mouse version of Star Wars it would suck more than Jar Jar Binks and Hayden Christensen.
It will rock!
Disney have the money, and the business acumen to get this right. They have purchased a valuable property and if they want to get their 4 Billion dollars worth, they have to make movies that the fans will enjoy.
This is it kids
If you want more Star Wars, and you want good Star Wars then the purchase of the rights by a large production company is the only sensible conclusion.
Cons
It will suck!
In a desperate money fuelled attempt to recoup their investment they produce a film not just for fans but for everyone. Personally I doubt they will screw up Episode seven because Disney is now in it for the long haul, but then look at Alien versus Predator.
The fans
Despite the whining by hysterical fat nerds in their mothers basement making their Sims2 girl friends look like Leia, Lucas has been very generous to fans. Lucasfilm has actively encouraged fan films to be made. Here is a site where creative fans relive or create new stories in the Star Wars universe.
http://www.theforce.net/fanfilms/
That all may stop now that Disney owns the rights, and that would be a shame.
Looking forward I hope that Disney honours the legacy well and lets fans young and old to continue in their efforts in homages. I also hope that episode seven will be good.
But I guess I am just a romantic at heart. What do you think? do you think it is a good move or the final sell out by Lucas.
Like to hear your thoughts.
It's not a question of whether it's the final sell out or not - it is - the question is whether that's a good or a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteI hope it's a good thing. It could hardly be worse and Disney have done good things with the Marvel properties for the most part.
If they want to make Star Wars films that appeal to everyone, they'll have to appeal to fans. Fans make up a sizable chunk of everyone after all. With any luck they also make up a sizable chunk of Disney decision-makers.
May the Force be with us.
i think that lucas had screwed up the franchise (there are good bits but as a whole...) so a breath of fresh air could do it some good. i'm hoping for some sort of lion king/pirates of the carribean/the avengers level of movie. maybe if they grab joss whedon, then we could have some female jedi knights in a leading role and Nathan Fillion as a space cowboy. that would be awesome
ReplyDeleteI agree with Marina. Lucas royally screwed up Star Wars with the prequel trilogy. They were awful.
ReplyDeleteDisney has shown, via the Marvel movies (Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the Avengers) that they are capable of producing product that fans and mainstream audiences both want to see, and which is marketable as toys etc.
What will be interesting is to see whether they have been capable of doing this because they have the Marvel company onboard or whether it's translatable to other pop culture icons, like Star Wars.