The OtherArena

[Steve Yohe]

I'm sure John will want to talk about this:

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/10/30/disney-to-buy-star-wars-producer-for-4-05-billion/

[Tigerman73]

Why couldn't this have happened 15 years ago?

[jdw]

:)

The thing that's annoying is that we'll have more Star Wars movies that I will have to go see that will probably suck.

John

[Rian]

Maybe Jar Jar's kids will be in the new movie?

[Jeremy Billones]

I'm wondering what all the Expanded Universe people are thinking.
They've spent decades building up decades of post-RotJ canon, and now
the Mouse might shove it aside with a wave of its paw.

[jdw]

The Mouse will probably look at it in two ways:

* how much money does the Expanded Universe bring them in

* how much does it get in the way of their own Expanded Plans

I *think* that the first is a drop in the bucket relative to Disney's plans. They appear to have XII - IX in mind, then an ambitious "every two years" plan which sound really crackers. If you're churning out that much product, in a sense you're creating your own post-Luke/Han/Leia era... unless their reboot for XII-IX *is* with Luke/Han/Leia with new cast members playing them. Anyway, either of those things will create a Disney-SW Universe which pretty much renders the Expanded Universe moot. And the money that can be made off it blows the Expanded Universe away.

My guess is that they'll transition the Expanded Universe into the New Disney SW Universe. One wonders if they set up Lucasfilm into SW Entertainment and have someone head it like Marvel and Pixar. Or if what they really want is largely the SW Movies (and related merch and rolling it into the Parks) and see the rest as just small potatoes, in which case they may roll the movies into Disney, and the merch into the Disney merch machine. It not clear that Lucasfilm had enough stuff like Marvel or Pixar to stay indy... well, Pixar in a sense only had a movie a year, but Jobs & Co. swung a hard deal to retain some independence, and Disney at the time was increasingly desperate to retain Pixar.

It will be interesting to watch.

[Rian]

Can't see them adding much to the U.S. theme parks with Star Wars stuff, Star Tours is already in place...just no more licensing fees! They'll probably try to add something in Asia or Europe...and then bring it state-side if it turns out well.

[Bob Morris]

They are already talking about a sequel to the final Star Wars film.

Disney may have its issues, but when you hear about some of the rumored choices for the director of such a film, there might be somebody who can put together something that works -- certainly something far better than the last three films Lucas churned out.

I read one rumored director as being J.J. Abrams. While I'm not interested in a Star Wars relaunch, Abrams might be able to make a sequel that works well.

Then again, Peter Jackson is another rumored director choice, which will definitely cause John to go on a rant. ;)

[Tom Greaves]

[dewelar]

[corrado]

We've known that JJ Abrams would be the director for a while, but what about the cast? Well the big 3 of the original trilogy have roles in the first film:

http://starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-7-cast-announced.html

Im still very skeptical, after the fiasco of the prequel trilogy.

[jdw]

I'm also less than sold on JJ. His first Star Trek movie was entertaining and had an interesting take on the universe. His second was just an over-the-top action movie and was creatively bankrupt in feeling the need to go Khan rather than mine the rest of the series for another heel to bring back.

[Rian]

Bring back Lando!