Disney buys Lucasfilms... WTF

[NTSC-J]

I'm hoping for a new story myself; thinking back on the weeks and months leading up to The Phantom Menace, nothing beats the excitement of a new story.

[MJR]

Worth it just for ILM and Skywalker Sound. I think the Lucasfilm side may have been less important.

Maybe they can save Star Wars from George?

I wouldn't trust Disney to "save" any significant work of art.

Disney Animation may be exploitative when it comes to Direct-to-dvd sequels, but the fact of the matter is that the company is very big on archiving, restoration and preservation. They are far more likely to release the original versions of the film in a high quality format than George Lucas ever would. When it comes to new films, you need to remember that Disney is also the parent company of a lot of production houses that produce great films. Pulp Fiction was the first film greenlit by Miramax after being purchased by Disney. So I trust Disney to do a better job then George has.

Disney animation WAS exploitative. The direct-to-dvd sequels happened when Eisner was CEO. After Pixar took over, the first thing Lasseter did was to kill the cheap sequels; and god bless him for that.

It was also Lasseter who persisted that Disney should not abandon traditional animation completely, hence the princess and the frog.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Great! Can I now have Amiga ports of Full Throttle and Monkey Island 3, please?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Worth it just for ILM and Skywalker Sound. I think the Lucasfilm side may have been less important.

Maybe they can save Star Wars from George?

I wouldn't trust Disney to "save" any significant work of art.

Disney Animation may be exploitative when it comes to Direct-to-dvd sequels, but the fact of the matter is that the company is very big on archiving, restoration and preservation. They are far more likely to release the original versions of the film in a high quality format than George Lucas ever would. When it comes to new films, you need to remember that Disney is also the parent company of a lot of production houses that produce great films. Pulp Fiction was the first film greenlit by Miramax after being purchased by Disney. So I trust Disney to do a better job then George has.

You can be 100% positive that Disney will re-release the original SW trilogy on Blu-Ray that the fans have been clamoring ever since the Blu-Ray format came into existence (fully restored to it's former glory with frame-by-frame restoration -- how long that'll take, with Disney's deep & vast monetary pockets, it's a given/no-brainer to go with this particular BR release). I'd buy it if were available today or a few years from now quite easily.

With Disney's plans to release SW: Episode 7 in possibly May of 2015, it'll continue the further adventures of Skywalker and Co. Given the fact that the Jedi twins of Leia and Luke are age 23 in SW:RoTJ, they'd be a tad bit older in the SW:Ep 7 flick.

If Lucas had stuck to making SW Episodes 7, 8 and 9 as original planned, episode 7 would've debuted in 1986 (a mere three years after 1983's RoTJ release), episode 8 in 1989 and in 1992 for the 9th and final episode. It'd make sense to use all the original actors & actresses from the original SW trilogy for the final three SW films indeed. But with Disney's grand plan to release SW episode 7, it'd seem that all new actors and actresses would need to be cast to reprise the roles of the original characters indeed.

I think Heir to the Empire would make for a great SW film if it was green-lit.

With 14,000 different SW characters over the years spanning a 20,000 year period -- Disney can go either forward or backwards to tell the earlier SW stories or sequels as originally intended.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Friendly]

further adventures of Skywalker and Co.

Too bad there is a 30 year gap between the production of VI and VII. I know we all would have liked to see more of Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher as Luke, Han and Leia.
Instead Lucas gave us inept prequels no-one has asked for. Glad it's out of his hands now.

@Strider77
Care to correct the topic? The company is called Lucasfilm, not Lucasfilms.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

If the new SW sequels could return to their former glory of the original SW trilogy, with some big-name directors and screenwriters, it's do-able/possible. That's quite a lofty goal to achieve or surpass.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Friendly]

If the new SW sequels could return to their former glory of the original SW trilogy, with some big-name directors and screenwriters, it's do-able/possible.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

What do you mean? The original actors are too old. It's not really a matter of who directs this. Unless you recreate them using 100% CGI; though I don't think we're quite there yet.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

If the new SW sequels could return to their former glory of the original SW trilogy, with some big-name directors and screenwriters, it's do-able/possible.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

What do you mean? The original actors are too old. It's not really a matter of who directs this. Unless you recreate them using 100% CGI; though I don't think we're quite there yet.

I meant was, if the next three SW sequel could in terms of having a sly (or sarcastic) sense of humor, the tight pacing of one scene into the next, etc. -- hallmarks of the original trilogy that the new sequels would have (was sorely lacking with the three SW prequels indeed).

Yeah, the CGI facial EFX of Clu in the Tron Legacy flick, some were creeped out by that (despite the extensive work to trying to create Clu's face based on a younger Jeff Bridges/Kevin Flynn as he would've looked like in 1989 as opposed to his likeness in the original 1982 Tron release).

I'm glad/stoked that SW episode 7 will be made as a live-action film (even if it's some 30+ years too long a gap to further tell the SW sequels).

You can expect Yoda to make an return appearance in the new SW sequels. It's a given.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[dex]

Man, this cannot possibly turn out well.

what's wrong with your faaaaaaaaace

[TransatlanticFoe]

This can only be good news - Lucas was happy to get Star Wars rot, ignoring the expanded universe, delaying the live action TV series for bullshit reasons and generally happy to re-issue the original trilogy with minor changes every few years.

With the wealth of expanded universe material, the Thrawn Trilogy would be the logical place to pick up. With a half-decent director and writing team, it can't be as terrible as the prequels surely?

Disney won't help on the DVD/BluRay front though. They love sitting on things for years and putting out overpriced limited run releases. All anyone really wants is the original, unaltered, trilogy on a better format than the 4:3 "widescreen" laserdisc transfers. So wait for next Christmas probably!

[Specineff]

Imperial Knights FTW.

[replayme]

If I was to think of directors for the new and upcoming trilogy, I would think of the following as being my first choice:
Christopher Nolan
James Cameron
David Fincher

If the aforementioned directors weren't available, I'd say the following would also make a good choice - but ONLY if the aforementioned weren't available:
Peter Jackson
JJ Abrams
Sam Raimi
Steven Spielberg

I think 1 director per movie would also be a really neat idea.

[Friendly]

James Cameron

Have you seen Avatar?

Not so sure about Spielberg, either. I think he may have lost his touch, too.

[drauch]

Have you seen anything by those directors lately?

[GaijinPunch]

James Cameron

Have you seen Avatar?

Not so sure about Spielberg, either. I think he may have lost his touch, too.

I don't think Cameron would be a particularly bad choice for Star Wars (even the originals were popcorn flicks), but he has stated he's not in the movie business anymore. He's in the Avatar business. Fincher would get my vote even though I'm not so gaga over his recent stuff. Still not bad though. Nolan would make sure it's scored well... something I felt was missing from the prequels (amongst a myriad of other things).

Agreed on Spielberg. The guy can make some amazing shit when he wants the award. I'm sure Lincoln will be great, as Daniel Day Lewis rarely disappoints. However, most of his stuff caters too much to the lowest common denominator.

[shmuppyLove]

Bring back John Ratzenberger!

[dan76]

Tarantino would be interesting, so would del Toro. Spielberg should've directed the prequels, so maybe he will get the chance. Bet you life there are loads of directors in Hollywood making calls right now.

+1 for Ratzenberger (if he made it off Hoth)

[CMoon]

I think you're better picking an aspiring director who'd jizz his pants to make a star wars movie, rather than picking from this list of well established (and honestly, pretty uninspiring) directors. Not that I'd expect Star Wars to ever do what it did for me when I was 6, but even just some films on par with the Star Trek reboot would be nice.

[GaijinPunch]

Totally forgot about Cliff being in Empire. Talk about padding your IMDB credit roll.

[drauch]

Tarantino would be really interesting. We could have Jar-Jar saying some jive talk about some nonsense, a trunk shot from a dead Taun-Taun, some out of place music, and every shot in the film could be from another Star Wars movie. Pure gold, IMDB top 250 material. And Luke could be black.

[GaijinPunch]

And Luke could be black.

Luke wasn't black?

[xbl0x180]

If I was to think of directors for the new and upcoming trilogy, I would think of the following as being my first choice:
Christopher Nolan
James Cameron
David Fincher

If the aforementioned directors weren't available, I'd say the following would also make a good choice - but ONLY if the aforementioned weren't available:
Peter Jackson
JJ Abrams
Sam Raimi
Steven Spielberg

I think 1 director per movie would also be a really neat idea.

Whoever directed The Empire Strikes Back needs to direct MOAR I'd say Luc Besson would be the next best thing.

[RGC]

Nah, Wes Anderson all the way. At least you know he'd do a great job of bringing the focus back on human relationships - and not in a 'sand is coarse and gets in all your cracks, but somehow your arse is so smooth' sort of way.

[Friendly]

Whoever directed The Empire Strikes Back needs to direct MOAR

Unless Disney is in the Zombie business, that's not gonna hapen. Kershner died two years ago (aged 87).

[PC Engine Fan X!]

This can only be good news - Lucas was happy to get Star Wars rot, ignoring the expanded universe, delaying the live action TV series for bullshit reasons and generally happy to re-issue the original trilogy with minor changes every few years.

With the wealth of expanded universe material, the Thrawn Trilogy would be the logical place to pick up. With a half-decent director and writing team, it can't be as terrible as the prequels surely?

Disney won't help on the DVD/BluRay front though. They love sitting on things for years and putting out overpriced limited run releases. All anyone really wants is the original, unaltered, trilogy on a better format than the 4:3 "widescreen" laserdisc transfers. So wait for next Christmas probably!

Well, if you look at Disney's labor of love with it's frame-by-frame restoration project with Sleeping Beauty and how much time and money it took to get it done right the first time, the same type of restoration could be applied for the original trilogy (consider that they now own all the original SW trilogy 35mm prints reels indeed from the 35mm print reel storage vault).

It was back in 2011, that the original 1983 theatrical 35mm print version of RoTJ surfaced & was screened for a single showing in Modesto, CA courtesy of George Lucas himself -- he didn't have to do that (it was a special gift to his hometown to do so). It'd be slick to see Disney do such a proper frame-by-frame restoration project with them. I wouldn't be surprised if they were to do a Blu-Ray 4K version down the road (when those higher-res Blu-Ray players are more readily available on the market).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Herr Schatten]

Wes Anderson all the way.

The more I think about this, the more awesome it sounds.

[Ruldra]

Darth Vader approves being part of the Disney family.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUbH1SEsqiE

[BIL]

He looks uncannily like one of our local bus drivers in that shot. George Lucas, I mean.

[Mischief Maker]

Nolan would make sure it's scored well... something I felt was missing from the prequels (amongst a myriad of other things).

Huh? The score was the only good part of the prequels, even if it was 90% recycled.

Arguably I'd say that's part of the reason the prequels produced THAT MUCH hate. The cognitive dissonance of the titles bursting on the screen and the Williams score blazing set against an opening crawl talking about... negotiations over a trade dispute?

[CMoon]

Another thought; Honestly, Star Wars has been very kid friendly ever since Jedi. Maybe Disney buying the rights from Lucas is something that should have happened years (decades?) ago, given how the early 80's was the last time Lucas had any edge. Seriously, his films feel pre-adapted for Disney. Might as well cement the thing.