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Disney plans to bring not just one but three new Star Wars films to the big screen, and the companies “have a pretty extensive treatment of the next three movies,” chairman and CEO Bob Iger said in a conference call announcing its deal to acquire Lucasfilm. “Episode 7 will be released in 2015, the first under the Disney/Lucas banner,” he said, with Episode 8 and Episode 9 to follow. Disney plans to release a new Star Wars movie “every two to three years.” Disney also intends to pursue the Star Wars brand in their parks, with games and, “other initiatives,” CFO Jay Rasulo said. “Being that there hasn’t been a Star Wars film since 2005, a lot of the value we attribute to the deal is to come, added Rasulo. ”This gives us a great footprint in the consumer market, and we already had a good one,” said Iger of the licensing possibilities that the Star Wars franchise could represent for Disney.
Related: Disney Buys Lucasfilm; More ‘Star Wars’ Movies Planned
“We love the fact that this will take its place in our live-action strategy as a known and loved brand,” said Iger of his newest property. “We really like Star Wars’ potential on TV, and Disney XD would be a great home for that.” He did not provide any more details about future Stars Wars TV shows. He added that that the deal “combines two of the strongest family entertainment brands in the world.”
Disney announced today that it would be purchasing LucasFilms for $4.05 billion. Half the consideration is in cash; the other half is in issuing approximately 40 million shares based on the company’s October 26 stock price. The company said it intends to buy back all the shares in the next two years. This purchase includes rights to the entire Star Wars franchise, Industrial Light + Magic and LucasSound. Unlike Disney’s $4 billion acquisition of Marvel in 2009, this deal comes with few limitations on the company’s use of the purchased properties like the Star Wars characters. “There are some encumbrances with the first Stars Wars films with Fox and some encumbrances with Indiana Jones with Paramount,” said Rasulo. Iger said that, while he “loves the franchise,” the Indiana Jones films were not a big factor in the deal because of Paramount’s rights to the franchise. Fox has no future distribution rights to any further Star Wars films, the execs said.
Related:
Bob Iger & George Lucas On Disney-Lucasfilm: Video
George Lucas On ‘Star Wars’ And Disney: Video
Deadline's Dominic Patten - tip him here.
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Wow!!
Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher must be beyond excited right now. Same with Billy Dee Williams. I wonder if they can get Harrison to return for the first film.
It’s safe to say those roles will be filled by a new crop of actors closer to the age that Mark, Carrie, and Harrison were in 1983. I feel sorry for anyone that has to fill Han Solo’s boots.
I wouldn’t say its “safe to say” that they will use different actors for the original roles. If they do it will be a big mistake. Why should we see different peiople playing the characters we have come to love. It worked with Star Trek because Star Trek has been played out. Star Wars is NOT Star Trek and it should not be treated the same.
None of those actors will be in the new films. They will have an all new cast. Picture Zac Efron as Luke. Selena Gomez as Leia. Channing Tatum as Han Solo.
Ah, the internet is so cynical. Picture Jennifer Lawrence as Leia. See, not so awful.
But Han will be the tough one to recast. Luke – an unknown maybe?
One thing is for sure, the movie will not star codgers. Either the Big Three get recast or it’s all new characters, 25-35 years old.
Actually, Kathy Bates would be the best choice.
IT’s not a re-make so it will not BE a recast. JEESUS.
It could be a continuation and need recasting because the original actors are too old now to have the required youth appeal. Disney just spent four billion dollars on the franchise, and I can’t see them ignoring a pack of known brand names in favor of developing new original characters. If they wanted to do all that work, why buy Star Wars at all? Just develop an original property. Disney is all about exploiting known brands, and Luke Skywalker is too big a brand to ignore.
Finally someone who makes sense.
Damn whats with the agism. You guys of the younger generations won’t like it anyway, you didnt like the last ones why should they make any more movies for “you.”
Why? Are you kidding me?
The story will jump ahead in time, Han and Leia kids will be teenagers or adults, same with Luke if he has one. So the original actors will be age appropriate to make what I can only assume are cameos if at all.
Yeah, and maybe the guy who played Jar Jar is getting like, a million phone calls right now.
If they want to mint money, make the 7th film like the 2nd one–dark, gritty, and well written. Lose the kiddie crap.
Right. That’s the Disney brand –”dark, gritty”…and without kiddie crap.
He didn’t say make it R rated violent, just darker in tone. And it’s a perfectly reasonable idea, just look at Empire Strikes Back. Avengers wasn’t particularly “kiddie” either (although obviously not as dark as the new batman movies), and based on the trailer, Iron Man 3 looks to be heading in a darker, grittier direction.
The notion that Disney only does “kiddie” is a gross oversimplification.
Keep in mind the “Pirates of the Carribean” movies are Disney properties. Not exactly warm & fuzzy “kiddie” fare.
“Lose the kiddie crap”?
Don’t forget we’re talking about Disney here.
I dont think itlle be kiddie just because its disney… Disney has had a few recent releases that arnt kiddie…. and dont forget that disney owns ABC and i dont see any kiddie shows onw ABC at all….
Amen brother.
“Empire strikes Back” was the best.
I always though George while brilliant, is not the best director.
Lol Lucas never directed Empire.
That is what Nick was trying to say: it was the best because Lucas didn’t direct it.
Only way to do it is to keep Lucas as far away from it all as possible.
I hope “oh we have it mapped out” means they’ve already talked to Timothy Zahn.
Lucas has said in interviews that he doesn’t view the Expanded Universe as canon, so I wouldn’t get my hopes up for that. I read a few of Zahn’s novels, and I’m not sure if the Thrawn storyline would be enough of an antagonist.
Why??!!! The last three sucked. They’re going to milk the franchise until it shrivels up and dies.
You answered your own question.
So? Just because the last three sucked doesn’t necessarily mean that the next three can’t be good.
Exactly
As long as Lucas isn’t involved.
2020: Avengers vs. Star Wars. Bring it on!
Avengers III: Return of the Sith
Please please Bob Iger do not cancel The Clone Wars TV show – its amazing and only getting better week to week.
Amazing how George Lucas went from being Luke Skywalker fighting the evil empire to selling it all to the real evil empire.
Good news all around.
If I may make a small suggestion — instead of new sequels, reboot the prequels. From scratch.
Imagine the mass ecstasy at the next Comic Con if you announced this change, Mouse House.
Hey Chris, way to go on the Timothy Zahn comment. His trilogy of books was basically episodes 7, 8, and 9, and they rocked!
It remains to be seen if Lucas has his own notions of what 7, 8, and 9 are or if they are going to bring the Zahn books to the screen. I hope they don’t go with the Zahn books. They were written without any knowledge of the content of 1, 2, and 3.
that would make them all the better.
I’d love to see EU writers John Jackson Miller, John Ostrander, and Mathew Stover take a crack at these movies. They really REALLY REALLY need to be considered (not the latest fly by night “hip name idiot” from the uber-agencies.) These three lads are some of the best expanded universe writers and they gave the line a true shot in the arm. They know what it takes to craft an excellent Star Wars story.
Stover especially needs to be brought in at gunpoint to work on this. He kills it every time. One of the most ultra badass cool moments in Star Wars history comes in “Traitor” where a lone Jedi faces down a whole army of barbaric alien killers. And the way Stover wrote it just RULES!!!
“Lose the kiddie crap.”
You do realize the vast majority of the fan base of these films in the 80′s was children, yes? These by nature are kids films. Maybe if the fat basement dwellers would grow the hell up and realize the films will not be made to evolve into adult films to suit them, they’d be happier.
You do realize Chris that not every single adult who loves star wars is NOT “basement-dwelling”. You can love star wars and be a perfect mature adult. Sure Star Wars was made in the 80′s but there are adults in the 80′s too? I would say the movies themselves could be angled toward any age but the franchise as in the action figures and kids shows appeal to more kids or these “basement dwellers”. And most of Disney these days technically kiddie crap. Have you seen some of those shows? Utter garbage my friend. Yes Disney did good with avengers and Tron, but ultimately you cannot compare those to star wars. Again, this is my opinion so I can’t be wrong. If you think I am this is your opinion good people. And in my opinion I think you shouldn’t take offensives to someone saying kiddie crap because when he is talking about Disney (in my opinion) he is not far from the truth.
Thank you.
Star Wars was made in the 70s! Saw Episode 4 in 1977 and it was the best movie I’d ever seen up to that time (I was in my early 20s) and it is still one of my all time favorites.
I assume that comment was sent from your mom’s basement. If you there’s too “kiddie crap” in Star Wars for you, then don’t watch it. They are kids movies. A lot of people hated Jar Jar. He was my son’s (about 7 at the time) favorite character. If they make new ones for adults, fine, maybe they’d be good. If they’re for kids, that’s fine too, because probably a lot of kids would like them. Either way if anyone gives me any of this crap about Lucas or now Disney, “raping their childhood,” I’m going to tell them that their childhood sucked and maybe they should have gone outside to play every once in a while. Because while you can like Star Wars and be perfectly normal. You CANNOT waste any amount of time at all yelling about how because a movie wasn’t how you wanted it that it has in any way adversely effected your life and be anything other than pathetic. Back to the basement, mama’s boy. She’ll bring you some hotpockets in a bit and tell you it’ll be okay and that the internet people are just mean & don’t know how special you are.
I agree with Earl.
Most Star Wars fans are kids or kids at heart. For those bashing the prequels for being silly and immature, let me remind you that the original 1977 film featured aliens in a cantina playing horns and trumpets while getting drunk: not my idea of a “serious” film. The saga’s so-called masterpiece, Empire Strikes Back, featured a giant space worm, with Han Solo getting lost in its stomach shooting Mynocks. Again, not my idea of a “serious” film.
Lucas-bashers should open their eyes. Wide.
Since Disney will be taking over the reins, should we anticipate more Ewoks and other cutesy critters?
If you go back and read GL’s commentary on the franchise, he made very clear that the Star Wars saga consisted of three trilogies, of which the original Star Wars film was the first film in the second trilogy. It will be interesting to see whether the final trilogy begins 10 – 20 years after Return of the Jedi, which speaks to @Question’s comment, or whether it is set well past that timeframe, meaning all new casting. Just please, no Disney Channel stunt casting.
Marco, C’mon – you expect Disney (Disney?) to go dark and lose the kiddie crap with Star Wars?
Think about that for a moment.
Get real. They have zero chance of being the stars of these.
Finally, Jar Jar Binks’ character can be fully explored!
Actually Lucas approves any EU material and it is canon in the EU but only canon in his universe if he desires it but since he no longer can control Disney can approve the EU stuff as officially canon if they so desire.
Oh, geez, here we go with the “canon” crap. To EU or not to EU, WHO REALLY CARES? They’re just a bunch of damn movies with made up worlds. There’s no “canon”. They can do whatever they want! Screw the nerds!
If Lucas has little to do with these movies, it could be a win-win for everyone involved. He’s an idiot. This is incredibly huge for Disney.
Next, they, or some other company needs to get Bond away from EON. The franchise is suffering at their hands.
The Bond movies are better than ever!! Daniel Craig is the best Bond. Skyfall had the biggest opening EVER for the UK. WTF are you talking about?!?!?!
Oh, yeah right, Lucas is an idiot. He only CREATED Star Wars.
Let me see what you have done with your life.
Disney will take the same approach to Star Wars that Paramount took to Star Trek: recast the big names with pretty faces and pitch it to an all new global audience that may have heard of Luke Skywalker anymore than they knew who James T. Kirk was, or Iron Man for that matter.
They may be interested in a movie because of a semi-recognizable brand name, but that’s about it. They aren’t living in their parents’ basements and writing blogs about how wretched the prequels are. They are the same audience that has created an immense market for all fantasy/sci fi action movies – Avengers, Star Trek, X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman, Avatar, the list goes on. Star Wars will be made for that market.
They will recast Luke, Leia and Han with actors in the 25-35 range and just continue the story beyond ROTJ. Hamill, et al, may get cameos for politeness’ sake, but it won’t be like Nimoy passing the torch if for no other reason than that time travel isn’t a big factor (or any factor? I don’t know the novels) in Star Wars.
they will not recast luke, leia and han… that’s ridiculous… it’s not gonna be a reboot… they cast young and prob have the oldies in there as well…
The main characters (Luke, Leia, Han, etc.) would all have to be recast as the original actors are all too old unless they decide to jump ahead 30-40yrs for the new trilogy. Anthony Daniels could still do at least the voice of C-3PO if not put the suit back on for yet another trilogy. I like the idea of new movies but only if the casting is better than the prequel trilogy casting was( specifically Anakin and Amidala. other cast choices were fine). I liked episodes II and III but episode I sucked.
Lucas could have and should have made 7 8 9 starting in 1987 and going to 1993. That would have been the smart way to do the final trilogy but he said he didn’t have enough good ideas for three more stories. Then he waited too long to do the prequel trilogy. He screwed up his own franchise with his massive ego, the prequel trilogy should have been made in 1997 into 2003. He could have done everything and sold the company 10 years ago for an even larger amount.
One comment about Disney…….”John Carter”……
And?
John Carter was great, nuff said.
Which ‘John Carter’ did you see?
Titles that come to mind:
“Steamboat Wookie”
“Princess Leis and the Seven Ewoks”
The ghost of Yoda returns to train Luke Skywalker’s sister Princess Leia in the ways of the force in EPISODE 7: THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG.
101 Stormtroopers
“Around The Universe in 80 Parsecs”
“The Emperor’s Apprentice”
“The Chronicles of Tatooine: The Jedi, The Wookie, and The Death Star”
I’m so excited that someone will have a chance to breathe some new life into the Star Wars universe. Im not that in favor of doing 7-9 though. I think they should take a look at a couple of great SW video games. I think that The Force Unleashed would make an incredible movie and hsould set the stage for how Jedi and Sith wield their powers in future movies. Then I would like to see them delve into the Knights of the Old Republic story line. Both of those games have great story lines and characters. Id love to see them.
Hope they cast at least Hamill as a Jedi Master–just once to see him back on screen to pass the torch. Fisher I am sure would not want to reprise her role. Ford either.