STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS - Blu-Ray Thoughts

[John Johnson]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/d ... ion-384448

[AndyDursin]

Bigger news - more STAR WARS movies.

Disney has secured the young boy market for years to come between Lucasfilm and Marvel properties.

Whether they'll be any good -- maybe there's a chance if someone else gets a crack at directing and writing them!

[John Johnson]

Wonder if they will continue the saga, such as it is, or press the reboot button?

[AndyDursin]

For the love of God please NO REBOOT.

They're doing sequels -- "three more episodes" as Lucas claims -- so at least that is a better way to go.

Will suck though not to have the 20th Century Fox logo in front of it however...won't seem right.

[AndyDursin]

Nikki Finke confirms Kathleen Kennedy will be running the new Lucasfilm and these will be Episodes 7-9.

Disney has just confirmed that it has agreed to acquire George Lucas‘ Lucasfilm Ltd, and that includes rights to the Star Wars franchise that will now continue on. The companies have targeted a 2015 release for Star Wars: Episode 7, with Episode 8 and Episode 9 to follow as the the long-term plan is to release a new feature every two or three years. “The last Star Wars movie release was 2005’s Revenge Of The Sith – and we believe there’s substantial pent-up demand”, Disney said. The deal also includes rights to the Indiana Jones franchise.

The stock and cash transaction is worth an estimated $4.05 billion, and the companies have scheduled a conference call in a half-hour to discuss the deal, which was approved by the Disney board and Lucas, the sole Lucasfilm shareholder.

As for the new Star Wars installments, the companies said Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy would be executive producer on Episode 7 and any more Star Wars movies, and Lucas would serve as creative consultant. There was no indication about where the story would pick up, though technically in the franchise’s chronology it would follow Star Wars: Episode 6 — Return Of The Jedi, the third film in the initial trilogy that came out in 1983.

As part of the deal, Kennedy will become president of Lucasfilm, reporting to Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn. Kennedy, who was made Lucasfilm co-chairman June 1 as heir apparent to Lucas, will also serve as the brand manager for Star Wars, whose feature films have earned a total of $4.4 billion in global box to date. And that doesn’t even take into account the franchise’s massive merchandising clout that Disney CFO Jay Rasulo said will generate in 2012 close to the $215 million in consumer product revenue Marvel had when Disney bought that comics business in 2009.

Disney has built its business under chairman and CEO Bob Iger around such major acquisitions as Marvel, Pixar, ABC and ESPN.

“Lucasfilm reflects the extraordinary passion, vision, and storytelling of its founder, George Lucas,” Iger said in a release announcing the deal. “This transaction combines a world-class portfolio of content including Star Wars, one of the greatest family entertainment franchises of all time, with Disney’s unique and unparalleled creativity across multiple platforms, businesses, and markets to generate sustained growth and drive significant long-term value.”

Disney is paying approximately half of the consideration in cash and issuing approximately 40 million shares at closing based on Disney’s stock price on October 26. Lucasfilm is 100% owned by Lucasfilm chairman and founder Lucas.

“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” said Lucas. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I’m confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney’s reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment, and consumer products.”

Lucasfilm’s businesses include live-action film production, consumer products, animation, visual effects, and audio postproduction. Disney also acquires the technologies from the San Francisco-based company, which operates under the names Lucasfilm Ltd., LucasArts, Industrial Light + Magic, and Skywalker Sound.

[AndyDursin]

Lucas talking about the next Star Wars saga...

[Jedbu]

Here is the story in the LA Times:

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-po ... 2015-62821

If Lucas is to be creative consultant they should have the proviso that he cannot write or direct ANYTHING unless someone else says it is good, and if I were Iger and Kennedy I would call up Spielberg and tell him that he now can make the Indiana Jones films the way he wants to without Lucas messing with it. I know Spielberg's name was on CRYSTAL SKULL , but I feel that most of the blame for how bad it was (not sure about the lead-lined fridge) rests with ol' George...

And all prints of HOWARD THE DUCK must be transferred to nitrate....

[AndyDursin]

I actually like (to a degree) HOWARD THE DUCK. Sorry! Would gladly watch it over the likes of Red Tails, Attack of the Clowns or Kingdom of the Crystal Skull anyday.

I wouldn't worry about George directing this franchise again Jeff. As he said, Lucas is clearly handing off the series to someone else. He won't be directing. This is all about Lucas going into retirement and generating millions for his future generations. Hiring Kathleen Kennedy to oversee the company was the first step in what is obviously a massive megadeal.

What will be sickening will be credits like --

"Based on DISNEY'S Star Wars Characters"

Just like they did to Jim Henson in THE MUPPETS ("Based on Disney's Muppets" -- as if they had anything to do with their creation!!

[jkholm]

Bigger news - more STAR WARS movies.

Disney has secured the young boy market for years to come between Lucasfilm and Marvel properties.

Whether they'll be any good -- maybe there's a chance if someone else gets a crack at directing and writing them!

Hmmm...Marvel, Star Wars...what's next, Lego?

As tired as I am of Star Wars (I do have a 6-year old boy) I think there's great potential for fresh talent to revive the series. Disney has always been good at storytelling. Surely someone at Pixar could come up with a terrific idea for Episode 7.

And of course Michael Giacchino is the only logical choice for scoring duties should Williams not want to do it.

[Monterey Jack]

If this means unaltered theatrical cuts of the OT on Blu, then hooray!

As for more Star Wars movies, I wish they'd simply cut ties to the Skywalker clan and create a new story in the same universe. No need to continue where Return Of The Jedi left off (especially with the original cast as old as Yoda by this point )...just set it a few centuries later with a completely new cast. The Star Wars brand name is strong enough to support new stories and characters.

[Eric W.]

HUGE news on a lot of levels.

[AndyDursin]

If this means unaltered theatrical cuts of the OT on Blu, then hooray!

As for more Star Wars movies, I wish they'd simply cut ties to the Skywalker clan and create a new story in the same universe. No need to continue where Return Of The Jedi left off (especially with the original cast as old as Yoda by this point )...just set it a few centuries later with a completely new cast. The Star Wars brand name is strong enough to support new stories and characters.

This was always my idea for the prequels...that it would basically revolve around a fresh group of characters whose stories would be introduced and wrapped up by the time the prequel trilogy concluded. That, yes, it would have the Skywalker clan, but it wouldn't ONLY be about them -- because how interesting would that be, knowing how it already ends? Shows you how much I knew!

I think doing sequels will give whoever does these films a lot more creative freedom, obviously. I'd set it far in the future and have, as you said, a new story, new group of characters in the same universe we know and love.

What is sad is someone taking over for John Williams...don't even want to think about that as there's nobody qualified to carry his water out there at the moment.

[Paul MacLean]

I actually like (to a degree) HOWARD THE DUCK. Sorry!

I've known you almost 20 years Andy, and never knew we shared this guilty pleasure!

[AndyDursin]

I actually like (to a degree) HOWARD THE DUCK. Sorry!

I've known you almost 20 years Andy, and never knew we shared this guilty pleasure!

Paul -- John Barry, Lea Thompson with the frizzy hair, solid ILM effects and, best of all, an inspired Jeffrey Jones performance? Sure there are some creaky elements and not all of it works, but there's plenty to enjoy!

I've always felt HOWARD is an unfairly maligned film -- I can think of dozens of "Worst Movies Ever" that are FAR worse and have no redeeming features. I happen to love Barry's score, from the gentle, melodic love theme to the "Body Heat"-like jazzy main titles and the melodic "Howard" heroic material. And can I say...I actually like a couple of Dolby's songs?? Is that permitted...why yes it is!!

[Monterey Jack]

I think doing sequels will give whoever does these films a lot more creative freedom, obviously. I'd set it far in the future and have, as you said, a new story, new group of characters in the same universe we know and love.

That's what I love about the Avatar: The Last Airbender sequel series Legend Of Korra...yeah, it's a "next generation" kind of thing with a few (much older) characters from the first series, but mostly it just tells a completely original story in the same fantasy universe with a new cast, and thus you don't even really need to have watched the first series to appreciate it. The Star Wars universe is so vast and populated by characters and worlds we haven't even glimpsed yet that it seems a shame to continue to think that the Skywalker clan is the lynchpin of the entire series.

What is sad is someone taking over for John Williams...don't even want to think about that as there's nobody qualified to carry his water out there at the moment.

True, true (same with the lack of Basil Poledouris on the King Conan project). I'm sure we won't get a totally Zimmerized sound (there's just too much nostalgia attached to the Williams music to have something radically different), but whoever they get to do the music, it'll just sound like someone "doing" Star Wars, without Williams' impeccable gifts for melody. Sadly, as the "silver age" greats continue to die and retire, we just don't have enough fresh new talent to replace them. The 80's were the last great proving grounds for fresh young talent...Alan Silvestri, Michael Kamen, Danny Elfman, James Newton Howard (although he didn't start to "get good" until the early 90's), Bruce Broughton...now they're all either dead, have altered their sounds to kowtow to the Zimmer sound, or else simply don't get the work they deserve (Broughton hasn't scored a theatrical motion picture since Lost In Space...fourteen years ago ). They might get a technically proficient Williams soundalike like Joel McNeely, but it just won't be the same. Too bad Williams can't live forever.