STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS - Blu-Ray Thoughts

[Monterey Jack]

Josh Holloway for Indy!

[AndyDursin]

I wouldn't hold my breath on any Indiana Jones movies for a long while to come. This is from Forbes last November when the sale was announced:

With its purchase of Lucasfilm, Disney not only gets the Star Wars franchise, it also gets Lucasfilm’s stake in another hugely successful franchise: Indiana Jones. The four Indy films have grossed an unadjusted $2 billion at the box office.

But on a call with analysts and reporters yesterday, Disney chief executive Robert Iger said that the value of the Indy films hadn’t been factored in at all when putting together the $4 billion offering price for George Lucas‘ company.

“We love the franchise by the way,” said Iger. “But it’s not factored into the equation, so to speak, in this acquisition.”

The most recent film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, earned $800 million in 2008, so why not keep the franchise going — or better yet, give it a reboot with some cool up-and comer playing the swashbuckling archaeologist?

Because Paramount still has the rights to distribute any Indiana Jones movies and Disney does not want to want to make films for Paramount to distribute.

Disney ran into a similar problem when it bought Marvel in 2010. Marvel was busy at work on The Avengers and Iron Man 3 and Paramount was on board to distribute those films. So Disney paid Paramount $115 million for the distribution rights while also reportedly guaranteeing Paramount its 9% distribution fee.

Disney could do something similar with Indiana Jones but for right now, that’s not where Iger wants to spend the company’s money. Instead, he’s going to focus on making as much hay as possible from the Star Wars franchise, with a new movie scheduled to hit theater in 2015 and two more to follow.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypome ... time-soon/

[AndyDursin]

Lawrence Kasdan is joining JJ Abrams in rewriting Michael Arndt's screenplay:

http://www.deadline.com/2013/10/j-j-abr ... s-scribes/

BREAKING…The new Star Wars movie has a new screenwriting team. It was announced online today that Episode VII director J.J. Abrams and Empire Strikes Back co-writer Lawrence Kasdan will take over as scribes for the upcoming Disney project which is set to be released in 2015. The duo are taking over from Michael Arndt. The writer, who penned the screenplay for Hunger Games: Catching Fire and won an Oscar for writing Little Miss Sunshine, was named as the sole screenwriter on the pic early last November. Arndt was also said to be working on treatments for the other two planned new Star Wars films. “I am very excited about the story we have in place and thrilled to have Larry and J.J. working on the script,” states LucasFilm boss Kathleen Kennedy in a statement posted on Starwars.com Thursday. “There are very few people who fundamentally understand the way a Star Wars story works like Larry, and it is nothing short of incredible to have him even more deeply involved in its return to the big screen. J.J. of course is an incredible storyteller in his own right. Michael Arndt has done a terrific job bringing us to this point and we have an amazing filmmaking and design team in place already prepping for production.” Kasdan, who wrote the first Indiana Jones movie and wrote/directed The Big Chill as well, has been serving as a consultant on the first of three planned new Star Wars pics. Episode VII is scheduled to start filming at the UK’s Pinewood Studios in the spring of next year.

[AndyDursin]

Release date is set for Christmas 2015 -- few months after the planned date, but you'd expect they'll keep it at that point. First 'WARS not to be released in May.

Probably not the only thing that's going to be different

[DavidBanner]

I still wonder if they'll be able to keep that date. They've hedged about this before.
I could see them moving it back to May 2016 if there are any complications.

[AndyDursin]

I'd be surprised if it moves again. They seem to want this out in 2015 and actually have pushed other movies around now to accomodate it...obviously we'll see. I don't understand what the pressing need is to bring it out in 2015 unless there's a fiscal reason for it (which I am guessing is the case).

[John Johnson]

Disney announces new 'Star Wars: Attack Squadrons' online game



http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/17/5220 ... nline-game

[John Johnson]

Star Wars Blu Ray boxset reduced at Best Buy.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/star-wars-t ... 64&st=star wars blu ray&lp=1&cp=1

[John Johnson]

Star Wars Blu Ray boxset reduced at Best Buy.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/star-wars-t ... 64&st=star wars blu ray&lp=1&cp=1

Update.

[John Johnson]

Marvel will be the exclusive home of 'Star Wars' comics starting in 2015




http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/3/527044 ... ng-in-2015

[John Johnson]

Star Wars Blu Ray boxset reduced at Best Buy.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/star-wars-t ... 64&st=star wars blu ray&lp=1&cp=1

Update.

Price gone back up to $89. I can wait...

[AndyDursin]

Should probably jump on it when it hits the $50-$60 range again. It's highly unlikely to go below that -- not when they have two other versions on the market in the $30ish price point -- and also not when it's a bestseller.

[John Johnson]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chewbacca ... 00802.html

[AndyDursin]

Hollywood Reporter with some thrilling news & rumors:

Hugo Weaving as an Imperial commander? Wow, that's fresh and different! lol. In fact, I could care less about seeing Weaving EVER in another genre film. Talk about an insipid casting decision (if it turns out to be true).

Fassbender? Seen him in PROMETHEUS and X-MEN. Nothing new to see here either.

More Luke & Leia? Seriously? Their story lines ENDED. Why denigrate the old movies by having an elderly Carrie Fisher running around (and has anyone seen her lately?). A cameo? Fine, if I have to live with that...but a large supporting role? Only Harrison Ford has a clue how to act of that trio, especially decades later.

And speaking of that, aren't there ANY OTHER CHARACTERS in the galaxy other than the Skywalkers? Isn't this series called STAR WARS? Time for new faces, new characters, new story lines...instead we're just going to get the same o'l thing hacked up and put into one of Abrams' blenders again!

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-v ... -is-669997

[Eric W.]

^^ You said it, man. I have to admit I have very little interest in this right now.