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| Princess Lemon does not approve. |
OK well continuing my theme of writing one article a day that has stuff all to do with zombies, and stuff all to do with the hobby if yesterday's, and today's articles are to go by, I have to simply talk about the news that Disney has brought Lucas Films, and more importantly for geeks the rights to Star Wars. No biggy I guess, the whole Clone Wars cartoon thing meant that ultimately they'd want to buy the rights and own the whole thing and bring it under their umbrella. The really bad news comes from the fact that they're keeping George Lucas on a senior creative consultant... no, noooooooooooooooo!!! I jest of course, or do I. But seriously does George Lucas need anymore money? Apparently so because the sodding deal has netted the bugger $4bn US. Nice work if you can get it hey George, but I think it's possibly a shrewd purchase at that price. Seriously one of the worlds best loved and most iconic franchises for $4bn US, I'm sure many studio's would have bitten Georges chubby little hands off at that price.
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| Mickey Mouse is almost as annoying as Luke... almost. |
However, at $4bn US, Disney will want to start recouping that monetary investment, and no doubt they'll want to start doing it pretty bloody soon too. The news on that score is that we're going to get an episode VII by 2015. While I'm not keen on this, as it has the potential to clash with the post episode VI novels that are out there, and for the main part pretty good; I am at least happy, and safe in the knowledge that hopefully George Lucas won't be able to screw his Star Wars legacy up anymore. I mean, for all the wailing and gnashing of teeth by comic book fans Disney haven't done too badly have they with their recent Marvel films? Although I fully accept that the scope for humungous, epic and Biblical level *bleep* ups to occur with the Star Wars franchise is arguably greater. But, look at Avengers Unite, Iron Man and Captain America... no there track record with others IP so far hasn't been too bad, so I'm optimistic. The only silver lining as I see it is the fact that with some new films there might be new starships... and that might mean new options for FFG's X-wing game. See I brought it back to wargaming in the end. Peace out!
IF they let Timothy Zahn write the next couple of movies, Disney will have done the best thing to Star Wars since Zahn wrote the Thrawn trilogy.
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side, there is the possibility that we might be seeing some officially licensed wargaming models on the horizon. Disney is not as stingy with this stuff then Lucas was.
Disney will make you pay a license fee but they are happy to see their IP bring home the bacon as it were.
DeleteIf Zahn was writing the scripts you'd be right, but if you read below...
They are using Lucas' scripts for episodes 7-9, and those are already written...
ReplyDeleteBugger!
DeleteThat is all.
They already are seeing money from it. They no longer have to licence their own rides and merchandise from Lucasfilm now, so it's time to start going apeshit with the "park exclusives".
ReplyDeleteThat, is a very good point. I had not thought of that. All those Mickey Jedi toys I see kids with as well... hmmm. Disney aren't dumb are they?
DeleteYou know how their main competition in Florida, Universal Studios, has a super-hero themed section composed mostly of Marvel superheros?
DeleteNo, they really aren't.
I myself went to Florida this year for the Star Wars weekend, and had an amazeballs time there being a giant child. If this means it gets better.... WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Yeah, Disney is a pretty ruthless organisation all things being told. That's how you make money though is a capitalist system.
DeleteI think it could be good. Lucas has vision, which is great for having creative input, but he ain't so hot on the directing or dialogue. I would hope for the scripts, it'll be if someone has mentioned, Lucas's scripts, which may just be the plot that Lucas wrote years ago, as I believe he always planned 9 films. All in all I'm looking forward to it.
ReplyDeleteI will reserve judgement... for now. But Lucas really can't write a script for toffee. If they're sticking with his scripts with God awful racial stereotype aliens it'll be facepalms all around I fear. Get the nut job away from the IP as quickly as possible.
DeleteI was happy , then you told be that bumbling fuckwit somehow retained creative control.... no, NOOOOooooo !!
ReplyDeleteYes... that's it Matt let the hatred burn inside you, use your hatred... etc. etc. etc. You fancy a cool looking black outfit and force lightning? If so have you considered a career as a Sith? Let me know, I have a recently opened up vacancy.
Deletehe's also written more films !!! worst. day .EVER !!
ReplyDeleteI was going to say it could be worse... then I couldn't think of anything that would actually make it worse. :P
DeleteThey've announced Jedward as junior jedi for the next film.
DeleteThere you go. Worse.
(Disclaimer: no such announcement has actually been made, thankfully.)
Hmm... I'm not sure that's worse than Jar Jar Binks. :P
DeleteI doubt that this will have much of an effect on the X-wing game. 3 years is an long time to drag it out till. They have pretty much already tapped out all the iconic small ships from the original trilogy. In terms of core stuff they only have the B-wing, Tie Bomber, and Imperial Shuttle left. They could add the expanded universe stuff like the Z-95 or assault gunboat but that is a long time to keep such a limited game fresh. I would look for a rerelease type thing or a switch to clone wars era first.
ReplyDeleteAs to the author, Lucas is fine at large scale plot stuff but generally breaks down on the details of the characters. The original movies had many of the problems of the later movies but we were easier to impress. Interesting that George Lucas has now been the creator of 2 of Disneys biggest recent purchases (Pixar and Lucasfilms).
I'd go along with your assessmen of Lucas' abilities... as for the comment with regards to new ships in X-Wing... I was joking. :P
DeleteIt's worth noting that Disney have Joss Whedon on contract till 2015. He's earmarked to work on marvel projects but I doubt he'd turn down the change to play around in the star wars universe.
ReplyDeleteMaybe not. But the question that will be asked is whether Disney would what Joss Whedon on Star Wars or not. We'll have to wait and see what happens. But 3 more films... I just don't know.
DeleteI can see three more films. I just can't see them being any good with Lucas having any input into them.
ReplyDeleteTimothy Zahn has a perfect trilogy to follow up from RotJ. But I'm sure those books will be ignored compeltely along with most of the other well written post Jedi products out there...
Yes, I am bitter.
I'm not bitter, I'm just resigned to the fact that if Lucas is allowed anywhere near the details of the script it'll be awful. Hopefully Disney will know just to let him decide what colour the light sabers are.
DeleteYou know, I'm optimistic about this. You're right, the superhero movies have been decent, and I really enjoyed John Carter, I think it was very under-rated. Most of the "flaws" people complained about were just faithful adaptations of the original novels, which, seeing as they were written like a hundred years ago now seem a bit naff. I'm certain people would have complained if they'd changed too many things. Just goes to show you geeks are merciless and will bitch and moan no matter what you do...
ReplyDeleteStar Wars seems like a perfect fit for Disney. I disagree with the poster who said the original movies had many of the same flaws as the later ones. The first films were written as family movies, with the simple plots but deep emotional conflicts of mythologies. They're easy to understand and like. Disney excels at movies like that.
George Lucas doesn't. Not in recent years. He seems to be going for an unholy combination of comedy relief and horribly complex and badly wrought thriller plot, with a dash of distastefulness to make it "dark." When you have Jar Jar Binks in the same movie as your protagonist murdering a bunch of children, you have a serious problem. Namely, not knowing WTF sort of movie you're trying to make. Disney would never have that problem.
You know as I said in the article, Disney have done well with other peoples IP in essence. However, I just starting to get a bad feeling about this. Maybe I shouldn't be so down on it. I'm just not feeling so optimistic, but hey ho, they can't do any worse than Jar Jar Binks!
DeleteA strong case has been made over the years for the original trilogy only being what they are due to careful editing by Lucas' then wife Marcia Lou Griffin (who both had the ability to withold sex AND win Oscars for it). Where would we be without that wipe as C3P0 is lifted off the ground? Forgotten is where.
Delete@Arquinsiel, I've heard that before and tbh I'm sure there is some merit in it, but I'm going to say something that might upset a few people here... the original trilogy wasn't very good. Sorry the script was toss, the acting poor, the story nonsensical and certainly in 'A New Hope' the film jumped about too much without ever knowing what it wanted to be. Turn the brain of and the lightsabers were cool as was the idea of the force. that's it really. Loved them as a kid, but now I watch them and cringe a bit at some of it.
DeleteI saw the original Star Wars (even before they added A New Hope) to the title crawl and have been a SWEET fan eveesince (that's 35 yrs for those counting). I'm really excited by the prospect of 7-9 and while, yes, Mr Lucas is a creative consultant, new writers are being brought on board to turn his story points into great scripts.
ReplyDeleteEmpire was written by Lawrence Kasden and Leigh Brackett; Jedi by Kasden and Lucas so there's a precedent for other writers tackling his stories.
Well I wasn't even born when the first Star Wars had its cinematic release. So I have no idea what the world was like pre Star Wars. Maybe, just maybe Disney will bring in other people to make sure the 'hopefully' final 3 films won't be complete and utter turds. We can but hope.
DeleteI don't know about this. I guess we'll see what they make of it. But I'm hesitant about any movie franchise that runs past 3 movies. And that's not even mentioning Lucas being still in control.
ReplyDeleteI know, 9 films out of glowing sticks and telekinesis. I have to admit it's a bit of a stretch. :P
DeleteWe'll see how Disney handle it I guess.
Well considering that I feel spaceballs was better than episode 1 it couldn't get much worse in my opionon it couldn't get much worse
ReplyDeleteSpace Balls was an utterly class film!!! And yeah Episode 1 was dire in ways only a Lucas film could be.
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