"Disney buys Star Wars" Topic

According to National Reviews Morning Jolt, Disney bought out Lucas and appointed Lucas co-Chair Kathleen Kennedy as president and star wars brand manager. They plan on doing an episode VII.
Can episode VII work? John Carter was alright. I personally missed the St. John style helmets but I am an ERBivore. I think Carter was well done and they should do the same for Star Wars.

Probably a good thing, but I am dubious. Lucas ruined Star Wars.

Marvel and Pixar did OK after being consumed by The Mouse. Hopefully Star Wars will survive more or less unscathed. I figure the Star Wars theme park will debut sometime soon…

As long as they can do a Lucasectomy and get a decent writer in there. Some of the stories in the Clone Wars cartoon have been very good, and as far as I know the writing on that is Lucas-free.

I'd happily be the man that hits Lucas with a wet fish when he comes up with stupid ideas:

"We'll have a rastafarian frog-man as comic relief!" SLAP!
"OK, then we'll have Anakin as an adorable kid, to appeal to a kiddie audience!" SLAP!
"No? Ok, ok… Then we'll have Vader howling NOOOOOOOOOOO when he's told Padme is dead!" SLAP!

I could go on….

G.

Asomesauce, I say!
link

and as far as I know the writing on that is Lucas-free.

Wrong. One of his daughters is on the writing team. It is George free, not Lucas free.

Well, he must be proud. Parents allways want their children to do better than they do and if her writing is anything to go by, she's surpassed her dad!

G.

Wouldn't it be terrible to be one of Lucas' children?

"Sorry, Suzie. I'm pulling you out of your fourth year at Emory. I have capriciously decided that my plan for you from birth was that you go to the Oklahoma Rodeo Clown College. And I'm re-naming three of your friends. And don't get comfortable with that gender, I may decide that I always wanted for you to play starting for the Packers."

I knew Lucas was the main problem when I saw one of the special features on the Ckone Wars DVD. The guy admits that Lucas walks in and pitches those 2 or 3 episodes that are a godzilla movie wanna be. Seriously? Give me some cool star fighter battle! I don't want to see some stupid monster tearing up Coruscant.

I'm almost willing to forgive Lucas for the prequel films. If they hadn't been so stupid, the Rifftrax for them wouldn't have been nearly as funny. They say it all about nine seconds in here:

YouTube link

I thought those Godzilla episodes were OK.

The only problem with Clone Wars is the constant lurching between kiddie show and trying to be more realistic. (same applies to the prequals).

Perhaps the Mayan calendar prediction for the end of the world will save us from this.

Given the wealth of Star Wars merchandise, rides, and shows at Disneyland, it's not surprising. But, yeah, creating a Lucasfree zone might not be a bad idea. Now if they'll just re-release Episode 1 with the annoying kid edited out.

So much hate for the guy who brought us Star Wars! I get that a lot of people didn't like the prequel trilogy, but however much you might hate Jar Jar and pre-pubescent Anakin, there was a lot of gold in the new movies too. Anyone remember Darth Maul?

George Lucas is going to be a "creative consultant" on future Star Wars material, which is exactly the right role for him. He has a lot of great ideas and can assemble a team of world-class people to realize his visions. He just shouldn't be given a free rein or he goes crazy. Some film makers need to have somebody else with their hand on the brake lever… see Suckerpunch for another example of an otherwise talented film maker who was given a blank cheque and absolutely lost it.

Short version: chin up lads, there's reason for hope

Exactly, Snodipous. Lots of good ideas, but no-one to say no to him when tha bad ideas surface. He needs me with a wet fish.

> Anyone remember Darth Maul?

The least dialog, the most loved… (same for Bobba Fett, strange pattern there)

I agree that creative consultant is the right role for Lucas, his problem is when he has complete control (the prequals) and does not take criticism well. (not in a rage, just not listening).

Anyone else ever hear the screen test Dialog for Star Wars? It was just as atrocious as the prequals – somewhere along the line Lucas had someone touch it up a bit.

Anyone remember Darth Maul?

What's to remember? No dialog, no motivation, no development, just a cardboard cutout of a generic villain. He's just as bad a character as Jar Jar, albeit in a different way.

George and his "great ideas" are like a director who absolutely LOVES a huge unfilmable book, and is determined to leave nothing out of the movie.

BTW, there's an entire story arc about Maul in the new Clone Wars cartoons.

I felt compelled to list the top 10 ways Disney might wreck the existing Star Wars movies:

10. In Episode IV, when Luke and C-3PO race across the desert in search of R2-D2, they're riding in Herbie, the Love Bug.

9. The Ewoks are named Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Dopey, Bashful, and Doc.

8. In Episode II, among the flying traffic on Coruscant, we can see Peter Pan, Dumbo, Mary Poppins, and the balloon from "Up."

7. The Jawas start talking like Donald Duck.

6. Padme Amidala appears in a series of Disney Princess dresses and hairstyles.

5. In Episode I, when Anakin walks next to the wall, we see Vader's shadow with Mouseketeer ears.

4. In Episode V, when the Millenium Falcon hides in an asteroid field, it flies into the mouth of the whale from Pinocchio.

3. The Death Star suddenly looks a lot like Epcot Center.

2. At the end of Episode VI, when Luke sees the Force ghosts of his friends, he also sees Old Yeller, Mufasa the lion, and Bambi's mother.

1. The dramatic opening fanfare music is now "It's A Small World After All."

#1 may be the most horrifying thing I've read in quite some time…

Darth Maul was great because he was an iconic, scary villain, just like Darth Vader was in A New Hope. One of Lucas's cardinal mistakes in the prequel trilogy was killing him off instead of developing him as the Sith hatchet-man, the recurring badass of the series. Darth Sidious looked like a Sith Accountant and wasn't the terrifying monster that Darth Maul was.

> Darth Maul was great because he was an iconic, scary villain, just like Darth Vader was in A New Hope.

If by "just like" you really mean a pale imitation then I could agree with you. The guy didn't have anywhere near enough dialog to be anything but a cardboard cutout. And what dialog he did have amounted to "yes", "no", and "OK".

The first time we see Vader he picks someone up and casually snaps his neck, then orders his troops around.

That might have been good, replace General Grevious with Maul. End up with a cackling emperor watching a Maul/Anakin fight to see who gets to be his apprentice.

Cke1st 31 Oct 2012 10:10 a.m. PST wrote:

3. The Death Star suddenly looks a lot like Epcot Center.

Hey that one is NOT a bad idea. As for George Lucus all I can say is he WAS behind the Christmas special. Nuff said, I have a copy.
VR
James Mattes

…The thing that wouldn't die….

Love it, hate it, whatever…. people are STILL buying this?

StarWars may recieve the reward for 'for most remade/reimagined/rewritten/resold/regurgitated franchise in media history!

Money trumps creativity, …again.

This could be awesome, Joss Whedon could finally have access to the Star Wars 'verse, remember Firefly came out of wanting to do the adventures of Han & Chewie and his Avengers movie was close to being perfect (for me anyhow) as for the mistakes of Lucas the biggest one was pitching Phantom Menace at the same age group as the original Star Wars (kids in that age group now have mobiles and are fashion savvy) rather than play with toys (bit sad really) but by Revenge of the Sith he had corrected this and its a far darker story, in fact I think Sith is as good as Empire, controversial I know…I await the lynch mob, main thing is a Whedon Star Wars film would be shiny

At least Darth Maul wasn't as annoying as JarJAr.

StarWars may recieve the reward for 'for most remade/reimagined/rewritten/resold/regurgitated franchise in media history!

Always thought Star Trek was ahead of Star Wars in that regard.

With ~28 full US TV seasons (and a slightly shorter animated season) and a dozen movies in two timelines and three eras, I think Trek wins for now, at least in Western media. Toss in Japanese properties and that record gets some serious challengers.

Ah, yes, I forgot about StarTrek….

StarWars has more toys, however!

Because there is a lot more "Pew!Pew!" in Star Wars, and the toy licensing has rarely let up since 1977.

…and here are the top 10 ways Disney might wreck future Star Wars movies:

10. Luke's first Padawan apprentice is Buzz Lightyear.

9. Han Solo loses the Millenium Falcon in a card game to another scoundrel with a furry co-pilot: Captain Jack Sparrow and Winnie the Pooh.

8. Luke is stranded on a jungle planet, where he befriends a bear and a panther and has to fight a tiger.

7. Lando Calrissian uses Flubber to make a land vehicle fly.

6. Luke has to solve a crisis by a certain time, or Tatooine will turn back into a pumpkin.

5. R2-D2 is replaced by WALL-E.

4. Han Solo is confronted by a lightsaber-wielding enemy, so he just draws his blaster and shoots him like Indiana Jones.

3. Leia dances with Chewbacca while a living teapot sings "Beauty and the Beast."

2. Luke's new personal spaceship looks a lot like Lightning McQueen.

1. The big new enemy is Darth Cruella de Vil.

Beast Rabban, you nearly made Halloween cupcake come out my nose! Well played, sir!

Perhaps episodes VII, VIII and IX will be based on the Thrawn trilogy they can't mess it up too much.

a few thoughts,
Scarlet Johanson as Mara Jade
Alexander Siddig as Talon Karrde
Christina Ricci as Leia

Perhaps episodes VII, VIII and IX will be based on the Thrawn trilogy

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. But then, I don't need to.
Disney will feel no obligation to conform to the "canon" established in the zillions of novels. Why should they? They would just get in the way. Besides, Lucas has shown little fidelity to canon himself.

As the director in "Sweet Liberty" said to Alan Alda, "OK. I just consulted with you."

At the beginning of the post-movie novels, the book companies and authors were told that if Lucas ever did movies in that period, their stuff wouldn't count. He would do what he wanted. I don't know what they're told now that there are so many novels (the original plan was for 12 or 13 books), but the Expanded Universe is effectively a parallel universe, and non-canon.

The first production from the New Order has already got a title. Deathstar Willie ….

hopefully the will re-release the original trilogy on blue ray with the cleaned up special effects but without the aftermarket Lucas added crap!!! one can hope!

> As for George Lucus all I can say is he WAS behind the Christmas special. Nuff said, I have a copy.

That was one bit of licensing he is not responsible for, interestingly enough it is treated as Cannon (more or less). The characters in it were given longer, less silly sounding names (the on screen names were considered nicknames)

My ten-year-old son was captivated by the idea. I only hope that episode 7 of 'his' Star Wars trilogy make as much impression on him as episode 4 made on me when it was first released.

Talked to a buddy last night who works at ILM, and he said that his whole team is really excited about the deal.
Good enough for me.

Pictors Studio: HA HA, that is great!

Cke 1st: Funny, but I think #4 WOULD be an improvement…

I think it's a good thing, as it saves the films from Lucas. He does a wonderful job on the visuals of the film and character concepts, but horrid job at the writing. If he's kept on as an advisor but they can bring in a more serious director then I think it will be a good thing.

plus it can give rise to the greatest disney ride ever.

"Mr. Toad's Death Star Adventure."

I see Disney is already making use of the franchise crossover with some of its other assets:

So can Disney pump in some cash to make stormtroopers aren't completely incompetent?

>At least Darth Maul wasn't as annoying as JarJAr.<

Only because he had less dialouge and got killed.