Club Jade

IGN has the first interview with Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg since their involvement with Episode VII and the standalone films was formally annouced.

He wouldn’t answer when asked about who the films will feature, but Kasdan has plenty of praise for Michael Arndt and J.J. Abrams.

No news bombs were dropped, but it’s a nice interview with a bit of insight behind the curtain.

In the land of not-Star Wars, Lucasfilm picked up a couple awards last weekend:

Red Tails won the NAACP Image award for Outstanding Motion Picture, beating out others such as Flight and Django Unchained. In a video clip from the event, George Lucas shares why he produced the WWII action film about the Tuskegee Airmen.

While the Annie Awards were dominated by wins for Wreck-It Ralph and Dragons: Riders of Berk, a team from Industrial Light and Magic won for Outstanding Achievement, Animated Effects in a Live Action Production: Jerome Platteaux, John Sigurdson, Ryan Hopkins, Raul Essig, and Mark Chataway won for their work on The Avengers. Also in the running, we had The Clone Wars crew with four nominations and LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out with one nomination.

Kathleen Kennedy is the The Hollywood Reporter‘s cover story and naturally, it begins with how she convinced J.J. Abrams to take on Episode VII:

Famously plain-spoken, she summarizes her pitch like this: “Please do Star Wars.” And she had cards to play. Not only was Oscar winner Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3) writing the script, but Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote 1980′s The Empire Strikes Back and 1983′s Return of the Jedi, was on board to consult. Abrams “was flipping out when he found out that Michael and Larry were on the movie already,” says Kennedy.

Abrams tells THR, “I learned firsthand how incredible and persuasive she is.” Some — but not all — of his reservations were dispelled. “The thing about any pre-existing franchise — I’d sort of done that,” he says. “But when I met with Kathy, it was suddenly very tantalizing.”

Kennedy goes on to discuss Lincoln’s Oscar campaign and her partnership with director Steven Spielberg, including this cute tidbit of how George Lucas approached him about hiring her:

Lucas called to raise the issue during a dubbing session on Lincoln. “He actually asked for her hand in business,” says Spielberg. “I wasn’t going to stand in her way.”

We learn that she’s commited to Lucasfilm for 5 years, splitting time between San Francisco and Los Angeles, her start in the business, meeting husband Frank Marshall and more.

As for Lucas? Spielberg says he’s ready to stay retired:

Asked whether he believes Lucas can really keep his distance, Spielberg doesn’t hesitate. “I completely know he can do that,” he says. “He’s ready to start living without the burden and weight and responsibility of this huge corporate asset.”

In short, if you’re curious about Kennedy, this article is a good place to start!

Chris Taylor, deputy editor at Mashable, is working on How Star Wars Conquered the Universe, a book on the business and culture of the franchise.

I’m thrilled to be writing How Star Wars Conquered the Universe, the first book to examine the entire Star Wars brand from a business/culture perspective. As Disney takes control of the franchise and prepares to release Episode VII in 2015, there’s never been a more important time to consider exactly what made this epic great in the first place. Its past offers a lot of clues to why it has a robust future in the post-Lucas era, given how much of it was a team effort from the very beginning. I want to give proper credit to all the other talented writers, technicians, artists and game-makers who built the Expanded Universe and helped it thrive.

It’s a daunting prospect, trying to do justice to a modern legend that has mesmerized every generation since 1977, but I can’t imagine a more engrossing research project. This book will be more fun than a barrel full of Banthas.

It sounds like even the Expanded Universe will get a place in the spotlight – Taylor told CNET he’s trying to read/reread all the novels and comics, which seems pretty ambitious.

Taylor has covered Star Wars since 1997; this will be his first book. It’ll be released early next year by Basic Books.

The recent recap of last year’s biggest events reminded me of something that has been largely overlooked: George Lucas is retiring. Granted, he’s tried to retire before – a couple of times, if memory serves – with limited success. And the news was understandably overshadowed by the double-whammy of the Sequel Trilogy and the sale to Disney. But still. The Flannelled One is stepping down, off to work on experimental films or build a working X-wing or become a lumberjack or whatever retired billionaires do. Yes, there were the starwars.com videos, where he talked a bit about his future plans, but in general, this story has been ignored. Heck, I saw more chatter about Rick McCallum’s retirement. Rick McCallum is a wonderful guy, but there’s only one George Lucas. He deserves a little more attention.

(more…)

Here’s the fifth – and final – video in the series

And the deal is done. Lucasfilm Ltd. is officially a part of Walt Disney Co., the company reported Friday. For his part, George Lucas has acquired $2.21 billion in cash and 37.1 million shares of Disney, which based on today’s closing price totals to about $4.06 billion – a bit above the previously reported price of $4.05B. Lucas has said he plans to give most of the money to charity.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Lucasfilm to the Disney family,” said CEO Bob Iger. “Star Wars is one of the greatest family entertainment franchises of all time and this transaction combines that world-class content with Disney’s unique and unparalleled creativity across multiple platforms, businesses and markets, which we believe will generate growth as well as significant long-term value.”

In addition to Lucasfilm and Star Wars, Disney also acquired subsidiaries LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound, as well as an endless parade of blaster-toting Disney Princess jokes.

The European Commission, the European Union’s antitrust regulator, has approved Disney’s $4.05 billon deal to purchase Lucasfilm Ltd. from George Lucas.

The U.S. feds OK’d the deal earlier this month.

Blue Sky Disney reports that it’s all but certain that Disney won’t be renewing Dark Horse’s contract to publish Star Wars comics, and that the Star Wars comics will return to their original home: Fellow Disney brand Marvel. Honor Hunter writes:

The Suits in the know have determined that no new contracts will be given to Dark Horse after the current ones expire. So all new projects after 2013 will be handled internally by Marvel.

A blog report is anything but confirmation, but there’s absolutely nothing surprising about this – it was predicted by most of us the very first day of the Disney sale.

Comment from Dark Horse? Randy Stradley posted “don’t believe everything you read on the Internet” on their boards today.

USA Today reports that a digitally restored version of Lucasfilm’s fantasy film Willow will be coming to DVD on March 12.

Willow was originally released in 1988. It was produced and written by George Lucas, directed by Ron Howard, and starred Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer, and Joanne Whalley.

The Blu-ray will contain commentary from Howard, Davis’s own personal video diary, and and Dennis Muren’s “From Morf to Morphing: The Dawn of Digital Filmmaking” with a new intro.

Anyone who thinks George Lucas might have issues with redheaded ladies working for evil empires should probably check this one out. Of course, as a child of the late 80′s, I admit I have a HUGE soft spot for this movie and will totally be buying it.