Club Jade

Federal antitrust regulators have cleared Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm, the Associated Press reports today. No formal closing date has been announced yet.

George Lucas receives $4.05 billion from Disney for the company, most of which he plans to donate to charity.

So today is a month and a day since the announcement that Disney is buying Lucasfilm and making Episode VII. It’s been… A month. Don’t get me wrong: It’s been a great month, an occasionally frustrating but revitalizing month. A month to reevaluate. (more…)

Vulture caught up with Disney chairman Alan Horn last night and, naturally, asked him about Lucasfilm and Star Wars. He revealed how many people knew about Episode VII: “A very small group,” He dodged the Matthew Vaughn rumor, though he did say we should hear it “soon” and that the announcement has to come from Kathleen Kennedy.

“We take very seriously the obligation to make a very good movie,” he told Vulture. “Kathy is a very experienced producer; George Lucas is the godfather of that franchise and very, very involved on a consulting basis, so we feel very confident.”

Behind the scenes. IGN’s Lucy O’Brien has a nice profile of Kathleen Kennedy, “Star Wars’ new Emperor,” and her film-making resume.

Meanwhile, shuffling up into the spotlight is the news that Rick McCallum has retired from Lucasfilm. The big question seems to be where this leaves the live-action series, which McCallum has been the main ambassador for and which hasn’t been much mentioned since D-Day. Honestly, given what’s been said of it so far, it’s one project that I don’t really mind staying on the back burner for a while longer.

Outside looking in. Scott Myers looks at some of the recent information and surmises that Disney may be taking the Pixar approach to Star Wars story development.

Actors. The real question is who doesn’t want in on Star Wars, but thus far we’ve heard from Derek Jacobi, David Tennant, plus Thor’s Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston.

Media. The cover of this week’s new issue of Entertainment Weekly is – surprise! – devoted to Star Wars. This means that anyone who hasn’t already heard about Episode VII will see it at the grocery story and pester us about it! Hooray!

Screenwriting. Curious about Michael Arndt? Scott Myers at Go into the Story has devoted a series of posts to his comments on screenwriting. (via)

Directors. We already figured this from his comments last week, but J.J. Abrams has out and out denied that he’s up for Episode VII. Please save all your lens flare jokes for Star Trek into Darkness.

Your moment of bwah. With the new (last?!?) Twilight movie encroaching, of course someone asked Robert Pattinson if he’d like to be in Star Wars. His answer? “Oh, absolutely. In a heartbeat.” Love or hate him, consider yourself warned. (via)

Because things are beyond slow today, here’s a mashup. (via)

Directors. Hollywood Life talks to Star Trek’s J.J. Abrams and Iron Man’s Jon Favreau about Episode VII. “I am looking forward more then anyone to the next iterations of Star Wars, but I believe I will be going as a paying moviegoer,” Abrams said.

“I am just giddy, first and foremost as a fan, to see what happens with it. I think there is a lot of question marks of how they are going to do it, and who they are going to do it with, and what the story is going to be about; but to say that I am not excited about it is definitely an understatement. We’ll see,” Favreau said. (Lest we forget, Favreau voiced a character on The Clone Wars back in 2010.)

On the other side of the spectrum, Quentin Tarantino said the other day that he couldn’t care less about Star Wars and isn’t interested in the job. But then, did anyone actually expect he would be?

History. Huffpo’s Mike Ryan takes a look at the Making of books and interviews to document Harrison Ford’s history with Han Solo, and all the comments he’s made about the character over the years.

Release date. ComicBook.com’s Scott Johnson and his sources theorize that Disney could make Episode VII the first Star Wars movie not come out in May, since Avengers 2 is currently slated for May 1, 2015. I am beyond skeptical.

Hasbro and Disney. MSN Money takes a detailed look at the rumor that Disney is in talks to buy the toymaker, while CNBC analyst David Faber said that Hasbro is denying it.

On a lark… Entertainment Weekly takes inspiration from other franchises.

Clone Wars heavy-hitters Dave Filoni and Ashley Eckstein both have blog entries about Disney and Star Wars on the official site today.

Filoni writes about his history with Disney – he worked on Kim Possible, among others – Star WArs Weekends, and

When Revenge of the Sith was over, I found myself in the incredible position of carrying the torch forward. Now I can see the incredibly bright light that is the future of Star Wars. For those of you who are fans of The Clone Wars, do not worry. We have many stories left to tell, and every one of them came directly from George himself. Right down to the last one, where that thing with Ahsoka happens…

As the daughter of a Disney “cast member,” Ashley Eckstein has never made a secret of her Disney love, and she writes at length about the effects of “being immersed in the Disney culture at such a young age.”

I wanted to work for Disney SO badly that I turned in my application on my 16th birthday. After several auditions, I finally got my big break and I was cast as a cheerleader in the Hercules Parade. I got to dance down Hollywood Blvd. Thanks to Disney, I was able to perform in front of thousands of people on the weekends and it made my dream, again, feel tangible.

Shockingly, Disney buying Lucasfilm continued to dominate Twitter. Get your share of the snark now. (more…)

Anti-trust lawyers must be wringing their hands with glee at this one: MTV Geek is saying that after acquiring Lucasfilm (pending approval) Disney will be turning to Hasbro. Or rather, that they’re having “discussions.”

Buying Hasbro would give Disney the rights to Transformers, G.I. Joe, Dungeons and Dragons, and My Little Pony, among others. And by folding in the toys, they’d be getting a bigger share of the Star Wars pie as well.