Lucasfilm’s animated fairy musical, ‘Strange Magic’ out in January

strange-magic

Remember the fairy musical that we heard Lucasfilm was working on way back before the Disney sale? It’s called ‘Strange Magic’ and it’ll finally see the light of day on January 23, 2015. Lucasfilm calls it “a madcap fairy tale musical inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and it’ll feature popular songs “from the past six decades.”

The film’s story is by George Lucas, and it’s directed by Gary Rydstrom. Voices include Alan Cumming, Evan Rachel Wood, Kristin Chenoweth and Maya Rudolph. No sign of Brenda Chapman, though…

The film is being released by Touchstone, a division of Disney.

George Lucas’ museum is heading to Chicago

George Lucas has chosen Chicago to house his art museum, the Chicago Tribune reports today. There’s only a vote from the board before it becomes 100% official – and they’ll also change the name from the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

Lucas was originally aiming the museum for San Francisco, but turned to his part-time home of Chicago after the Presidio Trust rejected the original proposal. Chicago is the hometown of George’s wife Mellody Hobson, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel lobbied heavily. The new museum will be built on what’s now a parking lot between football stadium Soldier Field and convention center McCormick Place, and nearby many of the city’s other museums. It will likely open in 2018.

Disney hosting store event, Star Wars executive breakfast this week

Disney is hosting a Star Wars executive breakfast this coming Thursday, says Making Star Wars. In attendance will be George Lucas and “classic cast members.” Just another Thursday for Disney’s top brass? UPDATE: Lucasfilm denied this event to TFN, but Making Star Wars (and others) maintain it is indeed happening. We’ll see!

Also this week? A Star Wars event at the (a?) Disney Store on Monday and Tuesday in California, according to Jedi News. So something is clearly going on. Whether these are linked to something that will matter to most of us (an announcement?) is yet to be seen, but let’s hope so.