At CinemaCon in Las Vegas, /Film reports that Disney has said that they hopes to have a new Star Wars once every year, beginning with Episode VII.
Variety reports that they reiterated that the new Episodes will be released in 2015, 2017 and 2019, with standalones presumable aiming for ’16 and ’18.
This lines up with what we’ve all been assuming based on various comments during the acquisition, including CEO Bob Iger’s earlier statement confirming the standalone films. More worrying is the timeline: Standalones alternating with Episodes? I’m not so sure I like the idea of a new Episode every other year.
On the other hand, consider the audience: CinemaCon is a convention for theater owners, who’ll naturally want to hear about a regular slate of new Star Wars releases. The reality of film production may be another matter entirely… So we’ll see.
Life is great.
They want to follow the Marvel model, and considering how those movies vary wildly in quality, I’m not sure this is a great idea. :(
I suspect that Episodes every other year might be a tad ambitious.
Now an Episode-standalone-standalone-Episode format? I can see that.
Also, they’re going to have to like triple the ILM staff if they want a new SW movie every year. I hope the standalones don’t get stuck with a B-tier SFX teams, because just getting the main Episodes out the door in just two years is going to be quite a feat.
Particularly if ILM is going to get the brunt of the OTHER Disney franchises, too. (Ahem, Marvel.)
Revenge of the Sith will be ten years old by the time the first of these hits. Revenge of the Sith was and still is a great visual effects film. While the visual effects industry is having a lot of problems right now, I think it is safe to say the price of the megabyte has only gone down, processing speeds have only gone up, techniques have been improved. I suspect the worst visuals we will get will be comparable to Revenge of the Sith, and I honestly have no problem with that.
I think the fan’s qualms about quality aren’t misplaced. But in the past we had Lucas taking three years with a break to make the films. But he also wrote them, directed them, financed them, and so on. Episodes every two years is entirely workable at that level of quality. We don’t even know if Abrams is doing them all, which once again means a new director will be starting fresh, just like with Episodes IV, V, and VI.
I don’t think the old models really pertain.
The things I fear is Hollywood casting. I don’t want a Robert Downey Jr in a Star Wars film. That kind of casting breaks immersion for me. I hope they stick to finding great unknowns for the most part. But with that schedule, that seems kind of hard, unless someone like Robin Gurland is already hard at work, which I hope.
Every year?? A lot of movies every year to me is almost certain that the quality will going down until the fans will no longer giving a s*** about then, or just ignoring, as it is a normal movie :(
Well, the scarcity is going to crash, that’s for damn sure. From 1977-2008, there were seven theatrical releases. From 2015 to 2021, we will pretty much have matched that.
It seems fair to say we might get the worst Star Wars movie. But we also might get the best.
Arndt is writing Episode VII.
Lawrence Kasdan is probably doing the first standalone.
I’m rooting for Simon Kinberg, but that is probably the first film I would worry about because I don’t dig his films.
I’m not sure I like having a movie every single summer. It will burn people out and drive Star Wars in the ground. As a collector, well there is no way I will be able to keep up with the merchandising frenzy of a new movie every summer. As long as they don’t rush the movies and put out crap, it could also be a great time to be a Star Wars fan. I guess we’ll have to wait and see and keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best!!
I agree. Star Wars is special because it really was a story of quality over quantity. However, it’s in a fragile place now. Can the saga survive a bomb? Many people were turned off by TPM and the prequels. I worry an outright bad movie will take an even deeper toll
I still can’t believe that all these films will hit theatres. Are you sure this isn’t going to be another Ewok film of the week that ends up on TV or goes straight to the home entertainment medium of the day?
I worry about lack of quality on such an ambitious release schedule; not the quality of the special effects, but the storytelling. My favourite aspects of Star Wars are the character-driven ones.
Also, I was just reading a magazine article about Star Trek and how Enterprise (which I quite liked) tanked because the market was oversaturated with Star Trek. I know a primarily tv series and a primarily movie series are different, but there are enough similarities between the two franchises for that to worry me. I’d hate to see the same thing happen to Star Wars.
I’m all for it. Granted, Star Wars is my crack, but two hours a year doesn’t strike me as oversaturation.
I’m having a hard time to see this as a good news.
Layoffs at Lucasfilm and a movie every year. In other words, less staff and time to make it high quality.
If they actually don’t take a year for each, and instead developp them in parallel, it won’t be any better. I doubt that Lucasfilm is able to produce alone two Star Wars movies at the same time, now more than ever with all the layoffs. Disney will have to participate more in the production, and Disney being what it is, the closer it gets to the movie the worst it is.
Also, my fear about the saga as a whole is that Disney will want to make it as kid friendly as possible. There is a real risk all the new trilogy movies will be made in a Phantom Menace kids aimed style. That possibilty is supported by the fact Bob Iger said he was going to ”take a closer look” at the violence in Star Wars video games, and that ”fortunately”, there was little violence like that at Disney. That attitude towards violence could very easily be also present in the new movies. Revenge of the Sith might very well be the last dark Star Wars.