The New York Times takes a look at the women behind the scenes at Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic.
Disney to open Star Wars lands in 2019
Disney has announced when we can start to expect their Star Wars lands to open, and it’s earlier than speculated: 2019! The two parks – at Disneyland in Anaheim and Disney World’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando – are currently under construction.
The image above is previously released concept art of the Orlando version; Here’s the Disneyland one.
Lucasfilm: “No plans to digitally recreate Carrie Fisher’s performance” as Leia
Lucasfilm has outright denied a recent report that said they’ve been negotiating wit Carrie Fisher’s estate to digitally recreate her for future films. The statement:
We want to assure our fans that Lucasfilm has no plans to digitally recreate Carrie Fisher’s performance as Princess or General Leia Organa.
Carrie Fisher was, is, and always will be a part of the Lucasfilm family. She was our princess, our general, and more importantly, our friend. We are still hurting from her loss. We cherish her memory and legacy as Princess Leia, and will always strive to honor everything she gave to Star Wars.
The rumor originated on the BBC earlier this week, and was first reported by SWNN, with an expansion by io9.
THR takes a (brief) look at Lucasfilm’s executive women
As part of their Women in Entertainment issue, The Hollywood Reporter has an article on how Lucasfilm’s executive team is more than 50% female.
“When you have a balance of men and women, there are all sorts of things that enter into the discussion,” [Kathleen Kennedy] says, calling the Rey-Jyn doubleheader a “coincidence” that the studio (and parent Disney) embraced. “Because women are always in story meetings, [no one has] to go, ‘Hey, what would a woman think?’ ” says creative executive Rayne Roberts. “The reason Rey is strong and technically capable and compassionate and driven is that the women who were in that room, including Kathy, reflect those qualities.”
There’s still work to be done – the lack of women directing is mentioned – but there are worse places to start than at the top. Still, the article is pretty short – wouldn’t it be nice to see a deeper dive on this topic?
Bob Iger doesn’t expect Rogue One to do TFA numbers; Third standalone has a writer
Disney CEO Bob Iger doesn’t expect Rogue One to do quite as well at the box office as The Force Awakens, but he says the audience interest they’ve seen has been just as high for the new film. (Did anyone expect that? You don’t get a $2B film every year.) “We love what we’ve seen,” he told investors of the Rogue One rough cut.
He also revealed that they have a writer for the third Star Wars standalone due in 2020, and he recently met with Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy to plot out beyond that as well.
We’ve known since the Disney purchase that Lucasfilm plans to take the saga films beyond 2019’s Episode IX, but it remains to be seen if they’ll keep to the current schedule to leave only a year between the current and next trilogy.
New look at Disneyland’s Star Wars expansion
The Disney Parks blog is giving fans a closer look at Disneyland’s Star Wars expansion. /Film has a map that gives us some idea of what goes where.
A similar area is planned for Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando. Work has started at both parks, but no opening dates have been announced.
Game over for the Lucas Museum in Chicago
The Lucas Museum won’t be in Chicago after all. Museum officials are ending plans to build there after a challenge from the group Friends of the Parks.
“No one benefits from continuing their seemingly unending litigation to protect a parking lot,” filmmaker George Lucas said. “The actions initiated by Friends of Parks and their recent attempts to extract concessions from the city have effectively overridden approvals received from numerous democratically elected bodies of government.”
Initial plans were to build the museum in a lakefront area that’s currently a parking lot.
Disney’s Bob Iger on Rogue One, the future of Indiana Jones
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Disney’s Bob Iger talks about the futures of Star Wars and Indiana Jones, as well as the challenges of running Disney.
On Rogue One:
I’ve seen Rogue One. I’ve seen not only an edited picture but I’ve seen significantly more footage than was even in that picture. That’s actually going to be a fine film.
Iger doesn’t expect Indiana Jones to become as extensive a franchise as Star Wars, but he does say that Indy 5 won’t be a one-off. “We’re focused on a reboot, or a continuum and then a reboot of some sort.” On Harrison Ford:
Well, we’ll bring him back, then we have to figure out what comes next. That’s what I mean. It’s not really a reboot, it’s a boot — a reboot. I don’t know.
That’s… Intriguing? But anything after Indy 5 all seems a way off at this point.
The interview also goes into the ever-present parks and ESPN business.
Disney is testing droid characters for their parks
Well, file this under ‘delightful:’ Disney is testing interactive droid characters to roam their parks. Youtuber DAPs Magic (via io9) spotted ‘Jake’ at Disneyland’s Launch Bay, even interacting with exhibits.
Threepio, Artoo and BB-8 are givens for the parks, but the idea of new-to-us droids randomly roaming Star Wars Land? Bring it.
Push the Talking Trash Can (who has been known to sing the Imperial March) has long been a feature at Tomorrowland in several of the Disney parks.
Indiana Jones to return in 2019
Disney has announced that Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford will be making a fifth Indiana Jones film for a July 19, 2019 release. Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will again produce.
The last Indy film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, came out in 2008. Rumors of a fifth installment have been rumbling since Disney and Paramount announced in 2013 they’d come to deal on rights to the franchise following the former’s 2012 purchase of Lucasfilm.