In a great story on the Lucasfilm acqusition by Disney in Bloomberg Businessweek, George Lucas more or less admits that Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher are returning for the new movies:
Asked whether members of the original Star Wars cast will appear in Episode VII and if he called them before the deal closed to keep them informed, Lucas says, “We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison—or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation. So I called them to say, ‘Look, this is what’s going on.’ ” He pauses. “Maybe I’m not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them.” Then he adds: “I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not.”
That may be the big news out of this, but the article itself is a must-read on the process, with extensive input from Lucas and Bob Iger.
That kinda settles things, doesn’t it? That’s enough confirmation for me.
I hope, for LFL’s sake, that they’re pretty close to an official announcement.
Marketing must have collectively spinning heads, right now.
I think LFL is going to need to find some way to manage rumor control since legal processes move more slowly than the internet.
But, then again, watching the rumors fly is probably the only fun they have. :)
Lucas is the best Episode VII spy yet.
Remember, it’s usually the final signing of an agreement that would trigger any sort of announce, hence the unpredictable timing on these things.
Well, if the past two are any indication… Tomorrow evening? ;)
Yeah, really!
So…George was Supershadow all along!
(come on, someone had to do it)
I love that he’s now getting the one-up on his own (former) company.
I love how this little detail about the Big Three was buried at the bottom of the article. Business writers really don’t think the same way we do.
LOL Good point, Stooge!
They really, really don’t.
I wish I wasn’t speaking from personal experience…