Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Or, the grass is green, but if you’re keeping track, here are the pertinent remarks from the Disney earnings call earlier this week, via Yahoo.
“In addition to the Star Wars feature films that we’ve already talked about, we’re also working on opportunities for television and our parks,” Iger said. “It’s still very early in the process. We’ll announce details as these developments evolve.”
Naturally.
We had a minor explosion on Twitter tonight as a few tweets sparked rumors that Bob Iger and George Lucas were on hand at Disney’s Hollywood Studios for a ‘major’ Star Wars announcement. And thus Disney and Star Wars fans began using the hashtag #Igerwatch for their guesses and hopes…
Of course, TFN contacted Lucasfilm, who denied the whole thing. And so it was. The projected time of 9:45 p.m. came and went and the fireworks were strictly localized. Just another fun night on the internet!
Now our only hope for a big event-driven Star Wars announcement today is on the west coast, as the later screenings of Return of the Jedi at Entertainment Weekly’s CapeTown Film Festival commence. StarWars.com has already posted one report from Hollywood…
Or, of course, there may be no announcement at all. Who knows? Not me, clearly. At least we’ll have something more than puns for the next Twitter roundup, though.
Corporate shenanigans. Jedi News spotted an interesting mention in a recent Variety story on Bob Iger and who might suceed him at Disney: “Many expect theme park and resorts chief Thomas Staggs to land the CEO role, although there are rumblings that Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy also may now be in the running.” Well, business isn’t exactly our division, but I suppose it wouldn’t be out of the question.
In other news, Kennedy and ILM have signed a “co-operation deal” with Chinese VFX company Base FX, both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter have reported. Hrm.
Another name in the hat? Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: The Next Generation) wouldn’t mind jumping ship to Episode VII, Big Shiny Robot learned in a recent interview.
Randomly… Star Wars will be the first movie to be dubbed in Dine, the official language of the Navajo, KJZZ reports.
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.
In a Rebel Force Radio interview that will go live tomorrow, Dave Filoni says he’s still with Lucasfilm Animation and touches on the next Star Wars series. IGN’s Eric Goldman has the report:
“At this point, I am involved in some early production discussions and exploration of what we’ll be doing with Star Wars animation in the future, which is really exciting for me and I have some friendly faces around me, of course, that are helping me on the project. So it’s a transition time, as I’ve said before, and I think it will lead to an exciting time and hopefully I’ll see things grow again.”
So no details, and clearly very early days yet, but at least it’s some further confirmation that a second show could eventually come into fruition.
Meanwhile, LucasArts, ILM and Lucasfilm Animation aren’t alone in suffering layoffs: Looks like Disney itself is facing a massive reorganization, according to Variety.
Slashfilm reports that Disneyland is surveying annual passholders about their potential interest with a Star Wars land at the Anaheim theme park.
Also included in the survey are questions about passholders familiarity with Star Wars as a set of movies, books and games, which trilogy is their favorite, whether they own Star Wars housewares and tattoos, and even quizzing them if they can correctly identify midichlorians, and perhaps most intriguing: which characters they would not want to see.
Does this mean that while the Orlando theme parks will continue their lead in having Star Wars Weekends, the original Disney theme park in California might be the first to get an actual Star Wars land?
And the deal is done. Lucasfilm Ltd. is officially a part of Walt Disney Co., the company reported Friday. For his part, George Lucas has acquired $2.21 billion in cash and 37.1 million shares of Disney, which based on today’s closing price totals to about $4.06 billion – a bit above the previously reported price of $4.05B. Lucas has said he plans to give most of the money to charity.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Lucasfilm to the Disney family,” said CEO Bob Iger. “Star Wars is one of the greatest family entertainment franchises of all time and this transaction combines that world-class content with Disney’s unique and unparalleled creativity across multiple platforms, businesses and markets, which we believe will generate growth as well as significant long-term value.”
In addition to Lucasfilm and Star Wars, Disney also acquired subsidiaries LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound, as well as an endless parade of blaster-toting Disney Princess jokes.
The European Commission, the European Union’s antitrust regulator, has approved Disney’s $4.05 billon deal to purchase Lucasfilm Ltd. from George Lucas.
The U.S. feds OK’d the deal earlier this month.
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.
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.