Disney buys Lucasfilm!

[Stupot]

Crikey!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20146942
So Disney have bought Lucasfilm for $4.05bn and have confirmed there will be an Episode 7 of Star Wars in 2015!
Wow... I guess this means that Disney now own a ton of our favourite Adventure games.  :-/
I always claim to hate Disney, but I keep forgetting they also own all my favourite things, such as Lost, The Avengers, and now Guybrush?

[Sslaxx]

Going to make things... interesting. Not sure what they're going to do with LucasArts, if anything. Merge it into Disney Interactive maybe?

[Anian]

You forgot Pixar, Disney owns Pixar as well.
Welcome to the age of billion big budget, best CGI, PG13 movies!

[Stupot]

I probably wouldn't say no to a big budget, CGI, PG13 Monkey Island movie (Wait, there was CGI in Pirates of the Carribean, right?)

[amateurhour]

Disney doesn't own Pixar. They worked with them on a 10 movie deal where they essentially split the profits, but that deal ended with Toy Story 3 I believe, maybe Cars 2. (whichever came first)

Here's my fear about this deal...

Disney could seriously screw over the comic industry with this deal if they pushed it. They DO have an in house publisher and a rather large one at that. They said early on when they bought Marvel that they'd still go through Diamond for their comic books, but trades would start to fall in house, and since trades are where the money comes from these days anyway, that made sense.

Now that they have an entire comic book publisher (Marvel), one of the big two no less, and about a third of the revenue from one of the big four (Dark Horse, who makes the Star Wars comics) under their belt, I wouldn't be surprised if Disney started putting out the comic books as well, and effectively put Diamond all but out of business.

Now that could be a blessing or a curse honestly, because Diamond has done all but make it impossible for indie books to hit the shelves in the last two years, by raising the bar for pre-orders by vendors to even get a book listed in their monthly catalog (an indie comic has to have at least (about) 3,000 pre-sales from  vendors before Diamond will make it), but I don't see indie comics being the thing that saves Diamond from going under when all it has under its belt is Image (which is mostly making money off of Skybound (The Walking Dead, Invincible) these days) and DC (which Warner is running into the dirt currently)

Comic books mean a great deal to me and I don't want to see Disney taking them for a joy ride because they bought the garage they're parked in...

Dark Horse released a statement to the press, it was very short, and gave off a tone of both surprise and worry.     

[Snarky]

Disney does own Pixar. They bought the company in 2006, and the Pixar guys (Lasseter specifically) essentially took over the Disney animation department.

[blueskirt]

I am happy we might get the original trilogy in its glorious unedited form on sale again, and maybe the Thrawn trilogy filmed by a competent director, but I am damn scared for Indiana Jones and the Fountain Of Youth. :<

[Baron]

This can only go good places, in my opinion.  I've made no secret of my scorn for George Lucas's work post 1989, and Disney has mellowed big-time since the puritanical days under Walt.  They've got tons of experience with adult-oriented film production (they've owned Touchstone pictures for decades), and they know how to revive a franchise.  True, they also know how to milk a good thing, but LucasFilm is hardly innocent of that.  I say this is a positive development.

[Ponch]

I am happy we might get the original trilogy in its glorious unedited form on sale again

THIS

[Armageddon]

If Disney merges Lucas Games with Disney Interactive crap it will be the end of Star Wars: 1313. That would be a sad day indeed.

[kconan]

I'm hoping for a Howard the Duck and Donald Duck crossover.

[KodiakBehr]

I'm hoping for a Howard the Duck and Donald Duck crossover.

That would be the post of the day.

[veryweirdguy]

I'm just worried that if they make a fourth Star Wars film they might damage the franchise somehow.

[Darth Mandarb]

I'm just worried that if they make a fourth Star Wars film they might damage the franchise somehow.

I see what you did there

I am still not 100% convinced this is real... but if it is I just don't know!

On the one hand it could be a very good thing to put it in somebody else's decision making hands who is not George Lucas.  I think the only reason the prequels failed was because GL took the stance that, "Star Wars is my baby and I'm not letting anybody else put their greasy little hands on it!" and thus, the dialog was horrible and the direction only slightly less so because he had the final say and wouldn't let anybody who wasn't him make any decisions.

On the other hand; George damaged Star Wars' reputation with the prequels.  They weren't what they should have been.  He should have let Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats - a life-long-die-hard Star Wars fan) help with dialog, had Carrie Fisher (yes Princess Leia) help with the script, and for the LOVE OF ALL THAT MIGHT BE HOLY PUT SOMEBODY ELSE IN THE DIRECTOR'S CHAIR!!!  These three deficiencies are what (in my mind) destroyed the prequels.  I like the over-all story/writing (there are some issues, but as a complete "story" I liked it well enough) but whatever chops GL had as a director he left in the chair in '77 (not directing a picture for 22 years apparently takes a toll on your actual ability to direct).

This could either be a really good thing, or a HORRIBLY bad thing.  Since I have absolutely no other choice in the matter I guess I'll just wait to see what they come up with.

Granted none of this matters really... the world will be ending this December anyway.  The Mayans...

[Armageddon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyqlTi7lkhY

He sounds depressed. I'm actually a little excited for a new film, it would be great if it didn't tie into the original trilogy and just had new characters in the same universe, I hope htey keep it looking realistic like the original trilogy and not all flashy cgi crap of the prequels. Maybe something like Star Wars Galaxies.

[amateurhour]

Disney does own Pixar. They bought the company in 2006, and the Pixar guys (Lasseter specifically) essentially took over the Disney animation department.

I don't know why I thought that deal fell through but for some reason I did... "*The More You Know..."

I'm completely on board for Disney owning the rights to Lucas property and making new Star Wars content, but I SERIOUSLY think that 1) They're going to axe most of the expanded universe stuff and bring everything back in house, as they did with pretty much ALL of the Marvel animation that was out at the time of the Disney acquisition, and 2) They're going to start all their comic book printing in house, which is going to force Diamond to rebrand itself. I'm hoping this means the return of the 90's indie comics mentality of publishing and more studios start printing their books through different sources, which will mean a short term increase in comic book prices but a gradual decrease and the expansion of comic book content on the market, but I'm afraid it's going to just give Diamond an even tighter grip on indie content and how it gets published.

What's sad about it is that Disney doesn't even need the comic book money. Comic book profits, trades and all, for the Star Wars IPs and Marvel properties would only amount to about 20-40 million a year, or roughly 1/4 of what they make in profits from one Marvel film, and a sub-par one at that. 

[SSH]

On the other hand; George damaged Star Wars' reputation with the prequels.  They weren't what they should have been.  He should have let Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats - a life-long-die-hard Star Wars fan) help with dialog,

Yep, instead of someone who hadn't written a decent film since 1989, they should have used someone who hasn't written a decent film since 1999!

[Darth Mandarb]

Yep, instead of someone who hadn't written a decent film since 1989, they should have used someone who hasn't written a decent film since 1999!

Sure!  But remember, it was (would have been) before 1999 when this would have happened!  So win/win!

I'm not a huge fan of Kevin Smith's films but he's one of the best dialog writers in all of Hollywood IMHO.  On top of that he's a super-fan of Star Wars and would have been a perfect fit to work on the dialog.

My suspicion is that everybody that works/ed at Lucasfilm were so afraid to step up and say "George... bro... seriously?  This is some campy ass shit man!!  You need help!" because they know they'd just wake up in a dumpster 1 week later with no memory of how they got there or ever working for Lucasfilm in the first place.

[Snarky]

More likely they thought that even if it didn't sound that great, George Lucas must know what he was doing. He'd proven the critics and the doubters wrong before, so maybe they were the ones who didn't get it. Anyway, it's his baby and his muse, so better just do what he says and hope for the best.

Besides, I've heard some people claim that the scripts for the prequels read better on the page than they play on screen (partly because of changes and reedits).

[SSH]

Well, I think that this film company with a tendency to focus on CGI animation and over cutesy characters (such as that ridiculous Duck) will ... benefit from joining Disney