Disney buying Lucasfilm

[Chimpy]

If you have worked in the entertainment industry there are only two camps:
1) those of us who loathe Disney either from working there or having friends who have and been fucked by the Rat.
and 2) Those who either work for Disney and love it and all of it's mega strict rules on appearance/lifestyle or have a lifelong dream of working for Disney.

I worked with one of the stars of the Lion King "spectacular" at WDW one summer. She loved working there and she was super cool, but she admitted that you had to buy fully into the corporate culture to survive as it is frankly pretty much like being in a cult in many ways.

[Shannow]

I take back my nolan nomination and second the brad bird one.

[Tale]

it is frankly pretty much like being in a cult in many ways.

My first trip to the USA was as an IT journalist, to report from a conference at the Swan and Dolphin hotels in the middle of Disney World, Florida.

With two other Australian journalists, I went out to a 1950s-themed bar in Disney territory. It was well populated and there were some amazing dance moves going on. Two hot blonde girls left the dance floor and chatted us up, but it was very fake.

Gradually it became apparent that we were the only three customers. Everyone else was a Disney employee, working.

[Ingmar]

On the other hand, this is apparently good news for the folks at LucasFilm as they will apparently now get union benefits.  Something Lucas had denied them all this time and with few options in that part of Northern California, meant they were all kind of stuck.

I don't know where you heard that rumor about LucasFilm union benefits, but I know for sure that they have IATSE folks working there, one of my ex-roommates was a TA there and had to join. Eventually he was promoted out of that position to a software job that was non-union but developers aren't union anywhere AFAIK.

[Merusk]

That matches what I've heard over the years, Chimpy.  About 15 years and 3 forums ago I knew a girl who did Cinderella at one of the parks. She was loathe to share even that much for fear of losing her job because they're so restrictive on what you can and can't say/ show as a "Main Character."

Still, if it's what you're in to it's apparently a fantastic employer.

[Yegolev]

Muppet Star Wars already exists.



Hamil is still around.


Also:

[Hawkbit]

I have a very bad feeling about this.

I did at first, then I remembered that I just don't give a flying fuck about Star Wars anymore.  The prequels destroyed the whole franchise for me. 

[Fabricated]

While we're on the subject if you haven't watched the Red Letter Media reviews of the Star Wars prequels yet what the fuck is wrong with you block out a couple hours and do this shit

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

[Evildrider]

That matches what I've heard over the years, Chimpy.  About 15 years and 3 forums ago I knew a girl who did Cinderella at one of the parks. She was loathe to share even that much for fear of losing her job because they're so restrictive on what you can and can't say/ show as a "Main Character."

Still, if it's what you're in to it's apparently a fantastic employer.

A girl I knew played as Jasmine but she said she loved it.  She was the same way in regards to being secretive about her work.

[Khaldun]

The Brad Bird suggestion is fucking genius. Let's hope it occurs to someone at Disney.

[Sir T]

The Nerdgasm about including things from the EU has begun. I was watching with growing horror as someone on a chat channel in Star Trek OL was enthusing about how it would be cool to see "WorldBreakers" in action. And then started enthusing about how effective they were if you read about them. Oh and someone telling everyone how "Lucas always intended to make Episodes 7 - 9 you know!"

I think I might dig out my copy of TESB and cry.

[ghost]

I just can't imagine another Star Wars film being anything other than unmitigated crap at this point.  But it'll probably still make money, so what the fuck do I know.

It will make unbelievable fucktons of money. 

[Ingmar]

I never even saw Episode III, the first two were so bad, but I'd totally give this a chance.

[Evildrider]

I wonder what Disney is gonna do with the Indiana Jones IP.

[Tale]

I wonder what Disney is gonna do with the Indiana Jones IP.

Nathan Fillion.

[Riggswolfe]

I never even saw Episode III, the first two were so bad, but I'd totally give this a chance.

Out of the prequels Episode III is the "good" one so you basically saw 1 so-so and 1 shitty movie for nothing if you skipped it. That said the Clone Wars cartoon series is making Lucas look like a moron by actually making Anakin look like an interesting character.

I wonder what Disney is gonna do with the Indiana Jones IP.

Nathan Fillion.

You know, I was about to say something sarcastic but after Indy 4 I think a reboot with Nathan Fillion has nowhere to go but up.

[Comstar]

I never even saw Episode III, the first two were so bad, but I'd totally give this a chance.

You need to watch it so as to then watch the Red Letter Media demolition of it, and final explanation of What Went Wrong and how Mistakes Were Made.

[eldaec]

Someone needs to make a red letter review edit without the fuckstupid psychopath gimmick bits. They are RLM's jar jar binks.

[Abagadro]

Nah. The Plinkett stuff is hilarious.

[Shannow]

Just a side note, I think those that say 'Stars Wars died with ESB' are pretentious douches. You saw ROTJ and you loved it. now you just wanna look like one of the cool kids.

[Zetor]

If nothing else, this will revitalize the vader pics subforum. (and/or extend it to 'vader/mickey mouse pics')

[Tale]

more

[Samwise]

Someone needs to make a red letter review edit without the fuckstupid psychopath gimmick bits. They are RLM's jar jar binks.

Just for that you ain't gettin a pizza roll.

[eldaec]

Aside from anything else it is good to see f13 never changes and can complete a page every 4 hours on any star wars related topic.

This has 3 years to run before the first Disney star wars, we should really have thread length predictions recorded for posterity.

[Der Helm]

Gradually it became apparent that we were the only three customers. Everyone else was a Disney employee, working.

I'd probably had run for my life at that point.

[eldaec]

This thread needs more WUA.

[Amaron]

I wonder what Disney is gonna do with the Indiana Jones IP.

Nathan Fillion.

I think I hate you.  Whoever they cast will be a let down now.

[DraconianOne]

I have a very bad feeling about this.

I did at first, then I remembered that I just don't give a flying fuck about Star Wars anymore.  The prequels destroyed the whole franchise for me. 

I lied - it was just a hokey excuse to use that phrase. This whole story makes me feel like doing a little dance.

[Khaldun]

God, please let them stay a zillion miles away from the EU and its horrible "Oh, the Emperor wasn't really dead" and "Hey, look the Death Star, you remember that? We have a weapon that kills suns! Solar systems!" and then the torture-No Force aliens and all that.

I'd be perfectly happy with some basic "young Jedis who are related to the original characters trying to restore peace and justice to the galaxy VS. gangsters, bounty hunters and Dark Jedi" with some kind of McGuffin to drive the plot.

[Merusk]

More interesting, to me, are the possibilities with Indiana Jones.  

Quote from Iger:

"We didn't ascribe any value to the Indiana Jones franchise as part of this acquisition," Iger said later on in the call, suggesting no further installments of that franchise is on the horizon.

The reason for this was explained on the NPR story this morning.  Disney would have to negotiate any rights and release with Paramount who also owns part of Indy.  While LucasFilm has  allowed Disney to use Indy for one of their park attractions, movie rights are a different matter.

Also in the NPR story was confirmation that you've only seen the tip of the iceberg on Star Wars merchandise. Per the Disney press release:

. "We also expect to utilize Star Wars in other businesses including Parks & Resorts, in games and in our television business. These initiatives were also considered in our valuation,"

God, please let them stay a zillion miles away from the EU and its horrible "Oh, the Emperor wasn't really dead" and "Hey, look the Death Star, you remember that? We have a weapon that kills suns! Solar systems!" and then the torture-No Force aliens and all that.

I'd be perfectly happy with some basic "young Jedis who are related to the original characters trying to restore peace and justice to the galaxy VS. gangsters, bounty hunters and Dark Jedi" with some kind of McGuffin to drive the plot.

Not likely.  Someone from Disney also cited the "17,00 characters and thousands of universes" as part of the property to "create more stories in."   The best you can hope for is some better stewardship of the story part of the franchise so it doesn't get so damn convoluted since that's something Disney's pretty good at.

(Story here; will be a transcript by the end of the day) http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=164011470&m=163975105

[eldaec]

Any corporate shill discussing possibilities presented by the EU material clearly hasn't read it.

Happily it is so bad that it is inconceivable anyone would try to film it.

[UnSub]

Someone needs to make a red letter review edit without the fuckstupid psychopath gimmick bits. They are RLM's jar jar binks.

Agreed. It's funny sometimes but completely distracting for a lot of the time.

Interesting to see that Disney's strategy is now to buy all the IP. Next up: WB buys Star Trek from Colombia. (That's off the top of my head - I'm sure someone will be along shortly to point out some exisitng relationship I'm unaware of.)

[Merusk]

Any corporate shill discussing possibilities presented by the EU material clearly hasn't read it.

Happily it is so bad that it is inconceivable anyone would try to film it.

I doubt it will survive intact anyway, as Episode 7, 8 and 9 is guaranteed to invalidate such huge chunks of it as to make it irrelevant.  If they did ANY DD at all said exec was more likely saying, "Hey there's all these concepts and back-stories ready to be cherry picked."

But yeah, filming anything other than the Zahn books would be laughable, and parts of the Zahn books ARE laughable.  I thought they were great when I was 17, but I've flipped through them again since.. not nearly as cool given the changes to sci-fi in the last 20 years.

[Sky]

Just a side note, I think those that say 'Stars Wars died with ESB' are pretentious douches. You saw ROTJ and you loved it. now you just wanna look like one of the cool kids.

Jar-jar v0.1 says, "Wrong."

That said the Clone Wars cartoon series is making Lucas look like a moron by actually making Anakin look like an interesting character.

It helps that the actor isn't as wooden.

Re: Nathan. I'd like to see him as Han or possibly another smuggler type. The single thing that the prequels lost was the ensemble feel of the original trilogy, and the humor (for adults, not kiddie bullshit humor).

Re: EU. After the 7,8,9 trilogy, Disney wants to push the franchise out every 2-3 years. While I hate waiting to see this until I'm OLD, I hope they bring on Zahn and do the Thrawn trilogy. Actually, it would probably be cooler than the 7,8,9 thing at this point. fake edit - Merusk, while the written book has some pretty laughable stuff, I read it for the first time a year or two ago and it still holds up as a first read, it's not high sci-fi or anything, but it would be a great basis for a trilogy of movies. It would be quite easy to inject the modern sci-fi jazz into the movie.

[Merusk]

On the other hand, this is apparently good news for the folks at LucasFilm as they will apparently now get union benefits.  Something Lucas had denied them all this time and with few options in that part of Northern California, meant they were all kind of stuck.

I don't know where you heard that rumor about LucasFilm union benefits, but I know for sure that they have IATSE folks working there, one of my ex-roommates was a TA there and had to join. Eventually he was promoted out of that position to a software job that was non-union but developers aren't union anywhere AFAIK.

Asked about this again this morning.  Matt's brother works on the production side of things and was talking about writers, producers, etc. Which makes sense to me since Lucas himself was kicked out of the Director's guild for the SW opening credits, so I can't imagine he'd want to feed them dollars.

Hey, I liked Ewoks. As I've gotten older, yeah, it's raised more problems for me but as a kid they were great and I bought they could help take-down the Empire because, hey, Vietnam and there was a lot more lore around them when I was in 4th grade.  Like one Ewok is supposed to be as strong as 4-5 human males.  Makes the "sticks and stones" thing less jarring.

Sky: I'll have to give them a good read again.  However, a significant plot point is nearly invalidated in Jorrus C'both because the Clone Wars weren't what we all thought they were in the 80's & 90's.