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Disney Buys Lucasfilm, Star Wars 7 Coming In 2015
Just when you thought the Star Wars sexalogy had three horrifying episodes too much, here comes Mickey Mouse to buy the HoldCo (for $4 billion) and make sure that even more atrocious dancing takes place on the grave of the science fiction movie that defined a generation. That, and a whole lot more Lando Calrissian action figures. Because how does one know Hollywood has officially run out of ideas? Like this: "Star Wars Episode 7 is targeted for release in 2015, with more feature films expected to continue the Star Wars saga and grow the franchise well into the future." Surely Star Wars 7 will have a Retina Display, but if young Skywalker relies on Apple maps to get to Tatooine we will just wait for part 9 (not to be confused with how many inches the maxiPad will be). What we are most excited about, however, is Indiana Jones 7 - Raiders of the Lost Wheelchair. And the renaming of Star Wars IV, of course, to "A New Hope and Change."
From the PR:
Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.
- Global leader in high-quality family entertainment agrees to acquire world-renowned Lucasfilm Ltd, including legendary STAR WARS franchise.
- Acquisition continues Disney’s strategic focus on creating and monetizing the world’s best branded content, innovative technology and global growth to drive long-term shareholder value.
- Lucasfilm to join company’s global portfolio of world class brands including Disney, ESPN, Pixar, Marvel and ABC.
- STAR WARS: EPISODE 7 feature film targeted for release in 2015.
Continuing its strategy of delivering exceptional creative content to audiences around the world, The Walt Disney Company (DIS) has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm Ltd. in a stock and cash transaction. Lucasfilm is 100% owned by Lucasfilm Chairman and Founder, George Lucas.
Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney stock on October 26, 2012, the transaction value is $4.05 billion, with Disney paying approximately half of the consideration in cash and issuing approximately 40 million shares at closing. The final consideration will be subject to customary post-closing balance sheet adjustments.
“Lucasfilm reflects the extraordinary passion, vision, and storytelling of its founder, George Lucas,” said Robert A. Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. “This transaction combines a world-class portfolio of content including Star Wars, one of the greatest family entertainment franchises of all time, with Disney’s unique and unparalleled creativity across multiple platforms, businesses, and markets to generate sustained growth and drive significant long-term value.”
“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” said George Lucas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I’m confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney’s reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment, and consumer products.”
Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Lucasfilm, a leader in entertainment, innovation and technology, including its massively popular and “evergreen” Star Wars franchise and its operating businesses in live action film production, consumer products, animation, visual effects, and audio post production. Disney will also acquire the substantial portfolio of cutting-edge entertainment technologies that have kept audiences enthralled for many years. Lucasfilm, headquartered in San Francisco, operates under the names Lucasfilm Ltd., LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic, and Skywalker Sound, and the present intent is for Lucasfilm employees to remain in their current locations.
Kathleen Kennedy, current Co-Chairman of Lucasfilm, will become President of Lucasfilm, reporting to Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn. Additionally she will serve as the brand manager for Star Wars, working directly with Disney’s global lines of business to build, further integrate, and maximize the value of this global franchise. Ms. Kennedy will serve as executive producer on new Star Wars feature films, with George Lucas serving as creative consultant. Star Wars Episode 7 is targeted for release in 2015, with more feature films expected to continue the Star Wars saga and grow the franchise well into the future.
The acquisition combines two highly compatible family entertainment brands, and strengthens the long-standing beneficial relationship between them that already includes successful integration of Star Wars content into Disney theme parks in Anaheim, Orlando, Paris and Tokyo.
Driven by a tremendously talented creative team, Lucasfilm’s legendary Star Wars franchise has flourished for more than 35 years, and offers a virtually limitless universe of characters and stories to drive continued feature film releases and franchise growth over the long term. Star Wars resonates with consumers around the world and creates extensive opportunities for Disney to deliver the content across its diverse portfolio of businesses including movies, television, consumer products, games and theme parks. Star Wars feature films have earned a total of $4.4 billion in global box to date, and continued global demand has made Star Wars one of the world’s top product brands, and Lucasfilm a leading product licensor in the United States in 2011. The franchise provides a sustainable source of high quality, branded content with global appeal and is well suited for new business models including digital platforms, putting the acquisition in strong alignment with Disney’s strategic priorities for continued long-term growth.
The Lucasfilm acquisition follows Disney’s very successful acquisitions of Pixar and Marvel, which demonstrated the company’s unique ability to fully develop and expand the financial potential of high quality creative content with compelling characters and storytelling through the application of innovative technology and multiplatform distribution on a truly global basis to create maximum value. Adding Lucasfilm to Disney’s portfolio of world class brands significantly enhances the company’s ability to serve consumers with a broad variety of the world’s highest-quality content and to create additional long-term value for our shareholders.
The Boards of Directors of Disney and Lucasfilm have approved the transaction, which is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, certain non-United States merger control regulations, and other customary closing conditions. The agreement has been approved by the sole shareholder of Lucasfilm
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Sweet!
Fuck Bernanke and Ja Ja Binks!
<--- People waiting in line overnight for iPhones are bigger dorks
<--- People waiting in line overnight to see a Star Wars movie are bigger dorks
good one
I've yet to watch one complete Star Wars movie in any itteration.
I was at WalMart today, they are still pimping "Ninja Turtles". Isn't there anything new under the sun - I mean come on man... Star Wars?! Ninja Turtles?! PokeBong?!
CareBears reboot hits movie theaters early next year. Budget overruns estimated at 15-20M have delayed the premiere . . .
Star Wars 7 : The Revenge of the Fat Chinless Dude (No, Not Jabba)
ori
Sorry had to junk you for going to WalMart
But, this time the Empire will be the good guys with the first Kenyan Emperor, the resistance as domestic terrorists, and the Jedi will have switched sides and bear some resemblance to the TSA.
You can call me Dorkus Maximus as I stand in line for Star Wars 7.. but I ain't going to be camping out a week before the opening, that's for sure.
On the other hand.. please. Star Wars is a classic. iPhones are just a fad. Let's not use iPhones and Star Wars in the same sentence, because no one will care about the iPhone in 40 years, let alone 4.
Is it the computer part, internet part, touch screen part, or telephone part of the iPhone that is just a fad?
Wow you are sensitive about Apple. The sum of those parts you listed could also be any number of other devices. Does the original iPhone have value anymore? The original Star Wars sure does.
Obviously this guy hasn't gotten the memo that the iPhone won't go the way of the transistor radio and the horse/buggy one day..
Industrial Light and Magic is the real history marker. One good measurement is placing the film's special effects against Logan's Run which came out, I think, a year earlier. In some ways, Star Wars and the Iphone have a lot in common. As reality becomes more unacceptable, we live more and more in our artificial worlds.
Fucking genius move by Lucas. He is cashing out at the right time. Look Lucasfilm is nothing more than a really big SFX house these days. There are tons of smaller one that are eating into his profits. Take a look at the credits for Clould Atlas, he'll they are almost as long as the m ovie.
Fucking genius move by the PR company - a story burried on Halloween and after a major storm.
If this had appeared, say, last week or next week then we'd have obligatory stories talking about the purchasing of a nation's shared memories (Pixar + Marvel + now Star wars).
A deal worth billions that was inked a while back. Wouldn't you wait for the right moment to tell the world?
I just learned I cannot vote for both options.
I believe "Spaceballs 2: The Search For More Money" is the more appropriate sequel we should all be waiting for during these hard times.
Spaceballs was a fucking classic.
Your post SHOULD read:
"I believe "Spaceballs 2: The Search For More SPACEBUCKS" is the more appropriate sequel we should all be waiting for during these hard times.
Star Wars: A New Hope
Yes, a new hope that Obama will be re-elected to a second term, but very little change from his first term.
It better not be a lame movie with too many special effects. It must have a good plot. Not just throw some special effects and end the movie badly. I would be DISAPPOINTED - LOL. I hope it would be more of a Titantic, Avavtor, ET movie kind of thing. Best of the best.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooo......."
This move is unexpected, it is too aggressive.
Lord Maul, be mindful.
as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Post election response. Darth Obummer and the Darky Star...2012
I'm There!
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!
Is NOTHING sacred?
Maybe they can get Janet Napolitano to play Chewbacca?
Nailed the hair.
i think janet as the Sarlacc would be more appropriate:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sarlacc
Janet Reno might fit the bill
You linked the one I didnt need to look up to know its relevance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Napolitano
and the Surgeon General for Jabba
and Obama to play Mark Hamill playing Luke, the skinny bad actor with no future
Sorry, that role has already been filled by Obama's huskier half, The First Chewbacca.
If you have any problem with that she will happily place your head under one of her armpits and squish it to the size of a pea.
Mooooommyyy!!!!
The Star Wars trilogy was my favorite movies when I was a kid. I really looked forward to Vader's story in the prequels. What a let down, Lucas really screwed them up.Then he milked the series for all that it was worth to the point that I'm surprised there is any value left. Maybe Disney will take a mulligan on 1,2, and 3 and do a do-over.
And just to make sure whatever fuzzy warm childhood memories you had of the first trilogy were thoroughly annihilated, he re-released them with shitty, unnecessary CGI and dialogue changes. Fucker.
I used to think that Natalie Portman's terrible acting in the prequels must have been the fault of Lucas and horrible dialogue. Then I saw her in other films. I still hate Lucas. He's a great exemplar of our current "value system," however.
Portman is an Israeli Firster and she starred in some POS movie about kicking the Palestinians out of the West Bank-I'm sure she received the SW job based on her being a fave of the HollYid Syndicate
MK puppy
You mean Natalie Hershlag born in Jerusalem...right?
Natalie Portman Shills For The Zionist War Machine And Spews Lies On Syria: Jewish Hollywood’s Power In Actionhttp://www.maskofzion.com/2012/04/natalie-portman-shills-for-zionist-war...
The movie you refer to is called "Free Zone."
Oh, to think that ZH was once a place for economic and philosophical wordplay in the comments section. The occasional troll would come out from under the bridge and be quickly trounced as part of the entertainment.
Now the trolls are being replaced by cynical haters who spew the generic "we hate everything, and everything's Israel's fault". Gimme a break. It got old years ago. If you don't like Jews, then fine...that's your opinion and you're entitled to it. But Disney buys the Star Wars franchise, and you find a way to wedge it into THIS story?
You need a girlfriend.
power and $ in the US is controlled by a Jewish cabal-explain to me how 1.7% of this country's wealth controls 40%+ of its wealth? as far as a girlfriend-1 wife is more than I can handle-and how the fuck does needing a girlfriend relate to anything? Also-Disney-run by a jew :(
i'm sure that one wife is really ugly
She is perhaps the single worst "actress" prostituted by Hollywood in a century. She must have won her roles with her tongue, because she sure didn't win them with her on screen performance.
Yep then he released them digitally then digitally remastered then on Blu-ray and blah blah blah blah blah on and on and on.... Money grubbing fucker.
When did he drop the "stein" from his last name? Or perhaps "berg" or "fein" or "gold" or "schild"?
In Star Wars 7 we see Bambi, Alladin, and Gaston, now Jedi Warriors, battle Jafar, Scar, and Dark Quasimodo... in space...
Jiminy Cricket as Yoda is where I draw the line.
Han shot first dammit!
pods
And I would have too. Greedo motherfucker.
You beat me to it, but it's worth repeating.
Everyone say it together now...
HAN SHOT FIRST
Get there fustest with the mostest...works every time, has for thousands of years.
You'd think after John Carter they'd be staying away from space movies for awhile.
And I totally agree with you on the Star Wars movies. The prequels were unbearable to watch...and this is coming from a guy who loves Star Wars and really wants to have sex with Natalie Portman.
Agree Star Wars 4,5,6,...7 just as bad as QE 4,5,6....7......?
Star Wars, the quest for money
Lucas says "I find your lack of faith disturbing."
-
George Lucas has been cock-sucking big time again...
They trashed Star Trek with JJ Abram's 'vision' of the franchise, and now even Star Wars is about to be raped...
It is a black day for sci-fi fans...
I'm sorry. About to be raped?! I'll just assume you missed episodes 1-3.
Sci-fi has sucked since after Aliens.
Oh sorry, The Fifth Element is good too.
Don't forget Blade Runner.
I liked Event Horizon too, although that's really just a sci-fi setting for one fucked up horror movie. Same for Dark City.
Right I totally forgot Blade Runner. Dark City was meh.
Event Horizon was sweet and it was left with the ability to spinoff sequels, and a prequel done right would be fucking awesome to watch the horrors when the gravity drive was first engaged.
Blade Runner holds up as well today as it did when it was made. Awesome movie, script and story.
I'll second that motion. Good director. One of the few good actors out of the star wars trilogy. Probably accurate vision of the future.
"I've made a deal that will keep the empire out of our affairs forever."
HAHA fucking CLASSIC!!!! Well done sir!!!
"I am risking an awful lot Vader this had better work!"
Also fitting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piVnArp9ZE0
Lando looks a lot like Eric Holder (or vice versa). I know it's not possible, but still...
Trust the Force Luke, not the mouse.
Let's hope First Lady Chewbacca will be out of the WH by then and be able to work on this film without it cutting into her second 4 year taxpayer paid-for vacation.
Swell.
Jar Jar binks meets Beauty and the Beast musical
Someone asked Is nothing sacred?
No. If money is to be made - nothing is sacred and it just sucks.
Star wars on ice?
Is there any big star wars forum that I can read and laugh?
This whole thing is gonna create a shitstorm of epic proportions.
Bullish for Schadenfreude.
Hollywood ran out of ideas a long time ago, but this is just pathetic. Star Wars 7 ??? I mean...seriously...what the fuck?????
agree.....can't imagine actually paying to watch 2 hours of video game cartoon shit. Then they give it an Oscar....like that baboon IQ film Avatar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI
7 part review of Episode one that examines every aspect of how horribly awful it was. Best damn review EVER and worth the watch.
That was worth it; scathingly, brutally, true.
They have only to look to respected awards for a good example ... like the Nobel Peace Prize.
alien-IQ,
It is, that we are all in; the MATRIX.
"Round and Round" -RATT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u8teXR8VE4
The title of this article should be "Disney Proves Beyond Any Possible Doubt That God Does Not Exist."
That and Goldman Sachs and the NYSE surviving Sandy yeah... God is pretty much dead.
Is lucas films even an entity?
certainly not worth that much, the last 3 starwars sucked and BADLY, go home lucas we wont let you rape any more movies!
I agree 100% that the prequels sucked big time...
However, The Phantom Menace did pull in over $1B at the box office - worldwide, that is.
Then, besides the movies, factor in the video games, which are also owned by Lucasfilm...
Yes, the prequels made me want to kill myself, but that company is worth quite a bit, I think.
The Wierd Al parody is awesome. Sums up the entire film in 5 and a half minutes, before he ever saw it. So, I guess one good thing did come of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEcjgJSqSRU
ILM
Oh yeah...I forgot about ILM...
On geekish tangent - I swear the special effects in the first Jurassic Park (which I hate, btw...the book is way better) are better than those in the third one.
I just don't "get" that at all - the third one came out like 10 years later...
Are the gay robots making a return?
I prefer the South Park George Lucas & Speilberg episodes.
Wonder what they will do wiht Industrial Light and Magic considering they already have plenty of cheaper effects departments. Not to mention down-under and eastern block firms that can do it for a 4th the price.
The best special effects are being made Uzbekistan, I've heard.
Walt Disney (Freemason) meets George Lucas (Kabbalist)
.
The future society they have planned for us must be structured differently from what we all know now...
And what better way then at the youngest level through movies, music and 'entertainment.'
.
T
H
X
1
1
3
8
.
Buy...
Buy More...
Buy More Now and Be HAPPY!
-OMM
God hates amerika
The neandersheeple will eat this up. Episodes 8 and 9 will follow and if that does well, episodes -2, -1, and 0 if the prequel needs a pre-prequel.
I'm guessing the "Good Guys" are taking on some space "terrorists" in a never-ending "War on Space Terror". I always kind of liked The Empire myself.
As if modern civilization will still exist in 2015 ...
This is a good reason to hope it doesn't by 2015..
Great, now I have to short Mickey Mouse...
Start Wars sumed up in 50 seconds
http://youtu.be/1LWQB7jgF7I?t=5m
Let Michael Bay direct it just for the lulz.
Lando Carlrissian is the darkest Armenian I've ever seen.
Is American Graffiti part of the deal? The mooning scene had a major impact at my high school.
Disney has already revealed that one of the major characters will be openly gay and that the transgender hero (heroine?) will challenge all of us to look closely at each of our own deeply flawed and Western-biased perceptions of sexuality.
Well, this is Disney. There's probably gonna be a bunch of jew hating in there too... you know, to stay true to Walt Disney himself.
A shot at Walt Disney? What did he ever do to you? Was it Karen or Annette, the mousketeers, who didn't respond to your fan mail?
Well that gives a new take on the Bar Scene. Can you imagine what it wlll be like now?
The people are getting smarter... pointing at the algos... Distract with a new Star Wars!!!
The media moguls and banksters ride into the sunset!
Maybe they can get an algo-droid to write the script this time.
These are not the algo droids your looking for.
Starwars is a franchise? Like MacDonalds?
You can pretend only the first three movies exist you know.
I need a vodka. Corporations really should die like real people. The definition of the spawn of utter mediocrity has to be the "executive".
Can you get an Ewok off the dollar menu?
Yah. But they are a lot smaller than they look in the movie trailers.
Star Wars Episode VII: The Empire Strikes Oil (For the oil super-majors in Iraqi Kurdistan)
Star Wars Episode VIII: The Phantom Deleverage
Best of the day. U guys need to burn a fatty and run through these responses...........its fucking hillarious! Thx
Just when Mark Hamill has settled into playing Skips.
The only place that Star Wars still works is on Family Guy.
I'm sorry, but those Family Guy adaptations were horrible.
Dude, totally awesome. You have no soul.
Lucas was the last of the independents, he made that movie about the black pilots that failed miserably (and used a bunch of his own money) so is finally calling it quits.
ILM is the US standard for industry technical know-how (the lead passed to Cameron's studio). Lucas sees an industry bubble and is selling at the top. His retirement already announced, awating to see where that $4bn windfall lands; if he withdraws from the industry, deploys it in the US, or does a Cameron and looks overseas.
Doesn't Lucas have an investment account with Madoff & Co
Spaced on Star Wars...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUkCJDkG3fg
That is all.
(Already looking forward to the Special Edition, 4D, THX, director's cut, flip out Betamax box set with collector's edition comic strip)
Has anyone gone to see "Cloud Atlas" ?
IMHO...if you have taken the red pill you will feel this movie. I think it will be a cult classic and was probably created and released by people similar to what we find on Zero Hedge.
They should have waited until Lucas was dead and was unable to influence the movie. After pumping Dune for ideas, he was pretty much done.
Oh God, Dune... what a complete joke of a sci fi movie. That looked like something out of the 50's. I still can't believe the overall plot... roaming the galaxy to get spice... which was nothing more than giant worm dung.
By which time everyone at Disney who ever had an original idea will be dead.
I just hope they don’t go the James Bond route and try to see how many product promo’s they can cram into each scene. If Darth Vader has an Apple or Facebook Logo anywhere on his costume, I’m going to be pissed.
Why spend gazillions on special effects when you can do this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcArnepkhv0
The movie will be called "Star Wars". As Luke is about to blow up the Death Star it is caught in a wormhole and sent back in time.
Instead of taking out the rebel base on Yavin the death star appears above Tatooine and blows it up. We find out this is just before Queen Amidala arrives with Obiwan and Qui Gon. They find a crashed X-wing fighter on a nearby moon with Luke inside.
Luke never knowing that Padme was actually his mother ends up falling in love with her. This sets up an epic setpiece later when Luke learns that he is his own father.
That actually made my head hurt. Well done!
That is EXACTLY what to expect if they assign JJAbrams to guide StarWars (or worse). He already destroyed the entire StarTrek canon, and is just drooling at the possibility of destroying the entire StarWars canon.
The super nerds rejoice.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x115u4_triumph-the-insult-comic-dog-sta...
I don't see the problem. At least the franchise has a chance now, away from Lucas's hands.
the matrix of industrial cultural repackaging that counts on hyper marketing to sell the same recurrent theme; terminator, diehard; you name it, as long as it makes money and keeps people in the same mental straight jacket which is the very function of the matrix; the exact opposite to original thinking and true star trekking like any true cultural age which breaks into new territory.
If thought control and money making is the name of the game we stay in the Las Vegas type casino even when it comes to film making. Its not what the original Disney films were; I guess they are running out of good ideas.
Like the financial boys they only have "toxic" ones to offer, to keep their hold on power.
Better be good.
Y'know violence, action and sex.
wow, he's calling a top right here
American Idol and Dancing with the Stars are the usual examples of dumbed-down pop icons on these threads. But to see Star Wars held in such high regard by so many readers, I now realize how even the most cynical of us can be drawn into fantasy and escapeism.
I only saw the first Star Wars. It was Roy Rodgers in space, good guys vs bad guys, and R2D2 playing jeep Nellie Belle for comic relief.
If a washed up feckin' facsist film director's company is worth $4B, then what is an Oz of gold really worth ?
After the last 3, who cares?
Star Wars died in May 1999 when the piece of shit turd of a film "The Phantom Menace" was released. I was a huge Star Wars fan up till that point but after the prequels I couldn't give a shit about this franchise.
What? Are your "midi-chlorians" on their period or something?
Jar-Jar Binks is the deepest and most complex character in cinematic history!
(/sarc)
Oh man! You ain't seen nothing yet!
Disney is the Goldman Sachs of entertainment.
Walt Disney is rolling over in his grave watching what Michael Eisner and the other Jew boys did to his company.
Disney was a propagandist for the elite.
Now (and for a long while), Disney movies sexualize and confuse little children.
Just another American caricature/cut-out hero whose true history might never be known but his impact in the general fall, all around is/will be felt for ever.
I hope he is enjoying his stay in hades, for he surely, as much as anyone in Hollywood, made THE faustian bargain.
ori
I've got a bad feeling about this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnE8RitIN4s
Liam Neeson only reads in his lines in every performance I know of. To say he can't act is an understatement.
When you become familiar with the influence of Rabbis in modern culture, you see it almost everwhere. In the first of the prequels the entire first section (I turned it off pretty early) was another of Rabbincial Sacrament honoring institutionalized Jewish victimhood, with references to Nazi hate of the always victimized Jews, God's chosenites chosen by race, not grace.
I believe the fact that Neeson made this ode to Jews is the primary reason for all the glorification of Neeson's wife when she died, another absolutely talentless "personality". Payback by Rabbis for honoring them and elevating their racist idealogy.
I can not believe the abject constant abuse Germans take by these God forsaken scum Rabbis (the murderers of Christ) over the past 70+ years. It will never end because the Rabbis get so much constant mileage out of it.
If those morons get JJAbrams involved with StarWars, I will PUKE. He has destroyed enough, already! Somehow, I can't imagine the stories for future Star Wars episodes will mesh properly with the existing story line and the StarWars universe. So oh yes, "I have a very bad feeling about this".