Are We Ready For Star Wars VII? From Disney?

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:34 pm

Lucas has sold Lucasfilm to Disney, who are pushing ahead with the next Star Wars film for 2015. On the plus side, apparently Georgey boy is only going to be a consultant rather than directing....

http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney- ... asfilm-ltd

Post by **Warcry** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 9:31 pm

Well, I was going to post something about how this was a terrible idea and the movies would be horrible. But then I remembered the prequels and decided that lightweight, flashy popcorn movies like Disney's Marvel films would honestly be a big step up. After seeing what Lucas's unvarnished creative vision looked like I'm pretty sure that the first film and Empire Strikes Back were only good by accident.

It's not something I'll get very excited at the prospect of, though. Lucasfilm's various branches have burned through almost all of my enthusiasm for the brand in the last decade with one bad movie, book and video game after another.

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 9:41 pm

Cool!

Happy to see anyone else have a stab at this. And Disney have done some interesting things in the past. They shot Bambi's mum, they released Tron, and The Emporor's New Groove, and Lilo & Stitch was a really good film! They can do mildly dark and quirky.

And bring back Darth Maul while they're at it. Maybe get David Lynch to lend a hand, oooh, Kyle MacLauchlan (or however it's spelt) as a Jedi... in the desert. Two films for the price of one!

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 11:50 pm

Lynch came very close to directing Return of the Jedi, so we could have had Jack Nance as Palpatine.

Post by **Sades** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 2:15 am

SNAPPY JEDI MUSICAL NUMBER

Ackula · Post by **Ackula** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:05 am

I'm all for it. The best thing they could do with Episode VII is make a CGI film version of the first chapter of The Thrawn Trilogy, using the original actors from the original trilogy as voice actors. If followed up with a CGI film adaptation of Dark Empire, again with original cast as the voice actors, then it would be a much better series of stories to tell than the boring prequels.

There are a lot of rich and interesting characters in those sets of stories, and the progression of the original storyline makes perfect sense. I would hope they have this in mind already, but I could be wrong and we will be treated to more horribly out of place CGI with cardboard cutout actors.

Thunderwave · Post by **Thunderwave** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:16 am

The Thrawn Trilogy was a great set of stories, no doubt. However something more like Rogue Squadron might be more fitting for the slick, quick style the Marvel movies have taken (at least the Avengers series).

Honestly, how badly can they frack this up? Certainly no worse then Lucas did, and who knows, might be better even.

Post by **Warcry** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:32 am

I think we're much more likely to see Luke, Han and Leia recast, their adventures picked up some time after ROTJ and taken in an entirely different direction in new live-action movies. The article I read suggested that's what they'll do, and I'm hoping that's correct. My favourite parts of the EU (mostly the stuff written by Zahn, Stover, Allston and Stackpole, in that order) have too much depth to them to adapt well into a movie. Most of the rest is genuinely bad and shouldn't be touched with a 10-foot pole. I'd love to see some EU ideas worked into the new films, but I don't think they could do justice to the original stories so they shouldn't even try. I'd rather they concentrate on making good movies first and let the chips fall where they may. I'm sure the hard-core EU fans would hate that, but as a Transformers fan I'm perfectly fine with the ideas of alternate continuities.

And frankly, the EU has gotten very, very weird as the timeline has pushed farther and farther out from the movies, to the point where I honestly don't see much in it that reminds me of Star Wars anymore. If they went back to the Rebels vs. Empire setup and got good stories out of it, that might even get me back on the bandwagon again.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 7:42 am

I'm a bit indifferent to Star Wars. It never struck a chord with me. I much preferred the bleak future vistas of Alien and Terminator. For all their appeal, I could never understand why the films were so universally adored depsite not being actually all that good. To me, they just seem to have a lot of impact for just being visually impressive over other Sci-Fi films of the time. In their way, they're comparable to the Transformers films in that regard. Even at primary school when it was 'the big thing', I just didn't get it.

I think the House Of Mouse will do well with these. Really though, it doesn't matter what studio has them, they're going to stand or fall based on whom they get to write and direct them. Oh, and hopefully some decent actors. That dude played Anakin in the Prequels was terrible.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:36 am

Auntie Slag wrote: And bring back Darth Maul while they're at it.

A nice podcast here from a couple of weeks ago with The Voice of Darth Maul (yeah, Ray Parker Sr only did the body, not the voice, who knew?), where a large chunk of it is taken up with talking about sitting in a cramped studio with George Lucas sitting behind him telling him he could be the new James Earl Jones.

There's also a lovely story about why Terrance Stamp did the film (not for the money and not for his kids):

http://www.comedy.co.uk/podcasts/richar ... afinowicz/

Cliffjumper wrote:Lynch came very close to directing Return of the Jedi, so we could have had Jack Nance as Palpatine.

I've never understood how that came so close to happening. I mean, credit to both of them for thinking outside their usual boxes but the only way they could possibly have ever thought they'd work well together is if neither one had seen any film the other had been involved with.

Warcry wrote:I think we're much more likely to see Luke, Han and Leia recast, their adventures picked up some time after ROTJ and taken in an entirely different direction in new live-action movies.

Considering he's said he'd be up for it for years I can see them having Mark Hamil back as a Obi-waney old Luke mentoring a cast of young sexy things. You could then throw in anyone who wanted to come back as well (Billy Dee Williams, Anthoney Daniels, anyone else who hasn't done much else) as support. Harrison Ford and possibly Carrie Fisher being the most likely drop outs.

I do wonder how heavy Lucas' "Creative Consultant" role will be, with the films at least I can see him being fairly hands on still for as long as he can.

I will also bet this sees the end of the Dark Horse comics as soon as their current deal expires, little point sub contracting and splitting the money when Disney own a massive comic book publisher.

Lucas has kids doesn't he? I'm surprised they didn't want to take over Lucasfilm. Even if they've no interest in film-making it's basically just a case of being sure to hire the right people and saying "Go make me money!". They'd have probably made more money over decades than four billion as well.

What on Earth is an old man like Lucas going to do with that?

the_escaflowne_2k · Post by **the_escaflowne_2k** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:58 am

I think it's brilliant news, the Marvel [studios] movies and the Pirates movies are all pretty much what I expect from a Star Wars movies in terms of action, set pieces and characters. All of which are a step up from the prequels.

Do Disney still own the Muppets? I know getting Muppet babies released on DVD has been constrained by the fact that the show featured Marvel, Star Wars and [of course] Muppets so has been a licencing nightmare for years.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:04 am

inflatable dalek wrote: What on Earth is an old man like Lucas going to do with that?

Work on those American Graffiti prequels.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 1:08 pm

inflatable dalek wrote:yeah, Ray Parker Sr only did the body, not the voice, who knew?,

Peter Serfanowicz off of Spaced and other assorted comedy fancies voiced Darth Maul.

Thus ends my contribution to this thread

Paul053 · Post by **Paul053** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 2:41 pm

Sounds like a good news. Maybe I will start to like Star Wars again in nearly 15 years.

ganon578 · Post by **ganon578** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:56 pm

I'm ready for some new movies. With the exception of Revenge of the Sith, the other two prequels were very lukewarm to me (though I much liked them when they came out and I saw them multiple times in cheap theaters). I could go for either CGI movies with the original cast as voice actors, or using an old Luke as Master with many new Jedi in his academy. Either way, as long as they focus on making the movies good, I will be happy (and not just making them eye-candy; CGI special effects can only take a movie so far).

With Disney acquiring the Lucasfilm rights, does this mean Disney will also now be behind any LucasArts games? I realize the two companies are separate, but if Disney owns the rights to the franchise, there has to be some licensing going on, and I could see Disney maybe pushing LucasArts to put out some games and make Disney more $$$. This gaming generation has been sparse for titles, with LucasArts sitting on a veritable gold-mine of characters, universe, etc. All we get are two Force Unleashed games, The Clone Wars kiddy-games, and a terrible Kinect game. Make it happen Disney! (and not strictly games tied to whatever new movies come out)...

Summerhayes · Post by **Summerhayes** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:28 pm

I've never been super into star wars- too much fantasy, not enough sci-fi, but i've enjoyed each film as they've come out and will probably enjoy these all the more for beardy not being involved. Any excuse to go into a cinema and see lightsabre fights, really.

Post by **Denyer** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:54 pm

As said elsewhere, it might improve the chances of the original films being released again... I could go for a basic DVD set of the first IV-VI.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 6:02 pm

I'd go for a set that didn't have the ****ing numbers on, TBH. It's called The Empire Strikes back, not Star Wars V; I hate that sort of retroactive shit, especially if it's linked to whoring crap material. Star Trek you can't argue with because VI was called VI right from the start, but the only place the numbers were on the original SW films was in tiny font on a pre-credit sequence (and am I right in thinking even that was a slightly later addition?). I don't call Transformers 'Transformers 1' and it doesn't say that on the box.

I really am something of a Nazi when it comes to DVD covers. Stick the original poster on the damn front, put the name on the original poster on the side, don't put a big bloody banner on the thing telling me what damn genre the thing is and don't tell me that it's the last film of some dead Australian surfer.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:33 pm

IIRC the "Episode" thing wasn't added to the first one till Empire started production.

Personally I'd got for on screen titles rather than what's on the poster generally though. Because, say, with Star Wars if you go with the poster Mark Hamil has a chest you could crack rocks on and Carrie Fisher has actual breasts.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:09 pm

Carrie's got a smashing pair, Lucas just insisted on her being dressed as sexlessly as possible. It's another reason why the next two are better - she stops wearing billowy white granny dresses and starts running around more.

Film posters are (or were) an art form; the SW posters especially are classics. It's something else you don't really see anymore - it's all airbrushed publicity stills churned through Photoshop now. Compare to Le Mans, Once Upon a Time in the West, the Rocketeer, Man Who Fell to Earth...