Disney buys Lucasarts for $4 billion

[Coyote]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavi...-4-05-billion/

Mickey, Meet Yoda: Disney To Buy Lucasfilm For $4.05 Billion

Walt Disney this afternoon announced a deal to buy Lucasfilm from Star Wars director and film pioneer George Lucas for $4.05 billion in cash and stock.

Under terms of the deal, Lucas will be paid half in cash and half in the form of about 40 million Disney shares.

“Lucasfilm reflects the extraordinary passion, vision, and storytelling of its founder, George Lucas,” Disney CEO Robert Iger said in a statement. “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.”

Lucas said in a statement that it is “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,” Lucas said. “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.”

The deal includes not only Star Wars but also other businesses operated by Lucasfilm, including LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound. Disney said the current plan is for Lucasfilm employees to remain in their current locations.

Kathleen Kennedy, now co-chairman of Lucasfilm, becomes president of the company, reporting to Disney Chairman Alan Horn. She’s also acting as brand manager for Star Wars. The announcement said Kennedy will serve as executive producer on new films in the franchise, with Lucas as creative consultant. The announcement notes that Star Wars Episode 7 is scheduled for release in 2015, with more films expected to follow. No word yet on who will direct Episode 7.

Update: Speaking on CNBC, Robert Iger said the deal will be slightly dilutive for the first two years after the close, and then accretive after that.

[Coyote]

I just pray to *insert deity here* that no-one gets the bright idea of re-making the movies with Mickey & rest of them...

[Little Texan]

Here is a pic of Vader on the set of Star Wars Episode 7.

[sadaist]

The worst part is Indiana Jones is included. Ugh. If anyone can fuck it up worse than Lucas did on that last film it will be Disney.

[Hardrock69]

Episode VII?

FUCK!

Here we go...time for the ruination of a great company.....

[ODShowtime]

Does anyone like the recent Marvel movies? Because Disney bought Marvel too and the recent movies have been well received. Also, we've already seen the disneyfication of star wars. Anyone remember Anakin killing any Jedi in Revenge of the Sith? Me neither. So they can't get much worse.

I'm down with some more Star Wars movies. They're not all gonna be classics but what else is there to watch? More zombies movies or torture porn? Maybe a nice romcom? No fucking thanks.

[philouze]

Jar Jar Binks gangraped by some stormtroopers ? Now THAT I'd like to see... I hate Star Wars 1, 2 & 3, I'm sorry.

[chefcraig]

He gave up Industrial Light & Magic, too? Shit, talk about bending over for a paycheck.

[DONNIEP]

He gave up Industrial Light & Magic, too? Shit, talk about bending over for a paycheck.

I guess when he said back in January that he was semi-retiring he wasn't kidding.

[philouze]

Now let Simmons sell KI$$ to Disney and we're good.

[Nickdfresh]

Episode VII?

FUCK!

Here we go...time for the ruination of a great company.....

You really think Lucas didn't already take a giant shit all over the franchise with his over-emphasis on effects, making sure the films were kiddie friendly more often that not, and his inability to write decent dialogue or tell a story?

[Nickdfresh]

Granted....nothing will ever be like the original Star Wars movies....but Revenge of the Sith was a bad ass movie IMO.

It was really the only prequel worth a shit! Attack of the Clone had it moments though...

[vandeleur]

i was really rough on the 3 new ones when they came out but saw the revenge on tv and watched it with the kid. Wasnt anything like as bad as i remembered.

[Zing!]

As a life-long Star Wars fan, I still haven't wrapped my mouse ears around this one. Not sure if this is a good thing (more Lucas-free Star Wars episodes), or a bad thing (Disney swallowing up the entire entertainment industry)...

[envy_me]

Believe it or not, but I have never seen a Star Wars movie. Never ever.
I have zapped pass that other space show, with that guy that played Sejanus in I, Claudius. Never watched it though.

[sadaist]

Believe it or not, but I have never seen a Star Wars movie. Never ever.
I have zapped pass that other space show, with that guy that played Sejanus in I, Claudius. Never watched it though.

Wow. That is amazing. The first 3: Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return Of the Jedi are fucking incredible and were game changers. (especially Empire)

The next 3 were weak by the standards of the first 3, but not horrible. Was nice to see how the story came to be even though you could tell it was a major cash grab.

[sadaist]

As a life-long Star Wars fan, I still haven't wrapped my mouse ears around this one. Not sure if this is a good thing (more Lucas-free Star Wars episodes), or a bad thing (Disney swallowing up the entire entertainment industry)...

As much as I hate seeing 1 company dominate everything, oddly I still have faith in the Disney name. I'm glad they are the ones doing the buying rather than someone else buying up & ruining Disney. Something magic to that name.

[clarathecarrot]

Lucas is set in stone the movies that he made his legacy is evident.

Anything anyone does with the name will be different and if it sucks it is just the name.

Does Lucas have any kids...he could have passed it all onto them but maybe they aren't interested in movies?

Passing on 4 Billion to your family is more than likely the smartest thing anyone could do for the future.

That kind of money cannot be passed up on a gamble the future will pay the same.


Great move by Lucas, it proves he is also, with all his vision and talents and companies firsts and trend setting,

he is no, dumb ass..lol.

[twonabomber]

Anyone remember Anakin killing any Jedi in Revenge of the Sith? Me neither. So they can't get much worse.

Anakin killed the younglings in the Jedi temple. They didn't show all of it, a small piece when Yoda and Kenobi returned to the temple and Kenobi watched the security footage.

Does Lucas have any kids...he could have passed it all onto them but maybe they aren't interested in movies?

Lucas has three adopted kids, two daughters and a son. His daughters were in all three prequels, his son was in 2 and 3.

[twonabomber]

Anakin's turn to the dark side was too fast, it easily could have been another movie.

[envy_me]

You guys are nerds

[Dave's Bitch]

Nerds are keepers though

[envy_me]

Nerds are keepers though

Haha :-) It's funny though :-)

[sadaist]

Nerds are keepers though

Yep. But geeks can fix your computer. Nerds just wonder why they can't just use the Force to post on Roth Army.

[vandeleur]

Do we have demarcation between geeks and nerds

[envy_me]

Yep. But geeks can fix your computer. Nerds just wonder why they can't just use the Force to post on Roth Army.

Is there a difference?

We have a geek that comes and fixes our computer at work. We pay a whole lot for that, but since he is always booked and we always have computer problems he has become some kind of god to us :-)

[DONNIEP]

4 and 5 were awesome (but why was Lando wearing Han's clothes at the end of Empire?). Return of the Jedi was good but I hate the damn teddy bears. The first prequel sucks Bantha balls. The second is ok and the third just starts getting good near the end. And Anakin comes off as a spoiled pussy who needed his ass beat down one good time.

I think Disney will do a good job with the series. They've totally embraced Star Wars for years now down at Disney World and have done a good job with it. I wonder what a 7th movie would even be about since all order has been restored after the Empire fell...

Oh yeah, and Han fired first bitches!!!

[DONNIEP]

One more thing - if you haven't watched the Family Guy Star Wars episodes you have got to check them out. Funny as hell!!

[twonabomber]

I wonder what a 7th movie would even be about since all order has been restored after the Empire fell...

That's what my friends and I are trying to figure out. Does it follow one set of books or the other? Characters from the video games? Or who knows what? Too many options, and too many opportunities to fuck it up.

Some people are joking about Disney Channel actors being in the movies. I don't think Disney did that with some of the latest PG movies, like John Carter (which bombed), Tron Legacy, or the Pirates movies. A more scary thought is Johnny Depp finding his way into one of the new SW movies. Disney's got Depp playing Tonto in their Lone Ranger movie, plus he was in the Wonderland thing, and of course Pirates...others have mentioned Mark Hamill being old enough to play Luke in the next three, but can they bring back Hamill and not Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher? Would Ford even consider it if asked? Does John Williams do the score again, or does Disney hand it to someone else?

Lastly, is this thing really going to be ready for a (presumably) May 2015 release? Seems like a rush job. There were three years between each of the prequels. Maybe they've got a script already, who knows.

[sadaist]

And Anakin comes off as a spoiled pussy who needed his ass beat down one good time.
:

So true. Shoulda started beating his ass back when Liam Neeson was still around. he had everything in life handed to him once they found him in the desert at a young age. he was the chosen one and treated as such. then suddenly reality strikes where he has to actually work & earn stuff and he crumbles. Couldn't get on the council so he easily switches sides and kills all the children Jedi. What a douche. I fully enjoyed watching Obi Wan kick his ass.

[sadaist]

Is there a difference?)

Nerds play World Of Warcraft.

Geeks design World of Warcraft.

[vandeleur]

There was a lot shit about the first new one , actually most of it except the pod race ... But the midichlorians bollox took the space biscuit ... The force is the force don't try and fucking explain it .

[DONNIEP]

But the midichlorians bollox took the space biscuit ... The force is the force don't try and fucking explain it .

"See Anakin, you have this stuff in your blood that makes you different than other people. Ya know, kinda like herpes."

[DONNIEP]

Ok, this is the least funny of the three they did but it's still pretty good:

Family Guy Return of JEDI from sham on Vimeo.

[bueno bob]

Well, here's my take on it.

George has a fantastic imagination, and, imo, one of the best imaginations ever unleashed upon humanity. He's great with screenwork, behind the scenes effects, and drawing out a visual map for what he wants to see on the screen. I'd say, when it comes to the realm of science fiction movies, he's one of the best creative minds there ever has been and ever will be. If you think otherwise, the original trilogy and fuck you.

Anyway, that said, he's more of a behind the scenes type of guy. Fantastic with effects, fantastic with drawing out diagrams for what is visually astonishing, but...the guy's not much of a people person. And that, I think, is really why the dialogue sucks in the Star Wars franchise (let's face it, it does suck). You kinda need to be a people person in order to be able to direct people, which is why you've got to have fucking TOP NOTCH talent in his movies to be able to pick them up out of a morass of bad acting (Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Harrison Ford, Alec Guiness, Ian McDiarmid, Christopher Lee, Terrance Stamp...).

Those guys put in FANTASTIC performances, but yeah, the dialogue is toilet worthy and is a lot of Star Wars kinda hokey, yeah. But in a sweet way, you know. Here's my point - George Lucas has ALWAYS been better behind the scenes and out of the main seat. Don't believe me? Empire Strikes Back, Irvin Kirshner and fuck you.

This, to me, is FANTASTIC news. If I could do backflips, well...I'd do backflips.

The new prequel trilogy gets a lot of hate, and some of it comes from me too, but it wasn't without it's moments of awesome (and, Red Band reviews can blow it out their ass, they DID have some very good moments to them), but overall, my biggest problem was the narrative. When George Lucas' fantastic idea of The Clone Wars ends up being clones vs. robots, it's symbolic of his overall removal from being able to really get into the human aspect of his movies, and that's what makes science fiction important - an underlying degree of humanity.

Clones are 'not-really' people killing machines, which are of course not really people, and vice versa. It's not really interesting, and there's no real sense of urgency in the war. Both sides can kill all they want, the other side will just make more, and there's not really any consequence in either outcome regardless of who wins it - which is how I looked at the prequels overall, there wasn't really a sense of urgency...but it was interesting because it was Star Wars. Point is, the rest of the galaxy could basically just sit back and roll with whoever came out on top (surprise, it's the Sith, but the point remains that it just wasn't easy to relate to - even as a 10 year old, I had MUCH more interesting notions about what the Clone Wars might have been).

That said, getting George out of the day to day operations of Star Wars is, really, a fantastic idea. Did anybody actually play Knights of the Old Republic on the original XBOX? I did, and I'll tell you something point blank FACT - it was a INCREDIBLY fucking good story, gave you very human, very real characters to care about and captured the spirit of Star Wars like NOTHING I've seen since I walked out of Return of the Jedi in '83 and resigned myself to the fact that Star Wars was over.

Do you like what's going on with Marvel? Disney's been spearheading all that. Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Spider-Man, The Avengers...let's face it, Disney took the Marvel franchise, reinvigorated it with class writers, class directors, and class actors and made that shit GOOD. And The Avengers were never even really all that interesting to me, and now it's like the premiere Marvel spearhead.

Based on what can be done with Star Wars without Lucas calling ALL the shots, a la Knights of the Old Republic, and what Disney's managed to do with Marvel, PLUS the fact that they can get some REAL Star Wars fans working on shit now without George hanging over everybody's shoulders, I mean, come the fuck on! What's NOT to like?

Care to see Christopher Nolan direct a Star Wars movie? How about J.J. Abrams, or Joss Whedon? Guess what, now it's entirely possible.

Honestly, everybody's going to watch Episode VII in 2015. Fuck, if what I read about it today is any indication, they've already got a good foot up on it...must have been the best kept secret in Hollywood. Could you imagine the casting boon if they actually got Mark Hamill back as an Obi-Wan type figure to spearhead a new generation of heroes? Obviously, we're going to have C3PO and R2-D2, maybe Chewbacca isn't out of the running, either...Christ, ANYTHING is possible, they might even be able to throw enough money at Harrison Ford, Billy Dee Williams and Carrie Fisher to get them all on the set, set it 30 years after Return of the Jedi and have them struggling with an uprising threat of some sort, maybe their Republic free of the Empire isn't as grand and glorious as they'd hoped...

You'd watch the shit out of that movie. You'd literally be staring at the screen until shit was actually pouring out of the projectors. You know it, I know it, and Disney knows it. It wouldn't just make a LOT of money...it would make ALL THE MONEY. Like, in the history of the world. Ever. That's probably NOT going to happen, but....nice to dream, right?

The sky is the limit and I am absolutely over the moon of Endor about it. 2015 absolutely cannot get here fast enough. The only real concern I have is not hearing the 20th Century Fox fanfare prior to seeing it in the theater...that's gonna be a WEE bit weird, but...fuck it, I'll adapt, I'm sure.

Not too concerned about Indiana Jones. Paramount's still got their fingers in that pie, so Disney's going to have to do some haggling to do anything with that. I doubt they're in much hurry, it seems obvious that Star Wars is their big priority right now, and for obvious reasons. Although I'd really get behind an animated Pixar Indiana Jones adventure with Harrison Ford doing voice overs, set in 1940's against the Nazis...yeah, I'd be all over that.

I'm REALLY excited about the future of Star Wars, I think this is a fantastic idea, Kathleen Kennedy running up the show is fantastic, and man, I just expect awesome, awesome, AWESOME things to come!!!!

[Hardrock69]

Ha....Darth used The Force to put us all in our place, lol.

The Larg is strong in this one.....

[Dave's Bitch]

Nerds play World Of Warcraft.

Geeks design World of Warcraft.

Honestly though if you can get past the video game or sci fi obsessions, 9 out of 10 geeky/nerd guys are really nice.I think i am going to go find myself a geek

[ODShowtime]

Anakin killed the younglings in the Jedi temple. They didn't show all of it, a small piece when Yoda and Kenobi returned to the temple and Kenobi watched the security footage.

Yes I'm aware of that. I said Jedi's, not children.

[ZahZoo]

I think this is good news... although 2015 seems too far out. Get rolling on it now with a shot at early 2014 release. I don't want to wait 2-3 years...

[sadaist]

Holy shit this is genius! Hilarious & relevant.