The Force Awakens Sale to Disney- Planned or Unplanned?

LegendAssemble

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As many of you may have read Lucas told Mark Hamil and Carrie Fischer his plans over a year ago. Well for several years I have been seeing articles like the one below claiming that the Star Wars saga is to continue after the 3D rereleases and that they were to inpart fun and prepare the audience for the new trilogy. Sort of the same way the special edition screenings and shadows of the empire crossover sales did.

http://furiousfanboys.com/2010/10/star-wars-sequel-trilogy-due-in-2019/

Well after the Phantom Menace was rereleased to less than exciting results things began to change. Instead of one film a year Lucas now planned to release II and III back to back. It seems like a lot of effort went into promoting the release too, Lucas even gave the command (yes reports cite him as the source) for the Clone Wars team to bring back Darth Maul for the end of Season 5 ending early in 2012. They even left him alive and left his story reasonably open ended.

As we all know now Disney has officially purchased Lucas films a few days ago and now openly plans to produce a sequel trilogy. Is this a result of a the poor response to the 3D releases and a fear that the marketability of Star Wars maybe going down? Perhaps Lucas just decided he needed some help? Or maybe Red Tails truly was the last straw and he realized he was alienating his own fan base?

Whatever reason it may be do you believe there is any correlation?
 
It is really hard to pass judgement on TPM3D's box office receipts. It made $44 million domestically. This was in February of this year. Most families had just dropped $80'ish on the Star Wars BluRay box set the previous December. That is a lot to ask of a family. Especially considering the cost of a 3D movie ticket. Sure, Disney was doing something similar with their 3D re-releases but they weren't selling box sets.

I find it hard to believe that LucasFilm was banking on box office receipts from Red Tails to fund any future projects. That was a passion project through and through.

This is one of those things were we might not ever know the true details, or, it could be one of those things were absolutely everything is spilled. In reality though, I think it is pretty safe to say LucasFilm could finance three sequel movies w/out needing to generate funds beforehand.
 
It is really hard to pass judgement on TPM3D's box office receipts. It made $44 million domestically. This was in February of this year. Most families had just dropped $80'ish on the Star Wars BluRay box set the previous December. That is a lot to ask of a family. Especially considering the cost of a 3D movie ticket. Sure, Disney was doing something similar with their 3D re-releases but they weren't selling box sets.

I find it hard to believe that LucasFilm was banking on box office receipts from Red Tails to fund any future projects. That was a passion project through and through.

This is one of those things were we might not ever know the true details, or, it could be one of those things were absolutely everything is spilled. In reality though, I think it is pretty safe to say LucasFilm could finance three sequel movies w/out needing to generate funds beforehand.

Oh damn 44 mil is actually a bit better than I'd thought, but either way it's more of a topic for discussion than a factual matter. Theres really no way to know for sure.
 
I dig the dialogue and discussion. I have been a member here since 2009 and only now am I posting.

Worldwide, it made about 102 million. So it was profitable. Especially after all the money they made off the Blu Ray sets.
 
George Lucas has been talking about a longterm plan in terms of passing his stories on and wanting them to be in good hands since 1999. Disney was a logical choice since he had worked with them so extensively over the years with attractions and films. They also have a sound economic future which many of the studios do not.
 
George Lucas has been talking about a longterm plan in terms of passing his stories on and wanting them to be in good hands since 1999.

Over the years, he has definitely contradicted himself many times. It is odd though, the majority of stuff I have read featured him saying the movies were over, Luke never gets married, the Emperor never resurrects, and that even his will instructs everyone to leave the movies alone.

That is what made the sale so shocking (to me).
 
The disappointment of The Phantom Menace 3-D may have been for the reasons already discussed (ticket prices, Bluray box set) but we're not kidding ourselves in knowing the real reason is because TPM sucked, Lucas would've been smart enough to release episodes IV, V, VI first.
 
Strong rumours of the Sequel Trilogy have been around sicne last year. I think it was planned.
 
I don't think a deal this big could have started in March & is now finalized. I think it probably took much longer to get everything set.
 
George Lucas has been talking about a longterm plan in terms of passing his stories on and wanting them to be in good hands since 1999. Disney was a logical choice since he had worked with them so extensively over the years with attractions and films. They also have a sound economic future which many of the studios do not.

If you've ever been to disney world you understand how this deal makes perfect sense. Theres Star Wars everything there, I'm pretty sure i have a Jedi Mickey still.

However I don't think George was ever entirely sure what he was gonna do. He's said a lot he's not giving up Star Wars that it's "his thing". He also has been very adamant saying it's always been six films, when originally it was a 3 act screenplay and then it became a 12 part story, then after his fallout with Kurtz and his spit with Maria he got sick of it and cut it off at movie 3 for awhile.

I'm really happy Lucas is passing the torch, I highly respect the man and his stories were what got me into movies in the first place, but he's lost his connection to reality. All will work out in due time.
 
Lucas is lying all the time. There WERE 12 movies, no matter how much he wants to deny it from time to time with various BS.
 
It is really sad that I keep having to say this, but Lucas didn't tell Carrie and Mark about plans for the Sequel Trilogy 'over a year ago'; he told them about plans for the ST 4 months ago (August of this year).

Per the question at hand, though, why would the plans to produce the Sequel Trilogy have anything whatsoever to do with the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney? The two things are not dependent on one another, nor are they cause-and-effect oriented.
 
Lucas is lying all the time. There WERE 12 movies, no matter how much he wants to deny it from time to time with various BS.

I think there may have been 6 at one point. Interviews with Gary Kurtz "the other primary force behind Empire and A New Hope", reveal a different return of the Jedi that had a very different ending. He said that Han was to die, the Emperor was to appear on the Planet of Haad Aabadon (later become Courescant in the prequels) but not fully, and Luke was to fail and walk into the sunset a lone to rebuild the order. The sequels would deal with Luke training the "other" yoda referenced.

However Lucas got tired of Star Wars and after his marriage to Maria fell apart he wanted to be done with it, so he rewrote Jedi to include things from Star Wars IX to end the saga for the time being. I don't even think he planned on doing the prequels, I think he more or less just did them for his kids.
 
Lucas is lying all the time. There WERE 12 movies, no matter how much he wants to deny it from time to time with various BS.

I thought he was usually open about it? Or at least about 9 film series, before he changed the story of Jedi.
 
Nah, not really, he kept changing the story.
 
From io9: This May Be The Star Wars Movie You're Looking For

Gary Kurtz said:
The one story thread that got totally tossed out the window, which was really pretty important I think, was the one of Vader trying to convince Luke to join him to overthrow the Emperor. That together they had enough power that they could do that, and it wasn't him saying I want to take over the world and be the evil leader, it was that transition. It was Vader saying, "I'm looking again at what I've done and where my life has gone and who I've served and, very much in the Samurai tradition, and saying if I can join forces with my son, who is just as strong as I am, that maybe we can make some amends." So there was all of that going on in Jedi as well, that was supposed to go on. So the story was quite a bit more poignant and the ending was the coronation of Leia as the queen of what was left of her people, to take over the royal symbol. That meant she was then isolated from all of the rest and Luke went off then by himself. It was basically a kind of bittersweet ending. She's not his sister that dropped in to wrap up everything neatly. His sister was someone else way over on the other side of the galaxy and she wasn't going to show up until the next episode.




From Wiki:
At first Lucas envisioned a series of films with no set number of entries, like the James Bond series. In an interview with Rolling Stone in August 1977, he said that he wanted his friends to each take a turn at directing the films and giving unique interpretations on the series.
From TheForce.Net:

Gary Kurtz Reveals Original Plans for Episodes 1-9 Wed, May 26, 99 01:08:05 AM CST

Gary Kurtz, the producer of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, spoke at the Sci-Fi Expo in Plano, TX this weekend along with his daughters Tiffany and Melissa (as children they played Jawas in A New Hope). He shared with the crowd about meeting Lucas, leaving the Star Wars films and the original plans for the entire saga.

Back in the early 70s, Kurtz was looking to use the new Technoscope technology in an upcoming film. Francis Ford Coppola hooked him up with George Lucas who had recently filmed TXH-1138 with Technoscope. Kurtz became interested in Lucas' planned American Graffiti and the partnership was born.

When the time came to produce Return of the Jedi, Kurtz was unhappy with the story direction Lucas was taking. He felt that it was too much of a rehash of the first films with no real challenges. At the same time, Jim Henson was inviting him to produce his experimental film, Dark Crystal, which he chose instead.

Kurtz gave The Phantom Menace a mixed review as he was clouded by plans made for Episode 1 back in the early 70s. As someone involved with Star Wars from the initial concepts, Kurtz revealed the original intentions for the nine films as they were laid out BEFORE 1980. Very interesting.

EPISODE 1: Was to focus on the origins of the Jedi Knights and how they are initiated and trained

EPISODE 2: Introduction and development of Obi-Wan Kenobi

EPISODE 3: Introduction and life of Vader

EPISODE 4: There were seven different drafts of the film. At one point, they pursued buying the rights to Hidden Fortress because of the strong similarities. At one point, Luke was a female, Han was Luke's brother, Luke's father was the one in prison (interesting point for some debates) and the film featured 40 wookies

EPISODE 5: Once written, the screenplay of Empire is almost exactly what is seen on screen. The only cut scenes were those involving wampas in the rebel base (cut because of time and unsolved technical glitches) and about two minutes of Luke/Yoda Jedi training with no real dialog.

EPISODE 6: Leia was to be elected "Queen of her people" leaving her isolated. Han was to die. Luke confronted Vader and went on with his life alone. Leia was not to be Luke's sister.

EPISODE 7: Third trilogy was to focus on Luke's life as a Jedi, with very few details planned out.

EPISODE 8: Luke's sister (not Leia) appears from another part of the galaxy.

EPISODE 9: First appearance of the Emperor.

From Time magazine May 19 1980.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

[The very first surprise in The Empire Strikes Back comes in the
opening credits: the movie is identified as Episode V. Since it is
the immediate sequel to the original Star Wars. That opus has been
retitled Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, raising a meteor shower of
questions. The answers: Lucas has begun his space saga in the middle,
and both pictures are the centerpieces of a projected nine-part
series. The remaining movies, fore and aft, have not yet been laid
out in detail, but Lucas hs the framework, a kind of history of what
happened in that galaxy long ago and far away. A preview:

For years the universe was governed by a republic, which was
regulated by the order of Jedi Knight who bore a vague resemblance to
Japanese Samurai warriors. But eventually the citizens of the
republic "didn't care enough to elect competent officials," says Lucas
the historian, and so their government collapsed. A sorcerer, a bad
counterpart of Yoda, blocked all opposition and declared himself
Emperor. He was not seen in Star Wars: Episode IV, but he makes a
brief appearance in The Empire.

The Emperor subverts Darth Vader to his side, and together he
and VAder betray the other Knights, nearly all of whom are killed in
their trap. Ben Kenobi escapes, and after a fierce struggle he does
such injury to Vader that forever after Vader must wear a mask and
that noisy life-support system. The fall of the republic and the rise
of the empire will form the first of Lucas' three trilogies.

The second trilogy, which opened with Star Wars: Episode IV,
center on Luke Skywalker, who will be seen as a child in Episode III.
The Empire continues the Skywalker story, and Episode VI, the next
film to be made, which will be called Revenge of the Jedi, will end
it, with either Luke or Darth Vader walking away from thier final
bout. The last three episodes involve the rebuilding of the republic.
Only two of the main characters will appear in all nine films,
and they are the robots, Artoo Detoo and See Threepio. Says Lucas:
"In effect, the story will be told through their eyes."

From STARKILLER: LOOKING BACK TO THE FUTURE OF STAR WARS
 
The Long, Winding, and Shapeshifting Trail to Episodes VII, VIII & IX
J.W. Rinzler said:
The long conjectured third Star Wars trilogy has kept fans guessing for decades, and may even have a few numerologists working on their mysteries. George Lucas’ shifting feelings about future Star Wars trilogies have consistently clouded the picture. Given the difficulties associated with the birth of Star Wars in 1977, it’s no wonder that Lucas’s ideas kaleidoscoped. When trying to get such a big undertaking up and running and out the door, visions of the future are understandably hazy. But, as of October 30, 2012, Episodes VII, VIII and IX have been announced as real and soon to be tangible — but they’ve existed as gossamer spirits for nearly 40 years.

On December 29, 1975, in conversation with Alan Dean Foster per the novelization of Star Wars, Lucas mentioned the prequel trilogy along with what would become Episodes V and VI: “I want to have Luke kiss the Princess in the second book. In the third book, I want the story just about the soap opera of the Skywalker family, which ends with the destruction of the Empire. Then someday I want to do the back story of Kenobi as a young man – a story of the Jedi and how the Emperor eventually takes over and turns the whole thing from a Republic into an Empire, and tricks all the Jedi and kills them. The whole battle where Luke’s father gets killed. That would be impossible to do, but it’s great to dream about.”

As Lucas came to terms with Twentieth Century-Fox during the making of Star Wars, he secured the legal rights to his sequels, though they remained undefined at the time. On location for the first phase of principal photography in Tunisia in March 1976, Lucas began a long tradition of talking with close collaborators, voicing his ideas for these other episodes and trilogies, much as Walt Disney would do of his projects.

“You know, when I first did this, it was four trilogies,” Mark Hamill recalled in 2004, speaking of their conversation in 1976. “Twelve movies! Out on the desert, any time between setups… lots of free time. And George was talking about this whole thing… ‘Um, how’d you like to be in Episode IX?’ ‘When is that going to be?’ ‘2011.’ […] I said, ‘Well, what do you want me to do?’ He said, ‘You’ll just be like a cameo. You’ll be like Obi-Wan handing the lightsaber down to the next new hope.’”

In 1978, a Time magazine article reported that the Star Wars Corporation (a subsidiary Lucas had formed for Star Wars) would be producing “Star Wars II [Empire], and then, count them, 10 other planned sequels.” At that time Lucas consistently mentioned 12 films and even created a barebones outline to that effect.

In it, the original trilogy occupied Episodes VI, VII, and VIII; a Clone Wars trilogy took up Episodes II, III, and IV, while Episode I was a “prelude,” Episodes IX through XI were simply left blank – and Episode XII was the “conclusion.”

In 1979, however, Lucas said in an interview on the set of Empire, “The first script was one of six original stories I had written in the form of two trilogies. After the success of Star Wars, I added another trilogy. So now there are nine stories. The original two trilogies were conceived of as six films of which the first film was number four.”

While in postproduction in early 1980, Lucas used to kick back from time to time with ILM manager Jim Bloom and muse about the bigger story. “The first trilogy is about the young Ben Kenobi and the early life of Luke’s father when Luke is a little boy,” Lucas said. “This trilogy takes place some 20 years before the second trilogy, which includes Star Wars and Empire. About a year or two passes between each story of the trilogy and about 20 years between the trilogies. The entire saga spans about 55 years. I’m still left with three trilogies of nine films. At two hours each, that’s about eighteen hours of film!”

While Empire was originally part of a 12-film plan, by the time it was released, the number had clearly been reduced to nine. “The prequel stories exist — where Darth Vader came from, the whole story about Darth and Ben Kenobi — and it all takes place before Luke was born,” Lucas explained at the time. “The other one — what happens to Luke afterward — is much more ethereal. I have a tiny notebook full of notes on that. If I’m really ambitious, I could proceed to figure out what would have happened to Luke.”

Lucas mentioned these notebooks — or one big book — to me, a few years ago. I asked if I could see it, but he declined. My feeling is that this big book or these notebooks are private, though Lucas has occasionally sent me via an assistant miscellaneous handwritten notes from the period 1976-1983 to help in the writing of the making-of books.

But two years later while filming Jedi, for many reasons, Lucas was burning out, tired of the whole enterprise: “I’m only doing this because I started it and now I have to finish it,” he adds. “The next trilogy will be all someone else’s vision.”

As of today, Lucas has given his new co-chairman Kathleen Kennedy several ideas and is really going into semi-retirement. Now, in a relatively short time, compared to the decades of speculation, fans will learn the secrets of Episodes VII, VIII and IX. Star Wars has risen again!

Lucasfilm executive editor J. W. Rinzler is the author of The Making of Star Wars and The Complete Making of Indiana Jones. He is now writing The Making of Return of the Jedi (and really looking forward to finishing it) for a fall 2013 release. You can visit jwrinzler.com for more info.
 
From JHM:
Never mind about Star Wars 7. Who is going to be Bob Iger's No. 2?
Jim Hill said:
So when exactly did Bob Iger let George Lucas now that he was interested in acquiring Lucasfilm Ltd. ? It wasn't " ... a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." But -- rather -- last May in Orlando, when both Iger & Lucas were at Disney's Hollywood Studios to take part in an elaborate opening ceremony for "Star Tours: The Adventures Continue."

According to what company insiders have told me, during the rehearsal process for this opening ceremony, George reportedly told Bob that he really appreciated all of the effort that the Imagineers had put into the new multi-branching version of the "Star Tours" attraction. Which would help keep the Star Wars characters evergreen and -- more importantly -- relevant for the next generation of theme park goers.

Lucas then allegedly let slip that he was giving some semi-serious thought about stepping away from Lucasfilm Ltd., or at least the day-to-day operations of that company. But the only problem with doing that was that George would then have to name a successor.

It was at this point that Iger supposedly revealed that he too had succession issues on the brain. With Bob reportedly confiding to George that -- as part of the new employment agreement that he was at that time negotiating with Disney's Board of Directors -- that he didn't want to repeat Michael Eisner's mistake. Which was to stay on in the top job at Disney longer than he was actually effective. Which is why Iger was considering exiting the Company entirely by June of 2016.

So here you have two very powerful men in Hollywood who have built up and then maintained major media companies who now discover that they have something in common. In that both Bob or George are eyeballing the exit.

It was this piece of common turf, that there was more to life than just maintaining intellectual property, that reportedly opened the door to the Lucasfilm Ltd. acquisition.

Now you'd think that most everyone at the Mouse House would be happy that R2D2 & C3PO are about to become Disney characters. But the way I hear it, both Tom Staggs & Jay Rasulo aren't entirely enthusiastic about this acquisition. But not for the reasons that you might think.

Why For? Well, it's not the $4.05 billion that The Walt Disney Company is paying for Lucasfilm Ltd. (I'm told that George originally asked for a multiple of that amount. Something much closer to the $7.4 billion that Disney paid for Pixar Animation Studios back in January of 2006). But -- rather -- Kathleen Kennedy, the current Co-Chair of Lucasfilm. Who will soon become the President of Lucasfilm and report directly to Alan Horn, the Chairman of Walt Disney Studios once the Lucasfilm acquisition is complete.

"And why does Kathleen concern Jay and Tom?," you ask. For the very same reason that Rasulo & Staggs have been nervously eyeing Alan Horn. The fact that Bob Iger has yet to name his successor.

To explain: It's long been assumed that Bob would eventually officially designate either Jay or Bob as his No. 2. This is the main reason that Iger reportedly had Rasulo & Staggs swap jobs back in November of 2009, with Jay (who had previously been Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts) replacing Tom as the Company's senior executive vice president and chief financial officer. While Staggs assumed Rasulo's old position as head of Parks and Resorts.

Company insiders had always assumed that Bob had made Jay & Tom switch jobs because he was looking to round out their resumes. Make sure that both men had the necessary on-the-job experience before he then named one of them his No. 2. But now that Alan Horn (who -- prior to being named Chairman of Walt Disney Studios back in May -- had previously been President and COO of Warner Bros. Entertainment) is on the lot and Kathleen Kennedy (Who was one of the co-founders of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment as well as a partner in the Kennedy / Marshall Company) is about to enter the Mouse House ... Well, Alan & Kathleen are both Hollywood heavyweights who have lots of experience when it comes to running major entertainment companies. And Jay & Tom's concern is that -- when it comes time for Disney's Board of Director to name Bob Iger's successor -- the Board may opt to go with more experienced execs like Horn & Kennedy rather than reward loyal longtime Disney officials who've risen up through the ranks like Rasulo & Staggs.

Long story short, folks: There's a lot more going on here than just Walt Disney Studios acquiring the rights to make "Star Wars 7." Especially since March of this year (which is when John Pepper stepped down as the Chairman of The Walt Disney Company and Bob Iger became both Disney's Chairman & CEO), there has been all sorts of rumors in-house about who Iger is going to tap to be his No. 2.

Mind you, I don't expect that Bob will pull a Palpatine and have Jay, Tom, Alan & Kathleen go at it with light sabers. But while Star Wars fans will be waiting to see who Kathleen & George select to be the writer and/or director of Episode 7, Mouse House watchers (knowing that Bob Iger has already announced that he will be stepping down as Disney's CEO in March of 2015 and then exiting the Company entirely by June of 2016) will spend the next few months sifting for clues as to who's going to be named Iger's successor.
 
From Variety:
Disney sees Q4 profits rise, touts Lucasfilm integration - Bob Iger says acquisition of 'Star Wars' brand will 'further fuel Disney's creative engine'
Marc Graser said:
When asked whether Disney could handle another major brand in its portfolio, Iger wasn't concerned about fitting Lucasfilm's assets into the mix.

"Six years after the Pixar acquisition, there's proof this brand's been handled effectively," Iger said. "We've demonstrated our ability to be ambidexterous. The 'Star Wars' brand doesn't need much help but benefits greatly from the release of a film. When we take over distribution of their films and are the owner of the brand, we're more focused on growing the brand than the third-party distributor was."

While 20th Century Fox still controls distribution rights for the "Star Wars" films that were made and any re-releases in 3D, "We did not factor in any need to acquire rights back from News Corp.," Iger said. "We may choose to explore that, but all value is going-forward value."

Toward that end, Iger said, "Lucas product will be co-branded with Disney's name on it."


Iger said he sees the Lucasfilm acquisition as a "great opportunity to infuse our stores with 'Star Wars' merchandise and grow our online business."
 
EPISODE 1: Was to focus on the origins of the Jedi Knights and how they are initiated and trained

EPISODE 2: Introduction and development of Obi-Wan Kenobi

EPISODE 3: Introduction and life of Vader

This sounds so much better than the actually trilogy. I still think the biggest flaw was no focusing the story around Obi-Wan Kenobi.
 
That's my problem with the Prequels. We didn't have a main character that we connect to. Anakin was an eye roller of a character, so disconnected and unlikable that I wish we saw the story more from Obi's point of view as the mediator.
 
Yoda seemed to be poorly used as a side kick character again in these movies. Like extended cameos in 1 and 2. I think Yoda and some more Jedi Council stuff should have been used.
 
I'm sure it was in the works for a while. At the very least Lucasfilm had a pretty strong longstanding relationship with Disney. Lucas had talked about retiring before and also doing more experimental indy films. He doesn't seem to have an interest in directing anymore. He didn't even direct Red Tails.

I mean, does it really matter if the prequels in 3D under-perform or not? They are just 3D re-releases, not sure if you should expect like $200 million from them. I mean Titanic was pretty beloved for its time and won 11 Academy Awards.
 
Guess his kids was not interested in keeping Lucas legacy so he made plans and gave it to a company. Disney really is the only option in my mind because Fox and WB are companies that really deliver many stinkers.
Disney had a few hick up too with Prince of Persia and John Carter but I think something like this could break there bad luck summer movie wise streak. Also Marvel also went with Disney and look what Avengers gave Disney out of the gate.
 
The Lucas kids are too busy fighting in MMA. ;)
 

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