Disney buying Lucasfilm for $4 billion! More Star Wars movies coming!

[Dioltach]

Has anyone seen yesterday's instalment of The Dork Tower?

http://www.dorktower.com/

(For those checking the link after a new comic has been added, check 31 October.)

 

[Desdichado]

"After Sean Connery." You forgot to add that.

Heh. No I didn't.

If I had to wager money, I'd say that the new movies will take place a generation or two after RotJ. Some of the original actors will have minor roles introducing and sending off the new characters. There will be some inspiration from the EU, but it will mostly be new stuff.

Exactly how the Star Wars post-Jedi homebrew game I'm in currently is being run. If it were me, I'd push it even further away in time, and make the events of the Original Trilogy semi-legendary. Sort of like how we tell stories about George Washington and the cherry-tree kinda stuff.

Already conceptualized by Amy Mebberson on tumblr -- both Princess Padme and Princess Leia. (The drawings are five years old? She did those five years ago? Was Disney planning this purchase that long ago, or was Amy just that wishful/prescient?)

Disney and Lucasfilm have for years had a long relationship. Ever ridden the Star Tours ride, or seen the Indiana Jones stunt show? Ever picked up the Mickey as a jedi stuffed animals or pins? It almost seems like formalizing something that kinda existed already.

As for biggest plot holes, I think the whole secret marriage between Padme and Anakin is up there very high. They've been together in Sith for something like 3 years, and nobody suspects anything, especially since Obi-Wan seemed to pick up on Anakin's feelings in AotC? The Jedi really were getting pretty dense.

To me, the most irksome plot holes have to do with the Jedi order themselves, and their monumental inconsistency and self-righteous justification of whatever they want to do anyway. One small example of which is Anakin being told that he'll be kicked out of the order if he abandons pursuit of Dooku to save Padme... and then ten minutes later, Yoda abandons pursuit of Dooku to save Anakin and Obiwan. I find it the most irksome because if it were intentional, it would actually be one of the most interesting plot elements out there. If Anakin were somewhat justified in turning against the Jedi, his fall would actually be interesting. If the Jedi were clearly in need of a major house-cleaning of individuals, rules and practices. But it's clearly not intentional, and the Jedi aren't supposed to be shades of gray, they're clearly meant to be the the unadulterated good guys.

Even though Luke is totally right, Obiwan and Yoda are both wrong, and it's his compassion for his father, and not his Jedi dispassion that allows him to succeed, that's never explored. We're expected to believe Luke was actually wrong, paid the price by losing his hand and nearly falling to the dark side himself, and that he really only succeeded due to dramatic necessity. Oh, wait. We're supposed to be praising the Original Trilogy and condeming the Prequel Trilogy, right?

Still, I think that there's the elements of great story-telling in there, given the tension between the Jedi as explained to Luke, the Jedi as they actually are in the Prequels, and the new perspective that watching the OT with the knowledge of the prequels in the back of your mind gives you. But mostly, it's all accidental and Lucas was trying to tell a straight-forward, black and white, good vs. evil story. Seen that way, it's full of idiotic plot holes and inconsistencies. Seen as a deeper story with shades of gray, it's got potential that it never quite manages to reach.

 

[Umbran]

Moore seems to have the highest proportion of silly Bond movies like Moonraker. Too much 70's goofiness in them to take most of them seriously.

Ah, there's your mistake - with 20+ Bond movies, we don't need all of them to be Serious Cinema. There's room for some of them to be fun.

 

[wingsandsword]

I'm pretty sure the Thrawn books weren't selling Legos and plastic lightsabers at anywhere near the rate seen today.

The Thrawn books are basically what brought Star Wars back from being dormant.

After Return of the Jedi, Star Wars started to fade out. The Marvel Comics run lasted another year or two before wrapping it up. There were the Ewok TV movies, and that was about it.

In 1987 or so, West End Games got the license to make a Star Wars RPG. Basically they had to create much of the "expanded universe" from scratch. LucasFilm made it clear they wanted a coherent setting with consistency between licensed materials, but so little had been established that they had huge chunks to fill in. There were the 3 films, the 2 Ewok movies, Splinter of the Minds Eye, the Han Solo and Lando Calrissian novels, and the Marvel Comics, and that was about it in terms of canon.

Lucas just basically said to leave the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire alone, he was going to do that himself. So, WEG filled in stuff about the Imperial era itself.

Then, when Timothy Zahn got the contract to write a new novel, set after Return of the Jedi, LucasFilm asked him to use the WEG materials to build off of. He has said he was originally offended, because he thought he had carte blanche to expand from the movies, but LucasFilm dropped off a crate of books at his house, he read through them, and basically liked what he saw, and worked in lots of references to them into his books.

Heir to the Empire was a bestseller, and that rekindled public interest in Star Wars. WEG saw sales skyrocket (and released a second edition, and started producing material set in the New Republic era, since Zahn basically created the New Republic).

The Thrawn novels on their own weren't selling merchandise like hotcakes, but that's what restarted the fire that had cooled down after the cinema screens went dark in '83. That's when merchandise started selling all over again, when comics started coming out again (this time from Dark Horse), when action figures started over again, when a steady stream of novels began to pick up, and so on, all following from the success of Heir to the Empire and showing that Star Wars could go on past the 3 films.

My big worry about the Disney buyout is the fear that Disney won't respect the canon, and will go off and make VII, VIII and IX completely separate from the established 20+ years of Star Wars continuity.

The dream scenario is a movie trilogy of the Thrawn novels, but realistically I don't see them doing it (would be the best-case scenario though).

 

[Umbran]

The Thrawn books are basically what brought Star Wars back from being dormant.

I see this frequently asserted. While I read and liked the books back when they were written, I think their effect is largely overstated.

The dream scenario is a movie trilogy of the Thrawn novels, but realistically I don't see them doing it (would be the best-case scenario though).

E!Online reports a source at LucasFilm stated the next will will be an original story, and not from previous novels, comics, or graphic novels. That doesn't say that the movie will ignore canon. It'll just not be a new presentation of already established canon. I'm cool with that. Leave the novels as novels, and don't rehash them (and, of course, likely have to change them) for the screen.

 

[CAFRedblade]

My big worry about the Disney buyout is the fear that Disney won't respect the canon, and will go off and make VII, VIII and IX completely separate from the established 20+ years of Star Wars continuity.

As much as I really want to see the Thrawn series played out on Film, I realize that there would be a time issue, unless they recast the actors.
From everything I've now read, it's unlikely that the new films will be the Thrawn Trilogy. In fact it looks like Lucas wrote the initial Manuscript/Treatment they're working from, sooooo... I can only hope he takes a few cues from the Expanded universe novels and comics and integrates them into the new series. Either that, or the new films could fall into empty spaces between the Expanded Universe timeline without too much disruption..

Otherwise yes, all the last 20+ years of expanded universe will become moot.. Although the movies have always been the Prime universe for StarWars, it'll make it more difficult to tie the separate Universes together, even tenuously, if the new movies take a drastic step in another direction.

My second dream version after Thrawn, would be the Dark Empire Comics, and then the third would be Crimson Empire series..

 

[wingsandsword]

I see this frequently asserted. While I read and liked the books back when they were written, I think their effect is largely overstated.

Well, look at it like this.

In 1991, when Heir to the Empire came out, it had been 8 years since the last Star Wars movie. You couldn't go into a toy store and buy Star Wars action figures, you couldn't go into a comic store and buy Star Wars comics. The only Star Wars novels out there were a decade old. The last video game had been an NES game that just came out based on A New Hope, and before that you had to back to a RotJ arcade game from '83, and games that branched out from the plot of the 3 movies was unthinkable. There was the RPG< but that was a niche product that the vast majority of consumers didn't even know existed. There had been a couple of TV movies and a short-lived cartoon series right after the last movie, but there hadn't been anything new in years.

Heck, I was born in '78 and was 5 when Jedi was in theaters, and my parents didn't take me to it because I was too young. I grew up with Star Wars on VHS. I watched the films circa '87, then immediately wanted to go out and get Star Wars stuff. . .and found I couldn't. No toys, no games, no comics. I remember making a lightsaber out of a piece of plumbing pipe, a dowel rod and some blue spray paint because you couldn't go out and buy a toy lightsaber. If you discovered Star Wars in the late '80's, you would find slim pickings.

Heir to the Empire came out, it hit #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. People who hadn't thought about Star Wars in years were now reading the further adventures of Luke Skywalker, and reading about new heroes and new villains. They wanted more. For the first time in years, there was strong public interest in more Star Wars. Evergreen media "franchises" weren't quite as common 20 years ago, a spin-off novel from an 8 year old movie being a runaway bestseller? That was a game changer.

It's 2012, the last Star Wars movie was 7 years ago, almost as far back as Jedi was when HttE came out. I can go into a toy store and buy loads of Star Wars toys, I can buy Star Wars comics, new Star Wars novels come out every couple of months, there is an ongoing animated Star Wars TV series, and an MMORPG. Star Wars is now a big media "franchise", it wasn't that in 1991.

 

[wingsandsword]

As much as I really want to see the Thrawn series played out on Film, I realize that there would be a time issue, unless they recast the actors.
From everything I've now read, it's unlikely that the new films will be the Thrawn Trilogy. In fact it looks like Lucas wrote the initial Manuscript/Treatment they're working from, sooooo... I can only hope he takes a few cues from the Expanded universe novels and comics and integrates them into the new series. Either that, or the new films could fall into empty spaces between the Expanded Universe timeline without too much disruption..

Otherwise yes, all the last 20+ years of expanded universe will become moot.. Although the movies have always been the Prime universe for StarWars, it'll make it more difficult to tie the separate Universes together, even tenuously, if the new movies take a drastic step in another direction.

Well, as far as I'm concerned, the new movies would be moot instead. I probably won't even bother with the new movies if they completely disregard the EU and/or "invalidate" it.

The Expanded Universe is why I'm still a fan after all these years, and why I'm a fan of Star Wars.

You see, when the Thrawn novels, and everything following on from them came out through the 90's, I was amazed at how well they all hung together coherently. The big, elaborate setting they created was a huge thing for me.

I used to be a trekkie. Used to be. Star Trek has always had a much more relaxed view of continuity, both within the official works, and among licensed works. In High School I would read Trek novels, but it got harder and harder to swallow each new novel since they were all just stand-alone tales, none could ever change the status quo, they could never have any continuity with each other (you'd almost never read a novel that referenced another novel, apparently Paramount insisted on that), the quality of the novels themselves were (at best) hit-or-miss with a few gems and lots of junk, and the fact that the shows and movies themselves had huge continuity gaffes themselves was another downer. It was hard to stay a fan of a property that couldn't even take itself seriously, so I really lost most of my affection for Trek.

At the same time, I saw Star Wars and its big, coherent, consistent universe telling an epic tale that stretched for thousands of years. I could read about a character in an RPG book. . .and see him referenced later in a novel, and those events would be talked about in a comic book, and it would all be the backstory to a scene from the movie. It felt real, with a verisimilitude of setting I've felt in very few other fictional universes.

They have spent 20+ years building this vast coherent setting, only to trash it to stamp out movies in a moneymaking grab? Lucas had said consistently for many years he never intended to make anything after VI, most recently in an interview in May '08, when he said he left explicit instructions to his heirs to never EVER make any more SW movies, that the movies were done and it was in the hands of other authors (and Lucasfilm had set up an elaborate system, and full time employees, to make sure those stories were consistent).

So, more movies can't be seen as a natural growth of the setting and invalidating decades of continuity because Disney wants to see a billion-dollar box office take seems like a slap in the face to two decades of being a Star Wars fan.

 

[sabrinathecat]

My initial reaction was "Oh, hell no." After a few moments reflection, "Well, it's not like they could make it any worse."

But there are some other factors.
One of the best things Lucas did was make it an open license for anyone to use Star Wars materials, so long as there was no money involved. Thus, all the fanfilms could be made and distributed without fear of legal reprisals. Disney does not have that sort of policy. If anything, it is anathema to them. How is that going to work out?

EU has a few Gems hiding in the dross. The x-wing series was pretty good. Another thing: all EU writers were required to use the WEG RPG rules as a bible for writing novels. This was an effort to instill consistency. Naturally, Lucas himself was exempt, which resulted in the horribleness that is the Prequels.

SW is for kids? Really. EP1 is about taxes and trade disputes. Yeah, that's a kiddie pleaser. Ep2 is about... um... well, I guess politics and assassinations and while having a temper tantrum it is ok to kill people who are different from you. Ep3 is about... uh... politics and... um, spousal abuse is bad? and... enough CGI can hide the gaping holes in you writing?

As for the new Bond movies: in a word, "YUCK" comes to mind. QoS was so bad that I gave up on the franchise entirely (until there is a new writing staff). CR was pretty bad too, but when the first 10 minutes is a car chase where I cannot tell who is shooting at whom, what's the point? The girl's name was "Strawberry Fields"? Nice joke I guess--too bad they didn't think to provide that information IN THE MOVIE. I found out during the end credits. Compared to FYEO or TLD, or even Moonraker, the new movies are just garbage for the teenagers. Hell, even the invisible car, stupid as it was, was better than anything in the last 2 Bond flicks. It is a sad day when not even Dame Judy Dench can save the movie.

As for Pixar. Pixar was revitalized by a guy who got fired from Disney for expressing an idea. That was his crime: he suggested an idea. In front of witnesses. At DisneyCorp, an idea can get you FIRED, if it is at all outside the static corporate structure. Yup. Go from that. So he went to Pixar, and turned it into a massive success. So Disney weedled and cajolled until they could buy the company--guess they don't like competition or not having total control over the movies they distribute.

 

[Desdichado]

My big worry about the Disney buyout is the fear that Disney won't respect the canon, and will go off and make VII, VIII and IX completely separate from the established 20+ years of Star Wars continuity.

My big worry is that they'll do the opposite, and take most of the EU crap seriously. I take that back; it's not really a very big worry, because historically, G-canon has always completely ignored and trumped C-canon, and I'm reasonably sure that they'll continue that, especiallly with Lucas as a creative consultant.

The dream scenario is a movie trilogy of the Thrawn novels, but realistically I don't see them doing it (would be the best-case scenario though).

That makes no sense whatsoever given the many, many things in the Thrawn trilogy that are impossible given newer revelations that have come up in the prequels and the Clone Wars.

I see this frequently asserted. While I read and liked the books back when they were written, I think their effect is largely overstated.

On the contrary; the effect is likely understated. There was absolutely nothing going on in Star Wars when it came out, and probably would never have been if the first novel by Zahn hadn't been a bit of a surprise sleeper hit.