Today the Disney Company purchased Lucasfilm for a little over $4.1 billion. Along with the purchase came the announcement from Disney CEO Bob Iger that Star Wars VII will be released in 2015. My reaction was the following: "What the (insert expletive)?"
The response on Twitter that I have seen has been generally positive and I don't understand that. Maybe it's because most people don't love Star Wars as much as I do. Now I am no super nerd when it comes to Star Wars. I can't tell you the name of the actor that played Grand Moff Tarkin in A New Hope but I can tell you the name of Chewbacca's home planet (Kashyyk). A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi are and will always be the Holy Trinity of cinema as far as I am concerned. That is why it bothers me so much to see a foreign company take ownership of these films that mean so much to me and millions of others.
I know that Disney and Lucas have had a working relationship since Star Tours opened in 1987 and has continued with the Indiana Jones attractions in it's parks and lastly with the new Star Tours that just opened last year. But, in all of these endeavors Lucas was there to aid in the development of these attractions. Now, a new studio will be taking over this franchise and its vast array of characters and I am not so sure that this will work out.
In response to the following VLOG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtdIAAXoryg&feature=g-all-u : I don't think that Disney needs to make any more Star Wars films in order to pass the franchise on to a new generation. I never saw any of the original films in theatres until they were re-released back in the mid to late 90s and yet I was able to discover them for myself. Lucas has already done enough damage to the franchise with the prequels and I don't think that another movie is going to bring the franchise back to what it once was. Snow White and Disneyland succeeded due to Walt Disney being the head of the company. I don't trust an Iger run Disney with Star Wars. As much as I enjoy the new Star Tours it will never replace the original in my heart. I know that Iger just wants to reboot the franchise for profits, he has no vision for Star Wars other than to keep churning them out until people stop paying to see them. Look what they did to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. The first movie was amazing and then to cash in the second two movies were hurried into production and had much weaker plot lines. "On Stranger Tides" made me want to gauge my own eyes out it was so bad. The next point made was that "nothing can be worse then the prequels". I argue yes(The Clone Wars animated series; Who wants to see Darth Vader being nice? Yuck!), and I think Disney will find a way to do just that. I agree with you that more Star Wars in the parks is a good thing.
This has been my first ever blog so please excuse me if it is poorly worded and structured. I hope to become better at this as I go along. In closing, I leave you with this picture in which Lucas looks completely defeated and Bog Iger looks ecstatic. I feel like behind the camera some guy has a gun to Lucas' dog or something and is threatening to shoot it if he doesn't sell.
Well said Bro! I agree. This can't be good!
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