Urgh.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Well, that's it proper fucked then.

The Walt Disney Company today announced that it has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

"Our long term plan is to release a new Star Wars feature film every two to three years."

[Mr. Johnson]

Well, technically it can't be worse than what George Lucas did.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

True, but lucas doesn't do it that often.

[HereComesPete]

Pixar Grim Fandango!

There's been Star Wars films released constantly the last few years hasn't there? It's just that they're cartoons.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

[Thompy]

Somewhat ironic that that site used Episode 3's Vader "Noooo!" instead of Luke's. But yeah,

Spoiler:

never was much of Star Wars fan (not that they weren't good),

so really not interested in what will probably be a further decline of the series (presuming live action films not cartoons).

The spoiler button still puts media tags in you know.

[spoodie]

But yeah,

Spoiler:

never was much of Star Wars fan (not that they weren't good),

so really not interested in what will probably be a further decline of the series (presuming live action films not cartoons).

The most worrying thing about it for me is that Disney grows a little larger. The organisation that started this ridiculously long copyright trend, which stifles creativity for the sake of making even more money for rich corporations.

[buzzmong]

Well, that's Starwars fucked then.

[Mr. Johnson]

ha ha, like it wasn't already.

[HereComesPete]

Well, that's Starwars fucked then.

Mostly by your spelling of it. lololololol

[spoodie]

Howard the DuckTales

[Joose]

I dunno, Disney bought Marvel a while back and absolutely nothing changed, so I dont think that is in itself necassarily a bad thing. Not a good thing either, just a ...thing.

Releasing a film every couple of years... meh, depends what they mean by "a film". Like Pete says, theres been a fairly regular stream of animated SW films recently. Besides, even if they are talking about just live action films, what are you worried about? You think they might ruin the Star Wars franchise by sticking in some annoying, comedy, disney-like character aimed squarely at the children? OH NO WAIT...

[Thompy]

RPS has an awesome image plus alt text for it's article.

Reminds me:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrDPPaDbrsE[/media]

[Joose]

Something that has just occured to me: If Disney now own Star Wars, does that mean something appropriate appearing in thier theme parks? Because a Death Star Canyon Run Roller Coaster could be AWESOME.

[buzzmong]

I do find it interesting that Lucas has sold *everything*. I would have thought he'd have kept hold of Industrial Light and Magic and Skywalker Sound, the former especially as it's the premier film effects/technology company.

He's already massively rich, so it can't be for the money, so I wonder why he's got shot of everything.

[FatherJack]

ILM is probably why they paid so much, as it otherwise seems like a raw deal for a flagging franchise with little future promise.

As for the fans, such as those that can be said to still exist after the second trilogy, the promise of Eps 7-9 would seem welcome. Disney helped bankroll the the originals IIRC in any case.

My guess is he hopes it will continue, admitting he can't do so himself.

[Dog Pants]

I was dismayed by the thought of a production run of Star Wars films at first, but as has already been said, how much worse can they be? Episodes 7-9 would be odd - they're faced with either using the existing canon like Grand Admiral Thrawn and the Jedi twins, all of which are pretty cheesy and a bit shit, or throwing the lot out and making up new canon, which would cause lots of nerd rage. Both are entirely possible. However, the thought of films which are unrelated to the main Skywalker plot is what has turned this around for me. The Star Wars universe is massive, and whenever it reaches past the plot of the films it is invariably far more interesting. Also, Disney are pretty shrewd these days. They aren't all about mindless kids stories any more, they're a lot cleverer and just as entertaining for adults; take Finding Nemo, Wall-E, Pirates of the Caribbean, or The Incredibles. There are turkeys too (National Treasure, Race to Witch Mountain), but these seem the be the ones aimed specifically at young teenagers, which given the broad fan base hopefully wouldn't be the direction they took Star Wars in. Actually, I've never seen those films so they might be brilliant, but IMDB ratings suggest not.

[Joose]

National Treasure is one of those brilliant shit films. It's utterly stupid, but great for those times where you just want to point your eyes at something and not turn your brain on.

Race to Witch Mountian is just plain old regular shit though.

[eRabbit]

I'm not sure if this is good or bad. Disney are really good at working with existing brands, just slightly less good creating new stuff. As Joose said, they bought Marvel a few years ago, and considering how those films are going they are either doing a grand job or just not interfering.

You never know, could actually be a good thing... Lucas is a chuffing idiot after all. At least the existing films might actually stay the same now.

[Roman Totale]

[Joose]

Yes!