Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Gottii]

The Mouse Eared Empire now stretches back a long time ago, to a galaxy far, far away...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2012/10/30/disney-star-wars-lucasfilm/1669739/

And yes, a new trilogy is supposedly being planned for 2015

[Safai]

It had better be the Thrawn trilogy.

Edit: Scratch that, just remembered all the actors are way too old now anyway. But still. You know where I'm coming from.

[Morwen Lagann]

Relevant.

[Reyd Karris]

I am tentatively excited about this. If who I think might direct this turns out to be the person that directs it though? I'll be quite sad faced.

[Gottii]

My brother trolled me tonight with a "Michael Bay signed on to direct the new star wars!".

I totally bought it, was outraged until his "got you" text showed up...

[Reyd Karris]

My brother trolled me tonight with a "Michael Bay signed on to direct the new star wars!".

Hah-hah! /Nelson

On what the movie will be: My guess is that it'll be set more than a few years after Jedi. Probably... 30-40 or so years. If they stretch it to 50, that gives plenty of time to both tell a new story with the Skywalker family, and puts it in the gray area between post-Jedi canon novels and the beginning of the Legacy era comics 100+ years after Jedi.

That's if they want to avoid contradicting canon and royally pissing off fans.  The other possibility is not including the Skywalker family at all, and going with an "untold story" from the post-Jedi canon era.

Worst case scenario, they throw out the novels completely. That would be the most dangerous one for the franchise, since that level of retcon probably wouldn't be taken calmly by the fans.

If they do the Thrawn trilogy... My guess is new actors playing Luke, Han, Leia et al. Characters introduced in those novels? Olivia Wilde as Mara Jade and Sam Rockwell as Talon Karrde.

[Kentt]

Or... if they want it worse, Disney can go back to its cartoon roots (ie Dumbo, Lion King, ect) and then manage to stick to the books without the need for origional actors.  But the last thing we need is the Solo family performing a musical as they fly in the Falcon.

[kalaratiri]

Welp.

Pleeeeeaaaaseee let Joss Whedon direct it. Pleeeeaaaaaasssseeee.

[Casiella]

Joss Whedon, who now directs Marvel movies?

Marvel, which is a Disney subsidiary?

Yes, oh my, yes. I've been thinking since last night "omg maybe Nathan Fillion..."

[lallara zhuul]

I hope they toss all the books and comics into the bin and just start with the new generation while the old geezers do cameos.

Fuck fans, they're what makes any setting unapproachable by the public because they take things too seriously.

[kalaratiri]

[Silas Vitalia]

The film will feature a 72-year old Harrison Ford as Han Solo battling to escape the Death Star retirement center.

No one can match the shuffleboard capabilities of this fully armed and operational retirement center!

[Reyd Karris]

Welp.

Pleeeeeaaaaseee let Joss Whedon direct it. Pleeeeaaaaaasssseeee.

The only problem is that he's directing Avengers 2, which comes out during the exact time frame projected for Episode 7. I doubt Harrison Ford will be in it simply for the fact that there may also be work starting on a new Indiana Jones movie. Logic would dictate that they wouldn't start working on a project this big without at least talking with a director. Hollywood rarely uses logic though, so hopefully I'm just conspiracy theorizing here.

I'm not saying it's going to be Favreau directing, but... :insert alien guy photo here:

EDIT:

Also, just found this. For special note:

“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.”

So, be prepared for the novels to be completely retconned out of existence. 

[Lyn Farel]

Apparently Lucas is going to be doing some consulting, still.

When I heard of this I was quite mellow about it. First I thought that we wouldnt really be at a loss without Lucas directing it alone. /GaryKurtz+IrwinKreshner fan

Then I remembered Disney target audience... 

[Reyd Karris]

Warning: Vorpal Wall-O-Text +6 incoming.

Then I remembered Disney target audience... 

Meh, they're trying to diversify. Nothing wrong with that, and at least they're buying a franchise that they admit appeals to an older demographic. Disney appears to understand what Lucas still just doesn't get; you need the older fans to enjoy the franchise in order to get the younger fans enjoying it as well. Without the whole, "the fans just don't understand my vision!" BS that Lucas has spouted over the past year or so, we're probably in for some awesome things to come.

As for the ongoing worries of "It's going to be John Carter all over again!", the only thing I have to say is this: John Carter was never popular, whereas Star Wars is one of the top grossing franchises in history with a built-in fan base. John Carter was made into countless B-movie schlock-fests over the past few years, including a SyFy original movie starring Antonio Sabato, Jr. I saw John Carter; it sucked. It was literally half a movie stretched out way too long with a piss-poor, anti-climactic cliffhanger ending (that had absolutely no resolution whatsoever). It was like watching The Last Airbender with my daughter and seeing her face slowly drop as she realized all the life had been drained from the beautiful tapestry of the cartoon had been sucked dry by M. Night Shyamalan's insistence on using actors and characters as set pieces for his confusing, lifeless "vision" of what the cartoon should have been. Both The Last Airbender (not made by Disney, but another franchise that was attempting to be the "next Star Wars" like John Carter) and The John Carter of Mars novels could have been something absolutely amazing, and instead they just threw special effects around to cover up a horrible script and directing.

Slightly off topic, but my point is this; there's been plenty of examples in the past years of what people don't want. Disney, with their brilliant handling of The Avengers and other movies in the Marvel lineup (and ancillary licensing) have shown a remarkable knowledge of what exactly needs to be done. I trust them. Furthermore, I'm guessing Disney realized that trying to make a franchise like Star Wars was pointless when they could just flat out buy the Star Wars franchise.

Interesting note: Lucasfilm brings in just under a quarter billion a year in revenue. If Disney could leverage that into more successful movies and TV shows, Disney could probably double that within two years, and maybe even triple it with proper licensing. Disney's got the experience there, and the multimedia resources to pull it off. In less than 5 years, the franchise could potentially pay for itself. The caveat is that this only works if they give the fans what they want! Which, in all honesty, would be new movies and some awesome tie-ins (not crappy MMO's; I'm staring at you, TOR!). Not 3D re-rendered previously-released six films, not "digital hi-hi-def re-release". Disney has flat out said they're making new movies, and they have a timeline on those releases (2015 for the first movie, two more following in 2-3 year intervals). So, I'm interested to see what they are bringing to the table. I'm tentatively excited. 

They also need to manage expectations if they choose to retcon almost 20 years of novels and ancillary licensing. The Star Wars tabletop game was picked up by Fantasy Flight Games, and from the looks of it, will have the feel of the old WEG game. Very happy with that. On the movies though, they've got two years to whip fans into a frenzy.

On a side note, I for one won't mind if they retcon the Yuuzhan Vong out of the franchise. While I enjoyed some of the books, most just didn't feel like Star Wars.