Star Wars creator George Lucas has sold his famous space opera franchise to Disney for a whopping $4.05 billion. Lucas made his name through bringing the Star Wars universe to multiple generations of movie-goers with his sci-fi/fantasy tale that spanned six movies, an CGI-animated show, a couple of made-for-TV movies (including the 1978 Star Wars Christmas Special that neither fans or Lucas himself ever wish to discuss, and rightfully so-it is a-w-f-u-l) plus billions of dollars worth of merchandising sales since 1977. He is also the innovator of Pixar, the company born out of Graphics Group in 1978 (which itself was begat by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) in 1977 that was sold to Apple in 1986 and then finally to the Walt Disney Company in 2006. The franchise has to date brought in $4.4 billion combined global box-office receipts.
But enough about the history of George Lucas and his business offshoots, he has sold his baby and he himself was quoted as saying, ""I've always believed that 'Star Wars' could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime,"
New Star Wars movies on the way, baby!!
With new producers and directors at the helm, will this mean the end of corny lines and bad acting? Maybe. But maybe not. After all, that is part of the whole SW universe is it not? Of course we could all have done without Hayden Christiansen as Anakin Skywalker, midiclorians and of course, Jar-Jar Binks. But really, do even the most die-hard SW fans really care? Did they ever? Or were they like me and just were almost orgasmic that three brand new movies would allow us to relive our collective childhoods at the same time introducing the greatest movie trilogy to our children?
Maybe the piece I wrote a while ago has something to it.
But there is a downside...a big one. What if Disney over-saturates the SW universe and makes either too many or just plain bad ones? I mean look at movie franchises such as Friday the 13th, Halloween or Police Academy that just went on too long in pursuit of the almighty dollar and ruined even the first couple of movies that many might consider gems or even classics. There are exceptions, such as the Harry Potter series, but that is a big exception.
But again, who cares? Unless the above happens and Disney totally soils every memory and all those hours upon hours of my time spent alone (proudly) creating new stories (but mostly just re-creating scenes from Star Wars through Return of the Jedi-that right! the franchise was originally three movies and they had actual names, not this silly "Episode 1," "Episode 2" crap) I'll be happy to see what they do with it. Maybe some OLd Republic stories, maybe a contuing arc with cameos by Mark Hamil, Harrison Ford or Carrie Fisher. Don't hold your breath on that one, but theoretically, it could happen.
Yay, new Star Wars movies.
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