Disney buying Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, slates new "Star Wars" movie for 2015

Disney is paying $4.05 billion to buy Lucasfilm Ltd., the production company behind "Star Wars," from its founder/chairman George Lucas, and will be making new films in the "Star Wars" series.

The Walt Disney Co. announced the agreement to make the purchase in cash and stock Tuesday. The company added that "Star Wars: Episode 7," is scheduled for release in 2015, with plans to follow it with Episodes 8 and 9 and then one new movie every two or three years.

"For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next," Lucas said in a statement. "It's now time for me to pass 'Star Wars' on to a new generation of filmmakers."

He added, "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. I'm confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come."

The deal brings Lucasfilm under the Disney banner with other brands including Pixar, Marvel, ESPN and ABC.

Kathleen Kennedy, the current co-chairman of Lucasfilm, will become its president and report to Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn. Lucas will be creative consultant on new "Star Wars" films.

[IPonUall2]

My guess is that the Disney resorts are gearing up for Star Wars rides.

[IPonUall2]

I cant wait to see the final chapter of Indiana Jones!

[rider1956]

SW uses classical Greek and Christian themes in a science fantasy container. Disney is too new age and politically correct to properly continue the storyline. Too bad. At least George Lucas got his money.

[wjss75606]

Sold it just two months before the tax rate increase for capital gains. Guess he is a 1%'er. Talks like he is with the 99% but acts completely different. Now he won't have to pay his "fair share" but will hobnob with the other Hollywood elitest and say how bad everyone else is for not paying enough in taxes. He has squeezed every dollar he can from this by recutting, re-relasing etc on multiple occasions so time to bail while taxes are low.

[dadrees-2009]

Doesn't disney own enough already? are they going to release an "all newly" remastered version of each star wars movies everey six months like they do with their anamated movies? how many times has disney relleased the same stuff over and over again?

[skeezix06]

Disney has always had a policy of putting a classic on the market every 7 years or so for a set length of time and then putting it back in their archives, if I remember correctly. The exception to this is Song of the South.

[tmittelstaed]

I was 12 when the first Star Wars movie came out. It was the most amazing movie of my childhood. Then I got to watch it all over again when my son was 12. And when the second trilogy came out the special effects were even better.

While it is true, I think, that diving into Darth Vader's past has made him somewhat less of a supervillian, and reduced the awesomeness of that story cycle, the second trilogy absolutely kickstarted the expanded universe of the books. I am also hoping that Star Wars is able to get Paramount to drop this idiotic idea of rebooting Star Trek into a Star Wars knockoff. I would like to see Trek get back to being for the intelligent brainiacs and maybe that will happen if Star Wars takes the lead in Sci Fi Space Opera action adventure.

I don't think at this time that Star Wars has enough material for a theme park. But Disney has already been doing Star Wars type things in Disneyland, like the Star Wars lightsaber training, so they knew the value of it, and I'll bet that there will be a ride sooner or later.

Star Wars has already lived beyond Lucas in any case. If anything, Lucas has hindered Star Wars's growth because he got sick of it. I can understand why, but Lucas of all people should have realized years ago that the same thing happened to him that happened to Selznick when he made Gone With The Wind. He peaked early in his career and there's no way that he could have topped it afterwards. His only choice was to ride the horse with all his heart or give it to someone else that would.

[nancyg]

Is Lucas dying?

[tmittelstaed]

After the last movie of the second Trilogy, Lucas was really finished with Star Wars. But it's a moneymaker so why get rid of it? Then when the animated Clone Wars started up, Lucas got kind of sucked into that, and I think he realized a vision of what a continuing Star Wars future could look like when he worked with them. Remember, Clone Wars was the one piece of the franchise that Lucas had let the rights get partially away from him.

I've watched Clone Wars and I see what Lucas must have seen. The writers of that really and truly understand the SW universe and love it probably even more than Lucas, and they want to hold true to that vision. I think that was what got Lucas to finally realize that it would be safe to let someone else hold the baby.

I'm sure that as long as Lucas is alive he's going to exert very firm creative control over what Disney is doing with it. But he is 68 and he doesn't have the energy to direct and produce a trilogy of films, and Kathleen is 59, so she is young enough to get the last of the 3 films out.

My guess is that after episodes 7, 8 & 9, that Lucas and Kennedy will be finished with it, and will be gone, and the old Lucasfilm will finally be submerged into Disney. I will bet that both Lucas and Kennedy will push to get the final 3 films out the door by 2021 or thereabouts. Then Kennedy will leave and Disney will put someone else in charge of it, and Disney will milk it like they milk everything else. The successive films will be good but they won't be as groundbreaking as the first trilogy, and if they are doing a film every 2-3 years they will probably run out of ideas around 2050.

I can see Disney reaching the 75th anniversary of Star Wars if they are very careful and don't let to much trash into it.

[Michael202020]

I have always admired the IMAGINATION and INTELLECT behind the Star Wars movies, especially the first 3. Can Disney do the same or better?

[tmittelstaed]

Yes they can. But being able to do it and doing it are different things. Disney has bought a lot of properties - like the Muppets - that they could have done a lot more with, but they have just for one reason or another, let them slide into history. Star Wars may be huge but all of the rest of Disney's properties added together are much larger than it is.

Lucas's original vision was 9 movies, a vision that he had when he was much younger, and has spent the last 30 years or so claiming that he wasn't serious about it. But I always felt he was lying about that, so at least we will now get to see the last 3.

[Scimajor]

Oh great. Now the Jedi will break out into song every few minutes.

Just imagine "Return of the Jedi - The Musical". Jabba will have a tough time with the dance number.

[Michael202020]

LOL... that's a good one.

[BumSteer]

........Finally we may still get the chance to see them kill off Jar Jar Binks. I was saddened when he survived the last series.

I hope they will not disappoint.

[pwgrant]

i think you mean:
Disappoint they will not, I hope.