October 30, 2012 will be the date that the Sci-Fi, Entertainment, Technology and even business communities will refer to as the day that Filmmaker and creator George W. Lucas agreed to let go of LucasFilm Limited to The Walt Disney Company (including LFL´s remarkable branches Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound, LucasArts, etc.), the company which he created to craft his most notorious project: The Star Wars Saga
With enough time now to recover from the breaking news, I present to you the Ten Main issues that haven´t been fully addressed or not even mentioned by Disney or LFL representatives:
1.- The planned S.W. Live Action T.V. Series Producer Rick McCallum said in an interview with Collider, that he already has 50 scripts for the same number of episodes. He went even further by saying that the series in fact have a Pre-production name:
Star Wars: Underworld, but that the technology needed to bring to life the quality Lucas wanted for that series is not yet available…at a reasonable price in the present day.
In 2007, Lucas commented that the series would take place in between the events of Episode III and IV, having a 20 year span of mythology to be explored. But here I wonder if the LFL purchase was in the air and that was the real reason to leave the project just in development.
Will Disney retake this series? Will some of those 50 scripts be used? 2.- The Complete Saga in Cinemas in 3D Earlier this year, Episode I: The Phantom Menace was re-released, now for the first time in 3D fomat. LFL had announced that every year would feature a new Episode, in which
Episodes II to VI in 3D would hit theaters from 2013 to 2017. But eventually they modified that plan by putting back to back Episodes II and III in 3D to a September & October 2013 release, with no explanation attached to that change, and no E.IV – VI in 3D dates.
So, is that change still valid?
Will the original trilogy be converted to 3D for theaters? Or now Disney will prefer to simply sell the “Complete” 6 first Episodes in Blu-Ray 3D,
before the New Trilogy is finished?
Let´s remember that the 3D conversion was not made by ILM, but by a contracted external company, being supervised by long time Lucas collaborator,and author, John Knoll.
3. - A 2015 release for Episode VII means no JLA movie Why? Because
Disney is making their own competence to Avengers 2. So far, there hasn´t been a strong, solid announcement from Warner Bros. to back the planned Justice League Movie for that year, just vague and isolated comments here and there.
No; Disney is taking a step forward and announcing as loud as possible: yes:2015.
So the issue here doesn´t come from Disney or Marvel Studios of course, but from Warner, who now have the obligation to officially announce a
new, real release date for said project 4.- The future of The Clone Wars series Season 5 is currently airing and though it is speculated that by the end of it, the events will be closer (or link directly) to what was seen in Episode III, no official word has been heard as for this season to be the last one.
But, could there still be room for a Season 6 in 2013? Or, will Disney instead take advantage of that series´ viewers and potentially more,
and create a New animated Series that leads us to the events that will take place in the upcoming Episode VII? One can wonder…
5.-The inevitable reboot of the Star Wars Movie Series Hollywood has a tendency these years to remake proven hits. I don´t see why the Star Wars movie franchise would be any different.
Eventually the Saga could be rebooted, making the Original trilogy fans, the Prequel trilogy fans and the New Trilogy fans argue with a younger audience that in fact, perhaps are babies or unborn as of 2012 for whom the rebooted series would be aimed at.
Yes, it worked with J.J. Abrams´ Star Trek reboot by “showing respect” to the Original series, taking the new one to a different reality and timeline, and even including L. Nemoy as the original, older Spock. But, though I am not well aware of the Trek mythology, inter-dimensional travels just do not fit in the S.W. Universe.
A rebooted Star Wars movie series could take place in a post 2020 (or so) Episode IX release, perhaps by 2025? By then, a new Skywalker timeline era could be relaunched. Of course, it´s only speculation, because another way they could go on could be just by continuing filming Episode X to infinity… But if Disney´s LFL doesn´t go that way, then they are just planning to give an end to this George Lucas’ timeline series with the New Trilogy.
6.-Unknown Cast Vs. Big names Cast for the New Trilogy Casting relatively unknown actors for the New Trilogy will make it easier to achieve the officially planned 2 year gap between movies, but if they decide to go the Prequel way, by including famous actors then will result in the also mentioned 3 year gap.
Let´s remember all Original and Prequel movies have had a 3 year span between them. I would add that money and SFx are definitely not the issue here…
I´m giving for granted that Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher will be somehow involved in at least the first Episode of the New Trilogy.
7.-John Williams The prolific Composer and Director, who was born in 1932, is the creator of probably the best known thing about the Saga: The Score.
It is simple. If Disney really wants to give some sort of “continuity felling” to the New Trilogy, you don´t have to be a genius to guess that they need Williams´ work in it. Assuming of course that he is willing (and living?) to do all 3 of them.
Yes, eventually they could only use William´s Star Wars main theme, and maybe some of the Force´s, the twins´, Tatooine´s themes etc, but there is nothing like new beautiful pieces composed by the creator of Duel of the Fates, Across the Stars or Battle of the Heroes.
8.20th Century Fox Logo and Fanfares It was significant that in 1998, Lucas announced that he chose Fox to distribute the Prequel Trilogy, just like that studio did in the Original Trilogy.
He said he took that decision in order to “thank the trust he received” back in the 70´s, when no other studio gave him the opportunity to film the first Star Wars movie. Fox responded with a press release in which they felt, of course, very honored.
By giving Fox the Distribution duties, it meant that the classic Logo and trademark Fanfares could feature again at the very beginning of Episodes I – III, giving the audience an immediate connection to E. IV – VI.
Now, even though Marvel Studios already belonged to Disney by the time The Avengers were released, a prior agreement with Paramount was honored. But of course (or at least it´d be a very unknown clause), no agreement between Fox and LFL was announced by the time Episode III was wrapped back in 2005.
So, the question here is,
Will Disney give up the Distribution rights to Fox, in order to get the not-less important logo and intro for their New Trilogy? Will they choose Visual and Audio continuity in order to have an integral 9 Episode Saga, over more Economic earnings? It is a though one; but of course, the other way would be the Disney Castle (Or DreamWorks?) logo just before the LFL one and then .. A long time ago…
odd indeed..
9.-LFL, ILM, Skywalker Sound employees In the official press release, Disney said that they have the present intention to keep all of the people working in the LFL Ltd. Company. I suppose that´s ok, but I wonder:
Are the employees attached to prior long term contracts with LFL? , or do they work and get paid for a given project? Don´t get me wrong, I in no way want to talk about their economics,
my question is if those people have free will to leave LFL anytime they want? Because, what makes those State-of-the-art branches so awesome? The people, or the software and hardware they create and enhance... or both?
10.-The Printed Star Wars Universe Are Del Rey Books somehow attached to this purchase?; Are the ongoing or upcoming Dark Horse Comics and Graphic novels about S.W. attached?; Will Marvel Comics re-take the S.W. universe just like in the old days?
Either way, and even if the New Trilogy takes the saga 20 or 30 years later than the events in Return of the Jedi,
if the script or at least the opening crawl for Episode VII doesn´t mention any of the published material, then that means that ALL printed Star Wars-related stories from 1984 to 1997 (and many more stories beyond that year) are, officially, “Fan (by professional artists) Made” - - - - -
-SirJediFrank