Courtesy of 3.bp.blogspot.com
SELL-OUT: Influential film director George Lucas gives up his acclaimed Star Wars and Indiana Jones properties.
Aaron Sanders, Diversions Editor
Star Wars fans rejoice (or sneer)! Stars Wars: Episode VII will officially be released in 2015, but not from series creator George Lucas. Disney, who bought Lucasfilm (Lucas’ film company) and all its film properties (including Star Wars and Indiana Jones) for $4.05 billon in late October, has announced a new trilogy for the Star Wars saga to be released over the next decade.
Lucas had previously expressed deep interest in retiring from film-making to pursue more philanthropic goals, but before he could do so, he had to ensure someone would develop his film properties without him. “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,” the filmmaker said.
Current Disney chairman Bob Iger said that the company intends to release a new Star Wars film every two to four years, and that it will have creative control over the new trilogy. The sell-out also includes all of Lucasfilm’s smaller companies such as Industrial Light + Magic and Skywalker Sound.
Public reaction to the surprising news has ranged from indifferent to positive. While most people are unsure about whether or not this is a good or bad thing, there is still a decent amount of people who are genuinely excited about the prospect of a new Star Wars trilogy.
As to the possible storyline this new trilogy will cover, it is currently up in the air. Lucas has been enriching his franchise for decades with video games (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 1 and 2, Knights of the Old Republic), television shows (Clone Wars) and a slew of comic books spanning nearly 10,000 years of plotlines and characters. Considering Marvel Studio’s (another company under Disney’s control) decision to take the Marvel cinematic universe into an esoteric direction with its cosmic story arc, one should not be surprised if Disney takes a risk and introduces an obscure story in the new Star Wars films.
Could this be the final straw for Lucas fans or the much-needed revival of their most respected film franchises? We will all just have to wait until 2015 to see if the controversial take-over is or is not for the best of the iconic franchise.