Disney buying Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion

[Unorthodox]

A meta-critique of the EU after I spent a lot of time reading on Wookipedia: the Jedi must, indeed, be destroyed.  Kill all the force-sensitives on sight and spare the Galaxy the next Space Hitler and the one after that, and so on.  Seriously.

That would make a great villain, actually, one bent on just that.   

[Buster's Uncle]

Pretty prosaic hook for a villain - he'd need a lot more to be interesting/good.

Hey, you leave Fullmetal alone.   

(not an expert/fan, only fan of any shows based on solomonic magic in general)

I love Fullmetal.  It's a charming show and sometimes actually succeeds in being deep, which is really something for an anime.  It's just a stupid place to steal "Star Track" inspiration from.

[Buster's Uncle]

It was a crap, cheap, "balance" in the first place.  Ambushing an old man and murdering him is no worthy redemption for a murderer of hundreds of millions of people.  I call shenanigans.

A meta-critique of the EU after I spent a lot of time reading on Wookipedia: the Jedi must, indeed, be destroyed.  Kill all the force-sensitives on sight and spare the Galaxy the next Space Hitler and the one after that, and so on.  Seriously.

Unsure that you caught the first, edited-in, paragraph...

[Buster's Uncle]

'Star Wars' 7 may bring new hope, but also letdown
By RYAN NAKASHIMA | Associated Press – 21 hours ago.. .


LOS ANGELES (AP) — Darth Vader is dead. The evil Emperor exploded after being thrown down a shaft. And Luke Skywalker and his allies destroyed both Death Stars, restoring balance to the Force. For The Walt Disney Co., the prospective new owner of the "Star Wars" franchise, what's left to tell?

A lot, apparently.

There are more than 110 novels and 80-plus comic books set after the events of "Return of the Jedi," the sixth episode in the film series and the third to be made. All of these additions to the so-called "expanded universe" were sanctioned by Lucasfilm Ltd., founded by series creator George Lucas.

That has left a lot of room for speculation ever since Disney announced last month that it would buy Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion and resume making "Star Wars" movies, starting with Episode 7 in 2015.

For fans, some big questions remain.

Will Luke take on a Jedi apprentice? Will Han Solo and Princess Leia have kids? And who will be the movies' villain? (A) A revived Emperor; (B) the hard-to-kill bounty hunter Boba Fett; (C) some new corrupt leader of the remnants of the Empire, or (D), all of the above?

Each of these scenarios have been explored in some fashion away from the big screen. Whether they will be incorporated into the next trilogy of films is anyone's guess.

"Right now, everyone is literally just reading tea leaves," said Bryan Young, a "Star Wars" watcher and editor of the blog, Big Shiny Robot.

The facts so far about the announced Episodes 7, 8 and 9 are scant: Lucas will be a creative consultant but won't direct the films. Kathleen Kennedy will produce them as president of Lucasfilm. And Oscar-winning writer Michael Arndt, who wrote "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Toy Story 3," will pen the screenplay for Episode 7.

One of the most telling clues as to the next trilogy's direction, according to Young, is the fact that Lucas invited Luke actor Mark Hamill and Princess Leia actress Carrie Fisher to lunch some time ago to tell them that the sequels were going to be made, a reversal of his denials over the years.

Hamill talked about the lunch with Entertainment Weekly, saying he also spoke with Lucas about three weeks before the Disney announcement and just missed a call from him the day the deal was made public Oct. 30.

That suggests that Luke and on-screen sister Leia, will be involved in some way in the sequel. After all, their characters are the last members of the Skywalker family, and the most potent wielders of the Force that appear to be left in the galaxy. "I think that's the best clue we have," Young said.

Responding to a query from The Associated Press, Hamill said he couldn't comment further, but noted in an email, "I should have all the information I need very soon."

Fisher, Lucasfilm and several people who work for the company declined comment.

The notion that Luke will make a comeback doesn't veer far from what's known about the movies themselves or from what has been said over the years.

In 2004, Hamill told Movieblog.com that Lucas' ideas for the sequels go as far back as 1976 during the shooting of the original "Star Wars," when the director said an older Hamill would have roles in them.

There is further backing for the idea that Luke will reappear from the films that have already been released, including "Return of the Jedi."

And others around Lucas have spoken publicly about the idea that the family drama that began with Anakin Skywalker and continued with his son Luke would carry on for at least the next three films.

"It's really nine parts of one film," said Rick McCallum, producer of the prequel Episodes 1, 2 and 3, in 1999, according to "The Secret History of Star Wars" by author Michael Kaminski.

The cohesion that McCallum suggested belies the haphazard nature with which the movies have been put together. At different points in time, Lucas has said there was just one, three, six, nine or even 12 films envisioned in all.

Kaminski's book recounts multiple script revisions to most of the films, including some discrepancies that were later papered over. For instance, at one point, Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader were separate characters, not the one person we know through the movies to have turned evil.

Given the proliferation of storylines and characters in the "expanded universe," Kaminski said there's a good chance that some of those storylines will be cast aside, altered, or even contradicted outright.

"It will affect the 'expanded universe' one way or another," Kaminski said. "It's going to be hard to reconcile those different things."

The idea that the new films will diverge from what's out there is supported by Kennedy, who spoke in a video released by Lucasfilm shortly after the Disney deal was announced.

"This is not like a series of books like 'Harry Potter' where you've already got a template of what the stories might be," she said. "These are original stories and original ideas that come from out of a world that essentially is in George's head."

Beyond some broad strokes that the movies hint at — such as Luke's passing on the Jedi ways — it seems doubtful that such a creative mind as Lucas would surrender the movies' outcome to tales that have already been written.

That means that fans of the books, comics and video games in the "Star Wars" universe could be either disappointed or delighted by the result.

But if there were no surprises, the adventure just wouldn't be the same.

"Almost anything is possible," said Jay Shepard, a content editor at fan site TheForce.net. "But I don't believe it will be any type of plotline we've already seen."

http://music.yahoo.com/news/star-wars-7-may-bring-hope-letdown-181443620.html

[Green1]

I think the precedent set with the current two trilogies would be a good thing to keep. That is, new actors for each trilogy.

BTW, you guys seen Carrie's coke fingernail from RotJ?

[Buster's Uncle]

No, but no shock there...

[Unorthodox]

She's openly admitted to being on coke throughout those films so, what's the news here? 

[Unorthodox]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=97925

Recently it's been all about what directors do and don't want to get in on the Star Wars game, but now it has shifted to actors. Samuel L. Jackson, who portrayed Jedi Master Mace Windu in the prequel trilogy, has a lot of interest in coming back for the new sequel.

"I'm not surprised but totally geeked by the idea of there being more Star Wars," Jackson told E! News. "It's like, okay, Obi-Wan was dead when episode four started, so maybe everyone thinks I'm dead and we'll find out what happened to Mace Windu. I can come back as one-armed or a one-handed Jedi that's still around that didn't actually die."

"I could do that or be a ghost hologram. I don't care, I just want to stay associated with the franchise."

But what is it about the franchise that makes Jackson want to return so badly?

"I just always loved it. I always loved the idea of it, that there's this whole civilization out there somewhere else that's just as much fun and different and diverse and wild as we are

[Buster's Uncle]

Star Wars: Ewan McGregor Wants To Reprise Obi-Wan Kenobi Role In Episode VII
Access Hollywood – 23 hrs ago.. .

 
Cue the blue Jedi ghost! Another former "Star Wars" actor is throwing his hat in the ring for "Episode VII."
 
Access Hollywood caught up with Ewan McGregor at the junket for his latest movie, "The Impossible," where he weighed in on dusting off his lightsaber to play Obi-Wan Kenobi again.

"Yeah, sure... absolutely," he told Access when asked about playing the Jedi role again, first played by Alec Guinness in the first three "Star Wars" movies.
 
Obi-Wan dies at the end of the "Episode IV," but is seen (and heard) as a ghostly figure in "Episode V" and "Episode VI," and could conceivably return in an ethereal form again in the upcoming movies.

"If they need me, I'll be there," Ewan added.
 
According to Ewan, George Lucas' role as creative consultant in the upcoming movies will be extremely limited.
 
"Lucas let me know that he was selling ['Star Wars'] the day before it was released to press and then he told me they were going to make the last three stories," the actor explained.
 
"And then I met him recently and asked him if he was going to be involved in them at all and he said, he'd given them the storylines for the last three, which he always planned to do, but he was never going to make them," Ewan told Access. "Because he felt like that would be his life's work and he wanted to do other things."

http://news.yahoo.com/star-wars-ewan-mcgregor-wants-reprise-obi-wan-162853201.html

[Green1]

Of course, ALL the folks that had ANYTHING to do with Star Wars - even mopping floors is going to want a piece of this.

I got news for them. Only Anthony Daniel (C3PO) is going to be back. Even if Luke or Han or the others get written in, they will be recast.

Love how all these entertainment sites are grasping for anything resembling news.

[Buster's Uncle]

Guillermo del Toro Was Offered Star Wars Episode VII, But Turned It Down


We don't yet know just how much progress has been made on Star Wars Episode 7. Since the bombshell announcement last October that Disney had bought Lucasfilm and was planning three more Star Wars films, the only concrete news we've gotten is that Toy Story 3 writer Michael Arndt would handle the screenplay. Assuming Arndt is still neck-deep in Star Wars lore as he put the screenplay together, it makes sense that they haven't moved on to casting or hiring a director yet.

But just because nothing has officially happened doesn't mean there aren't a lot of moving pieces behind the scenes, and now we know that at least one high-profile director got a phone call asking about his interest… only to turn it down. Speaking to The Playlist, Guillermo del Toro said that his agent received a phone call asking if he would be interested in the project, but the perpetually-busy del Toro apparently didn't hesitate before turning it down: "It was very flattering.  It was just a phone call, it didn't go past that, it was very nice to be asked, but believe it or not, I'm busy enough."

 In all the feverish speculation that followed the big announcement last fall, del Toro was one of the names that frequently came up among Star Wars fans as someone who would be an ideal director, though most also seemed to recognize that del Toro was generally too busy to give something that huge a shot. For his own part, del Toro wants to see someone make it who has also turned it down: "As a geek, I would have loved to see Brad Bird take it." We're right there with you Guillermo.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Guillermo-del-Toro-Was-Offered-Star-Wars-Episode-VII-Turned-It-Down-34943.html