Author Topic: Disney Buys LFL  (Read 78474 times)

Offline Nicklab

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Re: Disney Buys LFL
« Reply #195 on: December 1, 2015, 10:44 AM »
Check out more about this Ron Howard news in this Hollywood Reporter article.  Director Ron Howard is in the process of doing press for his new film In The Heart Of The Sea, but in the process another topic has come up:  STAR WARS.

There's been a good deal of press lately regarding George Lucas lack of involvement with the new Star Wars films following the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney.  Lucas has equated it to a divorce.  George had ideas about the direction for new chapters in the saga, and Disney had other ideas and wanted to go in another direction.  And it seems likely that Disney's fear of Lucas involvement stems from much of the criticism that was leveled at George for the way that PT films turned out with Lucas as writer and director.

Well, this new article reveals that George Lucas didn't want to direct the Prequels!  No doubt Ron Howard has seen some of the negative press about George Lucas recently, and I can see why he would feel some loyalty to George.  Lucas gave Howard opportunities as a director early in his career with projects like Willow.  So I can certainly see why he would feel compelled to step in and stop some of the George bashing.  Read on:


Ron Howard on Turning Down ‘Star Wars’ Prequel: "Too Daunting"


by Arlene Washington

11/29/2015 12:12am PST

“He didn’t necessarily want to direct them," said Howard of George Lucas. “He told me that he had talked to [Robert] Zemeckis, he talked to me, he talked to Steven Spielberg.”

Director Ron Howard revealed that his résumé of blockbuster films could have included Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace. In a podcast interview on Happy Sad Confused with Josh Horowitz, the director said that he along with Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg passed on golden offers from Lucas to direct the franchise prequels.

“He didn’t necessarily want to direct them,”said Howard. “He told me that he had talked to [Robert] Zemeckis, he talked to me, he talked to Steven Spielberg. I was the third one he spoke to. They all said the same thing: ‘George, you should just do it. This is your baby.' Nobody wanted to follow that act I don’t think at that point. That was an honor, but it would’ve been just too daunting."

Lucas ended up directing the trilogy including, Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, Episode II — Attack of the Clones and Episode III — Revenge of the Sith. Howard lauded Lucas as his "directorial mentor" whom he worked with on Willow (1988) and American Graffiti (1973) and shared Lucas' impact on his latest film, In the Heart of the Sea.

“There are some subtle, contemporary themes in the story and it surprised me when I read it. And yet, there’s also this bedrock classic story of going to sea and nature turning on the whalers," said Howard. "This is what attracted Herman Melville to the story of The Essex when he wrote Moby Dick. I think those elements attracted me, but I wanted to present them in as modern of a way as I possibly could. I was borrowing a little bit from George’s inspiration, about how do you tell classic story, preserve that, but make it a modern movie experience for audiences.”



WOW.  Spielberg said no.  Robert Zemeckis said no.  Ron Howard said no.
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Offline GrandMoffNick

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Re: Disney Buys LFL
« Reply #196 on: December 1, 2015, 10:51 AM »
Or they read the script and said, "good Lord I'm not having my name on that!"
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Offline Pete_Fett

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Re: Disney Buys LFL
« Reply #197 on: December 1, 2015, 11:10 AM »
Or they read the script and said, "good Lord I'm not having my name on that!"

+1

While I can respect Ron Howard for "having George's back" - I think this is far more likely - poor script which bore very little resemblance to the story telling of the OT combined with the fact that Lucas probably had grand visions of shooting the entire movie on a green sound stage and having ILM digitally add all of the backgrounds and digital characters.

Keep in mind Lucas and Lucasfilm would have still been the PRODUCER of the film, and if your producer is trying to sell you on a 100% computer generated set, as a director you may not be inclined to say "Yes".
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Offline Nicklab

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Re: Disney Buys LFL
« Reply #198 on: December 1, 2015, 11:40 AM »
Feature films are a directors medium.  Directors have the biggest say of anyone in the process.  I would take Ron Howard at his word.  Star Wars probably seemed like too daunting of an undertaking, and he recognized that the expectations of fans were going to be exceptionally high.  I would think that both Spielberg and Zemeckis had similar feelings about the situation because Star Wars is a world unto itself.  And very likely all three of these directors wanted to see Lucas get back in the director's chair again. 

I certainly don't think that Spielberg had any misgivings about collaborating with Lucas, especially given their track record of working together on the Indiana Jones films.  They've been partners before.  And Lucas has handed over the directing reins before to people like Irvin Kershner and Richard Marquand.  I've never seen anything written or reported where either of them felt that Lucas was meddling in the process.
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Offline Phrubruh

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Re: Disney Buys LFL
« Reply #199 on: December 2, 2015, 09:28 AM »
Howard dodged a bullet by not accepting TPM. Look at the amount of pressure he would have been under to create something that duplicated lightening in a bottle that ANH had. There is no way he or any other director could have taken that on and emerged looking like a hero. Spielberg got roasted for KOTCS but was smart enough to apologise.

Now that Disney owns it and Lucas is out of the picture and there is less pressure to make something with impossible expectations. It's still incredibility high and JJ just might be able to pull it off. If I were a director I would stay far away from Star Wars until a few movies are made.
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Offline Nicklab

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Re: Disney Buys LFL
« Reply #200 on: December 6, 2015, 06:10 PM »
"Call up a Hammerhead Corvette.  I have an idea."

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Offline Phrubruh

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Re: Disney Buys LFL
« Reply #201 on: December 7, 2015, 10:28 AM »
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Offline Nicklab

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Re: Disney Buys LFL
« Reply #202 on: March 31, 2017, 07:59 AM »
Check out this rather extensive article from Star Wars News Net.  It covers some things that may happen in the near term (Episode VIII), a project or two that may be revealed at Celebration next week, and what Disney's long term plans may be for the franchise in the longer term.  Collider's Jedi Council is reporting some similar news as well.
« Last Edit: March 31, 2017, 10:05 AM by Nicklab »
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Offline Dave

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Re: Disney Buys LFL
« Reply #203 on: March 31, 2017, 12:29 PM »
Check out this rather extensive article from Star Wars News Net.  It covers some things that may happen in the near term (Episode VIII), a project or two that may be revealed at Celebration next week, and what Disney's long term plans may be for the franchise in the longer term.  Collider's Jedi Council is reporting some similar news as well.

I hope this is all mostly true.  Obi-Wan movie with Ewan?  Yes please!  Bounty Hunters with Boba Fett?  Yes!  Star Wars on TV?  Hell yes!

I'm hoping some of this will get confirmed at Celebration.

Offline Nicklab

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Re: Disney Buys LFL
« Reply #204 on: March 31, 2017, 12:49 PM »
Check out this rather extensive article from Star Wars News Net.  It covers some things that may happen in the near term (Episode VIII), a project or two that may be revealed at Celebration next week, and what Disney's long term plans may be for the franchise in the longer term.  Collider's Jedi Council is reporting some similar news as well.

I hope this is all mostly true.  Obi-Wan movie with Ewan?  Yes please!  Bounty Hunters with Boba Fett?  Yes!  Star Wars on TV?  Hell yes!

I'm hoping some of this will get confirmed at Celebration.


Same here.

I remember watching Collider's Jedi Council one time when Freddie Prinze Jr and Sam Witwer were guests.  The subject of an Obi-Wan anthology movie came up, and one of them mentioned that as many as a dozen or more Obi-Wan scripts had been pitched to Lucasfilm.  Between that and Ewan McGregor's expressed interest in the project, I've felt like the possibility of this project actually happening was pretty solid.  But like the SWNN article mentioned, I think that Lucasfilm wanted to have an idea of what if anything Obi-Wan's involvement may be in the Sequel Trilogy before moving forward with an Obi-Wan Kenobi film.

The prospect of a Boba Fett and the bounty hunters movie is also pretty cool.  I'm pretty sure that's what Josh Trank was working on when he unceremoniously left Lucasfilm around the time of Celebration Anaheim.  As for TV?  It's been rumored for a while that Dave Filoni was taking more of a big picture role and was developing the next Star Wars animated series.  I'm wondering if we'll see some hints of that or if it's still too early in the development process to show anything?
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Offline Ben

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Re: Disney Buys LFL
« Reply #205 on: March 31, 2017, 04:58 PM »
Glad to hear that they might slow from the yearly release schedule soon. I'm not sure the brand, or more accurately, the licensees, can handle half their stock going to clearance every year.
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Offline Nicklab

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Re: Disney Buys LFL
« Reply #206 on: March 31, 2017, 06:14 PM »
Licensed merchandise does seem to go hand in hand with Star Wars, doesn't it?  Gary Kurtz said as much way back when.  And George was very forward thinking when he made sure that he had all of the merchandising rights.  He must have made more money on that than the box office returns.
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Offline JediJman

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Re: Disney Buys LFL
« Reply #207 on: April 4, 2017, 12:32 PM »
Absolutely.  This article from about a year ago has some interesting numbers to compare against:

$4.5b - Star Wars movie ticket sales
$6.6b - Star Wars home movies & games
$32b - Star Wars merchandising


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Offline Jeff

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Re: Disney Buys LFL
« Reply #208 on: May 25, 2017, 12:19 PM »
Kathleen Kennedy on Carrie Fisher’s Death and the Future of Star Wars

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