How Disney Bought Lucasfilm—and Its Plans for 'Star Wars'

Published on 03-12-2013 02:41 PM

4 Comments

One weekend last October, Robert Iger, chief executive officer of Walt Disney (DIS), sat through all six Star Wars films. He’d seen them before, of course. This time, he took notes. Disney was in secret negotiations to acquire Lucasfilm, the company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas, and Iger needed to do some due diligence.

The movies reacquainted Iger with Luke Skywalker, the questing Jedi Knight, and his nemesis Darth Vader, the Sith Lord who turns out to be (three-decade-old spoiler alert) his father. Beyond the movies, Iger needed to know Lucasfilm had a stockpile of similarly rich material—aka intellectual property—for more Star Wars installments. As any serious aficionado knows, there were always supposed to be nine. But how would Disney assess the value of an imaginary galaxy? What, for example, was its population?

Read the full story at BusinessWeek.com

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Categories:
Disney-Lucasfilm

4 Comments

Snowtrooper - 03-12-2013
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Interesting read. I wish Iger was staying around for the whole sequel trilogy.

bigbarada - 03-12-2013
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Yeah, it's a little unsettling to read all these great things about Iger, then to read that he's planning to retire the same year Ep7 is released. Hopefully, whoever follows in his footsteps doesn't become another Michael Eisner. I'm actually more worried about the negative impact this might have on Marvel Comics than I am Star Wars.

It's also interesting to read how reluctant, even mournful, Lucas seemed to be at points in the process. If Disney starts to take the films in directions that are diametrically opposed to Lucas' vision, then I wonder how he's going to react that?

Snowtrooper - 03-13-2013
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The only thing he could do now is go to the press. As long as Iger is there, I don't think anything like that is going to happen. It sounds like hes smart enough not to mess with something thats working. But as you said, it could be a whole different ball game when the next person takes over.

JediTricks - 03-14-2013
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Very interesting article, the most interesting part being a correction of a misconception I had about when these new movies got underway. I do wonder though if Lucas started talks about the new films now only to help the sale get more money (for charity!).

I think Lucas' reluctance to let go on the contract is ultimately going to prove to himself whether he's a control freak or not. If he's a control freak (as his reaction to ESB suggests) then he's definitely not going to be able to handle being only a "consultant" on these new movies and he will bounce off the walls. If however he's not, then I guess he'll get zen about it and move on.