DISNEY TO ACQUIRE LUCASFILM LTD. - EPISODE VII in 2015. No joke.

[bigbarada]

The issue with negating all the post ROTJ Exp. Univ. is that stuff - the sale of the reprinted books like Heir to the Empire which might still sell alright for a 20 year old book, since newbies keep becoming fans and may not have even been able to read when they first did so - makes money for the franchise.

Who would buy HTTE any more (what new fan who's old enough to read at last)? - when it's all negated by new movies?

However, people who already own the HTTE comics aren't going to buy reprints. So, if they negate the entire story and replace it with something else, then why care about who will be buying a 24-year-old comic book, when EVERYBODY is going to be buying the new story (including those who already own HTTE)?

But, I really don't think potential trade paperback sales are going to factor into their plans for these films.

[bigbarada]

J.W. Rinzler wrote an interesting blog entry about Lucas' ever-changing stance on the number of films, charting the history of what he said and when.

I always remember an article about 4 trilogies that was published just after ESB premiered. There was what would come to be known as the OT, then the Prequel trilogy, a sequel trilogy and a 4th trilogy that ran concurrently alongside the OT. The concurrent trilogy was supposed to feature the "other" that Yoda spoke of in ESB, and Lucas made it a point to mention that this "other" was someone we hadn't seen yet. So that negates the idea of Leia being planned as Luke's sister prior to the early rewrites of ROTJ.

[Tycho]

BigBarada makes great points above. ^

Star Wars is unfortunately retconned too much already. Boba Fett wore Wookiee braids from kills he scalped, originally (although I don't think Lucas said that specifically, it came out of the early EU (and you can count action figure bio's as part of the EU too, thank you Kenner.)

It is way cooler that Jedi padawans wear braids, and the braids Boba wears are from his takings from Jedi learners he's killed. That's cool and more impressive than Wookiee kills.

Now Boba needs a reason for why he hunts Jedi? "Because he's good at it so he's hired for it" - like a professional assassin would suffice, but no, it's revenge motivated because....wait for it....Lucas created Jango Fett - the donor source for all the Clone Troopers.

Now couldn't a Jedi (Mace or somebody) have just accidentally - or in the line of duty - killed his father AND REAL MOTHER? Wouldn't that suffice, too?

No - we add a new armor guy and build up the Mandalorian (at least the initital armor style of the Phase I clones) to returning to the unbeknownst to them, perhaps, service to the Sith Lords (which ties to the Expanded Universe because when Ulic Qel Droma became Dark Lord (apprentice to Exar Kun), he conquered the Mandalorians and now, the Sith make use of them one way or another (Dooku and Death Watch, not to mention the Clones and Sidious (as Palpatine) commanding them.)

So enter the new character of Jango Fett. Altogether this was cool and in the movies, we saw Jango do more than Boba Fett ever did (on screen).

Was it all because fans somewhere got a Fett fetish since 1980? I never subscribed to that whole-heartedly since it's my nature to be a contrary - that is if everyone already likes something - to go find something else to like instead (I liked Wedge before it was cool.)

So yes, there are 22 James Bond films, not counting the one coming out this month, so tomorrow Lucus will say, "I always meant for there to be 30 episodes - those are what constitute my 3 trilogies" (or 40 episodes and 4 trilogies).

And wait for it - and "Ever since Shai LeBouf was born, I conceived of Indiana Jones just being a prequel to The Adventures of Mutt Williams."

Plus, "Howard the Duck" was only a prequel to a story I'd conceived about the first unicorn drafted to play professional football."

[El Chuxter]

The concurrent trilogy was supposed to feature the "other" that Yoda spoke of in ESB, and Lucas made it a point to mention that this "other" was someone we hadn't seen yet. So that negates the idea of Leia being planned as Luke's sister prior to the early rewrites of ROTJ.

Galen Marek, mayhap?

It could also be cool, if they keep the Zahn books, to have the "concurrent" trilogy be the story of Mara Jade, from birth or childhood up through the end of The Last Command. That could be a really cool story of redemption, if done right.

[JediTricks]

That's not 100% clear, though. We see Vader close his eyes, and, the next time we see him, he's on the pyre with the mask back on. It's not established in the originals how much Anakin physically remains, only that he's more machine than man.

Well, in TPM we don't actually know Qui-Gon is dead yet either, he could just be unconscious laying on that floor. He obviously was surprised by the saber to the gut, and didn't actively give himself over to the Force the way Obi-Wan and Yoda did.

I could live with the Yoda comments if they'd actually put Liam Neeson in the damned movie. Obi-Wan looks like a moron the way he responds to him, when the logical response would be, "Yoda, you done flipped your lid."

Putting Neeson into the movie would have been better, but the whole "oh, look, now we learn a new trick and it's the most important one and it comes just as we need it most right after 99.9999% of our kind got slaughtered and could really have used that knowledge" thing just sucks entirely, it's extremely lame.

Now this is how you can tell the Disney purchase of Lucasfilm and Star Wars is a big deal. Just heard that Disney plans on taking Walt out of the vault and unfreezing him for the premiere of Episode VII.

Cute.

J.W. Rinzler wrote an interesting blog entry about Lucas' ever-changing stance on the number of films, charting the history of what he said and when.

I remember that image in the Making of SW book, and it impressed me with how empty it was, basically just "here's where the important thing happens and here's the times where nothing good happened but maybe we can fill in the blanks later". Rinzler overstates the importance of those "episodes" in that blog, and doesn't mention the way he does in his book how Lucas threw a lot of those ideas out over and over, and that these were so early that the prequel had Vader, Obi-Wan, AND Anakin Skywalker as the 3 main guys, and that Luke's sibling who was NOT Leia was the focus of the sequels, and on and on like that. After reading Making of SW, I've always wondered how he was able to throw out so many bad ideas from his first 2 drafts of ANH and start over with better focus, seems like this is how, just constantly going back and making everything fluid to fit a better cinematic vision.

I always remember an article about 4 trilogies that was published just after ESB premiered. There was what would come to be known as the OT, then the Prequel trilogy, a sequel trilogy and a 4th trilogy that ran concurrently alongside the OT. The concurrent trilogy was supposed to feature the "other" that Yoda spoke of in ESB, and Lucas made it a point to mention that this "other" was someone we hadn't seen yet. So that negates the idea of Leia being planned as Luke's sister prior to the early rewrites of ROTJ.

Reading Making of ESB confirms that Leia wasn't Luke's sister but that he had an older sister and she was an idea for the other, also that Vader wasn't Luke's father until partway into writing ESB.

[Bel-Cam Jos]

He's always planned 42. It's his homage to the late Douglas Adams.

Nope. There'll be 1,138 movies, as an homage to his own homage to James Joyce's homage to the number 1134.

Rinzler's "Making Of..." books have been interesting in his archiving of the whens and whats of Lucas' film developments. I eagerly await the ROJ one.

[Tycho]

Jim Joyce, the umpire in major league baseball?

He's made more than 1,134 bad calls.

Just ask around the league.

[bigbarada]

Now the rumor is that Disney might be buying Hasbro.

If that's true, then what could Disney possibly buy next? The color red? The English language?

[Tycho]

I just realized that I could make some money from this.

Remember, I created DARTH MOUSE!

I would be inclined to settle if at least his new carded action figure had a unique smell I could inhale over and over again.

But I'm known to be particularly scrutinizing when it comes to demanding a positive olfactory experience!

And Darth Mouse is a droid, not a rodent. However, it would be funny if he was re-imagined as a Ranat with Sith tattoo-colored fur, I suppose......Nah!

[Bel-Cam Jos]

Now the rumor is that Disney might be buying Hasbro.

If that's true, then what could Disney possibly buy next? The color red? The English language?

They'll buy the SEC and own college football.