One: Disney has purchased Lucasfilm for a whopping $4.05 billion (yes, with a "b"). Which brings us to two: Stars Wars Episode VII is not only happening, but it has a release date for sometime in 2015.

No, this is not a drill. Keep breathing, guys.

"For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation tot he next," George Lucas said in a statement."It's now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. 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.

"I'm confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney's reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment and consumer products."

As for the finer points, Disney's Kennedy will serve as executive producer of the new installment of the franchise (which turned 35 this year), while Lucas will serve as creative consultant, albeit with no hand in day-to-day operations.

"Lucasfilm reflects the extraordinary passion, vision and storytelling of its founder, George Lucas," Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger said.
While the first new installment of the Star Wars franchise is set for 2015, the company said in its press release that even more films could come from the handover, with the saga expected to continue "well into the future."

http://www.eonline.com/news/358618/new-star-wars-film-coming-in-2015-as-disney-buys-lucasfilm-for-4-billion

Cautiously excited!

He should have gone the same route as Coppola and made smaller films like he said he would a long time ago. I also didnt like how he went back and butchered the first trilogy for home video and called people who objected and made him a very rich man "fan boys". Read what he wrote about colorizing films, talk about tone deaf.

I will watch this new one on bluray or PPV, doubt I will ever see another Lucas film in the theaters until he tries to do something really creative again.

SupremeCommander wrote:

GustavBahler wrote:The second trilogy didnt have the humor and soul

agree completely... but I thought a lot of that was George Lucas not being a very good dialogue writer and was an out-of-touch filmmaker at that point. The cast of the first trilogy (IV - VI) was so great they could nail lines like "scruffy looking nerf herder". Try imagining *anyone* from the more recent cast being able to pull that off. Maybe the gorgeous Natalie Portman could pull off Carrie Fisher's line, but I don't know... I thought Portman was pretty bad in those movies (despitre looking amazing), yet she also gave one of the best performances in the film...

So I'm not "pumped" or "jacked up" for the new movie(s) at all. However, if they have to make new movies, I'm excited Lucas will not be contributing to the endeavor

I agree that dialog was never Lucas's strong suit but the first trilogy was peppered with some great one liners and some lines that stuck with you, especially the ones related to the force. I'm glad its out of Lucas's hands as well but I'm not pumped either. The last scif fi film I can remember enjoying was Pandorum which was kind of a B movie but I thought it was clever and entertaining.

BTW I don't know if you saw this TV series back in the day but Starlost with Keir Dullea is now availbale on DVD at Amazon. I won't lie to you, its not very good, Harlan Ellison was the creative force behind it as well as Douglas Trumbull but Ellison dropped out when they went low budget. You still can see what a great concept it was if they had put the money into it and did a better job with the writing.

Markji wrote:

Nalod wrote:DId the films get worse or we get older?

Both.

But now for some good news..... Harrison Ford is up for re-creating and playing Han Solo in the upcoming movie series. This, in itself, will make the film so much better.

Harrison Ford says he is open to another ‘Star Wars’ film

For all those who hope the upcoming "Star Wars" movies are more "original trilogy" than "prequels" -- there is hope: Harrison Ford, who played the scruffy-looking nerferder Han Solo in the original films, will consider reprising his role, according to Entertainment Weekly.

The magazine spoke to a "highly placed source," who said, "Harrison is open to the idea of doing the movie and he's upbeat about it." The mystery source "close to the just-announced 'Star Wars' sequel" went on to explain that Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) are equally enthusiastic about the possibilities.

It's been 29 years since Ford last played the lovable scoundrel. According to legend, the actor very much wanted his character to be killed off in "Return of the Jedi." However, George Lucas ixnayed the idea. In a 2010 interview with ABC News, Ford said, "I thought he should have died in the last one to give it some bottom... George didn't think there was any future in dead Han toys.".....

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/harrison-ford-says-open-another-star-wars-film-185829069.html

there's actually a supposedly awesome script floating around Hollywood--a mocumentary about Chewbacca and the filming of Star Wars. Apparently, the reason that script gets shot down over and over again is because Harrison Ford was pretty pissed off with how he is portrayed. Namely, that he would say **** like that but worse behind-the-scenes