And then everything changed.It's being reported that Disney has purchased Lucasfilm and the rights to all of it's properties from George Lucas, placing the entirety of the "Star Wars" universe under the Walt Disney umbrella. Evidently, this must have been in the works (how the HELL did they keep everyone quiet!?) for awhile, because they've simultaneously announced that they're moving ahead on "Star Wars: Episode VII" for 2015.
SO many conflicting emotions about this...
On the one hand, this is symbolically kind of sad. The whole original point of Lucasfilm in the first place was to be a wholly-independent entity, seperate from the corporate studios... and there's NEVER been an outfit that embodied the concept of a corporation-as-studio more than Disney. Granted, "the system" today is not the system that Lucas rebeled against in the 70s and 80s, but still - Goliath Wins, basically.
On the other hand... Disney has been bringing some incredible talent and material under their umbrella lately. People forget this, but the whole reason they bought Marvel was because their attempts to build in-house "boy brands" (their words, not mine) were coming up short and they figured it was easier/cheaper to just BUY a whole bunch. Now they've bought another bunch: Mickey Mouse is now in the business of making movies about The Incredible Hulk and Darth Vader - the future of YOUR popular culture is MY toybox circa 1985.
While I'll always respect Lucas' go-it-alone zeal in claiming/owning his creations (and I can't not worry that there might be something "gone wrong" on his end that's driving this)... the fact is, he just hasn't been the best steward of them for a long time. If his final act as owner of "Star Wars" is to leave it, effectively, in John Lasseter et al's hands? I'm more than okay with that. Especially since this means it's now in the hands of people with no Earthly reason to NOT release the uncut original trilogy.
Okay. I'm onboard. Let's see where this is going.
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