the crimes of george lucas ('90s on)

Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Twilight (okay, they could all have completely flopped, but so could LOTR)

― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, October 31, 2012 1:07 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

2nd Hunger Games and Twilight movies didn't get the green light til the first ones made big box office, but apparently production on the 2nd Potter movie began the same week the first one was out so i guess that was a done deal.

pretty sure the harry potter IP was much more popular than those other 2 before their respective first movies

As noted by The AV Club in a story today, it will be exceedingly weird to think about a Star Wars feature film not preceded by the 20th Century Fox fanfare.

i'm a little frightened about what Lucas is going to do with all that money. what project did he need to finance that he couldn't have done with his prior fortune?

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/star-wars-7-8-and-9-are-most-exciting-says-george-lucas-biographer-exclusive-63006

For everyone expecting a release of the original and untouched trilogy anytime soon, I've been waiting for the last two seasons of The Muppet Show on DVD forrrrrr...four years now? Disney ain't in no hurry.

misread that and had this horrible, confused vision of george lucas wreaking CGI havoc on 'the great muppet caper.'

wait I thought there was a complete set of the Muppet Show on DVD at some point

Dude's cool.

I've been waiting for the last two seasons of The Muppet Show on DVD forrrrrr...four years now? Disney ain't in no hurry.

note their active butchery of the latter Roger Langridge comics

very happy to hear about where all that money's going, because honestly i don't give a shit what happens to anything Star Wars ever

it's going to jedi montessori training

Psyched for all the personal, low-budget, avant-garde films Lucas is gonna make now

THX-1136 prequel coming right up

http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/500986152_5snvJ-L-2.jpg

we learned george lucas was cool when his response to his rich neighbors' refusal to let him ruin their Tranquility by building a production studio on his land was to donate it to a nonprofit to build low-income housing on

that said i know this is naive but i read that breathlessly speculating io9 article and was genuinely taken aback that anyone, anyone, could want more goddamn motherfucking star wars movies

It's funny to see the history of Star Wars constantly get rewritten. In the past year or so it's gone from "Darth Vader's story was the entire thing" to "Oh yeah, it was going to be 12 episodes and 7-9 is WHERE IT REALLY GETS GOOD"

In the long run it's been the other way around - for a long time there was talk of a nine-episode trilogy of trilogies, and then around the time stuff was gearing up for Episode I it switched to "oh no just these and we're probably done".

In the long run it's been the other way around - for a long time there was talk of a nine-episode trilogy of trilogies, and then around the time stuff was gearing up for Episode I it switched to "oh no just these and we're probably done".

― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, November 1, 2012 12:13 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

yeah thats how i remember it too. and even when i was a kid the idea of a prequel trilogy bored me, i wanted to see what happened after ROTJ

"I've never had much personal interest in filmmaking or storytelling. My life's dream was to spend 35 years building a profitable brand to sell to the Disney Company and to donate the profits to education."

Mark Hamill:

“Oh my gosh, what a shock that was! I had no idea that George was going to sell to Disney until I read it online like everybody else. He did tell us last summer about wanting to go on and do [Episodes] VII, VIII, and IX, and that [newly appointed Lucasfilm president] Kathleen Kennedy would be doing them… Yeah, last August, he asked Carrie and I to have lunch with him and we did. I thought he was going to talk about either his retirement or the Star Wars TV series that I’ve heard about… So when he said, “We decided we’re going to do Episodes VII, VIII, and IX,” I was just gobsmacked. “What? Are you nuts?!” [Laughs]

. . . “I can see both sides of it. Because in a way, there was a beginning, a middle, and an end and we all lived happily ever after and that’s the way it should be — and it’s great that people have fond memories, if they do have fond memories. But on the other hand, there’s this ravenous desire on the part of the true believers to have more and more and more material. It’s one of those things: people either just don’t care for it or are passionate about it. I guess that defines what cult movies are all about…”

they should get him to play The Joker in the new movies

haha

When I went to Star Wars Celebration in August and went to see Mark Hamill's talk, he did this monologue and people went nuts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld0uIhst3TA

And Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble xp

Hey, it's on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YLeVe6MIQM

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/muppets_sw.jpg

(now that Disney own both, they can remaster all 6 existing SW films with CGI Muppets)

I'd watch that

Sam the Eagle 4 Hayden straight swap.

sam eagle for vader surely

lol @ C-Beaker-0

Andrew O'Hehir is of 2 minds

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/31/disneys_4_billion_lucas_deal_good_idea_bad_omen/

I thought I read that ILM was not in the deal?

no, but they threw in De Subjectivisten to make up for it

ILM is in the deal

pardon if I missed this, but is GL's participation in the next 3 films limited to story treatments?

i think he stated himself that they would be handed to kathleen kennedy.

I think what I read is that he's staying on as a consultant, whatever that means

it means approx. dick most likely

people either just don’t care for it or are passionate about it. I guess that defines what cult movies are all about…”

it is truly weird to think of star wars as a cult movie. i sort of take his point, but i also feel that describing it that way sort of devalues the very notion of a cult movie.

was it a cult movie when it came out? i can't imagine richard nixon giving a shit about it, but by reagan's term maybe it's conquered the normals?

i can't tell if you're serious or not, but fyi star wars was one of the most commercially successful movies ever released

Star Wars debuted on Wednesday, May 25, 1977, in 32 theaters, and eight more on Thursday and Friday. It immediately broke box-office records, effectively becoming one of the first blockbuster films, and Fox accelerated plans to broaden its release.[54] Lucas spent most of the day in a sound studio in Los Angeles. When he went out for lunch with his then-wife Marcia, they encountered a long queue of people along the sidewalks leading to Mann's Chinese Theatre, waiting to see Star Wars.[38] Even technical crew members, such as model makers, were asked for autographs, and cast members became instant household names.[5]
Star Wars remains one of the most financially successful films of all time. The film earned $1,554,475 through its opening weekend ($5.96 million in today's terms), building up to $7 million weekends as it entered wide release ($26.8 million in today's terms).[2] It replaced Jaws as the highest-earning film in North America just six months into release,[75] eventually earning over $220 million during its initial theatrical run ($844 million in today's terms).[76] Star Wars entered international release towards the end of the year, and in 1978 added the worldwide record to its domestic one,[77] earning $410 million in total.[78] Reissues in 1978, 1979, 1981, and 1982 brought its cumulative gross in Canada and the U.S. to $323 million,[79] and extended its global earnings to $530 million.[80] The film remained the highest-grossing film of all time until E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial broke that record in 1983.[81]

http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekly&id=starwars4.htm

Internet calculator tells me that, adjusted for inflation, it made 1.34 billion in today's dollars in its initial theatrical run (combined domestic & international). That's just in ticket sales. Obviously there were several more mints to be made on the merchandising.

yah but wasn't it just 12 nerds seeing it over and over again? did normal people care about it?

the big deal about star wars was that it WASN'T just a cult thing that only nerds cared about. compare it to star trek, which had middling ratings, was cancelled after three seasons, and only got its 'comeback' after lucas suddenly made SF profitable.

star wars is a cult movie in the same way that mormonism is a cult

widespread, profitable, special underwear

J.D. otm.

We live in a strange time where the definitions of what is nerdy and what is cult are changing and distorting and kind of becoming more and more meaningless. 'Nerds' are just another demographic these days, as plugged into the mainstream as anyone else. And they have no idea how good they have it.

the demographic of any 'nerdy' blockbuster movie isn't very nerdy anymore, but i wonder if that was ever the case w/ Star Wars either. don't think it's possible to make that much money w/ just nerds, no matter how many times they see it.