It's been known for a while now that George Lucas, the brains behind Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Willow and, whether we like it or not, the movie version of Howard the Duck, wanted to retire or at least get away from his massive legacy to focus on smaller projects. Now he's taken probably the biggest step in doing so - selling Lucasfilm, his production company and the heart of his film empire. With it goes the famous Industrial Light & Magic special effects studio, which he founded to do the effects for Star Wars and which is now one of the leading developers and producers of special effects, and Lucasarts, his video/computer gaming arm and also the handler of the various licensing and spinoff deals (e.g. the Star Wars comics, games, etc.).

The buyer: Disney.

The price: 4.5 billion US dollars, half in cash, half in Disney stock

What does this mean? It means that Disney, still flush with the success of the Marvel franchise movies (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Avengers, with more to come), as well as the ongoing financial and critical successes of Pixar's productions, now owns Star Wars and Indiana Jones as well.

Their first project - rebooting Start Wars by making a seventh movie with a view to not just creating a third trilogy, but making it into an ongoing series like the Marvel movies or James Bond. If they bring some of the quality writers and directors working on the Marvel movies to bear on the project, they just might pull it off, too.

Is this a good thing? Well, it increases corporate concentration in Hollywood massively, so a possible negative there. Besides it's own classic Disney brands, DIsney now owns Marvel Comics, Lucasfilm's various properties, the Muppets, Pixar's properties (Toy Story, Cars, The Incredibles, etc.) and others.

However, it also puts the beloved franchises created by Lucas into very capable hands, at least if the success of the Marvel movies and the Pixar brand are any indication.

Geeks on the other boards that I frequent are so far either cautious optimistic or rejoicing, largely because of the prospect of Star Wars coming back to theatres, with only a few anti-Disney naysayers complaining.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/10/30/disney-lucasfilm.html

Mendalla