A difficult decision for George Lucas. The Force Awakens: How Disney promoted Star Wars and other great franchises Lucas sold the rights to Star Wars
Introducing us to brand new young protagonists. Most fans of the franchise were dissatisfied with the film, largely due to the fact that it copied the main plot lines of the fourth episode and tried to play on the nostalgia of the audience without offering anything truly new. In 2016, the first spin-off of the series was released, entitled, telling about the events preceding the story told in the fourth episode. But here the unexpected happened: even despite the fact that there was not a single Jedi in the film, the film delighted critics and audiences. Therefore, Disney's work on the series should never be underestimated.
Countless numbers have been published based on souvenir products, comics, books and other products that bring huge income to the owners of the rights to the franchise. In fact, the main income comes from the accompanying products, and not from the distribution of films in cinemas. In fact, it was George Lucas who came up with this scheme for monetizing his work, since before it had never occurred to anyone that one could earn so much money by selling goods with the symbols of a movie. According to the latest data, income from the sale of souvenirs based on Star Wars amount to more than 20 billion dollars.
The influence of Star Wars cannot be overstated. The films of the original trilogy literally exploded the popular culture of their time. Based on the cinematic universe, their own official religion was even created - Jediism. Millions of people annually participate in all kinds of cosplay, come to role-playing reenactments and simply forums for fans of the Star Wars franchise, and simply collect products with the symbols of the series. In numerous films and animated series you can find references to the cult franchise of George Lucas, and some directors even make full-fledged parodies of the series, just remember Mel Brooks’ “Spaceballs”.
I would like to sincerely congratulate my favorite series on its 40th anniversary and wish it to its creators wonderful mood and creative inspiration. And I would like to separately wish the current owners of the franchise, represented by Disney producers, more strength and imagination so that they more often delight their fans with new worthy works.
Star Wars has been part of Disney's ever-expanding media empire for several years now, but Disney isn't the only company getting a piece of the pie. Ever since Lucasfilm acquired the House of Mouse in 2012, questions have often arisen about who owns what. Specifically, Paramount will continue to receive royalties from future Indiana Jones films, even though those films are distributed by Disney. Film rights can be a very confusing matter and are rarely as simple as they seem at first glance.
The galaxy far, far away is no exception, and so we're going to clear up the details. In this article, we'll take a closer look at not only the distribution of films for rental or home viewing, but also television rights - a topic that's been in the news recently as Disney prepares to launch its own streaming service.
George Lucas was a maverick director who preferred not to work with studios, so he made his films himself and looked for a distributor for them. Fox (20th Century Fox - Nexu's note) was the only studio willing to give Star Wars a chance - a decision that paid off handsomely within a few years. The first six films were released under their umbrella and reaped a bountiful harvest in the form of box office revenue and home releases - including several special editions for various platforms. Most people welcomed Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm, but Fox was undoubtedly upset that Star Wars was being abandoned.
However, after the deal, all rights to Star Wars were not immediately transferred to Disney. While the House of Mouse clearly owns everything post-merger (since The Force Awakens), it will have to wait before it can get its hands on anything produced in the pre-Disney era. Fox holds the rights to The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and the entire prequel trilogy through May 2020. Additionally, since Fox was Lucas's partner on the 1977 classic Star Wars, he will have the rights to A New Hope until the end of time, which could cause Disney some issues with the Blu-ray release. collection of “the complete Skywalker saga” after the release of Episode IX. It is worth noting that Disney is working in this direction, and in the near future everything may change.
As you know, the shareholders of both companies agreed to an unprecedented merger, and Disney is now trying to acquire the media assets of Fox. Since the news was released, much of the discussion has focused on integrating the X-Men and Fantastic Four into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the deal will have implications for Star Wars as well. Disney's purchase of Fox means the House of Mouse will have the coveted rights to A New Hope and will own the intellectual property for all Star Wars films. This may not be exactly what was meant when Disney and Fox tried to come to an agreement over the rights to A New Hope, but the problem is solved, one way or another.
However, with regards to the oft-discussed (but never officially) Blu-ray release of the theatrical version of the classic trilogy, nothing is likely to change. Lucasfilm has been frequently called upon to do this, but there is no indication that they are going to change their mind on the matter. The 2011 versions (and all the changes that came with them) are considered the official canon of the franchise, and Kathleen Kennedy intends to leave Lucas' films alone to concentrate on building the future of Star Wars. Perhaps one day everything will change, but for now viewers will have to be content with what they have. Disney could profit greatly from the revenue that such a package would bring in, but it's already doing well on the strength of the new films it's releasing.
Star Wars and television rights
Many fans have their own copies of the films in Blu-ray collections, but television networks are nonetheless eager to acquire the rights to broadcast films from the popular franchise. If we talk about the first six Star Wars films, the rights to show them on TV are now owned by Turner - this means broadcast on TNT and TBS. The deal runs until 2024, which is why Disney is now trying to acquire the rights from Turner. However, it won't be easy. Based on the available information, Turner wants a decent amount of compensation, including both money and software. Negotiations have not yet progressed much, and there are no signs that anything will change.
Star Wars films released after Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm are not covered by Turner's rights, but negotiations must be negotiated with Netflix, since the House of Mouse struck a deal with the streaming giant in 2016. At the time of this writing, Rogue One and The Last Jedi are available for viewing (on Netflix - Nexu). Since the deal covers all films from the Disney era, there is every reason to believe that Solo will one day come to Netflix - perhaps after its digital versions are released this fall. However, this practice will soon come to an end.
Disney is set to launch its own streaming service, which will include classic films and television series, as well as a new Star Wars series from Jon Favreau. Of course, Disney will pull out a large number of popular titles from its vast bins to fill the broadcast network, but at first there will be a clear lack of Star Wars content. Bob Iger has officially announced that there will be no Star Wars films released before 2019 at launch. This means that JJ Abrams' Episode IX (which will likely arrive digitally in Spring 2020) will be the first film in the franchise on a Disney streaming channel. Likewise, all subsequent Star Wars films - the Rian Johnson trilogy, the Benioff and Weiss series - will be available on this service.
The deal between Disney and Netflix (which covers films released up to 2018) expires at the end of 2019, and Disney clearly has no plans to renew it. In all likelihood, all of their Star Wars films will then move to their own streaming channel. This channel will become a universal showcase not only for Lucasfilm, but also for other Disney subsidiaries such as Pixar and Marvel. This is a major blow to Netflix, which essentially didn't get a real chance to benefit from its deal with Disney. Of course, Disney's service doesn't aim to be a Netflix killer, but there's no doubt that it will diminish Netflix's former appeal. Netflix has its own quirks that will keep it interesting for subscribers, but some of those subscribers may well opt for Disney.
The time will come when Disney will have a whole stack of its own Star Wars series in its hands, but for now it has to share the pie with others. The current rights situation isn't all that complicated, but it's always a good idea to know who owns what when it comes to a franchise.
Robert Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Company, spent one weekend last October watching all six Star Wars films. Of course, he had seen them before, but this time he took notes. Disney was in secret negotiations to buy Lucasfilm, the company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas, and Iger had to be extra careful in his preparations.
The films refreshed Iger's memories of Luke Skywalker, a Jedi Knight who must endure trials, and his antagonist Darth Vader, the Sith Lord who (30-year-old spoiler alert) ends up being his father. From these films, Iger wanted to know whether Lucasfilm had enough comparable material - or intellectual property - in reserve for future Star Wars releases. Any more or less serious fan knows that there were always supposed to be nine of them. But how would Disney estimate the market value of a fictional galaxy? What, for example, was the size of its population?
As it turned out, Lucas had already done the cataloging. His company maintained a database called the Holocron, named after the crystalline form of the Force-powered cube. "Holocron" in real world features 17,000 characters from the Star Wars universe, inhabiting thousands of planets over a time span of more than 20,000 years. Studying all this would take Disney quite a lot of time, so Lucas offered the company a guide - Pablo Hidalgo. Hidalgo, a founding member of the Star Wars Fan Association, is now a brand communications manager at Lucasfilm. "'Holocron' can be overwhelming at first," says Hidalgo, who has a knack for getting things right: how to pronounce "Wookiee" correctly, or how to accurately list who met Yoda during his retreat in the swamps of Dagobah.
Secret talks eventually led to Disney's $4 billion acquisition of Lucasfilm being announced in October, with Star Wars heroes and villains joining the company of such iconic characters as Iron Man, Buzz Lightyear and Mickey Mouse. Disney sent already easily excited Star Wars fans into complete ecstasy by unveiling plans to release the long-promised final trilogy starting in 2015. Fan enthusiasm peaked in January when JJ Abrams, director of the successful 2009 reboot of Star Trek, agreed to work on the first film [of the new trilogy]. “It’s a dream come true,” exulted Jason Swank, host of the weekly podcast RebelForce Radio.
The deal fits perfectly with Iger's plans for Disney. He wants to secure the company's future - both creatively and competitively - in a time when consumers are overly jaded thanks to the rapid growth of cable television networks and the ubiquity of the Internet. “The world is less forgiving now than it has ever been,” he says. “To succeed, you have to do something truly great.” Part of Iger's strategy is to acquire companies that could be called "mini-Disney" such as Pixar and Marvel. They provide a supply of iconic characters that can act as the engine for the rest of Disney's business, from movies and TV shows to theme parks, toys and more. Lucas's aspirations were not so ambitious. At 68, he was ready to retire and leave behind the fantasy world he had created - but he didn't want anyone to desecrate it.
"I've never been that money-obsessed," says Lucas. "I'm more of a movie-obsessed person, and the main reason I made money was to prevent anyone from taking control of my films." Lucas is on the phone, reluctantly giving an interview about the sale of Lucasfilm. He tells famous story that he never aspired to be rich and powerful. He just wanted to make experimental films - like THX-1138 - about a fantasy world where sex is outlawed, people are forced to take drugs, and brutal androids strictly enforce the rules.
Lucas had a bad experience with the THX-1138. Warner Bros. literally tore the film out of his hands and cut it considerably before releasing it in 1971. Universal did the same with Lucas's next film, American Graffiti, which he shot in his hometown of Modesto, California. True, unlike THX-1138, American Graffiti was a success.
Lucas, mindful of how the studios treated his previous films, decided to take a different approach in his next project, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. He turned down a $500,000 salary to direct his own film, asking instead for $50,000 and the rights to all the sequels. Episode IV, which was released in 1977, and the two films that followed it, including re-releases, grossed a total of $1.8 billion. After this first trilogy, Lucas was rich enough to do only what he liked. He could, for example, produce director Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, an arthouse production with music by Philip Glass, which grossed only 500 thousand. Or make a television series about the early years of Indiana Jones, the daredevil archaeologist he created together with Steven Spielberg. Unlike Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was conceived as a historical excursion: in one episode, young Indiana meets Sidney Bishé, a talented saxophonist from New Orleans, and learns to play jazz.
In the early 1990s, Lucas pitched the idea for the series to Iger, who rose from reading cable weather to become chairman of ABC. They met at Skywalker Ranch, a 6,100-acre estate located in Marin County, California. Iger was hesitant, but Indiana Jones was one of the most popular movie characters of all time. “I really wanted to work with this [material],” says Iger. “And then, it was Lucas.” Iger greenlit the series and kept it running on ABC for two seasons, although it was never able to gain an audience or develop into something cohesive artistically. “It was difficult,” Lucas says of Chronicles. “But he [Iger] was very understanding about it.”
In 1999, Lucas released Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace. In total, all three films of the second trilogy earned about $2.5 billion at the box office, but many fans considered them a failure. They were particularly displeased by the clumsy Jar Jar Binks from the planet Naboo, a creature with a terrible Jamaican accent who became the object of ridicule in the animated series South Park and The Simpsons.
The criticism reached Lucas. He felt how difficult it was to talk about creativity when people called you an idiot. “Before the advent of the Internet, everything was fine,” he says. “But now, with the advent of the Internet, [people] have become more bile, and relationships are moving to a more personal level. And you ask yourself, 'Why do I need this?'" At the same time, Lucas rejected the idea of entrusting his universe to anyone else. “I think he felt like he was a prisoner of Star Wars, and that feeling only grew stronger over the years,” says Dale Pollock, author of Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas.
Meanwhile, Iger continued his career at ABC. After Disney bought the network in 1996, Iger became the formal successor to Disney Chairman Michael Eischer. For almost ten years, Iger remained in the shadow of his influential mentor. But in 2005 the company found itself in a difficult situation. The once-prolific animation department had not produced a hit for several years, and the intractable Eischer had scared off many shareholders. Disney's board of directors asked Iger to take control. Before this, everyone assessed him rather skeptically, and even in his own magazine he was described as “ordinary and predictable,” and no one assumed that he had the ability to think strategically.
Iger, however, had a very clear vision of the situation. He understood that Disney's success was based on the exploitation of popular characters. This was a strategy pioneered by Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse and the fairy tale heroines of the Brothers Grimm, Snow White and Cinderella. Later, Disney used the same method to turn The Lion King, its hit cartoon, into a regular Broadway show. Pirates of the Caribbean, a theme park attraction, has been continued in several movies and subsequent accompanying books and video games.
Iger accelerated this process with several acquisitions. The first was the purchase of the animation studio Pixar in 2006 for $7.4 billion. Iger personally negotiated with Steve Jobs, who was the president of Pixar at the time. Under the terms of the deal, Iger retained the entire creative team, led by John Lasseter, and allowed them to continue operations at his headquarters in San Francisco, reducing disruption to a minimum. “Steve and I spent more time agreeing on social issues and less time on financial issues,” says Iger. “He believed that supporting Pixar's internal culture was a key component of their creative success. He was right."
With the deal, Disney gained a new source for producing movie hits, and Jobs became a member of the company's board and its largest shareholder. Iger recalls that from time to time he would call and say: “Hey Bob, I saw the movie you released yesterday - it sucks.” Still, the Disney CEO believes there were "more pros than cons" to having Jobs as a friend and advisor.
In 2009, Iger led a similar deal for Disney to purchase Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. And again, Iger retained all the previous leadership of this company: general director Marvel Isaac Perlmutter and Marvel Studio head Kevin Feige. He believed that Disney would benefit from their excellent knowledge of the superhero film genre. And, although the purchase of Marvel was not followed by the joining of such stars as Jobs or Lucas, the acquisition paid off handsomely. Last year, Disney released The Avengers, the first Marvel film it distributed and marketed. The film grossed $1.5 billion worldwide, becoming the third highest-grossing film in history. "The success has exceeded expectations," said Jessica Cohen, a media analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
While Disney has mastered lucrative filmmaking with Pixar and Marvel, it has just as successfully used its franchise to promote other businesses. In June, he opened Carsland, an attraction based on the hit Pixar film that revived the moribund Disney California Adventure park in Anaheim. Today, Iger is considering creating a Marvel theme park in California and abroad. ABC is developing S.H.I.E.L.D., a primetime television series about the counterintelligence agency of the same name from The Avengers.
But not everything Disney did was successful. Last year's "John Carter" failed miserably at the box office, and similar failures will inevitably occur in the future. That's the movie business. But Disney's large number of character-based franchises, coupled with non-core businesses like ESPN, have turned it into something unique in Hollywood's boom-and-bust economy: a diversified company showing steady growth. The company's net income and operating profits have risen steadily over the past three years, and the value of its assets has doubled since Iger became CEO in March 2005. In addition, the success that accompanied the purchase of Pixar and Marvel encouraged Iger to search for new “mini-Disneys.” Lucasfilm topped the list.
In May 2011, Iger flew to Walt Disney World Resort in Florida for the opening of Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, a revamped Star Wars attraction that gave visitors the illusion of traveling through space to visit such planets like Tatooine. Lucas took a keen interest in the attraction and personally checked the progress of construction every two weeks for several years.
On the morning of Star Tours' opening, Iger invited Lucas to breakfast at the Hollywood Brown Derby, one of the Disney World restaurants. For this occasion it was closed to visitors, and the two men could talk quietly. Iger, fresh from his daily workout, ordered a yogurt parfait. Lucas was tempted by one of the big omelettes they serve at Brown Derby. They exchanged pleasantries. Iger then asked if Lucas would ever consider selling his company.
Lucas replied that he had recently celebrated his 67th birthday and was beginning to seriously think about retiring. So perhaps this will be followed by a sale of the company. “I’m not ready to discuss this now,” he told Iger. “But when I’m ready, I’ll be happy to talk.”
Iger did his best to hide his excitement and told him: “Call me when you decide.” After this, both had to pick up lightsabers and stage a comic battle, thereby opening the attraction. They stood on stage next to an actor dressed as Darth Vader in front of several hundred Star Wars fans who warmly greeted them. Iger was impressed with Lucas' skills. “He was very skilled with that lightsaber,” Iger recalls. “He was much more skilled at that than I was.”
Lucas has always kept a close eye on how Disney manages Pixar - which he continues to refer to as "my company." He founded it as Lucasfilm Computer Division in 1979 and sold it to Jobs six years later. He called Disney's decision to stay out of Pixar's business "brilliant." He believed that if he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, he would still be able to retain some influence over his fictional universe. Much depended on who would lead Lucasfilm after he left.
He invited Kathleen Kennedy to have dinner with him in New York. She was one of the founders of Amblin Entertainment, which produced numerous hits including Jurassic Park and Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List. She was also Lucas's close friend for over two decades. “I guess you heard that I'm serious about retiring,” Lucas told her.
“Actually, no,” she answered.
Lucas asked if she would be interested in an offer to head Lucasfilm. Kennedy was probably taken aback by the news - but, fortunately, agreed to accept the offer. “When Katie said yes, we started talking about relaunching the entire franchise,” he says. “I was going to leave, so I said, 'So I'm going to have to reinvigorate the company. new life, so that she can function without me, and we need to do something to create interest in her." Then I said, 'Okay, let's make these films.'"
To begin work on the script for Episode VII, Lucas and Kennedy hired screenwriter Michael Arndt, who had won an Oscar for Little Miss Sunshine. They managed to get Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote the scripts for Return of the Jedi and The Empire Strikes Back, as a consultant. Lucas began negotiations with actors from the classic trilogy - such as Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford - about their participation in the [new] films. In June 2012, he called Iger.
During the five-month negotiations that followed, Lucas kept repeating that the work on the next Star Wars trilogy would be best handled by his loyal Lucasfilm employees. “I had a team of very, very talented people who had been with the company for many, many years and really understood how to market Star Wars and how to handle licensing and how to make movies,” Lucas explains. “I said, ‘In my opinion, I think it would be wise to keep some part of it the same. We need several people to manage the property; you know who was appointed to do this, and we are confident that we did everything right."
Iger understood Lucas' concerns. "George told me once that when he died they would say 'George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars,'" he says. However, he wanted to make sure that Lucas, who was used to controlling every aspect of Star Wars, from set design to the contents of lunch boxes, understood - final word regarding any of the subsequent films will be Disney's, not Lucasfilm's. “We had to come to the understanding that if we were to acquire a company, despite the many hours of friendly conversations and willingness to cooperate, we would be the final decision-makers on all matters,” says Alan Horn, chairman of the board. Walt Disney Studios.
Lucas agreed - in theory. In fact, the thought of losing control [of the company] weighed heavily on him. According to Kennedy, every week before he left for Los Angeles she asked Lucas how he was feeling. At times he seemed unfazed. Sometimes not. "I'm sure from time to time he asked himself if he was really ready to leave and became confused."
At first, Lucas didn't show [Disney] the rough sketches for the next three Star Wars films. When the company executives asked to see them, he assured them that the scripts would be great and said that they would just have to trust him. “Eventually I had to say, ‘Look, I know what I’m doing. Buying my stories is part of what the deal was all about. I did this for 40 years, and quite successfully,” says Lucas. “I could have said, ‘Well, okay, I’ll just sell the company to someone else.’”
Once Lucas received written assurances from Disney about the general aspects of the deal, he agreed to show drafts of the scripts - but insisted that only Iger, Horn and Kevin Mayer, Disney's executive vice president in charge of corporate strategy, read them. "We promised, says Iger. “We had to sign the agreement.”
When Iger was finally able to get to the drafts, he rejoiced. “We thought they had a lot of potential from a literary point of view,” he says.
In late October, Iger invited Lucas to fly to Deaney's headquarters in Burbank to sign documents. He thought Lucas looked sad. “When he put his pen to the piece of paper, I didn’t notice any hesitation in him,” says Iger. “But I did notice that he was overwhelmed with emotion. He said 'goodbye'."
But Eiger himself flew as if on wings. The day after signing the agreement, he entertained his family for Halloween. "I was Darth Vader," he says.
“I felt a ripple in the Force - like millions of fans were in shock at once,” tweeted one boy shocked by the news. This was the general mood that day. Fans also saw what happened after Disney bought Pixar and Marvel, and many believed that the company could be trusted with R2-D2 and Princess Leia. "The way they handled the Marvel legacy allowed them to gain credibility with a lot of fans," says Swank, co-host of Rebel Force Radio.
Iger's agreement to keep Lucasfilm intact, with Kennedy at the helm, bore fruit almost immediately. Even before the deal was officially registered in early December, Kennedy approached J. J. Abrams' agent with a proposal: would he like to direct Episode VII. “The answer came very quickly: 'No, I don't think I want to do this,'” says Kennedy. “He threw himself into finishing [Star Trek Into Darkness, the sequel to his first Star Trek]. He felt that he would not be interested in exploring such similar territories.”
Kennedy persisted. Along with Arndt and Kasdan, she visited Abrams in Santa Monica, at the headquarters of his production company Bad Robot. “When we finished, a couple of hours later, he changed his mind 180 degrees,” she says.
“Being part of the next Star Wars experience is more exciting than I can put into words,” Abrams says.
In January, Lucas announced his engagement to Mellody Hobson, an investment manager from Chicago, and he spent most of his time in her hometown. However, despite this, he attended meetings where the plot of the new film was discussed, and gave his verdict on the physical laws and other attributes of the Star Wars universe. “Mostly I said, ‘You can’t do that. You have to do this,” says Lucas. “Or: “These cars don’t have wheels. They use anti-gravity to move.” There are a million little details. For example, I could say: “He doesn't have the ability to do this” or “He has to do it.” I know all this stuff."
Iger is now busy preparing a mechanism that will begin to produce Star Wars-branded toys, related theme parks and anything else that Disney deems suitable for exploiting the franchise. He says he expects to increase sales of Star Wars-branded merchandise worldwide, and that ABC and Lucasfilm are discussing a television series. At the same time, Iger explains that he doesn't want to do anything right now that could distract attention from the upcoming films. "I don't want to over-commercialize or make too much of a fuss about them," he says. "My job is to keep that from happening."
Buying Lucasfilm may be Iger's last big deal at Disney. He plans to step down as CEO in 2015, although he will remain chairman for another year after that. Merrill Lynch's Cohen predicts that Disney will not make any moves during this period. major transactions. "I think this will be a period of reaping the benefits of the deals that Bob has already done," she says.
Iger appears to be doing just that. In his office there is a table covered with Disney crafts and two lightsabers. “People have been sending me a lot of these things,” he grins, picking up one of the swords and waving it at an imaginary opponent: “I’m getting better and better.”
Hollywood has announced the most high-profile deal in recent years in the world of the film industry: Disney Corporation has acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. Founded in 1971 by director and producer George Lucas, the company owns the rights to the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, and its divisions include famed visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), recording studio Skywalker Sound and video game developer LucasArts. The deal has already been approved by both Lucas and the Disney board of directors.
Disney paid $4.05 billion for Lucas's legacy, and at the same time received the rights to shoot sequels to popular films: the seventh episode of Star Wars will be released in 2015.
George Lucas said that the sale of the company is a continuation of his plans to finally retire. Let us recall that this year the director and producer promised to refuse to film full-length blockbusters after the reception that critics and colleagues gave his film “Red Tails.”
“Over the past 35 years, I have had the pleasure of seeing Star Wars move from one generation to the next. Now the time has come for me to pass them on to the next generation of directors. I always believed that Star Wars would outlive me, and it was important for me to create the conditions for this myself,” the publication quotes Lucas as saying. Variety .
Following the release of Star Wars: Episode VII, which is currently on early stage development, the Disney corporation is going to shoot one full-length film from this universe every two to three years.
But Lucas didn’t limit himself to just movies: the entire franchise included many related products: toys, souvenirs, novelizations of films and just books telling the story of a “far, far away galaxy”, animated series and sale of rights to characters. For example, one of latest deals there was a contract with Rovio to use images from Star Wars in a popular game Angry Birds. Over the years, this approach has allowed Lucasfilm to earn more than $20 billion, and Lucas has become the richest director in the world - his personal fortune estimated at $3.5 billion.
The franchise is expected to bring in $215 million this year.
Disney has worked with Lucasfilm since 1987, when the first Star Wars attraction opened at Disneyland (now in Orlando, Paris and Tokyo). Companies have also combined Mickey Mouse with Lucas characters in a variety of products. In addition, Disney has a license for an Indiana Jones attraction and is working on a Star Wars live-action series.
At first, the corporation will focus on expanding the production of toys and expanding the Star Wars theme park at Disneyland. Disney management promises that all Lucasfilm obligations will be fulfilled.
This also applies to the future continuation of Indiana Jones - Lucasfilm was preparing it together with the Paramount film company, with which Disney has an agreement on the distribution of films in the Marvel universe. The president of Lucasfilm will be , who co-led the company with Lucas before the sale; she will also serve as a producer on all future Star Wars and other films for the studio. are going to be hired as a consultant when filming films.
"an old robot R2D2 drives up to Luke Skywalker and projects a hologram of Princess Leia from the fourth episode. Luke watches Leia's message nostalgically and comments, touched, "It's a very cheap trick." The trick, of course, is not cheap. The Star Wars franchise is attracting a new generation of fans around the world who are already generating significant box office revenue. The phenomenon of the saga as a pop cultural phenomenon lies in the universality of the story, in which one can find both a family drama and a military pamphlet on an intergalactic scale. On the occasion of the release of the eighth episode, we remember the Star Wars franchise - with some exceptions, because we prefer to forget the films about Christmas with Chewbacca and Ewoks no less than the actors who starred in them.
Original trilogy
Episodes IV-VI
The first film of the saga was released in 1977 under the laconic title “Star Wars”. Only later, when George Lucas was writing the script for the next part, they became the fourth and fifth episodes - then Lucas conceived a whole six-part saga. Given $150,000 to write, produce and direct, Lucas produced what became the first film in the Star Wars universe. The box office success of the fourth episode and American Graffiti allowed George to finance the next films of the saga himself with the help of LucasFilm. Even though social networks did not yet exist, some plot points were kept silent even from the actors during filming.
George Lucas collected the plot of his saga from everywhere: from books about John Carter and comics about Valerian to the fundamental “Dune” by Frank Herbert and the films of Akira Kurosawa. But the main inspiration was Joseph Campbell's book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell believes that most of the world's myths have a common plot structure about a hero who must go his own way. He coined the term “monomyth” specifically to designate this structure. Hollywood producer Christopher Vogler even created a training manual for screenwriters based on this book, which is successfully used by several studios. Luke Skywalker's journey from simple farmer to powerful Jedi is nothing less than a classic myth of how the archetypal hero gains new knowledge.
Accompanying him on this journey is the atypical Princess Leia, who both commands the troops and serves as a symbol of hope for a successful rebellion against the Empire. In addition, they are helped by the space mercenary Han Solo and his faithful comrade Chewbacca. George Lucas uses the monomyth as the basis for the plot of the entire trilogy. Against the backdrop of this war, each character overestimates his abilities. Han loses his skepticism about the Force, Leia realizes her own role in the rebellion, and Luke gains wisdom after life's turmoil.
Prequel trilogy
Episodes I-III
The development of technology in the 90s and the growing popularity of Star Wars among a new generation forced Lucas to reconsider his views. He returned to the idea of prequels, which he had in the late 70s. Outside the main plot of Anakin Skywalker's betrayal and his transition to The dark side, George Lucas is also interested in the political structure of the Republic and trade agreements. The expansion of the Star Wars universe also happened in the spatial aspect: it was possible to see more planets and intergalactic battles. However, the casting for the new story was not as successful as in the old trilogy. In the second and third episodes, Christensen ruined his reputation as an actor so much that he still cannot be found in decent projects during the day. Roger Ebert wrote that Christensen is like a child in a teen comedy when Amidala talks about her pregnancy. “To say that Lucas can't write a love scene is an understatement. Postcards express more passion,” complained the film critic. The weak script is saved by the old guard of actors consisting of Ewan McGregor, Christopher Lee and Samuel L. Jackson, who manage to fan the dust from the meetings of the intergalactic Senate.
The new trilogy also brought a dubious improvement from a technical point of view. George Lucas increasingly uses computer effects and almost no practical ones. His obsession even led to a computer upgrade of 4-6 episodes of the saga - according to the owner of LucasFilm, the addition of CGI should eliminate the technical failures of the trilogy. But it added artificiality not only to the adjacent practical effects, but also to the storylines.
For example, the scene in the Cantina establishment resembled a puppet festival of weirdness, and together with the CGI it turned into an animated insert inside a dramatic film. Perhaps during the transformation of Skywalker into Darth Vader, something inside you also skipped a beat with disappointment. But since Lucas is no longer active and has no influence on his own franchise, this is a point not only in the story of Anakin, but also the creator in his own creation.
After Disney bought Lucasfilm, the studio planned to release a film a year, expand the scope of the universe, and - as it turned out - change the canon. JJ Abrams, a true specialist in rebooting projects, took on the film with full responsibility. And in general the plot repeats the fourth episode. George Lucas even reproached the creators for trying to play on nostalgia instead of coming up with a new story. Abrams only added minor details that outraged fans - the stormtrooper appeared without a mask for the first time, and the shape of Kylo Ren's lightsaber did not at all resemble the classic one. In addition, the director uses his traditional “mystery box” technique. The essence of this method is to create riddles and questions, rather than provide knowledge and answers - in fact, this is not a much modified Hitchcock MacGuffin. Abrams thinks it's more interesting to constantly wonder where Snoke came from or who Rey's parents are than to eventually get that information. It seems that the entire trilogy will be built on this principle.
In the seventh episode, we again see the sand planet and the Jedi who must restore the balance of the Force. Even the new Death Star received an upgrade to avoid starfighter attacks (spoiler alert: it didn't work out). Considering the creation of a new trilogy, JJ Abrams' film feels like a prologue to something larger - and has no independent basis. By ending the film on a literal cliffhanger with Luke Skywalker, the director doomed “The Awakening...” to be a series that desperately needs a sequel, like one thirsty for water.
The story of Rogue One takes place between the third and fourth episodes of the saga. The Rebels learn that the Empire is planning to build a superweapon that will destroy entire planets. Jyn Erso and his team are trying to steal the blueprints for the Galaxy's main weapon. Unlike other films in the saga, Rogue One doesn't open with the classic "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." Instead, he uses the toolkit of a rebel film: brave, patriotic rebels rise up against a hysterical and unbalanced evil.
"Rogue One" is a unifying link between the old and new episodes, although it may well qualify as an independent film. The film honors the contributions of heroes who are not mentioned by the characters in the saga. There is no place for controversial jokes here, and the gloomy intonation chosen by the director suits such a war movie. The attributes of the saga are still in place: both the Force and the Death Star itself are remembered in the film, and this is just the background for the partisan story. Director Gareth Edwards, with experience directing "Monsters" and "Godzilla", made what the studio demanded - a strong movie about exploits that avoids pathos. Motivational speeches are inevitable in this genre, but they are few and far between, and they balance the film with the jokes of the droid K-2SO. Edwards also directed the most epic scene in the entire saga - Darth Vader in the twilight destroys the rebels with a lightsaber. This is already a worthy answer to those who consider this film unnecessary for the Star Wars universe.
Rian Johnson has become famous for his skillful balancing on the brink of mainstream and auteur cinema. His “Time Loop” was actively discussed among supporters of space travel and briefly returned Bruce Willis to the ranks of action heroes. The Last Jedi captured Johnson's way of balancing storylines and quickly switching from one character to another without losing his balance (in the Force).
However, the accumulation of old and new characters led to an incorrigibly long running time - 152 minutes. Hamill compares the film to The Godfather, and he is somewhat right. The family saga took root in all past episodes and eventually turned into a family tree in which everyone strives to find their place. Now the Force has a wider influence of telekinesis than before, and the creators are trying to attract the attention of a young audience, in addition to droids, with Porgami - cute creatures from the planet Ek-to.
Luke Skywalker's self-exile due to a difficult relationship with his nephew becomes the cornerstone of this part. The fleet, along with Leia, is waiting for support from the Jedi. Ray wants to find answers to questions about her superpowers and her family. Only the third storyline with Finn and his partner Rose slightly distances the viewer from the main conflicts. The two play out a hacking movie with the iconic crazy key holder and a step-to-defeat scene - and unexpectedly say hello to the recent "Okja" with its animal rights theme.
Director Johnson brought his regular cinematographer Steve Yedlin to the franchise. Together with him, they created some of the most picturesque scenes of the saga: a battle on a planet with red salt and gloomy shots of Ek-th, where Luke Skywalker yearned alone. Johnson managed to turn the story of the Jedi into the mainstream of samurai cinema. When creating A New Hope, Lucas was inspired by the plot of Three Scoundrels in the Hidden Fortress by Akira Kurosawa about the return of power and lost territories. But Rian Johnson uses only the attributes of Asian cinema: a lost island, renunciation of blessings, teacher-student relationships. Such parallels with Lucas's first trilogy create a strong nostalgic effect. Even the appearance of Yoda, directed by Frank Oz, contributes to this not so much in the original trilogy, as in the films in which the special effects were created by hand. In the end, The Last Jedi is a slow, meditative film about the impossibility of finding answers to certain questions. And this is exactly what some fans of the franchise are striving for.