Sick of everybody talking about Disney buying Lucasfilm yet? WE DON’T CARE. In the closest the Mercury will ever get to publishing a “think piece,” Blogtown’s Alex Falcone and Senior Editor Erik Henriksen have decided to discuss the future of Star Wars, a series made not for, say, two grown men but rather for little baby children. Naturally, they disagree about the issue at hand; thus, we shall have a vote to decide who is correct, and therefore who is the better human being.
POINT: STAR WARS FINALLY ESCAPES ABUSIVE FATHER
by Alex Falcone
Earlier this week, the internet was swirling like Hurricane Sandy (too soon? sorry) with the news that Disney had purchased Lucasfilm for $4 billion. People were acting like George Lucas had personally let everybody down by handing the keys to the Star Wars franchise over to the evil empire. But why? There is no way Disney could possibly be a worse steward of the franchise than Lucas was.
George Lucas deserves credit for creating the series, sure. He birthed it. But he’s been a shitty dad. He didn’t just preside over three unspeakably bad prequels (only slightly more watchable than The Holiday Special), he actually went back and made the originals worse! That kind of abuse can’t be tolerated.
During an interview on the VHS of the re-released version of A New Hope, Lucas said that he’d always wanted the movies to be this way but couldn’t do it the first time around for technical and financial reasons. He doesn’t even deserve credit for the original trilogy because he wanted them to be awful but fortune conspired to make enjoyable films! Sometimes art is bigger than the artist; it’s about time we put this art into foster care.
It’s possible that, deep down, George agrees with me and that’s why he sold. Once you’ve got a few billion dollars, a few billion more isn’t going to convince you to part with your life’s work. But you will if there’s ego involved. According to the statement he released, the squish-faced Lucas said he wanted to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. He wants to retire but he wants people to go on making terrible Star Wars movies forever. You can count on Disney to do that.
And maybe, just maybe, they’ll do a better job than he did. They don’t always put out the best sequels (The Return of Jafar, anybody?) But at least the Star Wars movies will be in a safe place where Papa Lucas can’t hurt them any more. And like Hurricane Sandy, this will all blow over in a couple days. (Still too soon? My bad.)
COUNTERPOINT: UH, GUYS, ON PRINCIPLE THIS MAKES ME KIND OF UNCOMFORTABLE
by Erik Henriksen
I’m actually seeing the opposite of what Alex is—nerds being delighted that Disney now owns Lucasfilm. Which weirds me out. Say what you will about the prequels, or The Clone Wars, or Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (for the record, I’ll go to my grave insisting Revenge of the Sith is a lot better than anyone gives it credit for, that The Clone Wars is fun, and that anyone who was let down by the fourth Indiana Jones clearly hasn’t sat through Temple of Doom or Last Crusade in a while), but they were largely the work of Lucas. Sometimes his stuff was crappy, and sometimes it wasn’t, but it’s worth remembering that, massive as they were, all the Star Wars movies from Empire on were financed solely by Lucas. Rather than test-screening his movies to death like Hollywood does, and rather than making them how others wanted him to, Lucas made ’em and put ’em out like he wanted. Regardless of how one feels about the final product, that’s admirable.
Less admirable are corporate behemoths like Disney, who snap up better things once they become a threat (Pixar) or whenever they cater to a demographic that Disney can’t acquire on its own (Marvel). This Star Wars deal has probably been in the works since the first rubber Mon Calimari showed up at Star Tours. Disney buying Lucasfilm was a smart business move for Disney and Lucas—just as it was for Disney’s other acquisitions, from Pixar to Marvel to ESPN to ABC to the Muppets. And realistically, Alex is probably right: I’m not convinced the new Star Wars movies will necessarily be better, but they’ll certainly be less like what Lucas wanted, and more like what Disney’s studies tell them audiences want.
For Disney, Star Wars is something to be exploited—and with a movie every two or three years, they’re going to exploit the hell out of it. Which, to be fair, is what Lucas has been doing forever too. But given the choice between rooting for an old guy doing shit the way he wants and a multinational corporation doing things the way that’ll be most profitable, I’ll always root for the old guy. The biggest challenges facing pop culture are less independence and fewer outlets: Fewer and fewer people being in charge of what movies get made isn’t good for anybody. Yeah, this might result in Star Wars movies that people like more. But it’s stuff like this that makes it even harder than it already is for invested, earnest, out-of-left-field filmmakers—like Lucas once was—to make their mark. Even if I really do want to see Episodes VII, VIII, and IX, I can’t feel good about the reasons they’re happening.
“But given the choice between rooting for an old guy doing shit the way he wants and a multinational corporation doing things the way that’ll be most profitable, I’ll always root for the old guy.”
What a phenomenally ignorant statement. The fact of the matter is greed is always more trustworthy than good intentions. Good intentions gave us Jar-Jar Binks. Good intentions gave us shoehorning Boba Fett into the Clone Wars. Good intentions resulted in the guns in ET being replaced by walkie talkies (thank God Spielberg came to his senses).
The reason the prequels sucked so badly is because Lucas, as writer, director, producer and source of funding, had complete creative control over the films. None of his other producers had the nerve to tell him the story was lousy or suggest changes, least of all that douchebag yes-man Rick McCallum.
When Lucas made the original Star Wars, the film was partially funded by Fox, which meant he had to answer to Fox executives. The subsequent OT films were written and directed by more competent hands, with Lucas producing. Lucas is the type of creative mind that works best when restrained, either by the studio system or by budget. That’s why the Special Editions are so offensive. Because they represent what Lucas would have done if he had complete control over the films at the time. Star Wars wasn’t great because of George Lucas, it was great IN SPITE of George Lucas.
Now Lucas is out of the equation, and the franchise is under the ownership of a company run by and employing people who eat, breathe and live story. But more importantly, they care about long-term profit. And if nothing else, Disney recognizes that this franchise is simply too lucrative to be allowed to be defined by the prequels. So we’ll have a new series of movies with mind-blowing effects, but made by people who genuinely love the property and want to make great pieces of cinema. It worked wonders with the Marvel movies and it can absolutely work here.
Required viewing: http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wa…
How about we just watch the first two movies once in a while, forget the rest exist, and stop waving Boners of Preciousness at each other about literally everything else concerning this particular film franchise?
I’m sure we can all agree to do that.
My favorite part of Erik’s counterpoint was when he said, “Alex is probably right.” HOW COULD I BE LOSING?
Has anyone here been to Disneyland since 1986? That was when Star Tours, the Disney Star Wars ride, opened. Last year they unveiled the updated version of this ride, which incorporates updated footage and crap. It’s a super fun ride! When you exit the ride, there’s an enormous gift shop filled with hundreds of Star Wars / Disney merchandise. Once you exit the gift shop, it’s not uncommon to see Stormtroopers walking around Tomorrowland.
Basically what I’m saying is, Disney seems to have been good stewards of the Star Wars brand over the last few decades. I don’t see this acquisition as particularly radical. And they’re certainly better at producing things than Lucas was (remember when – in 2005 – Lucas announced a live action Star Wars movie, and ever since then all we’ve heard is that it’s “just around the corner”? I can now imagine that show actually seeing the light of day!). And not every decision Lucas makes stinks – as Alex so wisely stated, it’s when he’s given too much control of the details that things go to crap. The Clone Wars is a great TV show. Let’s see more like it.
I’m with Alex. Get it out of George’s hands. C’mon, the Star Wars as a creative franchise has already drawn it’s last breath – so I don’t care about the loss of independent venue for filmmakers. And by loss of independent venue – this is George flipping Lucas. He’s a damned multi-national corporation unto himself; it’s not like he’s been in independent outlet for unknown future superstars to get their big break (Harrison Ford excepted). Star Wars is nothing more than Lucas’s sacred cash cow with cracked, leathery teets from too much to-the-last-penny fondling. I’m convinced Lucas could still make Star Wars worse. It’s his secret super power.
You guys are persons?
Arguably, “Empire” is the best of the franchise and this is the one that Lucas had the least control over. Best acting of all the movies, best dialogue, best writing. If the question is “what will happen when someone else has control?”, the answer is “The Empire Strikes Back”. Everything that happened in the Star Wars universe after that was garbage.
I’d hope for a Whedon-directed SW7. Serenity was better than any of the Star Wars prequels.
Nobody, but NOBODY can fuck up Star Wars more totally and completely than ol’ George .
Agreed with Alex – but with one correction.
George Lucas didn’t create Star Wars from scrap. He stole the entire thing from Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa made the Star Wars story under the title “Hidden Fortress” back in 1958. Lucas struggled for years to come up with the additional elements, things that were stolen from Eastern cultures (jedi, “force”, ect), translating it into a space saga, and developing to a comprehensive story. Just read about the development of the storyline via the Wikipedia page, it took years of re-writes, and honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Lucas murdered some nerd along the way and just took his work.
The reason the other Lucas films sucked so much is because Lucas created them, his creative process is shit. Lucas seems to be a half-decent director, maybe a decent producer, but a horrible writer.
So, for me, this is all more reason to take it away from him.
I agree with Kenny Hitt. Unlike many of you nerds I never really got into Star Wars but I do agree this is a good decision. For Christs sake Lucas marketed Star Wars sports jerseys. Seriously, how much $ does this dude need and how big of a dork would you have to be to buy one?
Can we just vote on this being a Worst Night Ever right now? Someone’s going to have to go to the VII’s midnight showing fueled on nothing but Mountain Dew and $17 Twizzlers. The Worst Night Ever gets ratcheted up with each trailer released that makes us ill/excited, via adding layers of cosplay. Or we can go balls-out & make the reviewer go dressed as Spock.
You guys got TWO Star Wars posts before 10am?? Is it all of your birthdays or something?
Alex, I have to say that I agree with you. Lucas had a great concept, but the man cannot write and can barely direct. The Empire Strikes Back, perhaps the most technically perfect (and certainly the best written) of the Star Wars saga was great because Lucas was so divorced from the project. Irvin Kershner, Gary Kurtz, Leigh Brackett, and Lawrence Kasdan are who made that film great. Lucas’ insistence on using crap actors (namely Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen) and an over reliance on full CGI sequences and characters are what ruined the prequels. Disney is smart, they do the market research, and hopefully they will make the right decisions. Episodes VII, VIII, and IX have already been written for them, by Timothy Zahn, with the Thrawn Trilogy.
Joneser: That’s my fault. Doubly my fault, now that it turns out the previous post was debunked speculation, fun as it might have been.
Anyway, apologies.
Mark: Zahn trilogy (quintology? There’s like 7 Star Wars stories he’s written) won’t get made for a couple reasons. 1) The actors are all way too old 2) the stories are all way too long/convoluted to boil down into 3 movies 3) There’s no way Disney starts their Star Wars trilogy with “From a story by Timothy Zahn” in the credits.
It’ll be something original. But I’m willing to bet the television shows/animated features will inevitably dip into the expanded universe for source material.
Anyone who defends anything about the prequels, INCLUDING Revenge of the Sith, is a bad person. Bad person. End of story.
Also, insinuating that Lucas had any intentions in making the prequels other than cashing in is just plain ignorant. There’s no point arguing that there’s any difference between what Lucas did with Star Wars and what a big corporation like Disney will do with it.
As for new films, who cares? The evil has been committed and the damage done. Nothing that happens from this point onward will make a difference to the franchise for better or for worse. Make a hundred more, make a thousand! Make it a weekly series! A reality series! And America can vote each week on the ending! Call up Wayne Brady and Ryan Stiles and do an all-improv movie! OMG, a Star Wars horror movie! Or a predator/alien crossover!