Disney, Star Wars | featured news

Disney has been pretty slow to release official information about its slate of upcoming Star Wars sequels, but nobody gets out of CinemaCon without making a few big announcements, and this one's sort of a doozy, albeit in classically circumspect Mouse House fashion: Episode VII is indeed coming to theaters in 2015, with a new Star Wars-related film to follow every summer.

Walt Disney Co. plans to shut the 30-year-old LucasArts studio it inherited with the acquisition of George Lucas’ film company last year, and focus on licensing its Star Wars brand externally, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

Harrison Ford isn't ready — "yet" — to talk about his reported part in Disney's planned "Star Wars" sequel, but he praises its director, J.J. Abrams. "I think he's fantastic," Ford said in a recent interview.Read more on NewsOK.com

Star Wars fans have more than just Episodes 7, 8 and 9 to look forward to. Disney CEO Bob Iger said at the annual shareholders meeting in Phoenix on Wednesday that the company is developing "some standalone movies" featuring Star Wars characters.

Thus far, Disney's announcement that it's shepherding a new wave of Star Wars movies has triggered a whole bunch of rumors and not much else -- but those intrepid souls over at Entertainment Tonight finally scored some semblance of a scoop by arranging for a sitdown with Mark "Luke Skywalker" Hamill.

ABC entertainment president Paul Lee says he's going to take a look at the long-gestating Star Wars live-action TV series now that the Disney deal to acquire Lucasfilm is complete. "We'd love to do something with Lucasfilm, we're not sure what yet," Lee exclusively told EW. "We haven't even sat down with them. We're going to look at [the live-action series], we're going to look at all of them, and see what's right. We weren't able to discuss this with them until [the acquisition] closed and it just closed. It's definitely going to be part of the conversation."

"It was originally a 12-part saga," Pollock added, hinting that "The three most exciting stories were 7, 8 and 9. They had propulsive action, really interesting new worlds, new characters. I remember thinking, ‘I want to see these 3 movies.’" And as for whether or not Disney would even be interested in Lucas' plans for the franchise, Pollock insisted, "Writers will absolutely take his outline. That’s in part what Disney bought."

Naysayers would have you believe Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm can only mean one thing: Bambi and Mickey Mouse are sure to appear in future "Star Wars" movies taking up lightsabers against the dark side of the Force....

Well, this is unexpected: In a deal worth a reported $4 billion in stocks and cash, George Lucas has handed the keys to his Star Wars kingdom over to Disney. Saying that "Lucasfilm reflects the extraordinary passion, vision, and storytelling of its founder, George Lucas," the understandably enthused Disney CEO, Bob Iger, heralded an acquisition that "combines a world-class portfolio of content including Star Wars, one of the greatest family entertainment franchises of all time, with Disney's unique and unparalleled creativity across multiple platforms, businesses, and markets to generate sustained growth and drive significant long-term value."