Disney Bought George Lucas’ Ideas For The New 'Star Wars' Trilogy And Then Scrapped Them

[Ken at Sunrise 2,065]

Disney Bought George Lucas’ Ideas For The New 'Star Wars' Trilogy And Then Scrapped Them

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/disney-scrapped-george-lucas-star-wars-episode-7-2015-1#ixzz3PZMBH1Kp

 

When George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 for $4 billion, the sale included treatments for Lucas’ "Star Wars" ideas for episodes VII, VIII, and IX.

So even though the Mouse House was now in charge of all things “Star Wars,” it appeared as if fans were still going to get Lucas’ version of the next trilogy.  

 

It turns out that's not the case.

 

Speaking with Cinemablend at the press conference for his new animated feature, “Strange Magic,” Lucas said Disney essentially scrapped his ideas for episodes VII, VIII, and IX.

 

“The ones that I sold to Disney, they came up to the decision that they didn't really want to do those,” Lucas told Cinemablend. “So they made up their own. So it's not the ones that I originally wrote.”

 

According to Bloomberg, Disney CEO Robert Iger thought the treatments "had a lot of potential."

 

Lucas has been tossing around ideas for a third "Star Wars" trilogy since the launch of the original trilogy. A Time article from March 1978 suggested Lucas had plans for up to a dozen "Star Wars" movies.

 

He even pitched the idea of "Episode VII" to actor Mark Hamill in the '80s.

 

Lucas is now serving as a "creative consultant" on the new films. 

 

What does that mean? Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy described it like this:

 

The beauty of the collaboration that can continue is as we work our way through these scripts if we're sitting and saying, "Hmm, I wonder if this character can do that?" or "Does this make sense within the rules of 'Star Wars'?" … He's the keeper of the flame when it comes to that.

 

[Gosric 696]

Im not thrilled with what they are doing from what little i have seen. But then it isnt as if Lucas was worth a **** anymore. His treatment probably involved Jar Jar becoming a Jedi and uniting the remnants of the Skywalker clan

[coastcityo 324]

Everyone is so quick to dismiss everything Lucas brings to Star Wars based purely on the prequels, that they forget exactly how the original Trilogy even came about. George came up with Star Wars (ep 4 New Hope) by himself, showed it to his mentor Francis Ford Coppola, and was told what was great and what was terrible. And then he made a great film. Empire and Jedi where both collaborative works with other writers and directors having direct input onto the films, and two more great films ensued because he provided ideas and listened to others critism. Then he made the prequels, came up with the ideas by himself, wrote the story by himself, directed it by himself,listened to no outside input, and we got the prequel we had instead of the prequel we wanted.

All I'm saying is, the guy is an idea man who needs other people to actually flesh out and improve on his ideas, so Ep 7 with George's input doesn't equal an auto fail, George having Carte Blanche does give a high degree of meh, but the guy did give us three great films when he wasn't too big to listen to others.

As far as I'm concerned, I would rather see George working with Kasdan, a partnership I trust to know what makes Star Wars great, over JJAbrams coming in and doing the same hatchet job on Star Wars he did on Star Trek. And regardless of other people's feelings in regards to JJTrek, they should acknowledge that Uncle George does actually know the source material better than everyone else, even if he does get lost when doing things on his own, and stop acting like the guy can't do anything right.

[Gosric 696]

I still wish they had gone with Joe Johnston.

[Sithborg 11,644]

Of course Lucas knows the source material better than anyone. The source material used to change based on his whims...

[KTreu42 323]

I reserve my judgment until the movie.  Lucas himself has earned and lost many points with me previously, and similarly, everyone immediately relates "Disney" to Mickey Mouse, princesses, and slapstick cartoons, even though Disney puts out some incredible films like any other major film company.  It's less about the company and more about the director and production core.  So we'll see.

[Gosric 696]

Therein lies the probem. Im not sure that JJ can do the job

[KTreu42 323]

Therein lies the probem. Im not sure that JJ can do the job

Nobody's "sure." Hence, why I will reserve judgment judgment and not jump to conclusions.

[Gosric 696]

Oops.. Let me rephrase that. I'm pretty bloody sure that JJ cannot do the job *L*

[Sithborg 11,644]

If he was still working with Orci/Kurtzman, sure. But he worked on the script with Kasden (last I checked, ESB was highly regarded). And Kathleen Kennedy is overseeing the production, and her production credits should give people faith in her choices of director. 

 

Be mad about Star Trek all you want, but he did do what Paramount wanted, turning Star Trek into a potential blockbuster franchise. Which contradicts with what Star Trek was before. 

[Gadge 4,294]

I think what was said about the prequels is true in that in the OT Lucas had people who could say to him 'george thats naff' or 'mate that wont look good' or 'vader would never do that' and also chnge his dialogue.  Harrison Ford once said 'you can 'type' this dialogue but you cant say it' as the original scripts were a bit oddly phrased.

 

I've seen Prequel production footage and you can see everyone is tiptoeing around George, nobody dares disagree with him and they are laughing at stuff he says that just isnt funny.

 

Really good creative people need really practical managers.

 

When i was at GW the studio managers were always very 'grounded' down to earth people who could get the 'ideas' people producing stuff rather than going off on mad tangents.

 

As Andy Chambers once said to me when i said 'i've got this amazing idea...'    'Gadge, there is no shortage of amazing ideas in this place, its getting people to do something with them.'

 

 

I think George as creative consultant or whatever on the new films but with a director who understands the problems the prequels had with the fanbase, they were not *that* terrible but they did have a lot wring with them, will help no end.

 

George is never really going to see the flaws in his own genius, i think the reason ESB is the best of the trilogy is becasue he had enough money to do things a bit 'off the wall' and new but still had to rely on other directors etc and other people, he wasnt *quite* able to go off on one.  ROTJ gets wobbly in places because by them he's making the expected 'end trilogy piece' of the greatest sci fi film saga ever... he's got the money and power from all the successful seats sold, merchandise made etc and he's also been told hes amazing for ten years.   

 

If you got a job working on a new star wars film and he told you he wanted a zombie yoda to breakdance ot the 'thriller' music after explaining the dark side to a new force attuned acolyte who crasehd on degobah (just making up a bonkers plot idea)....would *you* throwaway that six figure salary job to tell him it was a mental idea?   No...

 

well that would be the same as the guys who didnt tell him Jar Jar Binks sucked....

[Gosric 696]

Blaming Orci/Kutzman might well be valid. But in an interview he said that what he does, especially with TV is come in toss out an idea and expect his team to do something with it. Which would mean that despite their flaws Orci/Kurtzman are why Fringe Sleepy Hollow and Almost Human didnt suck and why Star Trek, Super 8 and MI3 did (in my personal opinions of course)

[Sithborg 11,644]

Considering the story problem similarities between Star Trek and The Amazing Spider-man, one begins to see a pattern of influence. Let's just be glad Paramount wised up before giving Orci his first ever directing gig with Star Trek 3. 

 

Though, their replacement makes it quite clear where they want to direct the franchise. 

[Gosric 696]

At least Simon Pegg is going to be co writer. Though id rather he was co writing Star Wars 7

[RobotViking0066 3]

This is a topic I'm sure will be hot for nearly a year until VII is released, viewed, and reviewed many times.

In fairness to the prequels, there was a huge generation gap to fill with the fan base, young, old, and new.

While it had some success with the young/new fans, the purests (myself included) are like, "WTF? What is this Jar Jar thing and Boba Fett is not a clone!"

My arguement actually is Lucas had a lack of consistancy that i thought "surely he didn't write this"

That being said, I believe that as long as Michael Bay is not involved, it should be ok.

[UnfairBanana 2,251]

This is a topic I'm sure will be hot for nearly a year until VII is released, viewed, and reviewed many times.

In fairness to the prequels, there was a huge generation gap to fill with the fan base, young, old, and new.

While it had some success with the young/new fans, the purists (myself included) are like, "WTF? What is this Jar Jar thing and Boba Fett is not a clone!"

My arguement actually is Lucas had a lack of consistancy that i thought "surely he didn't write this"

That being said, I believe that as long as Michael Bay is not involved, it should be ok.

That same generation gap is present again. I was introduced to Star Wars when I was 5-6, and Episode 1 came out shortly after. Now that I'm an adult, the new generation is coming out. There's bound to be aspects the older generations of fans won't like, but just...try to keep an open mind.

A new movie, even a bad one, is bound to spike up the franchise again.

[Robin Graves 6,054]

That being said, I believe that as long as Michael Bay is not involved, it should be ok.

 

Nah we should be safe. So far Bay is only out to r4pe my favorite 80's cartoons. And TMNT wasn't as bad as i feared. (It was Transformers bad, but not transformers 2 & 3 bad)