Time to weigh in on the controversial STAR WARS-DISNEY story. Star Wars was the first film I ever saw on the big screen when I was 5 years old. George Lucas is a huge influence on me and my life as a whole. The first 45RPM I ever owned was the John Williams Star Wars Main Title/Cantina Band B-side. I spent the first half of my life wanting to write music for movies because of this. The DV/Desktop Editing Revolution of the late 1990’s allowed me to create visions like I saw on the big screen in 1977. And George Lucas has sold it all to Disney… 
I am all for a Star Wars movie without George Lucas directing. I just prefer a movie where the power is equally distributed. The model of EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, largely considered the best of the 6 Star Wars movie had a perfect triumvirate. George Lucas was in charge of the larger story, and the editing/effects. Lawrence Kasden was all about dialogue, and director Irvin Kershner was all about drama between the characters and a great canvas for cinematography. The struggles between all of these men created a great work of art.
With George Lucas now retiring entirely and only taking a passive role as “consultant”, there may not be the fights in which great art may emerge. And they want a STAR WARS EPISODE VII on screens by May 2015. That’s barely 2.5 years away. They haven’t even announced who will be involved in this new trilogy of films as writers or directors.
Now Mark Hamil has confirmed that he and Carrie Fisher were approached in August 2011, when the Blu Rays of Star Wars were released, that they were both asked if they’d be interested in the new films. Note, HARRISON FORD was omitted. He has made it clear he has below zero interest in ever playing Han Solo ever again. Mark Hamil is the lynchpin to a new trilogy. I can’t imagine Anthony Daniels NOT voicing C3PO again, but he’s getting a bit old to wear the gold suit for extended shooting periods.
Who to direct? Not J.J. Abrams, as he is hard at work on the STAR TREK movies and Paramount would go crazy if he jumped ship (pun intended). Not Bryan Singer, as he just signed on to return to his X-Men films. Not Kevin Smith because he is not economically viable, nor can he direct action/visual FX. How about JOE JOHNSTON? He’s NOT directing Captain America 2, and he was intimately involved in the original trilogy as a storyboard artist and worked at ILM from the early days. Johnston has proven himself a good director of actors, story, and has been involved with many large visual FX movies. Seems like the perfect fit to hire the guy who invented Boba Fett.
My last thoughts on this deal are this. Disney has done okay with their acquisition of MARVEL and PIXAR, as in neither company seems to be interfered with creatively much. My only question is why do we need another parent company owning a growing company? Isn’t that somewhat un-American? Isn’t this what is kind of destroying the American economy? Why wouldn’t we prefer to have several $100 millionaires instead of a handful of billionaires? Considering what a raging liberal George Lucas is and always has been, seems odd to me that he sold out (literally) to a giant corporation.
Lucasfilm and all of its subsidiaries turned George Lucas into what he always dreaded – a giant movie studio that he fought so hard to never conform to. The business model he followed was that of Walt Disney himself, but that company as it was died with Walt. What Disney became in the 1980’s under Eisner was nothing more than a corporate greed machine that is like a funhouse mirror distortion of everything Walt stood for and intended.
And George just sold Star Wars and Indiana Jones to them.
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