When did America decide it wanted more Star Wars movies?
I missed the meeting when we voted on this but it turns out that there will be "at least" three more Star Wars movies. The Onion AV Club has the scoop.
Your "barely related to law" tag here is probably inapt.
(1) This is a serious legal transaction, the merger of Lucas Films and Disney for $4,005,000,000! It is mind-boggling that Lucas is the sole shareholder of LucasFilms and he is getting a four billion dollar payday, although I gather the bulk of the compensation is in the form of Disney stock.
(2) What exactly gives value to LucasFilms? Intellectual property. Essentially, Disney is buying the copyrights and trademarks relating to the Star Wars franchise. And they're worth four billion dollars! Some suggest that our copyright system is out of whack in that it lasts practically forever. "Star Wars" is nearly 30 years old. Would it really be so crazy for it to be in the public domain by now? Perhaps not. But under existing law, it will be a Disney "property" for a long, long time.
On a different point, if we can get a new Batman franchise every five years, I don't see why we can't have a reboot or extension of the Star Wars franchise. I'm actually mildly excited by the prospect of a non-Lucas version. Could we get "Star Wars" noir?
1. Stop hating on my tags; and 2. While I doubt Disney will do a Star Wars noir, it is a fair point that the next three movies probably won't be worse than the last three.
Your "barely related to law" tag here is probably inapt.
ReplyDelete(1) This is a serious legal transaction, the merger of Lucas Films and Disney for $4,005,000,000! It is mind-boggling that Lucas is the sole shareholder of LucasFilms and he is getting a four billion dollar payday, although I gather the bulk of the compensation is in the form of Disney stock.
(2) What exactly gives value to LucasFilms? Intellectual property. Essentially, Disney is buying the copyrights and trademarks relating to the Star Wars franchise. And they're worth four billion dollars! Some suggest that our copyright system is out of whack in that it lasts practically forever. "Star Wars" is nearly 30 years old. Would it really be so crazy for it to be in the public domain by now? Perhaps not. But under existing law, it will be a Disney "property" for a long, long time.
On a different point, if we can get a new Batman franchise every five years, I don't see why we can't have a reboot or extension of the Star Wars franchise. I'm actually mildly excited by the prospect of a non-Lucas version. Could we get "Star Wars" noir?
ReplyDelete1. Stop hating on my tags; and
ReplyDelete2. While I doubt Disney will do a Star Wars noir, it is a fair point that the next three movies probably won't be worse than the last three.