Fox Retain Rights To All Existing Star Wars Films

The new Disney deal with Lucasfilm doesn’t include the distribution rights to the pre-existing Star Wars films, all of which will remain with Fox. I assume that includes the Star Wars Holiday Special. In fact, Lucas’ deal with Fox doesn’t look to change in any way, so don’t go getting your hopes up for pristine Blu-ray editions of the original trilogy in their original versions – it’s really not likely to happen at all. The Lucas-Fox pact will have Han shooting second at least until… well, at least until somebody other than George Lucas is making the big decisions. Not to get morbid, but I remember what it took for Stanley Kubrick‘s Clockwork Orange to get “unbanned” in the UK, and that was Kubrick passing away.

Distribution rights to the upcoming films will sit entirely with Disney. This means that any future complete edition boxset will require some kind of deal making by both studios, though that “full set” concept seems to have lost a lot of currency tonight with the promise of new Star Wars every couple-few years for generations to come.

•Deal signed and announced earlier today – includes Star Wars franchise and all Lucasfilm operating businesses.
•Indiana Jones franchise rights ARE also included in this deal.
•Disney loves the Indiana Jones franchise, but it wasn't included in the studio’s Lucasfilm valuation due to its “encumbrances” (meaning existing financial/legal involvement of Paramount).
•First project under the joint under Disney/Lucas partnership will be Star Wars: Episode 7 in 2015, followed by Episode 8 and Episode 9.
•Disney purchased “extensive and detailed” treatment for Episodes 7-9 as part of this deal which they “feel very good about.”
•Disney long term plan is to release a new live-action Star Wars film every 2-3 years – films may eventually explore entire 20,000 year time-span of the franchise.
•It’s Lucas’ plan to stay retired, but he will serve as creative consultant on new Star Wars films. Kathleen Kennedy will executive produce. Both are now sitting down with writers to discuss stories.
•Fox retains certain distribution rights to the existing Star Wars films but not the new franchise films going forward.
•Kennedy will serve as Lucasfilm president, reporting to Bob Iger at Disney.
•Disney plans to expand Star Wars brand into many new product categories and internationally.
•Star Wars brand will also be expanded into Disney parks, games and TV businesses.
•Iger feels Disney XD would be a good TV home for the franchise going forward.
•Star Wars interactive strategy: Disney will focus more on social and mobile platforms, opportunistically on consoles.
•Deal was 50% cash and 50% stock – $4.05 billion
•Disney believes Lucasfilm value is comparable to value of Marvel, but valuation is only based on Star Wars alone – value of other Lucasfilm intellectual properties are in addition to this.
•Disney plans to let ILM continue operating as it currently does.

Tuesday's announcement that Disney is acquiring Lucasfilm was a shock to the visual effects and post-production community. The deal includes Industrial Light & Magic, the most storied of vfx studios, and Skywalker Sound, a revered name in audio post.

Post pros remember well Disney's disastrous acquisition of vfx studio Dream Quest Images in 1996, which ended with Dream Quest shuttered five years later.

Disney topper Robert Iger offered assurance on an investor call Tuesday, saying "We want to let Industrial Light & Magic remain as is," and saying it would continue to work for other studios, even as ILM management was working the phones to reassure its studio clients.

An ILM spokesman told Variety emphatically it will be "business as usual" for ILM and Skywalker Sound, noting ILM has partnered with Disney, Marvel and Pixar on many previous projects and will continue to do so.

However the real assurance of the future of ILM probably lies in the news that there will be new "Star Wars" movies on a regular schedule. ILM was born out of production on the original "Star Wars" pics and George Lucas built it up so it would be able to pioneer digital production on the prequel trilogy. Keeping vfx spending in-house kept costs down and made it possible for the Star Wars pics to have more vfx than any other pics of the time.

Many of the artists who worked on the previous "Star Wars" pics are still at ILM and that experience can't be duplicated at any of the company's rivals.

Moreover, under Iger, Disney does less micro-managing than it did under Michael Eisner. It has been mostly hands-off with another of Iger's multi-billion-dollar acquisitions, Pixar, other than ramping up production of sequels. With "Star Wars" ramping up production, too, Disney is likely to leave ILM alone -- as long as the numbers work.

DARK HORSE COMICS REACTS TO DISNEY'S "STAR WARS" PURCHASE

Posted: 2 hours ago | Updated: 2 hours ago

Dark Horse's "Star Wars" ongoing series written by Brian Wood is still scheduled for release in January.

The entertainment news of the day is undoubtedly Disney's $4.05 billion purchase of Lucasfilm and the announcement of a new "Star Wars" film planned for release in 2015 -- but what does Disney's newest acquisition mean for "Star Wars" comics? Dark Horse Comics is the current steward of the "Star Wars" license when it comes to comics and graphic novels, and today President Mike Richardson stated that "Star Wars" will continue to have a home at Dark Horse for "the near future."

"Dark Horse and LucasFilm have a strong partnership which spans over 20 years, and has produced multiple characters and story lines which are now part of the Star Wars lore," Richardson said. "'Star Wars' will be with us for the near future. Obviously, this deal changes the landscape, so we'll all have to see what it means for the future."

Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm does indeed change the comics landscape, especially considering that Disney currently has a comics company under its umbrella -- Marvel Comics. And there's historical precedent fans are already looking at with regard to future comics based in a galaxy far, far away: When Disney acquired Marvel three years ago, it ended up transitioning Disney-branded comics from production at BOOM! Studios over to Marvel. While news of the Lucasfilm acquisition is still fresh, the possibility certainly exists that Disney will move production of "Star Wars"-themed comics over to Marvel further down the line.

But for now, "Star Wars" stays at Dark Horse -- which means fans can still look forward to Brian Wood's "Star Wars" ongoing in January 2013.

Comics aren't the only licensed property yet to be affected by the acquisition. IGN reports LucasArts, the video game division of Lucasfilm, as stating "all projects are business as usual" and the company is "excited about all the possibilities that Disney brings."