Now that Disney owns Lucasfilm and the Star Wars brand and is working on a 7th movie in the series, it’s instructive to go back to the very beginning. Here’s the first ever teaser trailer released for Star Wars back in 1976. It’s missing a… Read More »Original Star Wars Teaser Trailer from 1976
There have been a number of different rumors about the changes coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios should the company decide to spend a few bucks fixing it up. The photo above and descriptions below are a compilation of what a few sources have told me plus a dose of what seems most likely just based on my experience with Disney World’s expansion history.
First, why would Disney be willing to spend a princely sum on Disney’s Hollywood Studios. They’ve just spent a half-billion dollars on expanding Fantasyland, somewhere north of two billion on the next-gen technology that’s bringing us Fastpass+ and MyMagic+, and have committed to building Avatarland, which might approach a billion dollars before all is said and done there as well (I’m including relocating Festival of the Lion King in that total).
There are a number of things lining up that point to DHS getting some TLC soon.
Before George Lucas decided to sell to the mouse he had talked about scripts he was working on for a live action TV show set in the Star Wars universe. For a couple of reasons that project never materialized (although some of the scripts are… Read More »ABC Developing TV Show set in world of Star Wars
The European edition of Star Wars Celebrations, the official Lucasfilm organized fan event, has just wrapped up. More than 20,000 Star Wars fans from around the world gathered to celebrate their love of the classic stories and the chance to hear a few big announcements about the future of the franchise.
In a Main Stage event hosted by Warwick Davis, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy announced that legendary composer John Williams will return to score the highly-anticipated Star Wars: Episode VII, to be directed by J.J. Abrams. And one of the Executive Producers from Star Wars Rebels, Dave Filoni, was on hand to guide fans through the genesis of the upcoming animated series, revealing designs heavily influenced by original Star Wars concept artist Ralph McQuarrie. While unable to attend in person, Executive Producers Simon Kinberg and Greg Weisman shared their excitement for the series in a video message recorded exclusively for Celebration attendees. Star Wars: Episode VII is slated for a 2015 release and Star Wars Rebels will begin airing on Disney XD starting in fall of 2014.Read More »Star Wars Celebration Europe Wraps Up With Big Announcement
Concept art for Star Wars mini-park planned for Disneyland Paris
Orlando in the 1990’s was bookended by stiff competition between Disney and its rival Universal Studios. When Michael Eisner got wind that Disneyland’s cross-town rival Universal Studios was preparing to open in Orlando as well, he rushed the mouse’s plans for its own studio theme park into production, even opening a whole year ahead of Universal. Universal returned the favor by firing back with Islands of Adventure, which contained rethemed versions of the Beastly Kingdom attractions Disney had cut from its Animal Kingdom project just a year earlier. Universal even hired a lot of the Imagineers Disney had just laid off to help make IOA a quality theme park.
And then things calmed down for nearly a decade. Disney kept churning out new attractions (Expedition Everest, Toy Story Midway Mania to name two) while Universal Studios was the forgotten step-child in a larger corporation that was dealing with ownership and financial problems. Eventually that got all sorted out and two things happened that turned around the fortunes at Universal Orlando Resort.
First, Universal got the theme park rights to use the Kuka robotic arm roller coaster that everyone was excited about at IAAPA in 2004. Second, it was able to convince Harry Potter scribe J.K. Rowling that they would be better caretakers for her story than Disney. The Kuka robocoaster win had something to do with that, but Universal was also willing to give Rowling final approval on nearly every detail. Disney would not.
Last month Disney Interactive announced that they would be joining forces with EA to produce Star Wars video games for core gamers. The first title to emerge from that partnership is Star Wars Battlefront. The game is expected to combine stunning visuals, incisive gameplay, and… Read More »Disney and EA to Roll Out Star Wars Battlefront, First Game in New Partnership
As you might suspect, there is a lot of work that goes into a major acquisition like the $4 billion purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney. And nothing happens in big business these days without a bevy of lawyers getting involved. That’s just the way it… Read More »Victory of the Nerds – Behind the Lucasfilm Acquisition
I really thought this was one of the better Hyperspace Hoopla versions I’ve seen. So I went back through my footage and editted together a highlight reel from the 2013 show. I apologize for the sound distortion during parts of it. I’ll have to figure… Read More »Hyperspace Hoopla Highlights from Star Wars Weekends