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In October of last year, chief executive officer of Walt Disney, Robert Iger, was transported to a galaxy far, far away…
Disney was preparing to purchase Lucasfilm. Iger needed to know the exact amount of intellectual property rights in order to place a fair value on an existing franchise, as well as the possibility of creating a new trilogy of films.
George Lucas presented the Holocron, named after sources of information used by the fictitious Jedi Knights. Inside the Holocron is the company’s database on all of the Star Wars characters, 17,000 strong as well as thousands of planets that span an era more than 20,000 years.Naturally a fictitious universe on paper is exceedingly difficult for anyone to navigate. George Lucas turned to Pablo Hidalgo, founding member of the Star Wars Fan Boy Association. Despite Hidalgo’s experience within the Star Wars universe, he stated:
“The Holocron can be a little overwhelming,”
Hidalgo has now been made Lucasfilm’s ‘brand awareness manager’ and ensures that the Star Wars universe is kept within the confines it should be placed.
Disney officially agreed to pay $4 billion for Lucasfilm including all of it’s assets such as Indiana Jones, Howard the Duck, Willow and obviously Star Wars. Disney later confirmed that Star Trek director, J.J. Abrams had been hired to direct the first of a planned trilogy. outside sources claim that this deal is to include all three sequels.
Commenting on the purchase of Lucasfilm, George Lucas commented:
“I’ve never been that much of a money guy… I’m more of a film guy, and most of the money I’ve made is in defense of trying to keep creative control of my movies.”
Under the command of Idger, Disney had went on to purchase a number of intellectual properties that had long-standing characters with avid fans behind them. Recent deals included the purchase of Pixar from Steven Jobs and Marvel Comics.
Pixar was initially founded in 1979 by George Lucas and was sold to Jobs a mere six years later. Lucas still refers to Pixar as ‘his company’ and with personal interest in the company, kept a keen eye on how Disney handled the transition. What pleased Lucas was that the chemistry of those working within the company was in no way hindered or altered. Knowing that Star War’s success was already attributed to those working in Disney, Lucas agreed to sell the company. Prior to offering Lucasfilm to Disney, George Lucas ensured that his vision would continue long after he retired.
George Lucas initially contacted the long-term producer of Steven Spielberg’s films, Kathleen Kennedy. Lucas went on to offer her the chance to helm Lucasfilm, which she instantly agreed to.
Lucas commented:
“When Kathy came on, we started talking about starting up the whole franchise again… I was pulling away, and I said, ‘Well, I’ve got to build this company up so it functions without me, and we need to do something to make it attractive.’ So I said, ‘Well, let’s just do these movies.’ ”
Lucas and Kennedy then hired the Oscar winning screenwriter Michael Arndt to work on the script of Episode VII. Lawrence Kasdan who wrote the screenplays for The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Return of the Jedi was also hired as a consultant. Lucas also contacted the leading actors of the first Star Wars trilogy about being the films. When everything was in place, Lucas then contacted Disney to begin negotiations.
A deal had to be agreed on paper before George Lucas would allow Disney executives to view story treatments and sketches of the next trilogy. Lucas was so concerned about his brand that Iger, Horn, and Kevin Mayer, Disney’s executive vice president for corporate strategy could only view them. Prior to viewing these documents, they had to sign legal documents stating that they would not discuss the contents nor show them to others out with the circle of Presidents and Vice Presidents.
Iger commented:
“We thought from a storytelling perspective they had a lot of potential,”
George Lucas recently commented:
“We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison—or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation. So I called them to say, ‘Look, this is what’s going on.’ … Maybe I’m not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them.”
Lucas then added:
“I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not.”
Source: Bloomberg
