Whipstache: Whiplash from the Mustache

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My Thoughts on Star Wars and Disney

My initial reaction was diluted by the amount of information we got in October. Lucasfilm was bought by Disney and George Lucas wrote a treatment for 3 MORE STAR WARS MOVIES. Sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. That little fact, is actually the one that I’ve had the hardest time getting my head around. But I think I’ve got it square now.

So, let’s talk Disney. Disney is a giant corporation. They own a tremendous amount of media, many of which don’t have the Disney branding (things like ABC, Miramax, ESPN, and the History Channel. Oh, and Marvel). And like any major corporation they’re going to do everything they can to make sure Star Wars and its characters are fully saturated into pop culture (as if they weren’t already). They’re also going to make sure that we get regular injections of Star Wars movies. So they can maximize profits.

Lucasfilm was always a kind of scrappy underdog. Saying “scrappy underdog” might sound weird for a company that has only produced blockbuster films, but they were. At their core the Lucasfilm made independent films financed out of pocket by the producer/director. You don’t get any more independent than that. Fox distributed Star Wars, but they didn’t pay a dime to make them. George Lucas made the prequels exactly how he wanted them and was beholden to no one. That’s impressive.

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