Star Wars, Geek Culture, and Power Converters
According to ComicBook.com, Kathleen Kennedy told ABC News Radio that we should be hearing an announcement for Episode VII sometime in January and that pre-production for the film will begin this coming spring. What’s the announcement? No one knows, since this is just an announcement of an announcement. One presumes that it could be a director.
So if that’s the case, speculate while you still can.
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In the third part of this video series, George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy discuss handing off Lucasfilm.
“2-3 Films per year? Seems aggressive.”
Dunc over at Club Jade spotted an interesting (and surprising) quote in the Star Wars edition issue of Entertainment Weekly. According to them, Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy wants to make 2-3 films a year?
Lucasfilm’s co-chairman and soon-to-be president, Kathleen Kennedy, has told employees she wants the company to produce two or three films a year (it’s averaged fewer than four per decade), and first up is Star Wars: Episode VII for 2015, which will pick up sometime after Darth Vader gave his life to overthrow (figuratively and literally) the Emperor and save Luke in 1983’s Episode VI— Return of the Jedi. Yes, the plan is to return to the characters in the first trilogy (1977–83). Whether the original actors will have significant roles or merely be on hand to pass the baton to a new generation of actors—something Lucasfilm tried with mixed success with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Disney with TRON: Legacy—is unclear.
Now, let’s be clear. Based on this quote, it doesn’t mean that this would equate to 2-3 Star Wars films per year. It could be 2-3 films with any existing or potentially new Lucasfilm intellectual property. I’d hope it’s the latter, because 2-3 Star Wars films per year screams market over-saturation to me.
If it’s 2-3 Lucasfilm projects that aren’t necessarily Star Wars, that actually makes a lot of sense. With the capital resources Disney can now provide, the studio can probably afford to expand the scope of their work dramatically.
Or option the third, Entertainment Weekly misquoted Kennedy or misunderstood what she was talking about. I expect multiple news outlets are reaching out to Lucasfilm and Disney for clarification right now.
StarWars.com released another video featuring George Lucas and new Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy. This time around, the duo talk about directors and the process behind starting Episode VII.
After nearly two decades with Lucasfilm, President and COO Micheline Chau is retiring. The Wrap reports that Kathleen Kennedy will serve as interim president and by the sounds of it, a reorganization of the company will occur on at least a temporary basis.
Kathleen Kennedy, who joined Lucasfilm as co-chairman in June, will serve as interim president. The heads of the various departments, such as Industrial Light & Magic animation, LucasArts (gaming) and licensing, will report to Kennedy for the time being.
The company has no plans to name an immediate replacement for the COO position.
If I were to wager a guess, the Interim tag will be removed from Kennedy before long.
All those stories about George Lucas retiring really are true.
Producer Kathleen Kennedy, a long-time partner of Steven Speilberg’s, will become co-chair of Lucasfilm. For now, Lucas will be staying on as co-chair and CEO of the company, but there’s no telling when he might step down completely.
I doubt we’ll ever have a Lucasfilm without any involvement from George, but it’s nice to see him taking the steps to some relaxing retirement years. If anyone deserves it (and can afford it!), we know it’s George.