A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Why is Kathleen Kennedy still president of Lucasfilm despite the rumors that she was going to be replaced? Because “rumors” are usually not facts. Let’s first define the word “rumor” so that there is no misunderstanding, okay? Per Merriam-Webster’s  Definition of RUMOR Definition of  rumor (Entry 1 of 2) 1 :  talk or opinion widely disseminated with no discernible source 2 :  a statement or report current without known authority for its truth 3 archaic:  talk or report of a notable person or event Now that we’ve defined  rumor,  let’s get to the heart of the matter. It seems that the Original Poster of this prime example of an insincere question does not care at all for the new  Star Wars Sequel Trilogy,  which is Lucasfilm’s second post-George Lucas Era  Star Wars  project (the first being, of course,  Star Wars Rebels,  which aired for four seasons on Disney XD between 2014 and 2018). He offers a b...

On Quora, inquiring member Anthony Perez asks: Other than money, why did George Lucas sell the Star Wars franchise to Disney and make Kathleen Kennedy in charge of the franchise going forward? My reply: First of all, Lucas did not simply sell the  Star Wars  franchise, as your question erroneously states. He sold  Lucasfilm Ltd.,  the production company he founded in 1971 after leaving Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope, which he also helped to create back in ‘69. This means that Lucas not only sold Lucasfilm and its various subsidiaries, including Skywalker Sound, THX Labs, and Industrial Light & Magic; he also sold Lucasfilm’s intellectual properties, including  Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Red Tails  and  Willow. Before the sale to The Walt Disney Company (TWDC), Lucas had pretty much decided to retire anyway, but he didn’t want Lucasfilm to die off or be purchased by just anyone. He was 68 years old and did not want to spend any...

Cover art for Marvel Comics' omnibus edition of The Last Jedi comics adaptation. © 2018 Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) On Quora, member Michael Justin asks: Why did Kathleen Kennedy let Rian Johnson throw away J.J. Abrams’ Episode VIII script if she was going to hire him back for Episode IX? This question, like so many others like it, is based on a basic assumption that seems to be popular among many “fans” who get their information almost exclusively from YouTube or bloggers whose views they share. The assumption:  That J.J. Abrams had a detailed plan for the Sequel Trilogy, even had  scripts  for all three Episodes, and that this grand plan was wrecked by Rian Johnson with  Star Wars - Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.  And clueless, SJW Princess Kathleen Kennedy let Johnson ruin  Star Wars. Oh, you poor deluded child. First of all, just as George Lucas did not write a ginormous 360-page screenplay with all the beats and plot twists ...

Do you think Disney has done a better job with Star Wars than Lucasfilm? Questions such as “Do you think Disney has done a better job with Star Wars than Lucasfilm?” reflect either willful ignorance or a misunderstanding of the corporate relationship between The Walt Disney Company (TWDC or “Disney”) and Lucasfilm Ltd., especially when it comes to the topic of  Star Wars. The relationship between TWDC and Lucasfilm is no different from that of Sony and Columbia Pictures or the “old” 20th Century Fox Film Corporation and Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox (and before that, News Corporation). TWDC is the “corporate parent,” while Lucasfilm is an editorially-independent production company with its own President. Lucasfilm, for the most part, has free rein to decide how to handle its two major franchises,  Star Wars,  and  Indiana Jones.  TWDC has the right to decide  when  and  how  movies are scheduled for production  and  ...

Someone on Quora asks: Why would Disney trust Kathleen Kennedy after the way the recent Star Wars movies were received? My reply: Well, it would be  most ungracious  if Bob Iger and Alan Horn fire Kathleen Kennedy after producing three of four financially successful films in a series that its creator, George Lucas, had once declared would consist only of the six “Tragedy of Darth Vader” Episodes (and, later, those six films  plus  the  Star Wars: The Clone Wars  series). As of this writing, the first two installments of the  Star Wars  Sequel Trilogy ( Star Wars: The Force Awakens  and  Star Wars: The Last Jedi ) have earned $$3.4 billion worldwide.  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,  earned $1.056 billion. The only underperformer in the new post-George Lucas “era of Disney” Lucasfilm slate of movies in the  Star Wars  franchise is  Solo: A Star Wars Story,  which made “only” $392 million. Solo’s...

© 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Would audiences be interested if Disney-Lucasfilm remade Star Wars Episodes IV, V and VI with modern film-making techniques? Judging from the reaction of many  Star Wars  fans to the changes that franchise creator and founder/retired CEO of Lucasfilm, George Lucas, made when he decided to improve 1970s-era special effects shots that he felt fell short of his vision with late 1990s-era CGI effects for the 20th Anniversary Special Editions, I’d say…”No.” The  Star Wars Trilogy  is already one of the most “tinkered with” movie series in the history of the industry. Since 1977,  Star Wars  alone has undergone many adjustments, ranging from necessary fixes to its audio track, accidental deletion of scenes and re-insertion of said scenes, a 1981 title change from  Star Wars  to  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope,  a tweak that was first previewed in 1979 when Ballantine Books published Caro...

Is  The Rise of Skywalker  the last  Star Wars  movie? No. While  Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker  will bring the curtain down on the Skywalker Saga that began with 1977’s  Star Wars,  it is not going to be the  last  feature film set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” To be sure, it is the swan song, as it were, of the film series that bears - for good or ill - the DNA of George Lucas’s  The Star Wars.  The Big Three - Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher have moved on: Harrison and Mark have had their characters killed off or transformed into Force ghosts, and Carrie died in late 2016, so her role in  The Rise of Skywalker  has been minimized into scenes that can make use of existing footage shot for  The Force Awakens  and (perhaps)  The Last Jedi.  And, as George himself once said, the only characters that are in the entire Skywalker Saga are C-3PO ...

Gareth Edwards' blockbuster Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a film that boasts many "firsts" in the history of the 40-year-old franchise created by George Lucas. It is the first stand-alone Star Wars film that's not centered on the Skywalker family It is the first Star Wars film that focuses on ordinary beings from various parts of the galaxy that aren't Jedi or Force users It is the first Star Wars film to identify most of the planets with onscreen tags It is the first Star Wars film with no title crawl, no transitional "wipes," and only the second to use a pan-up establishing shot (the other being Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones It is the first live-action Star Wars film without a musical score composed and conducted by John Williams Lucasfilm President (and Rogue One producer) Kathleen Kennedy and her creative team pulled all the stops to make Rogue One: A Star Wars Story a separate part of the Star Wars universe yet faithful...

The slipcover features a stylized drawing of Kylo Ren from Star Wars: The Force Awakens Last September, Dorling Kindersley (DK) Books published Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual History, Updated and Expanded Edition, a lavishly-illustrated look at the multi-media franchise created by George Lucas 40 years ago. As the title implies, it is a sequel (and an expansion of) to DK's 2010 book Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle, which was written by Ryder Windham, Daniel Wallace, Gus Lopez, and Pablo Hidalgo. Like DK's well-known Star Wars: Visual Dictionary series,  Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual History, Updated and Expanded Edition is a user-friendly reference book that blends text by writers who know their subject well and a Star Destroyer's docking bay's worth of photographs and illustrations that include publicity stills from various Lucasfilm movies and TV shows, book covers, trading cards, Star Wars action figures and vehicles, posters, and video game scr...