Disney buys Lucasfilm!

No, you did not misread that. Nor is it an early April Fool’s joke. As told by various news outlets, Disney has acquired Lucasfilm Limited for $4.05 billion dollars in stock and cash. Disney has also announced that a trilogy of new Star Wars films will be released, starting in 2015, with George Lucas serving as creative consultant.

 

Where to begin? To be honest, I had no idea this was even on anyone’s agenda. You’d figure with news like this that there would have been rumors months prior to the announcement. But I didn’t hear or read anything. Do I think that this is a good idea? I’m not so sure. It’s good for Disney because they have another important IP under their belt, but I wonder why George Lucas decided to sell his production company. If you read about George Lucas, then you know that he values his freedom from Hollywood and the Hollywood system. (for reference, check out Skywalking, The Empire of Dreams, and The Cinema of George Lucas) In fact, he’s sort-of famous for stating that the reason that he never brought Lucasfilm public was because he didn’t want stockholders making the decisions about what Lucasfilm should produce. Considering he’s always fought for his freedom to make the films that he wants to make, it seems somewhat odd that he would give the reigns to someone else, let alone a big corporation. However, things change. My assumption is now that he’s older, maybe he wants to move on to other endeavors. It reminds me of when Bill Gates left Microsoft (day-to-day anyway) to pursue other interest (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). Though George Lucas is not leaving, I’m assuming that he won’t have a big of a role as he did in the past. Whatever the case, I wish him well.

 

I wonder where the Star Wars franchise will go from here? If Disney gives the same attention to Lucasfilm as they did to Marvel, then I’m sure there will be great things to come. Though I wonder what Episode 7 will be about because most fans consider Timothy Zahn’s excellent Thrawn trilogy to be Episodes 7,8 and 9. Disney has said that the upcoming movies will continue Luke Skywalker’s adventures. But I question where in the Star Wars canon this new trilogy could take place (with the multitude of books, comics and video games). There’s also a question of casting. Will Mark Hamil, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher reprise their iconic roles? (The better question would if they could reprise their roles) Or, will new actors need to be cast? Will we, the audience, accept new actors/actresses to play these roles? (Especially since the likeness of all the main characters is used in every Star Wars-related product) Only time will tell.

Anyway, that’s my two cents.

Video of George Lucas talking about the future of Star Wars

 

Disney press release: http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-news/press-releases/2012/10/disney-acquire-lucasfilm-ltd

Call Conference: http://edge.media-server.com/m/p/c2nj5j33/lan/en

iPad Mini Revealed

I’m sure that most of you already know this (heck, it’s been rumoured for months), so I’ll be brief. So Apple announced the iPad Mini today at a conference. It’s going to be released on November 2nd, at a price of $329 in North America. The unit itself is 7.9 inches (compared to the new iPads, which are 9.7 inches), and is about $100 cheaper. Apple says that it’s battery life is up to 10 hours, though your mileage may vary.

Personally, I find it a bit odd that Apple would release a version of their product that is of competitive price, because if you’ve read up on Apple, you know that they don’t do “re-imagining” of their products. They tend to release one product after another. Actually, it reminds me of what Nintendo used to do with their Game Boy line many moons ago (Game Boy Pocket, Color Game Boy, Game Boy Light, which were all essentially the same product, just priced at lower costs). It also reminds me of Apple’s Apple ][ line (Apple II Plus, Apple IIe, and the like).

With the competition from Microsoft (Surface), and Android tablets, it would make sense for Apple to release an iPad that was more competitive in price. Will this make me jump onto the iPad bandwagon? It’s hard to say. For one, it doesn’t have retina display, and it’s processor is a little slower (the iPad 2 A5 processor). Do I wait until the iPad Mini 2? I guess that only time will tell. One thing is for certain though: with the holiday season coming up, they’ll be no tablet shortage.

What do you think about the iPad Mini? Will you be buying it this holiday season?