Disney to Reveal Ambitious Star Wars Plans

marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
With a choice of locales and experiences from three of the most popular, longest surviving and well known movies of all time, plus another three that are building the same reputation for people old and new, there is a literal galaxy of choices for anything from A-E rides.

It's almost laughable to have to wait for the home grown versions. Or are they really so averse to a phase two? They have an ultimate IP. They have a park crying out for it. Surely they are not that daft?
 
MerlinTheGoat

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
Empire Strikes Back is generally considered the best Star Wars movie by most people (myself included), and it's the one that George Lucas reportedly had the least involvement in. It's also the one he reportedly dislikes the most and isn't a big fan of. While I do appreciate Abrams' talent and do really enjoy the Star Trek reboots (I am myself a HUGE fan of the many TV Star Treks and I think he won't make many of the huge mistakes Lucas did with the prequels), it's actually Lawrence Kasdan's influence as screenwriter that has caught my eye the most and given me the most hope.

While Lucas was certainly a hugely important figure in Star Wars, I think people overestimate his talent and underestimate the talent of the other important people who made it work as well as it did. Though perhaps they've come to different conclusions since the Lucas-controlled prequel trilogy. Lucas was good at pitching basic plot ideas and basic character personalities or designs, the way these ideas took form and were executed however flourished best when left to other people. Imagine for example if Yoda's introduction as an eccentric alien creature (prior to his reveal as a wise jedi master) had included him farting and taking a dump on Luke's foot, that's the sort of nonsense I'd not put past Lucas to shoehorn in if he fully controlled things.

Cameron has a passion which I appreciate, but his passion in Avatar was driven by the need to produce a technically impressive and visually pretty film. At the expense of the story, which I feel has the danger of preventing the series to firmly rooting itself deep in lasting culture the way Star Wars has managed to do. Without a compelling story or well written/charming characters, the events of the movie fade quickly from memory. I do not think the visuals will be able to carry the franchise as well as the original movie, and it could well be an uphill battle to get people interested again by the time a sequel does arrive. People have settled down after being wowed by the visuals, and it didn't take a long time for the hype to die down.

Disney's ownership and control of the franchise is a fair point to worry about, but there's still a ton of talent on board and there's a lot of hope and positive buzz from many people. We shall see how much Disney stays out of the film creation process, hopefully they allow the creative juices to flow.

Even when Episode 7 was first announced, it was such a massive moment. Before the teasers, before concept art and before we knew ANYTHING at all. Just the announcement that Episode 7 was finally being made, it was a big deal. The same cannot be said about the announcement of Avatar sequels, not much buzz at all and it strikes me as general lack of interest.

I am not a hater of Avatar for the record. I did enjoy VIEWING the film (keyword viewing, the visual impact was very nice), but the story/characters left me completely disinterested with almost no memorable moments. It was somewhat boring and tedious outside of the pretty pictures. Had this movie been made without ground breaking visual effects and relied purely on its story, I have no doubt that it would have been critically panned as a completely mediocre if not outright bad film. The original Star Wars trilogy used its visuals to enhance and enrich an already interesting story with charming and cool characters. I am completely neutral on getting sequels to Avatar, could take or leave them if it's just going to be more of the same kind of story/characters as the first. I'm more interested in the theme park land by far than the movies, at least I can mostly ignore the story and characters and enjoy the world's visuals in person. Star Wars is something people are always craving to get more of though, and it's not going to be forgotten easily.
 
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FlaMel

FlaMel

Active Member
Progress.City said:
I'll wager that the Avatar sequels will do better or the same as the new Star Wars trilogy.

My prediction is that the new Star Wars movies will do better than the Marvel movies, but Cameron is out to push the limits of art and technology. The new Star Wars films are merely Iger's way of cashing in on a sure thing and has less to do with pushing the limits, which is Cameron's motivation.
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While I appreciate your right (and mine too) to have an opinion or in this case, make a prediction, there seem to be some flaws in the logic of your statements.

First, you compare Iger's motivation against Cameron's. This is not really a fair comparison. Compare Iger's motivation against that of Jim Gianopulos, and Cameron against Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk or Lawrence Kasdan, those are more fair comparisons. Regarding the motivation of these individuals, the point you make is your own supposition, and not verifiable fact. But for the sake of conversation, let's assume your supposition to be correct, Iger is the Chairman and CEO of the worlds largest media company, shouldn't profitability be high on his list? In his role, he ensures the art and technology by hiring Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Lawrence Kasdan, etc. to write, produce, direct and otherwise creatively and functionally make the film.
 
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LieutLaww

LieutLaww

Hello There
Premium Member
In the Parks
No
What sort of impact do the Star Wars weekends have ? Does it pack the crowds in or ? If they bring in decent numbers surely that would tell them that they need to get SW into DHS now rather than waiting for EPVII to make them huge wodges of cash before pulling the trigger on something. As someone else said its Star Wars of course its going to mad numbers at the cinema why wait ?
 
KCheatle

KCheatle

Well-Known Member
Okay--- apologies if this has already been discussed, but I really didn't want to read through 57 pages, so if it has, disregard.

While waiting in line for Disneyland park to open last week, we were chatting with an AP holder for Disneyland who was waiting to get the pin for the anniversary. Anyway, she told us that Disney sent an email or letter of some type to her (and presumably) other pass holders surveying them on the location for a Star Wars land. She said they asked about whether they wanted to see it as part of DL, WDW or some other location. I know ... I know... Can't verify the veracity of this. But, she didn't have any reason to lie I guess? So, who knows?
 
danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
KCheatle said:
Okay--- apologies if this has already been discussed, but I really didn't want to read through 57 pages, so if it has, disregard.

While waiting in line for Disneyland park to open last week, we were chatting with an AP holder for Disneyland who was waiting to get the pin for the anniversary. Anyway, she told us that Disney sent an email or letter of some type to her (and presumably) other pass holders surveying them on the location for a Star Wars land. She said they asked about whether they wanted to see it as part of DL, WDW or some other location. I know ... I know... Can't verify the veracity of this. But, she didn't have any reason to lie I guess? So, who knows?
Click to expand...

Looks like this did happen back in 2013...

http://micechat.com/forums/disneyla...out-star-wars;-anyone-else-getting-these.html
 
1023

1023

Provocateur, Rancanteur, Plaisanter, du Jour
KCheatle said:
Okay--- apologies if this has already been discussed, but I really didn't want to read through 57 pages, so if it has, disregard.

While waiting in line for Disneyland park to open last week, we were chatting with an AP holder for Disneyland who was waiting to get the pin for the anniversary. Anyway, she told us that Disney sent an email or letter of some type to her (and presumably) other pass holders surveying them on the location for a Star Wars land. She said they asked about whether they wanted to see it as part of DL, WDW or some other location. I know ... I know... Can't verify the veracity of this. But, she didn't have any reason to lie I guess? So, who knows?
Click to expand...

While I can't recall seeing it in this thread, I believe I have seen screen captures of a survey question or two. Most of the heavily favored rumors point towards Anaheim getting SW first and then DHS at WDW after that. Here we have been speculating on where In Disneyland they could locate it and the associated rumors. We have also discussed to what extent DHS will be fleshed out in StarWars... Then there is all the thread drift that goes on with that for 57 pages.

It's all wishful thinking at this point. The next sign in the road would be D23 Expo at Disneyland. After that, I am not sure where an announcement would come other than the movie opening... (They could really make that movie "open" big if it had a small preview of SW plans set up like a preview....)



*1023*
 
TheScreed

TheScreed

Member
MerlinTheGoat said:
I did enjoy VIEWING the film (keyword viewing, the visual impact was very nice), but the story/characters left me completely disinterested with almost no memorable moments.
Click to expand...

This is dead-on. The experience of being in the theater was amazing, but the movie itself was terrible. Just like Gravity, if you're not seeing it for the first time in IMAX 3-D then it's a waste. I can't imagine people wearing out copies of Avatar on Blu-Ray.

That said, if it is the physical experience of enjoying the effects that gives Avatar its punch, that makes me think the AK attractions might do a good business. But I imagine that, in terms of just wanting to hang out in an immersive environment like the Harry Potter lands at Universal, about 99% of park guests would prefer Star Wars to Avatar. It baffles me that Disney did not immediately dump Avatar plans and switch to Star Wars the day they acquired Lucasfilm.
 
1023

1023

Provocateur, Rancanteur, Plaisanter, du Jour
Here's the screen Capture of the SW Survey question:

SWPoll.jpg

Enjoy...

*1023*

Tagged to notify... @KCheatle @OSUgirl77 @Mike S
 
Progress.City

Progress.City

Well-Known Member
FlaMel said:
While I appreciate your right (and mine too) to have an opinion or in this case, make a prediction, there seem to be some flaws in the logic of your statements.

First, you compare Iger's motivation against Cameron's. This is not really a fair comparison. Compare Iger's motivation against that of Jim Gianopulos, and Cameron against Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk or Lawrence Kasdan, those are more fair comparisons. Regarding the motivation of these individuals, the point you make is your own supposition, and not verifiable fact. But for the sake of conversation, let's assume your supposition to be correct, Iger is the Chairman and CEO of the worlds largest media company, shouldn't profitability be high on his list? In his role, he ensures the art and technology by hiring Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Lawrence Kasdan, etc. to write, produce, direct and otherwise creatively and functionally make the film.
Click to expand...
I compared the motivations of Cameron and Iger because both are the executives who have the final say. JJ Abrams reports to Kathleen Kennedy, who reports to Alan Horn, who reports to Iger. In comparison, Cameron reports to no one. Kathleen Kennedy made a great decision by bringing in JJ Abrams. Abrams made a great decision to bring in Kasdan. Kennedy, Alan Horn, and Iger made a great decision to approve Abram's request to bring in Kasdan. No matter how you slice it, though, it is still a typical Hollywood studio commissioned project - just like T3 was (but this will turn out much better because of the decisions made by Kennedy and Abrams). The Avatar sequels is anything but typical Hollywood. Not only does Cameron call his own shots, he is not restricted by absolutes (ie budget and schedules). He is the Walt Disney of our time, but without a Roy Disney restricting him of resources. EDIT: To be fair, Roy also enabled Walt.
 
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Animaniac93-98

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Disneyhead'71 said:
I'll go on record as saying Avatar 2 will be close to a career ending flop for Mr. Cameron.

He has his head so far up his.......
Click to expand...

I don't think it'll turn out that bad (from a profitability standpoint). Even if there's a big drop off in domestic ticket sales, I'm sure it'll do big business in China or other foreign markets that have grown since 2009.
 
Disneyhead'71

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
Animaniac93-98 said:
I don't think it'll turn out that bad (from a profitability standpoint). Even if there's a big drop off in domestic ticket sales, I'm sure it'll do big business in China or other foreign markets that have grown since 2009.
Click to expand...
I just have a gut feeling that Avatar 2 is going to flop HUGE! I'm just curious, what would a major studio do if a $400 million film pulls in $47 million/domestic (with 3 more sequels already shot)?

What if WDW becomes associated with having a land based on the biggest flop in movie history?
 

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