Rumor Hollywood insiders say there's growing tension at Disney as CEO Bob Chapek chafes at Bob Iger's 'long goodbye'

Joel

Joel

Well-Known Member
Mmoore29 said:
Star Wars is an all-encompassing vision that isn't just the original trilogy, isn't just George's work. Everyone who has played a role in building an impressive tapestry of content, movies and TV-wise, have truly built an incredible unifying, coherent whole. They're to be commended for their work.

Despite what the Internet and the press peddles, Star Wars is beloved and remains beloved, always has been, always will be. And including for what it is now, not just "for what it used to be." Because "what it used to be" is what it always has been, from day one. And no genuflecting at the altar of St. Gary Kurtz can change that, because Kurtz contributed precious little. It was George's vision and George's success in the original and prequel trilogies, and it's been Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Rian Johnson, Gareth Edwards, Ron Howard, Dave Filoni, Jon Favreau, Robert Rodriguez, and yes, Bob Iger's success. Star Wars not only survives, it thrives, and not just in pure dollars and streaming numbers. I look around, and I see warmth and ever-loving affection in the crowds I go with. The average person on street embraces Star Wars, embraces every aspect of it provided as official canon. I've seen this ever since the Special Edition releases back in 1997, I saw it in the joyful crowds at the prequels, and the excited chatter in the Disney era. These people have always gotten and understood what Star Wars is. Just because it's not how YOU understand Star Wars doesn't make it wrong. Because after all, that label was given to George Lucas himself, even though who would understand Star Wars, and the backstory of the prequels, better than the creator himself?

From the start, every word against the series was nothing a vocal minority being amplified by the vultures in the press, building a clickbait-y, revenue-hungry narrative, completely twisting the facts and gaslighting the public. It wasn't enough to say that Jake Lloyd, Hayden Christensen and Ahmed Best were despised, and that Lloyd was being bullied mercilessly; no, they had to go further and make lies of how Natalie Portman was bullied and considered an awful actor, even though her career has been active and flourishing since the release of The Professional in 1994, and she was getting plenty of work in that time, including Garden State. It also wasn't enough to say "this is what the perception is NOW,"; it became "this is perception from day one in 1999", which was never the truth. But say a lie enough times, it becomes the truth. And that has been what the media has always loved to do with Star Wars.

But despite that, the public has embraced the series fully. They're the true fans of the series, despite what whiny, entitled people like Simon Pegg say. Same way true fans of the band Kiss support the band not being Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, because Kiss is not Ace, Peter, Gene and Paul; it's the Space Ace, the Catman, the Demon and the Starchild. The true fans of Kiss know this, and they show up at the concerts.

If you want an example of people who truly did what everyone from George to Filoni have been accused of being guilty of, of not understand the source material and ruining it to impose their own vision, look at what Julie Taymor, Bono and The Edge did with the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. They all admitted they had no intention to truly make a deep dive through the source material or dive much further than the Sam Raimi trilogy, and Taymor insisted on putting forward her vision that "Greek and Roman gods and demigods are the original superheroes." And then to establish this, she put forward this insane, convoluted story that robs Spider-Man of what makes him Spider-Man and takes away his agency. Not to mention that Bono and Edge, whose score was already dull and lifeless and unfit for Broadway, were forced to write a song that even they thought was garbage, for a scene where the character of Arachne...steals shoes.



Needless to say, there's only one response to this:



This and other reasons contributed to Taymor being fired from her own project, and changes made to the script and score. But the changes didn't make it any better, it just made dull and incredibly boring, and it made the character of Arachne pointless, without her contributing anything of worth. All of this because no one ever cracked the whip to tell either Taymor, "This is pointless, absurd and too expensive," or to even tell Bono and Edge, "These songs suck, start again." (And I'm a very big U2 fan who has long defended Bono from the charges of pretentiousness, but he's not making it easy here!)

THIS is what ruining a mythos to put one's own vision in looks like. Not Lucasfilm.
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Assuming this isn't satire that just flew 30,000 feet over my head, I seriously hope you were paid by either Lucasfilm or Kiss to write all that.
 
yensidtlaw1969

yensidtlaw1969

Well-Known Member
Model3 McQueen said:
And when was jungle cruise the ride built, again?
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Obviously long before 2021 . . . how is that relevant to your point that you miss "the days when theme park rides inspired movies, not vice versa"?

Between recent Jungle Cruise movie and the new Haunted Mansion movie slated to release in a year, it seems pretty clear that we're at least somewhat still in those days.
 
erasure fan1

erasure fan1

Well-Known Member
Mmoore29 said:
Star Wars is miles better and left much better under Iger's tenure. It is the definition of "evergreen."
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Star wars is in no way miles better under Disney/Iger. The only star wars that is "evergreen" is the originals. If Iger star wars was miles better, we would have multiple D+ series and a new trilogy of movies all set to go all based in the new star wars. Instead, everything we have is OT based with some clone wars. And that is what they were trying to get away from. Star wars isn't dead, and if Obi wan is as awesome as we all hope it is, coupled with Mandos success. That will go a long way to bringing it back.
 
Model3 McQueen

Model3 McQueen

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
yensidtlaw1969 said:
Obviously long before 2021 . . . how is that relevant to your point that you miss "the days when theme park rides inspired movies, not vice versa"?

Between recent Jungle Cruise movie and the new Haunted Mansion movie slated to release in a year, it seems pretty clear that we're at least somewhat still in those days.
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Sheesh let me just edit in the word "new" so you all can chill out. Didn't know I needed to make it painfully obvious.
 
Sirwalterraleigh

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
Joel said:
Assuming this isn't satire that just flew 30,000 feet over my head, I seriously hope you were paid by either Lucasfilm or Kiss to write all that.
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I just figured that was quoted verbatim from a book that Kathy kennedy paid to publish? Maybe Rick McCallum paid too?
erasure fan1 said:
Star wars is in no way miles better under Disney/Iger. The only star wars that is "evergreen" is the originals. If Iger star wars was miles better, we would have multiple D+ series and a new trilogy of movies all set to go all based in the new star wars. Instead, everything we have is OT based with some clone wars. And that is what they were trying to get away from. Star wars isn't dead, and if Obi wan is as awesome as we all hope it is, coupled with Mandos success. That will go a long way to bringing it back.
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…you know I had to duct tape myself to a chair with my own sock stuffed into my mouth on this one…
 
TikibirdLand

TikibirdLand

Well-Known Member
UNCgolf said:
They already greenlit a sequel.
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Hadn't heard that. Any details?

ETA: Looks like the latest in the rumor mill is from January. They say the script "is in good hands". That's about it, that I can find. Based on that, I don't have high hopes for it. Too bad; I like Emily Blount and Dwayne Johnson.
 
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yensidtlaw1969

yensidtlaw1969

Well-Known Member
Model3 McQueen said:
Sheesh let me just edit in the word "new" so you all can chill out. Didn't know I needed to make it painfully obvious.
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Feel free to illuminate which part of my post needs to chill - I really just asked a question.

You've now said your post was missing the operative word of your point, so I can't understand why you would be so surprised that other people didn't pick up on your meaning. "Painfully obvious" isn't necessary, but, like, discernable is.

Not to mention that Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, and the Country Bear Jamboree were all more than 30 years old by the time their movies hit the screen . . . so it's not like context clues really supported your sentiment either? I'm almost a little concerned I still have your point wrong.
 
UNCgolf

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
yensidtlaw1969 said:
Feel free to illuminate which part of my post needs to chill - I really just asked a question.

You've now said your post was missing the operative word of your point, so I can't understand why you would be so surprised that other people didn't pick up on your meaning. "Painfully obvious" isn't necessary, but, like, discernable is.

Not to mention that Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, and the Country Bear Jamboree were all more than 30 years old by the time their movies hit the screen . . . so it's not like context clues really supported your sentiment either? I'm almost a little concerned I still have your point wrong.
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I think he's saying they no longer build attractions that could eventually be turned into a movie, since everything new is already based on existing IP and that he wishes it was different.

It wasn't worded very clearly, though.
 
Sirwalterraleigh

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
TikibirdLand said:
Hadn't heard that. Any details?

ETA: Looks like the latest in the rumor mill is from January. They say the script "is in good hands". That's about it, that I can find. Based on that, I don't have high hopes for it. Too bad; I like Emily Blount and Dwayne Johnson.
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There’s an “untilted Star Wars movie” hitting theaters December 2023…didn’t you hear?

No story…no actors…no directors…no script.

I can only assume they are using time travel to go back to 2020 and start shooting? 🤔
 
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Sirwalterraleigh

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
UNCgolf said:
I think he's saying they no longer build attractions that could eventually be turned into a movie, since everything new is already based on existing IP and that he wishes it was different.

It wasn't worded very clearly, though.
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That was my interpretation as well…you have to have theme park source material to “reverse engineer” a movie, right?
 
M

Mmoore29

Well-Known Member
erasure fan1 said:
Star wars is in no way miles better under Disney/Iger. The only star wars that is "evergreen" is the originals. If Iger star wars was miles better, we would have multiple D+ series and a new trilogy of movies all set to go all based in the new star wars. Instead, everything we have is OT based with some clone wars. And that is what they were trying to get away from. Star wars isn't dead, and if Obi wan is as awesome as we all hope it is, coupled with Mandos success. That will go a long way to bringing it back.
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We do have all these series. They're in the pipeline. Johnson's trilogy is still alive, it's just a matter of time. So many series and projects keep coming out. The only thing that's truly "dead" are the GoT showrunners' idea and Trevorrow's film.

All of Star Wars is evergreen. Always has been, always will be. All of George, all of Disney. Gary Kurtz was content to take credit and bash George because he was jealous. Simple as that. He didn't come up with anything creative whatsoever, and when he tried his hand at it, it sucked, hence why George cut him loose. Hence why Trevorrow's idiotic film was canned, because it would've brought the trilogy to a complete and utter nonclimax. It wouldn't end so much as just stop. No resolution whatsoever.

Star Wars isn't "coming back." It's always been. No one part or era of Star Wars is better than the other, because they all need each other to survive. Amputate one part, the entire thing dies. That's how coherent the chronology is. That's more than I can say for the Alien franchise, for example.

When I say it's "miles better", it's better in the sense that the canvas has been expanded and filled in to an extent not even George could've dreamed of. And that's a beautiful thing. Because now every inch and corner of the galaxy is being filled out, the timeline better expanded. It's George's ethos on steroids. And that's why I love it so, and the vast majority of the public agree. For that, Iger certainly is part of the credit, and justly so, as much as Eisner would've been if Disney bought Lucasfilm on his watch and they'd distributed the prequels.

The fact is that all these Internet fanboys and whatnot do not speak for the fans as a whole. Never have, never will.
 
yensidtlaw1969

yensidtlaw1969

Well-Known Member
UNCgolf said:
I think he's saying they no longer build attractions that could eventually be turned into a movie, since everything new is already based on existing IP and that he wishes it was different.

It wasn't worded very clearly, though.
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Well that I can certainly agree with. I too wish there were more original attractions being created without basis in existing properties.
 

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