Walt Disney Imagineering move Scott Trowbridge to a new dedicated Star Wars Studio at WDI

jt04

jt04

Well-Known Member
danlb_2000 said:
It has? I don't recall hearing anything that would make be believe this was the case. Yes, it's possible, but I don't see it as an established fact.
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Just me reading between the lines. Many said this project was in limbo for awhile. And I think Disney would not green light it until Cameron went forward with the new films. He did and then Disney did. Seems only logical Captain.
 
danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
jt04 said:
Just me reading between the lines. Many said this project was in limbo for awhile. And I think Disney would not green light it until Cameron went forward with the new films. He did and then Disney did. Seems only logical Captain.
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More likely explination was creative differences between Cameron and Disney/Rohde. It's a well established fact (that I know you don't believe) that Cameron is hard to work with.
 
jt04

jt04

Well-Known Member
danlb_2000 said:
More likely explination was creative differences between Cameron and Disney/Rohde. It's a well established fact (that I know you don't believe) that Cameron is hard to work with.
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You are 100% correct here. I do not believe the delay was because he was/is hard to work with.
 
WDW1974

WDW1974

Well-Known Member
Malin said:
I honestly wouldn't expect anything Star Wars related for DHS to even begin construction until at least Disney Springs is completed and maybe even sections of Avatar. Can't imagine WDW going ahead with another construction project on the scale of Springs and Avatar during this time. The disruption to Guests would be to much in the eyes of WDW Management. Avatar might be in the old Camp Minnie-Mickey section. But the Tree of Life which is located in the middle of the park is rumoured to be going through a massive refurbishment soon to prepare for the new night-time show. That's what I've heard anyway.
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That's not reality. One construction project is at a shopping and dining/lifestyle center. The other is at a theme park far away and there is no disruption to guests at DAK at all.

The reality is Disney could have construction projects going on in all four parks at the same time IF it wanted to.
 
WDW1974

WDW1974

Well-Known Member
Captain Neo said:
If they truly did want Star Wars Land open by 2018 they would need to announce it & begin construction by next year probably around Summer. Disney does have 2 good opportunities to do so with Disneyland's 60th. Anniversary in July and D23 in August but then again Disney has been known to ignore good opportunities in the past.

But you should really listen to WDW1974 if he says there is nothing planned for Orlando I would definitely trust him over other insider pretenders.
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I would agree with that timeline. If anything, I think you are erring on the liberal side. Any major Star Wars project is going to be 48-60 months from announcement to opening based on WDI/WDW's past track record. I would guess that in order to make a 2018 opening, they'd have to start prep work by this fall/start of new fiscal year.

And just to be clear, I am not saying that Star Wars product won't be coming to WDW. I have said it will be for over a year now. ... I just don't see anything substantial coming (that means beyond new retail, dining maybe, even possibly some new live show) before 2018.
 
WDW1974

WDW1974

Well-Known Member
jt04 said:
Just me reading between the lines. Many said this project was in limbo for awhile. And I think Disney would not green light it until Cameron went forward with the new films. He did and then Disney did. Seems only logical Captain.
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danlb_2000 said:
More likely explination was creative differences between Cameron and Disney/Rohde. It's a well established fact (that I know you don't believe) that Cameron is hard to work with.
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Exactly.

The project was green lit when Iger and Cameron came to an agreement, the legal papers were signed and the press conference held.

That was in September of 2011.

The project was sputtering for quite some time. Even now, how much do you really know about what Disney is doing in Pandora?
 
Captain Neo

Captain Neo

Well-Known Member
WDW1974 said:
I would agree with that timeline. If anything, I think you are erring on the liberal side. Any major Star Wars project is going to be 48-60 months from announcement to opening based on WDI/WDW's past track record. I would guess that in order to make a 2018 opening, they'd have to start prep work by this fall/start of new fiscal year.

And just to be clear, I am not saying that Star Wars product won't be coming to WDW. I have said it will be for over a year now. ... I just don't see anything substantial coming (that means beyond new retail, dining maybe, even possibly some new live show) before 2018.
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The only thing that confuses me is if they are just putting together a Star Wars team at Imagineering now they will surely need at least 1-2 years to bluesky, do pre-production, and get projects approved by Burbank right? Unless the outline is already done/approved and the team being put together is just to get the project built & to continue managing the Star Wars products in the parks going forward.
 
WDW1974

WDW1974

Well-Known Member
Captain Neo said:
The only thing that confuses me is if they are just putting together a Star Wars team at Imagineering now they will surely need at least 1-2 years to bluesky, do pre-production, and get projects approved by Burbank right? Unless the outline is already done/approved and the team being put together is just to get the project built & to continue managing the Star Wars products in the parks going forward.
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They have been doing blue sky work since Disney bought the company. The pace picked up after the script was reworked for the new film. ... I am not sure of this, but my strong hunch is that things could be approved tomorrow if they wanted. But I think they are holding off ... part of that may be because of removing guest faves at DL, part may be a desire to push the spending off, part may be they are trying to foist development costs on either others (OLC and Euro Disney). It could be a bit of all three and other things too!
 
the.dreamfinder

the.dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
WDW1974 said:
They have been doing blue sky work since Disney bought the company. The pace picked up after the script was reworked for the new film. ... I am not sure of this, but my strong hunch is that things could be approved tomorrow if they wanted. But I think they are holding off ... part of that may be because of removing guest faves at DL, part may be a desire to push the spending off, part may be they are trying to foist development costs on either others (OLC and Euro Disney). It could be a bit of all three and other things too!
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What do you think of the person put in charge of Lucasfilm's theme park division? She has a lot of DCA 1.0 credits for films made for that park and was in charge of theme park productions after Fitz briefly became president of WDI.
 
D

doctornick

Well-Known Member
Captain Neo said:
The only thing that confuses me is if they are just putting together a Star Wars team at Imagineering now they will surely need at least 1-2 years to bluesky, do pre-production, and get projects approved by Burbank right? Unless the outline is already done/approved and the team being put together is just to get the project built & to continue managing the Star Wars products in the parks going forward.
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I've got to think that that is exactly what the "new team" is doing. It's not like Trowbridge is new to WDI -- he's worked there for some time, so just because he was just named to this position doesn't mean he has not been involved with the project for quite a while.

Disney bought Lucasfilm in late 2012, has talked about doing theme park additions during 2013 (though apparently focusing on the foreign parks at first), was planning on doing a substantial announcement at the D23 conference but stopped it and opted for a small display. And Micechat has posted substantial plans that are supposedly already developed for DLR's Tomorrowland (which could easily be adapted by DHS as well).

On top of all of that, WDI has had blue sky ideas for more SW in various stages of development for years.

Point being, there's definitely plans that could be ready to go (and ready to publicly announce) very quickly. If Burbank was ready to do so. I'd be extremely skeptical that this team is being formed and then is expected to start right now in developing SW stuff for the parks anew -- they are surely tasked with taking already developed stuff and putting the final touches on it. At most, they might be spending some time adding elements from Ep VII (and future films?) which has rumored to have been part of the delay anyway.

We'll see. I'm not necessarily expecting an announcement during any SW festivities in May, but I would be pretty surprised if we don't have some sort of P&R Star Wars announcement before the end of the year. Maybe just a "this is coming and here's some concept art" but we'll see something.
 
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jlsHouston

jlsHouston

Well-Known Member
WDW1974 said:
Exactly.

The project was green lit when Iger and Cameron came to an agreement, the legal papers were signed and the press conference held.

That was in September of 2011.

The project was sputtering for quite some time. Even now, how much do you really know about what Disney is doing in Pandora?
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I know a bunch of Disney execs took a picture together holding blue shovels over at AK this year.
 
jt04

jt04

Well-Known Member
WDW1974 said:
Exactly.

The project was green lit when Iger and Cameron came to an agreement, the legal papers were signed and the press conference held.

That was in September of 2011.

The project was sputtering for quite some time. Even now, how much do you really know about what Disney is doing in Pandora?
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Cameron was quoted just in the last few weeks about being happy with the progress of the project and attractions. So there is that.
 

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