Kathleen Kennedy, the new President of Lucasfilm and
successor to George Lucas, recently announced that the new merger with Disney
will ultimately produce up to two or three films per year. This new high-rate
of film production will kick-off with a seventh STAR WARS film in 2015.
More movies (especially quality movies) are always a good
thing; especially when they come out of the studio(s) which have brought us TOY
STORY, THE AVENGERS, and STAR WARS. However, this ambitious new plan goes
beyond Buzz Lightyear, superheroes, and that far away galaxy.
It in the late 1960’s there was a renaissance going on in
San Francisco as young filmmakers looked to experiment more and more with their
craft; creating new technologies and moving the industry in different
directions. In 1969, Lucas, with his friend and collaborator Francis Ford
Coppola, founded American Zeotrope. Zeotrope produced Coppola’s THE GODFATHER
PART II (1974), and APOCALYPSE NOW (1979), along with Lucas’ AMERICAN GRAFFITI
(1973), which would eventually pave the way for STAR WARS.
After the success of STAR WARS, Lucas went on to establish Lucasfilm,
which would continue the ideas of Zeotrope in pushing film technology; things we
take for granted today like digital cinema, CGI, THX and Skywalker Sound, and
ILM all sprouted from Lucasfilm. Zeotrope would go on to focus on filmmaking, eventually
earning 15 Academy Awards and 68 nominations since its inception.
The merging of Lucasfilm, the technology innovator, and
Disney, the most productive movie factory ever, harks back to the original
ideas of Lucas and Coppola. Disney will now have the advantage of
nearly-endless innovative technology, and Lucasfilm will have the benefit of
strong filmmaking and storytelling. Fifty years ago, Zeotrope and Lucasfilm
changed filmmaking forever. There is no certainty that will happen again, but
be damn sure the opportunity exists.
Even better still is Kennedy’s ambitious new plan. That many
films per year can only mean more opportunities for talented filmmakers. Disney
is not the type to hire any old meathead to helm their films, so it is
reasonable to assume that the three films per year can and should be written
and directed by some of the best names in the business.
Historically, the merger has brought things back
full-circle, and there seems to be no ceiling. There is a bright horizon to
look away to.
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