Why Did George Lucas Sell Star Wars to Disney? скачать в хорошем качестве

Why Did George Lucas Sell Star Wars to Disney?

Later this week LucasFilm will be releasing The Last Jedi, the newest film in the Star Wars saga, with many more films planned for the years ahead. This wouldn’t have been possible without George Lucas choosing to sell his company to Disney. So today I want to talk about why he picked Disney to sell his company to, and how it all happened. New here? Be sure to subscribe! 🔷https://goo.gl/x17zTL My Patreon! ❤  / robplays   My Disney Podcast! 🎧http://ttapodcast.com Follow me on Twitter! 📱  / robplays   Now the more cynical out there will say money. After all, four billion dollars is a lot of money. That wasn’t the case though. He didn’t shop it around to different studios or try to find the highest bidder. When he decided to sell the company he had built over the course of 41 years, he chose Disney. There was a history between Lucas and Disney that played a pivotal role in the sale, and it dates back to as far as Lucas’ childhood. On a lengthy family trip, his parents Dorothy and George Sr took the family down to Anaheim in July of 1955 for the grand opening of Disneyland. Lucas was eleven years old at the time. His path as a filmmaker was still far off, but he immediately took to the immersive lands and rides the theme park offered. As he later described it, he was “in heaven.” The family would continue to make regular trips to Disneyland over the years as George grew up, planting the seed that would grow over the following decades. In 1984 Disney was in the middle of warding off a hostile takeover. Part of that attempt included installing new leadership into the company. While not the only one to make the suggestion, Lucas would reach out to Disney’s majority shareholders, the Bass Brothers, and personally recommend Michael Eisner for the position. Eisner would of course accept the position and he would, along with Frank Wells stepping in as president, serve as the new face and direction of the Walt Disney Company. One of the first things Eisner would do as CEO is, as it turns out, reach out to George Lucas. Lucas, a lifelong Disney fan, jumped at the opportunity. He would have the chance to help create attractions for the very theme park he delighted in visiting all those years ago at the age of eleven. A few years later Lucas would once against make a connection that would end up playing an important role down the line. In the early 1990’s he began working on a television show based on the adventures of a young Indiana Jones. He would eventually pitch the series to the chairman of ABC at the time, Bob Iger. Iger green-lit the show and it ran for two seasons. When later looking back on the series, Iger said “I wanted it to work very badly. It was George Lucas, come on.” The show would ultimately fail, but Lucas took note of how supportive Iger was of the whole idea. Star Tours at the Disney Parks was about to reopen with new 3D effects and a new randomized system that took guests to locations from, again for better or for worse, the prequels. Lucas himself was checking in on the ride’s progress every couple of weeks over the years the ride update was being designed. By that point Bob Iger had replaced Michael Eisner and was Disney’s CEO. The morning the ride was to reopen in May of 2011, Lucas and Iger would sit down to breakfast at the Brown Derby. Without beating around the bush, Iger asked Lucas if he’d ever consider selling Star Wars to The Walt Disney Company. Lucas had just turned 67 years old, and he was already beginning to think about a retirement plan that involved passing the reins of Star Wars on. “I’m not ready to pursue that now,” he told Iger. “But when I am, I’d love to talk.” It would take another year before Lucas would fully entertain the thought, but when he finally decided he was going to step down from running LucasFilm, he got in touch with Iger and kicked off a five month negotiation process. As it would turn out, Pixar would serve as a major influence for the decision. You see, one of Iger’s first major decisions as CEO of Disney was to acquire Pixar in 2006, and what impressed Lucas the most wasn’t what Iger did with the company, but what he didn’t do. For the most part, Pixar was left to continue doing what it did best without too much interruption or change. So without seeking out the highest bidder, Lucas agreed to sell his company to Disney for a total of a little over four billion dollars, with half of that being Disney stock. It wasn’t a quick heartless cash grab from one executive to another. It was a creator who had spent over 40 years building an empire out of his passion passing on his creation to an organization that he had looked up to as a kid and worked with and respected as an adult. So on October 30th of 2012 he would fly to Burbank to meet with Iger and sign the deal. From that moment the next chapter of the Star Wars saga would begin.