Mickey Mouse meets Luke Skywalker
Forget the presidential election and Hurricane Sandy. There is only one breaking story today:
It’s a $4 billion cash-and-stock deal that only matters to you if you’re a Disney shareholder or George Lucas himself. The part that is attracting the most buzz is this line:
STAR WARS: EPISODE 7 feature film targeted for release in 2015.
Episodes 8 and 9 are scheduled to follow, with two to three years between each film.
I grew up watching the original Star Wars trilogy. But, in light of the three prequels that came out between 1999 and 2005 and featured the likes of Jar Jar Binks, I’m afraid to say my initial reaction to this news is somewhere between this:
and this:
If there is hope — ahem, “A New Hope” — it’s this: Lucas said it was time for him to pass the series on to “a new generation of filmmakers.” Which means he won’t be involved. Which means the next three movies might stand a fighting chance of being good in the hands of new filmmakers with fresh ideas.
Liberal or conservative, I hope we can agree on this: May the Force be with them.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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80 comments Add your comment
Hillbilly D
October 30th, 2012
5:14 pm
You’re right, this one don’t matter to me.
mike
October 30th, 2012
5:19 pm
Escapism at its zenith.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
October 30th, 2012
5:35 pm
More of a Star Trek fan, Kyle, so pretty much a big yawner for me.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
October 30th, 2012
5:36 pm
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
carlosgvv
October 30th, 2012
5:44 pm
Money talks and BS walks.
John B
October 30th, 2012
6:00 pm
Op-Ed blog commenters just don’t want to have fun. Their natural state is outrage.
I’m excited. The Marvel franchise has been great and so have the Pirates movies.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
October 30th, 2012
6:01 pm
Speaking of Sci-Fi, Manhattan looks like something out of the game Half-Life.
md
October 30th, 2012
6:12 pm
Stars wars ruined it with that prequel crap……call me old-fashioned, but I still enjoy going from 1-10, not 4-6, then 1-3, then 7-9, then whatever………
I read left to right without skipping pages in a book, why would one think folks want to skip a few chapters and then come back to them???
zadoc
October 30th, 2012
6:20 pm
Don’t freak out. Lucas hasn’t been making good Star Wars movies, and Disney has been doing a great job with the Marvel franchise. This is the best thing to ever happen to Star Wars.
POLL: Is Star Wars better off with Disney?
Vote here: http://bit.ly/StarWars2015
Hillbilly D
October 30th, 2012
6:22 pm
Actually, I thought the first Star Wars (the only one I saw) was pretty good. It was basically just a John Wayne western, set in outer space, with Harrison Ford in the John Wayne part.
mike
October 30th, 2012
6:26 pm
Really, Kyle! After 2 days of “charter school” BS, you leave us with this? Romney flat-out lies about Chrysler and yet not a peep from you or the right. Are you kidding me?
Aquagirl
October 30th, 2012
6:28 pm
Oh dear God. The Mayan calendar is correct after all.
Georgia
October 30th, 2012
6:31 pm
They found money for more Starwars movies? buy. Buy. BUY!!!!!!
mike
October 30th, 2012
6:54 pm
All you nut case right wingers who think that “outsourcing” is “good” for America need to watch this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkMUFBNsJr4&feature=player_profilepage
THIS is what’s wrong with America!
Cutty
October 30th, 2012
7:03 pm
Is Jeep still moving production to China? Exactly one week until the election and this is what you write? Whatever Cox is paying you, its too much.
md
October 30th, 2012
7:09 pm
You might want to read up on what Mr Manley actually said about production in China Mike…..google it, it’s out there.
If they take even part of their production to China, it won’t stop there when labor rates in china are a fraction of what they are here…….the Italians owe us absolutely nothing.
Look for the Italians in charge (thanks barry) to do what is best for THEIR shareholders, much like Apple did for theirs.
@@
October 30th, 2012
7:12 pm
I had a thang for Hans Solo.
Chewbacca too if he’d shaved.
Recently, I had to have an enclosed MRI. I’m very claustrophobic…so eyes were shut before I entered the tube. I let my mind wander. I was in the bar scene of Star Wars (the original). The sounds emanating from the tube were alien conversations.
A claustrophobic girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.
mike
October 30th, 2012
7:13 pm
Are you ready to send you daughter or granddaughter to the back alley and the coat hanger? Are you ready for more wars? Are you ready for sky-high gasoline prices? Are ready for outsourcing on steroids? Are you ready for more of your civil liberties being taken away? If you are, then, by all means, vote Republican!
@@
October 30th, 2012
7:17 pm
mike:
Are you hopin’ for one of these with your performance at 7:13?
Hillbilly D
October 30th, 2012
7:18 pm
I let my mind wander. I was in the bar scene of Star Wars (the original).
See anybody from this blog there?
mike
October 30th, 2012
7:20 pm
See, imbecile right wingers, I welcome your personal attacks. Why? Because they are a simple admission that you have nothing to say — other than your pathetic personal attacks. Notice that @@ does not waste any time with any rebuttal to my post. Rather, see posts an imbecilic, pathetic non-post that says nothing.
Kyle Wingfield
October 30th, 2012
7:22 pm
Cutty: For Pete’s sake, as Romney might say. Almost everything the past month or so has been election-related: either the presidential race or charter schools. There is a thread from this morning related to the election, including a back-and-forth about the Jeep thing toward the end of the day, and there’s no reason you can’t comment on it.
All I have to say about the Jeep thing is: I don’t know if the Romney campaign got some bad information, misread the Bloomberg story, or what. It would appear they got it wrong. But will all of you liberals outraged about this at least admit now that the NLRB was equally wrong to intervene in Boeing’s decision to locate some of its new production capacity in South Carolina rather than Washington state? If the decision to locate new, additional capacity for making Jeeps in China — assuming that’s what Chrysler’s doing here — is OK, then surely Boeing’s decision to do the same for making airplanes is also OK. And Boeing wasn’t even taking production offshore.
Kyle Wingfield
October 30th, 2012
7:25 pm
mike @ 7:20: You might welcome personal attacks, but I discourage them on my blog. So if that’s all you’re trying to do here — well, that and say some patently, outrageously false things (e.g., sky-high gas prices are the Obama administration’s thing, remember) — you’ll need to move along.
@@
October 30th, 2012
7:28 pm
Hillbilly:
Couldn’t tell ‘ya…my eyes were closed, remember?
(IW&SH)
mike:
You call that a personal attack? Just havin’ a little fun wit’cha.
Chill, dude!
mike
October 30th, 2012
7:32 pm
Kyle, have you lost your mind? If gas prices go sky-high, it will be because of another irresponsible war against Iran during Romney’s administration. What are you talking about?
Kyle Wingfield
October 30th, 2012
7:33 pm
mike @ 7:32: Funny, just a week ago everyone was complaining that Romney sounded just like Obama on foreign policy during their debate. Now he’s back to being a war-monger.
mike
October 30th, 2012
7:39 pm
Kyle, in all literal honesty, I believe that war with Iran is already “written into the plan” for after the election — regardless of who is elected. I can say with a 99% certainty, that if Romney is elected, war with Iran will certainly follow and the concomitant high gas prices. Who on earth is going to insure an oil tanker transiting the Persian Gulf when it is bounded by Iran it’s entire length? All it takes is one “extremist” with a RPG to take out one of those tankers.
Kyle Wingfield
October 30th, 2012
7:46 pm
mike: I’m not going to argue with you about what a war with Iran would do to gas prices. But if you think it’s happening either way, why pin it on one candidate over the other?
bluecoat
October 30th, 2012
7:48 pm
Aquagirl- Bet you are not the only one having those thoughts.
Hillbilly D
October 30th, 2012
7:49 pm
I believe that war with Iran is already “written into the plan” for after the election — regardless of who is elected. I can say with a 99% certainty, that if Romney is elected, war with Iran will certainly follow and the concomitant high gas prices.
If that’s what you believe, why single out Romney? If it’s going to happen no matter who is elected, it’ll happen if Obama wins, too, so why play favorites?
mike
October 30th, 2012
7:50 pm
Kyle, I guess what I’m trying to say is that with Romney it (war with Iran) is a near 100% certainty. With Obama, maybe not so much. I don’t know. I do know this: war with Iran won’t be neat and clean like Iraq and Afghanistan. Look for the Russian and Chinese to come into this one. Look for another humiliating defeat a la Vietnam.
bluecoat
October 30th, 2012
7:55 pm
Neat clean wars.Mike take a break.
Aquagirl
October 30th, 2012
7:58 pm
war with Iran is already “written into the plan”
Pffft. Like anyone’s gonna notice a war with Jaguars eating the sun.
mike
October 30th, 2012
7:59 pm
bluecoat: another imbecilic (insult) comment. Nothing of substance to say.
Do any of you really think we can win any war with China? Or Russia? Especially when they are both operating on their own land masses? We just can’t learn from our past mistakes. How many trillions will be wasted on another needless war?
mike
October 30th, 2012
8:04 pm
Most of you are too young to remember the Korean “conflict.” Things went swimmingly until we crossed the Yalu River (the Chinese border). Once this happened the Chinese entered the war and pushed the Americans all the way back to the 38th parallel. We are lucky that they decided to stop there and enter into a “cease-fire.” Otherwise, they would have completely annihilated the American forces and taken over the entire Koren peninsula. Those who are ignorant of history are destined to repeat it.
Hillbilly D
October 30th, 2012
8:12 pm
Actually, U.N. forces didn’t cross the Yalu River in the Korean War. The Chinese crossed the river and attacked when the U.N. forces (us mainly) approached the river. They didn’t wait for anybody to cross before going on the offensive, which militarily was a pretty smart move.
JDW
October 30th, 2012
8:20 pm
With you on this one. I am both a big Disney and Star Wars fan. I read tons of sci if…it is my favorite genre but lots of the time it is tough to transition to two dimensions…Dune for instance.
This is a perfect acquisition and I am really looking forward to seeing what they do with the story.
JDW
October 30th, 2012
8:26 pm
As for wars, there are no neat and clean ones. Unlike Iraq, Iran is actually a potential threat and if it comes to a choice of war or Iran with nukes then war it is. I just hope we learned our lesson in Iraq…shock and awe followed by the modern Marshall Plan is the only way to make it work.
mike
October 30th, 2012
8:27 pm
HD, you’re right. I always thought. And, I thought I had heard on TV that McArthur had crossed the Yalu River and that was why he was relieved of duty. I stand corrected.
Dusty
October 30th, 2012
8:46 pm
I quit. Now we’ve got a war going with Mickey Mouse and Luke Skywalker.anddddd the Korean, Iraq, Afghan bit thrown in on Mayan calendar time. I’m going out and pet my son’s Jeep just to see if it speaks Chinese. Heaven help us, the sky is falling and I have only one umbrella.
Seriously, the storm pictures are incredible and so many people in distress. It is heartbreaking. I say a prayer for them. Tough times and tragedy for so many.
Sleep tight and pull the covers up. It’s cold out there. G’nite
iggy
October 30th, 2012
8:47 pm
“Girl Im just a Jeepster for your love…”
Don't Tread
October 30th, 2012
8:52 pm
Star Trek went down that path after the Next Generation cast retired from the movie set. Everybody’s screwing with the timelines these days…I guess “linear” is just too mainstream now
The Jar Jar character was a drag on the last set of movies. I’m all for a little comic relief every now and then, but that crossed over into stupid. I wonder where ol’ George thought that was a good idea.
DawgDad
October 30th, 2012
8:53 pm
For all the left-wing wingnuts, I’d say there’s about a 99.9%+ chance military action will be taken against Iran after the election REGARDLESS of who gets elected. Do you really believe NATO and the Gulf States could stand being neighbors with a nuclear Iran? This has next to nothing to do with Israel.
PROUD NAVY VET
October 30th, 2012
9:01 pm
Gas prices have gone up so high because of the decrease in the supply and the fact there are about 20 million more barrels of oil being used every day since peole in china and Indina have started to drive and the middle class in both of those countries are doing the same thing the middle class does in every other coiuntry around the world. It has nothing to do with the President. Why do y’all say that? I guess you will find some weak minded poeple who won’t research anything for themselves. The price of a barrel of oil is set by Wall Street. Just like the price of coffee or anything else that’s traded on Wall Street. Today Wall Street bought oil for delivery around December 12th.They set the price of oil for the world by doing that. As for Jeep, everybody knows he said it, it’s had over 500,000 views on U-Tube. He said it trying to scare the Jeep employees in OH. What can be be thinking? He’s not. This is from people who voted GW in as President 2x. I think you should just be quiet. He should just say I made a mistake, and I don’t think the Federal Gov should give up the role of FEMA. We also heard about the training of pole workers in WI. Misrepresent who can vote and who can’t. Now Grover Norquest has an attack ad in VA aganist the President. Nice.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 30th, 2012
9:04 pm
I’d rather have Battlestar Gallactica crank out a few more episodes myself.
JDW
October 30th, 2012
9:27 pm
@Whiner…”Battlestar Gallactica”
It was a great show but I don’t know where they could take it from here…however if it means seeing Tricia Helfer in more of those outfits I am in…the one I thought ended too soon was the Universe version of Stargate.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 30th, 2012
9:31 pm
JDW – I think they left the door open.
I’m just sayin it was better than Star Wars, by far…
ragnar danneskjold
October 30th, 2012
9:32 pm
Smart move by Lucas, maybe not so smart move by Disney. But Disney had to do something to get its mojo again. Looking almost as desperate as a certain presidential campaign.
I would not bet the house on Jeep production staying in the US. Agree that the Board said it would, but the ownership may be saying something quite different:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-28/marchionne-seen-missing-fiat-sales-target-by-19-billion#p1
I suspect Romney customarily listens to owners rather than directors; that’s how you make deals.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 30th, 2012
9:34 pm
If you want to talk great TV, let’s go with The Sopranos or The Wire, either one eats Star Wars alive.
Chew Backer
October 30th, 2012
9:37 pm
Mickey Mouse & his liberal Sith Masters at Disney are all in the tank for 0bama JiveTalker.
On behalf of the Rebel Alliance against the Federal Empire, the Patriot Act and Darth Teleprompter, I hope Luke Skywalker sticks his lightsaber right up Mickey’s “Tunnel of Love.”
Han Solo 2016!
Chew Backer
October 30th, 2012
9:39 pm
The Phantom Menace, meet New Coke.
Georgia
October 30th, 2012
9:39 pm
Mickey Mouse has the range to play Darth Vader, Yoda, or even Java the Hut. The MouseMeister is our greatest actor, of that there can be no doubt. I love that little guy.
MICKEY!
Chew Backer
October 30th, 2012
9:42 pm
Were Emperor Palpatine and Barry 0bama born at the same hospital in Kenya?
Incidentally, both of them were Senators (for whom no one had a valid birth certificate or verified they weren’t members of The Sith) before a bunch of uneducated dumb masses voted each one into the highest office in the land.
CDog
October 30th, 2012
10:14 pm
Liberals declared war on the unborn in 1973 to the tune of 55,000,000 deaths. No GOP war comes even close. Abortion belongs in back alleys along with all other forms of murder.
Hillbilly D
October 30th, 2012
10:20 pm
No GOP war comes even close.
The first “GOP” war was 600,000+.
Randy Ayn
October 30th, 2012
10:50 pm
Liberals haven’t declared war on the unborn. They just want to give women the choice of having a child or not, and, in some cases, the ability to save their own life by not going through child birth. I’d be a lot more worried about conservatives who have declared war on the born (you know, actual humans – not “pre-people” or “unborn” or whatever the code word is today) by denying them health care.
Chew Backer
October 30th, 2012
10:57 pm
RE: “They just want to give women the choice of having a child or not…” – Randy Ayn @ 10:50 pm
Randy Ayn,
Women made the collective choice to have a child when they CHOSE to spread their legs like peanut butter for some low-quality guy who didn’t have a protective rain coat on Mr. Wobbly Finger.
see also: Padme Amidala Skywalker
wallbanger
October 30th, 2012
11:15 pm
What this means is that George Lucas and Kathleen kennedy, will become richer than they already are and Disney will scalp off all he can use of the Lucas properties, and then fire about half the people who currently work at Lucas. Big whoop. In this case, it makes me sick.
@@
October 31st, 2012
6:55 am
Woke up to read this from Kyle.
All I have to say about the Jeep thing is: I don’t know if the Romney campaign got some bad information, misread the Bloomberg story, or what. It would appear they got it wrong.
Romney’s ad isn’t a lie….everything he said in it is true. Misleading? Yes. A lie? No.
It’s not as if Obama hasn’t admitted to his campaigns misleading ads as well.
It’s the way politics are played these days.
Obama accuses Romney of outsourcing jobs to China and Romney turns the tables on Obama. Liberals believe one but not the other. Right thinking conservatives see it for what it is.
Liberal thinking is plagued by emotions. Conservative thinking is logical.
Off to work.
@@
October 31st, 2012
7:05 am
To quote in his interview with Steve Kroft of “60 Minutes”.
Obama—”"Do we see sometimes us going overboard in our campaign– mistakes that are made, or areas where there’s no doubt that somebody could dispute how we are presenting things? That happens in politics,” Obama said.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/23/obama-campaign-ads_n_1908281.html
Georgia
October 31st, 2012
7:13 am
The history of the Korean War: A civilian wouldn’t take one step down the nuclear path in order to unite the two Koreas and secure freedom for them from the Communists. A general in the field miscalculated when he considered the Communist Chinese reaction to his own offensive moves, but insisted he knew how the Chinese would react to a nuclear strike. “General, your fired”. Thank God for civilians.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
October 31st, 2012
8:00 am
Will will Romney be today on his “Get Out the Lie” campaign?
AtlSteve
October 31st, 2012
8:08 am
I need an X-wing fighter for this upcoming war with Iran. Does anyone know where I can get a good used one? Please, no more than 200 light years on the odometer.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
October 31st, 2012
8:57 am
“Will will Romney be today on his “Get Out the Lie” campaign?”
I don’t believe Romney will be stumping for Obama today, Finn.
flagboy?
October 31st, 2012
9:03 am
Ah. . . a blog comment about star wars and disney turns into a discussion about which guy is going to drive up gas prices.
I hope episodes 7, 8, and 9 are good. I will be watching them in the theater for certain.
Lambeau
October 31st, 2012
9:19 am
I Report, earlier you said The Sopranos… yes. SO good. That and Breaking Bad are two of my favorites.
Granaduk
October 31st, 2012
9:22 am
This article is is an example of why I quit subscribing to the Atlanta Journal. I want NEWS not fluff and biased opinion;
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
October 31st, 2012
9:22 am
I always thought the idea of a prequel designed to tell us how we got to the first movie was good, but I thought the execution was poor and relied on whiz-bang special effects too much and story too little.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
October 31st, 2012
9:25 am
In the immortal words of Sgt. Hulka, Granaduk, “Lighten up, Francis . . .”
Kyle Wingfield
October 31st, 2012
9:29 am
Granaduk: If you don’t want opinion, don’t wander onto the opinion blogs. If you don’t want “fluff,” read just about any other post on my blog. I don’t do these kind of posts often.
Rush
October 31st, 2012
9:34 am
My goodness what a sad sack bunch of complainers…..Kyle asks for an opinion on something other than politics and some of you cannot put away your attack dog mentality. Lighten up and enjoy a day of life for a moment or two.
Rush
October 31st, 2012
9:36 am
Tiberius…..looks like I was typing same message…..Stripes……………….also nice line from the movie…”That’s a fact, Jack”.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
October 31st, 2012
9:41 am
And Kyle, is there really such a thing as “unbiased” opinion?
Kyle Wingfield
October 31st, 2012
9:48 am
Tiberius @ 9:41: Of course there’s such a thing as an unbiased opinion! Just ask anyone on earth about their own opinion, and they’ll tell you so.
RW-(the original)
October 31st, 2012
9:48 am
I let my mind wander. I was in the bar scene of Star Wars (the original).
See anybody from this blog there?
With a name like Star Wars (the original) it sounds like some distant relative of mine she was hanging out with.
Emperor Palpatine
October 31st, 2012
9:56 am
The HATE for hardworking, conservative, Christian Caucasian-Americans is STROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNGGGGGGGG with You, 0bama Supporters!
I can FEEL your anger…
You have every right to HATE them. They make all those confusing laws for you to obey.
Let The HATE flow through you.
YESSSSSSSSSSS……
YESSSSSSSSSSS…….
Rightwing Troll
October 31st, 2012
9:57 am
Lord please… no ewoks or Jar Jar’s….
Cutty
October 31st, 2012
10:01 am
Nice deflection w the Boeing comeback, Wingfield. And its an example of a larger point that you seem to rail against ‘liberals’, of which I’m not, while continuing to allow your party to skate on a number of issues. Ethics being the exception. You were against T-Splost because of your mistrust of government. But somehow are for the charter school amendment. What changed?
Deal has shown that he likes appointing cronies to key positions. Heck, look at the tiff between he and the state Superintendent. Nothing on his shady land deal in Hall from you either and that was weeks ago. No you don’t have to write about the election all the time, but there sure as he77 is A lot right under your nose that you’ve missed as an opinion writer. The question is, how come? Looks like partisanship to me. Attack Obama and let Shady Deal, Romney, etc slide. Even Bookman gives it to democrats once every blue moon.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
October 31st, 2012
10:24 am
The only people more partisan than the opinion columnist on this blog are the people who complain about his partisanship.
Kyle Wingfield
October 31st, 2012
11:42 am
Cutty @ 10:01: “Nice deflection w the Boeing comeback”
Nice deflection, yourself. At least I acknowledged that Romney appears to have gotten his facts wrong on the Jeep story. You’ve simply dodged the question I raised.
“You were against T-Splost because of your mistrust of government. But somehow are for the charter school amendment. What changed?”
Actually, I never said I opposed T-SPLOST because of mistrust of government; I took a long, hard look at the project list and decided it wasn’t worth the money. I did argue that mistrust in government was the leading reason the electorate turned down the metro Atlanta T-SPLOST, based on what I heard from individuals and groups that opposed it. Don’t conflate the two.
I would argue, to those who oppose the charter schools amendment because of mistrust of government, that we are talking about two entirely different scales of action. Even if John Barge is correct in predicting $430M in costs over five years, that pales in comparison to the $8B over 10 years that T-SPLOST would have represented in metro Atlanta alone. While there’s always an opportunity for cronyism and corruption in any government endeavor, I believe the risk of that is relatively low because of the earlier charter schools commission’s clean track record, while the potential reward is great.
I’ve criticized Georgia Republicans numerous times on this blog and in my print column. Some people choose not to notice.