Star Wars: Han goes solo

It's no real surprise that Disney would want to make the most of the Star Wars franchise and it is now confirmed that as well as the new Star Wars movie, there will also be Han Solo and Boba Fett standalone movies. Details are scarce but Disney have confirmed that the Han Solo movie will look at the younger character - let's hope Disney remember the western movies the original Star Wars was based upon, and that we get smoky cantinas, dustcoats flapping and blasters blasting.

I quite like Star Wars but wouldn't consider myself a major fan and so I have no issues with Disney now taking over the franchise -after all I've never considered George Lucus that hot -after all let's be honest the Star Wars franchise consists of one classic SF movie, The Empire Strikes Back, one enjoyable space pantomime  Star Wars itself and several action figure adverts - all of the other bloody movies.

Though there is no way to deny the vast impact Star Wars holds over popular culture, so the new movies will be hotly anticipated. I was twelve years old when the original Star Wars movie came out and I must have seen it in my local cinema at least twice a week for a fortnight - I can remember watching it on a Sunday afternoon and then hiding in the toilets until the next showing, but when I watch it now, as an adult, I can see how creaky and often downright childish it is. Still the movies (even Episode 1 which beats Plan 9 from Outer Space in the corny dialogue stakes) mean a lot to a great many people especially those with shares in action figure companies.

Bring it on Disney and may the profits be with you.....

Not everyone is happy about

The Disney Star Wars deal:

New Star Wars movie to use original cast

Disney have now confirmed that the first of the new Star Wars movies will see big screens in 2015 and that Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher will all get small roles playing their original characters. The hot bet with fans is that the story will be set a number of years after Return of the Jedi and that Luke, Han and Leia are all now aged characters. I'm inclined to trust Disney on this and it is at least certain that they can't make a bigger mess than Lucus did himself with the second trilogy of Star Wars films. I remember being horrified when Disney took over Marvel but look what happened with the Avengers movie. And isn't it something we all want to see - the original cast reprising the original characters though there will be one exception, at least according to director/comedian Kevin Smith who claims to be playing Jabba.

“I can see both sides of it. Because in a way, there was a beginning, a middle, and an end and we all lived happily ever after and that’s the way it should be — and it’s great that people have fond memories, if they do have fond memories.But on the other hand, there’s this ravenous desire on the part of the true believers to have more and more and more material.” Mark Hamill


"Star Wars 7" will be released in 2015, "with more feature films expected to continue the Star Wars saga and grow the franchise well into the future," Disney Spokesman

Disney swallows Lucusfilm and promises new Star Wars

The deal has been struck and means that the Disney company now own Lucasfilm and will start filming a new Star Wars trilogy with the first film due in 2015. George Lucus will get more than 2 billion in cash and the same amount in shares, making him a major shareholder in the massive Disney company.

Disney now owns both Star Wars and Indiana Jones, and as well as the promised new Star Wars movies, upon which George Lucus will serve as a creative consultant, it is likely that Indiana will also be rebooted.