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Disney feels the force

The Walt Disney Company will use its US$4.05bn acquisition of Lucasfilm not only to produce a string of new Stars Wars movies but to give the franchise a major push in TV and games as well.

The Mouse House announced yesterday it would pay the man who set up Lucasfilm 35 years ago and remains its sole owner half the sum in cash with the remainder via the issue of 40 million new shares.

George Lucas will remain onboard as creative consultant on new Star Wars features, with a new trilogy due to begin in 2015 completing episodes seven, eight and nine of the saga.

But the story won’t end there – Disney plans to release a new movie every two or three years after that and also sees huge potential in television, consumer products, games and theme parks.

The deal, which follows Disney’s similarly sized Marvel Entertainment buy-out in 2009 and the US$7.4bn acquisition of Pixar Animation before that in 2006, came as Wall Street remained closed for a second day in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

It gives Disney not only Star Wars but the Indiana Jones franchise also, plus the Oscar-winning post-production house Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound and LucasArts video games business.

It’s in the latter space that Disney sees significant potential to grow in particular – less in the console market but more in social and mobile, chairman and CEO Robert Iger said on a conference call half an hour after the acquisition was announced.

Lucasfilm recently teamed up with Rovio for a co-branded version of Angry Birds that’s expected to go stellar when it’s released next month. Rovio has its own ambitions about becoming the next Disney, but with the Mouse House taking control of Lucasfilm it will seek to radically reshape many of the existing franchise agreements.

This could well extend to top-rating Cartoon Network series Star Wars: The Clone Wars – a property that would sit well on Disney XD. In line with other Disney activities, Star Wars will likely get a major push in the social game universe too.

But for the time being, Star Wars fans will be eager to see what impact the Disney takeover has on the look and feel of the beloved movies, which earned a total of US$4.4bn in global box office sales to date.

“This transaction combines a world-class portfolio of content including Star Wars, one of the greatest family entertainment franchises of all time, with Disney’s unique and unparalleled creativity across multiple platforms, businesses, and markets to generate sustained growth and drive significant long-term value,” said Iger.

Lucas hired Kathleen Kennedy as co-chair of Lucasfilm earlier this year in a step towards his own retirement plans. Under Disney’s ownership, she will now become president of Lucasfilm, reporting to Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn.

“It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime,” said Lucas.

“Disney’s reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment, and consumer products.”

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