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Author Topic: Disney buys LucasFilm John Wilson Film God Posts: 5438 From: Sydney, Australia. Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-31-2012 02:23 PM                     quote: Martin McCaffery We don't know from the story, but I assume he maintains the copyright. How he's licensed it to Disney is the question, and will provide the answer as to wether the originals are re-released in any form. If I paid $4 Billion bucks, I'd damn sure want to own the copyrights as part of the deal.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-31-2012 02:30 PM                        it's entirely possible for Lucas to own the copyright but lease it to Disney for 40 years, or whatever. Inasmuch as we have about the worst copyright laws in the world thanks to Disney, I suspect your position is the one they took  |  IP: Logged Mark Ogden Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 943 From: Little Falls, N.J. Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-31-2012 03:32 PM                     quote: One of the big questions here in San Francisco is what this merger means to the hundreds of employees at the LucasFilm facility here in The City. On the one hand, Disney is one of the most virulently bottom line oriented, anti-labor and anti-rank-and-file companies in America. They try to pass themselves off as a pro-family company with their amusement parks and such, but the devastation they wreak on their employees families has been hard to watch. I have three buddies at ABC that had long careers there, but after Iger and Company forced a devastating change in the NABET contract they all were laid off, as well as most of the engineering staff. They WERE told that they could come back as per-diems with no benefits or pensions, a scumbag move if ever there was one. Come to think of it, I don't personally know a single Disney employee that has ever said a single positive thing about the company, ever. In fact, if you watch The Simpsons, every so often there will be an inside-industry joke about how lousy Disney treats people. On the other hand, when they took over Pixar they seem to have left everybody as they found them. So maybe Kathleen Kennedy will be left alone to run things as they are now. I hope so.  |  IP: Logged Paul H. Rayton Expert Film Handler Posts: 210 From: Los Angeles, CA , USA Registered: Aug 2003 posted 10-31-2012 03:45 PM                    With reference to Mark's comments about happy employees at Disney, I know a [former] Disney employee who once commented to me: "You know that sign they have over the entranceway, 'Welcome to the happiest place on earth'? That's *not* the sign over the *employees* entrance!" I think the sign to which he was referring is over the entrance to Disneyland, not the studio, but the observation is right on!  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-31-2012 06:51 PM                        Eh. If Disney was the hell-hole that people like to think it is, they'd never be able to keep any good employees and they'd constantly be plagued by walkouts. I'd bet you could find at least two dozen people who love working for the company for every "disgruntled" employee. I think people look at Disney's public image and forget that it is a profit-making BUSINESS, just like any other large company. They're there to make money. The fact that they do it by creating "magic" is secondary.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 10-31-2012 08:12 PM                     quote: Mike Blakesley Eh. If Disney was the hell-hole that people like to think it is, they'd never be able to keep any good employees and they'd constantly be plagued by walkouts. Working at Disney is a "glamour job." Lots of students fresh out of art school want to work at Disney as animators or in some other creative capacity. Because of the glut of talent wanting to get in, Disney doesn't have to offer great benefits packages, etc. Of those who get jobs there, not many spend their entire careers there. Those who leave do so for various reasons, like finding better jobs elsewhere, starting their own business, etc. Working in the broadcast industry is pretty much the same thing. Limitless supply of students getting out of some kind broadcast school. Only so many TV stations. That equals slogging it out, paying one's dues in small market TV stations for shit pay and shit hours. One has to leapfrog from one station to the next hoping to eventually land at a major market, network owned station for presumably better pay/hours/benefits. Or the broadcast worker thinks outside of the box and finds some sort of niche that pays a hell of a lot better than dinking around in a TV station. I imagine Disney has left Pixar alone (for now) since the company still does much to define the cutting edge in movie animation. If Disney cuts pay/benefits in big ways there Pixar would experience one hell of a brain drain. And the results would show on screen in subsequent movie projects. Someone who really knows his stuff with 3D movie animation and related software engineering could get snapped up by a rival studio or gaming company.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-31-2012 10:30 PM                        quote: Bobby Henderson Working at Disney is a "glamour job." Lots of students fresh out of art school want to work at Disney Yeah, but that's only maybe less than 1% of the people who work for Disney. I was talking about their workforce as a whole. They employ something like 65,000 at Disney World alone. There can't be all that many unhappy workers -- if there were, they'd make a noise loud enough to hear clearly. Instead they usually come off sounding like spoiled kids. And if they are TRULY unhappy, and they're good at what they do, going somewhere else shouldn't be a problem (well except in this down economy, but normally it shouldn't).  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 11-01-2012 11:13 AM                     The "normal" in terms of job market dynamics is changing. IMHO, it's now every bit as risky, if not even more so, to work for a large corporation as it is working for any small business. You don't typically hear of small businesses arbitrarily shedding 10% or 20% of their workforce to please stock shareholders or terminate a bunch of American employees to send the production off to India or China. A lot of people just keep quiet about any displeasure they have working for a big company. It's not so easy to switch jobs these days, especially if you have your life complicated with a home mortgage, kids, etc. I'll bet a lot of people in managerial positions at Disney are in this boat. Maybe even a lot of lower level employees too. Creative fields are under attack from different directions. Some companies are trying to figure out ways to send such work overseas for cheap. But that usually doesn't work because of the tremendous cultural disconnect. Amateur hour is undercutting professional creative workers here at home. Anyone with enough cash to buy a DSLR and able to acquire some creative graphics apps legally or illegally can jump into the field whether he has the talent to justify the move or not. The end result is professionals have a tougher time charging fair prices for their work. I remember seeing an article on Yahoo listing 10 professions with surprisingly not so great pay on average. Photography was in the list.  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 11-01-2012 01:09 PM                     LucasFilm acquired all rights to Star Wars (A New Hope) from Fox in return for choosing Fox to distribute Episodes 1, 2, 3. Fox never had the rights to Empire and Jedi, they were only the distributor, so LucasFilm now owns them all. Disney will soon be able to do for Star Wars what they did for the Muppets...  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-01-2012 03:37 PM                        A new Christmas Special?  |  IP: Logged Michael Gonzalez Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 790 From: Grand Island , NE USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 11-01-2012 07:19 PM                     StarWars Episode 7: The Search For More Money  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-01-2012 08:57 PM                        I don't see anything wrong with making more money as long as they put out a good product. It's certainly better than Lucas re-jiggering the original movies every couple of years. All these people who are upset about Disney buying Lucasfilm. It's so stupid! Four days ago, there was never going to be another Star Wars movie. Now, we can look forward to a future containing several, and maybe many more movies, all based on stories and ideas from George Lucas. Yet people are complaining, without having seen a single image of what's coming. Then there are the theme parks. Most people who have seen "Star Tours" at Hollywood Studios think it's awesome. (I'm not even a huge Star Wars fan, and I think it's awesome.) Now there is the possibility of rides, lands, even maybe whole parks based on Star Wars. Just think of those possibilities. It boggles the mind. Anyone who's seen Cars Land at California Adventure knows what Disney can accomplish when they set their sights high. People were thinking Disney would be on the ropes thanks to Universal's acquisition of Harry Potter...this changes that game completely. Then on top of all that is the Indiana Jones series. I'll bet there's a whole future of new goodies there, too. Disney's already got some very high quality attractions based on that series as well. If people are going to hate, the solution is very simple: Continue to cherish your videos of the originals and ignore Disney's new output. At the very least, why not give Disney a chance and see what happens?  |  IP: Logged Michael Gonzalez Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 790 From: Grand Island , NE USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 11-01-2012 10:00 PM                     Um, I am not sure you got the movie reference I was making there Mike... I didn't think it was that obscure.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-02-2012 02:42 AM                        I didn't realize you were making a movie reference. And, I was responding just as much to all the general hysteria around the web from Star Wars fans. Not just your comment.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-02-2012 11:57 AM                        To add a couple of thoughts to what I wrote in my previous post -- I get irritated when I hear the comment, "they're just doing it for the money." HELLO.....every single movie that's ever been made has been done in the hope of making money. Am I against stupid cash-in sequels? Absolutely. But if there are good stories, they're better being on the screen than tucked away in a file drawer somewhere.  |  IP: Logged

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