Indiana Jones and the Disney Connection

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
micsteam said:
To all the naysayers out there about the Disney acquisition and now the new news that they've acquired the rights from Paramount for future IJ projects... this is really a good thing. Look I totally understand the perception that Indiana Jones is an individual's idea or a small group's idea that flourished into this big movie chain/following and that a corporation like Disney is just taking advantage and buying up (stealing some see it) an original idea and character for them to incorporate into their " Empire "to make money. Lucas was getting tired of being responsible, which he is, for how he handled, lately, his properties and hearing about it and defending himself. I feel he wanted out to a certain degree and what better company to buy his than Disney ?? What people don't get is Lucas didn't have to sell to anybody and if he wanted to he could choose whom he would. I'm sure Disney had been making offers for years, and not just recently I'm pretty positive he's been approached since the late 70's. Here's another aspect of this, Lucas is now a major shareholder with Disney as part of the negotiation ( as was John Lassiter from Pixar when Disney bought them and he's also a former employee)so basically if Lucas doesn't like what's going on he does have a say. The way things are rolling out for the next Star Wars movie by bringing on Lawrenece Kasdan (writer for Empire Strikes Back, Raiders, ROTJ) and J.J. Abrams and trying to get the original cast says Disney respects the franchise and what got it there and wants to get back to that. Now we have the latest news with Disney getting a deal done with Paramount, I think this is great news... it means we're going to get more Indiana Jones !! How Disney goes about it is speculation at best but anything is possible now, look at Disney's financial and productional resources !! Animation is possible but I feel that Indy is a fictional character set in our own recent history and I feel (strongly) that it should be live like the movies or YIJ Chronicles ( the only issue I had with YIJ was that young Indy was such a departure from Ford's Indy and as much as I did and still do I love the effort, production, and acting of YIJ Chronicles... had to get that off my chest). Here's my point, do you want the Indiana Jones Franchise (or however you want to term it ... Stoo ;) ) to rest in one individual's hands ( pending that person's schedule, life commitments, etc) or a major company that for the most part respects a franchise it incorporates and has almost limitless resources to keep producing more productions/stories of your favorite character ?? My opinion is this is a good thing.


Good? Yes. Groundbreaking? No. They've simply added the distribution and marketing to rights their previously owned material. That means every plastic Indy doll sold in the park now has a greater profit coming back to them, instead of over to Paramount. Yes it allows them the freedom to move forward in clearer waters, but it doesn't mean there is anything on board. And while this explaination should be in a different thread, it also means we'll see more of the campy stuff in the parks (like a Darth Vader Santa Claus) along the lines of Indiana Jones searching for Easter Eggs in Critter County come this spring.
 

micsteam

New member
I agree with you, Pale Horse, a big part of this deal with Paramount is about the rights to market IJ in the parks and in general. I can see where you might have some skepticism as to another movie or TV show but ( and we can dissagree on this) this was about having options to the Indiana Jones franchise and it was more than marketing rights. Here's the deal, anybody can pitch an idea to Disney and see if they bite, right ?? Indiana Jones has shown it can generate money, that's not arguementative that's FACT. Spielberg, Ford, and Lucas have all said they're in (I don't know if Lucas' participation is really a condition anymore, I think it might be as he's a personal friend of Spielberg's I dunno we'll see). Beyond the speculative story that Ford had a verbal agreement with Disney execs that there'd be a story for the next IJ by 2014 in his agreeance to particpate in SW VII, this whole thing seems more than coincidental, not that Ford's position will sway a whole studio but I think it was part of a number of things that Disney needed to address with the Indiana Jones franchise. :hat:
 
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