Disney brings bank balance to the force

There’s no question what the big business news was this week. Catching most analysts on the hop, Walt Disney has confirmed that it is to acquire Lucasfilm, the production company set up 40 years ago by George of that ilk, for the hefty sum of $4.05 billion (€3.01 billion).

The deal gives the Mouse House control over Lucas’s Star Wars franchise and, terrifying veterans of The Phantom Menace everywhere, the new rulers of the empire quickly confirmed that a seventh live-action episode will be coming our way in 2015.

A statement from Lucas seemed to suggest he would not be behind the megaphone.

“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,” he said. “I’m confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organisation, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come.”

Life has really changed at Disney in the past few years. In the middle of the last decade the studio scaled its release slate down to a handful of films a year. Having since acquired Marvel Entertainment and, now, Lucasfilms, the studio, which also owns Pixar, again finds itself one of the biggest beasts in the movie jungle.