Another great episode guys. Thanks.
I wish we had these more often. I enjoy the round-table discussions. This actually brought me back to the forum to post. I hadn't been here since right after AC. Just lost the will to talk about it.
The big thing I wanted to address was the stuff about Disney. It's funny how this is being talked about across various different venues. So,in addition to this podcast, I also follow the Weekly Planet, Red Letter Media, CineGods, Comic Book Cast, Midnight's Edge, Georg Rockall-Schmidt and Please Rewind.
Most of them have discussed the Disney - Fox talks. Of course there a lot of different perspectives on it. I cite these sources because I think they are worth listening to about it. Most of these are movie and genre related shows.
I think it's clear that Disney, or rather what it is now, is a large corporation that owns and manages several other smaller companies. A lot of people seem to think that they are very hands on. I don't think that is necessarily the case. They seem to be content to let the sub-companies run things until and unless the sub-companies become unprofitable or show that they are in trouble.
Ridgetop spoke about the problems that Star Wars has had with directors as an example of Disney interference. This is actually an issue with the leadership at Lucasfilm. Disney did not stop Lord and Miller from directing Han Solo. In fact that film was almost done when they were ousted. So that means that Disney at the corporate level had no problem with their hire or at least TRUSTED Lucasfilm to make the right decisions for it's projects. The same is true for Rogue One. The problem lies with Lucasfilm. They chose poorly and had a lack of vision or focus for those projects so that when they were almost to the point of no return that they had to be course corrected to save them. Kathleen Kennedy shoulders all the responsibility as the head of Lucasfilm. They made poor choices and they allowed them to run too long. Disney is content to let Lucasfilm run things UNTIL they prove they can and THEN you will see a leadership change. Lucas film is the one that hired JJ too. If you have a problem with the new trilogy, that's all JJ and Kennedy.
Disney lets Marvel run their own business. They are profitable and they put butts in seats, As long as they can do that Disney will stay out of things. An example is when Kevin Feige reportedly went to Disney to get Ike Pearlmutter moved out of the movie division because he was a problem. Permutter was keeping them from making more money because he stood in the way of various projects and partnerships. The SONY Spiderman collaboration would never have happened under his leadership.
If Disney did buy FOX outright, which is NOT what all this was about, they would likely run all projects that are currently coming out of FOX like Deadpool 2 as FOX release. FOX would essentially operate as a sub company under the Disney flag. As long as they were profitable and were moving forward, they would be left alone. When they don't, Disney would most definitely step in. I suspect they'd make sure teams were in place to manage "franchises" like Alien and Predator where there apparently are none. This might mean bringing people in to form those teams. Be assured they would do so to keep those things moving forward.
The main reason they are having these meetings is for the streaming service they are building. If they purchase pieces of FOX or buy distribution rights to the FOX catalog, they will have more content they can put on there service. They have already singed agreements with a few studios to get their films on the Disney Movies Anywhere App which has been re-branded to MOVIES Anywhere. This is the place where you get digital version of a film when you buy it. That is most certainly a step to the end goal.
Yes, they are probably talking to FOX about the distribution rights to ANH and the Marvel properties that FOX has the rights to. However, the streaming service is far more important to the DISNEY corporation's future goals. They plan the be THE number one service. Incidentally,this is also where I am sure Disney does put pressure on Lucasfilm and Marvel. They need content. So, I am sure they give mandates to all their sub companies to have thngs to put on that service. In this scenario they'd be telling then they need X number of series in development for a 2018 release. They need X number of movies ready. Remember that Disney owns Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Disney Animation, ABC Television, and ESPN. They are not going to HURT a brand. They want them to be successful and they will do what they need to do to make that happen.
It's not all bout princesses and castles...
