During a panel at an investor conference, Disney's CFO calls the spin-offs 'origin story films' that will be inserted between the releases of the main J.J. Abrams trilogy.
- Sep 13, 2013
AceShowbiz - Disney's Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo gave a little more scoop on what they planned for the "Star Wars" spinoff movies set to be released between entries in the new J.J. Abrams trilogy. The CFO confirmed that the projects rumored to center around young Han Solo and Boba Fett would be "origin story films."
In front of a room of investors at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference, in Beverly Hills, Rasulo said, "The market is extremely hot for everything 'Star Wars'." Calling the franchise an "evergreen property," he stated, "Of all our worries, 'Star Wars' is not one of them."
When asked about any concern that younger kids might not be familiar with the films, the studio's executive said, "This is not a new franchise for kids," but there's still room for growth. "The sky's the limit," so he explained as quoted by Variety. "There's incredible flexibility. It's an unbelievable palette to create from."
With the flop of mega-budgeted movie "The Lone Ranger", Rasulo admitted "there needs to be a cap on (budgets of) tentpole franchise movies." Their strategy would be "to put out a great film." "We will lay the groundwork for that ... and when the film comes out in 2015, we'll be ready to blow it out," he elaborated.
"Star Wars Episode 7" is due in summer 2015, followed by "Star Wars Episode 8" in 2017 and "Star Wars Episode 9" in 2019. Not much else is known about the stand-alone movies, but writer Lawrence Kasdan once said he was "trying to start fresh." He explained, "There are certain pleasures that we think the saga can bring to people that they've been missing, and we're hoping to bring them that, and at the same time, have them feel that it's all new."
