Pixar-style Ben Kenobi by Phil Postma
Another day, another Star Wars rumour. This time, reports are floating around that Pixar, those awesome folk behind some of the best films of the past decade-and-a-half, are working on a Star Wars. Not Episode VII, presumably, but something entirely separate. Count me intrigued and, well fanboyishly optimistic.
Rob Bricken of io9, however, recognizes that it might be more of a leap-of-faith than a full blown rumour. “Anyone who remembers that Disney owns Star Wars, Disney owns Pixar, and Pixar makes good movies, could probably put all the facts together and come out with the same hypothesis,” he said. “So let’s all pretend it is true, and maybe we’ll force Disney to conform reality to our wishes.”
Adam Whitehead shares his own concerns about Disney’s intentions with the Star Wars Expanded Universe that currently exists in the Star Wars books, videogames, and comic books. “Something that irritates in all of this, “No-one cares about the Star Wars games, books and comics!” stuff is how BS it is,” Whitehead said on Twitter. “The Star Wars Expanded Universe-set materials have made about $6 billion. That’s more than the theatrical gross of the 6 movies. And about a third of the combined films theatrical gross+home video/DVD/Blu-Ray sales. Still very significant.” Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy has sold nearly 20 million copies by itself, which is more than George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (which is up to five books now), which illuminates just how important the EU is to a lot of fans. However, I wonder, how many of those 20 million were sold to the children and young adults that will become obsessed with the Pixar film and fill their parents’ ears for all the associated merchandise?
