Huffington Magazine Issue 22 | Page 30

Voices SUNJEEV BERY HUFFINGTON 11.11.12 Saving Star Wars WHILE HURRICANE SANDY was pounding on our windows, Disney quietly slipped the announcement that it had purchased Lucasfilm under our doors. For just over $4 billion, Disney will not only acquire the special effects machine that George Lucas built, but it will also get its hands on three treatments for a new series of Star Wars films. The first of these Star Wars ILLUSTRATION BY KYLE T. WEBSTER movies, Episode VII, will be released in 2015. This is both an opportunity and treacherous territory. Will a third trilogy make up for the flimsiness of the second? Or is this going to be another round of Happy Meal entertainment—dumb accents, lame characters and everything else? Whoever Disney hires—and whatever these hires produce— there are some basic rules that Sunjeev Bery is a writer based in Washington, D.C.