As one of the most powerful and widely recognised brands In the world, it goes without saying that Walt Disney Studio’s have more than a few heavyweight film franchises under their belt. With the acquisition of both Marvel and Lucasfilm in the past five years Disney have broadened their horizons to unparalleled levels, and as a result they have quite a few blockbusters on their upcoming film slate.
Now at Tribeca Film Festival the chairman of the company, Alan Horn, has been speaking about some of their upcoming projects that are expected to hit theatres in the next two to three years. As some of the most lucrative franchises’ in cinematic history you can safely assume that Horn fails to give away any heavy spoilers, but he does however give some updates on the progress of STAR WARS EPISODE VII, CAPTAIN AMERICA 3 and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TAILS. You can read the interesting interview below:
In regards to STAR WARS EPISODE VII casting Horn states:
‘We’re not prepared to announce it yet but we will be very shortly announcing what we’re doing….We did some second unit work in Abu Dhabi and other places, because we have all these locations we have to film and we have to give it that “Star Warsian,” if I can use that as an adjective, look. So we needed to go to different places that give us the right look and feel and we did have second unit work shooting already but we haven’t commenced the main part of principle photography yet’.
Horn was then quizzed on the films release date and budget:
‘No, we’re not sure yet, we may revert. The Star Wars dates have been May, and we may revert to that at some point, it depends on the readiness of the screenplays or where we are, but this first one will be December 18th of 2015, so we’ll start with that and we’ll see’.
‘We actually don’t even have the completed budget yet. But it will be in that range. These large, tentpole kinds of movies, on the expensive side, are in the neighborhood of $175-200 million, that kind of a number — some are more, some are less. We need to give the audience, essentially, a full meal in return for their affection and devotion and love for these properties’.
Finally George Lucas’ role in the new film was discussed:
‘George is a consultant. The understanding is when he sold the company — and he did sell the company to the Walt Disney Company — so he’s very aware of that. So we now are the primary drivers behind this property. But he is a very valued person. He’s the father of all this. Kathy interacts with him, back and forth I think’.
In regards to the clashing release dates of CAPTAIN AMERICA 3 and BATMAN VS SUPERMAN, Horn stated:
‘We’ll see. We’re struggling with it’.
The report also mentions that when conversation turned to PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES, Horn re-affirmed that the film has yet to receive an official green-light due to dissatisfaction with the script. From the sounds of it we can expect some sort of official announcements on these prized franchises’ in the coming months if not sooner. Lets hope we finally get some official news on STAR WARS EPISODE VII too, as it sounds as if they’re almost done with casting (thank god).
Source: Coming Soon, Bloomberg TV
