Kathleen Kennedy Leaving Lucasfilm?

Yes with thunderous applause. As much love as Kevin Feige gets he never had to try and navigate the mine field that a transition from a legend required.

 

Why would they have to start filming in "early 2019"? Episode 9 starts filming in July 2018 for a December 2019 release. Using that same timetable, you could start filming in July of next year for a December 2020 release. It is also entirely plausible that they decide to take 18 months off after E9 and give us the next movie in Summer 2021 (which I think might be the wisest course of action).

Regardless, the statement that replacing Kennedy would lead to a 3-year break between movies is not valid.

Lucas sold all interests in LFL to Disney and has no say anymore. The fact that Lucas handpicked her will do her no favors with Disney. In fact, if anything it will work against her. Believe me when I say high level executives often prefer having their own people working below them as opposed to people that someone else selected.

 

You are suggesting more then starting filming in early 2019. You are talking about a new leader in charge. A new film picked, pre-production work, story, script etc. Rian Johnson started writing the script for TLJ 1.5 years before TFA released. In The Art of the The Last Jedi there is artwork from early 2013 showing Kira (Rey) and Luke on Ach-To, etc. If you are throwing away what KK is responsible for then you are starting over with a lot of things except Ep9 and I would say the Dan and Dave series.

 

She's not some new kid on the block. She's the best choice to be running Lucasfilm at this time with her history with Lucasfilm when she produced Spielberg's films. Replacing her won't satiate the fan base. The negative portions of fan base will always find someone or something about which to complain.

 

Cross-posted:

 

Ugh. If someone's looking for a real-life embodiment of a Sith, look no further than this person. She relishes in chaos, drama and

(Welcome back, Natalie Portman clickbait gif. I've missed you dearly.)

 

Oh this could be...*sees source*...nope this is not good.

As @Pawek_13 said, she is really good a drumming up bantha poodoo drama.
Remember when she publicly tried to drag John and Ann Campea because she works for Hasbro and therefore made them complete and total shills for Disney?
She's a clown and should be taken as seriously as an ice salesman in Antarctica

 

Don't forget, Grace once worked for Marvel, and after she was fired, Disney became the devil itself in her eyes!

 

There appears to be be a rumour surfacing, hitting into several media news outlets saying Bog Iger wants to get rid of the head of Lucasfilm. This is deeply connected to TLJ backlash and the Solo flop.

https://www.express.co.uk/entertain...cklash-Disney-FIRE-Kathleen-Kennedy-JJ-Abrams

Now, anonomous sources published through YouTube should be taken with a huge grain of salt. This seems to be the original source all the articles from other agencies are based on. But, if Kathleen Kennedy's husband really retweeted that message, it lends credit to it actually being true.

There is also these facts to consider in regards to her management:

1) SW used to be the franchise of franchises, but has been declining economically since the great financial success of TFA
2) Solo will lose money
3) Toy sales are down
4) There appears to have been no general storyline continuity or vision for the sequel trilogy, and lack of planning. TLJ disconnects from TFA, and we know both know the directors visions were different, especially in regards to Luke. *
4) She chose a relatively inexperienced director for TLJ. His earlier stated movie philosophy is to create something divisive, and see it is a hallmark of the movies he wants to make.
5) Several of the SW productions has had its problems. Se has fired multiple directors, and in Solo's case that meant very expensive reshoots that contributed to the movie overall losing money.

Now, these could be called speculation, but has a lot of merit in my mind:

6) Alienating a large part of the core audience, especially male fans. The fans that hate TLJ is not a small minority. It is quite a large amount of former customers, and it has created a civil war amoong the fans.
7) An absolute PR disaster handling the backlash. Lucasfilm employees have a part in creating an environment where critical fans have been derided. That makes it less likely they will be brought back into the fold and that you lose them for good, and it has contributed to the fanbase split rather then joining it. Even John Campea, a fan of TLJ has asked Kennedy to go because of this.
8) If the sources are correct, LF is a house divided between her handpicked new members and older SW brand loyalists, mirroring the fan reactions. That is usually never good for a company.
9) Whether intentional or not, divisive politics are now brought into SW. That is not a good idead if you want a movie with a general broad appeal. Earlier political messaging was subtle, and we have not seen an even distribution between conservatives and liberals. In an era where Trump could be elected, it is unwise to underestimate the general audience or the large parts of the fanbase hating the direction.
10) Many do not care where this trilogy is heading anymore, there was too little build-up towards episode IX from the previous installment. The new characters lack a broad enough appeal to bring the numbers.

In my opinion, she has taken SW from "a licence to make money" type of franchise to one that is in decline and will have trouble reaching old heights. It was easy to cash in on the brand loyalty early, at the end of the day she has to take responsibility for the situation LF now finds itself in. The buck stops with her.

I think it is likely that we will see her step down from LF, and that RJ's trilogy will be put on hold in lieu of other projects. Due to avoiding more bad PR, and perhaps trough difficulty finding a replacement, it might not happen before episode IX is released.

What do you think?


*I know this has been discussed earlier, through Daisy Ridelys comments on the direction. Mark Hamill has later explicitly stated that JJ's visions for Luke were different than the direction RJ took.
https://www.cinemablend.com/news/24...d-between-the-force-awakens-and-the-last-jedi

**“ Quoted from RJ's 2004 interview: I would be worried if everybody across the board was like ‘yeah, it was a good movie’ it’s much more exciting to me when you get a group of people who are coming up to you who are really really excited about it. Then there are other people who walk out literally saying ‘it’s the worst movie I’ve ever seen.’ Having those two extremes is the mark of the type of movie that I want to make.”

 

This is nonsense. Look at the damn source. There is no story. This is like an arsonist telling you that your home is fireproof, there's no need to worry about the matches in his back pocket.
Grace Randolph is a joke. She's a mudslinger. She gets views for trash like this so it's basis in reality is largely irrelevant to her.

1. If this was so secret, why would PINEWOOD be involved? They are just a studio where the movies are filmed. They have no actual production input IIRC.

2. Again, if this was so secret why would a SECURITY GUARD at Pinewood know?

3. Why would Bob Iger need to confer with ANYONE about firing Kennedy? He could just do it. He'd go over it with Horn first but he doesn't need to talk to the heads of Marvel or Pixar. That's illogical.

4. No one wants the Star Wars job? Really? No one would want to run Lucasfilm? BULL Maclunkey blast.

Literally nothing about this makes sense from a logical standpoint unless your whole agenda is to: a) stir up gossip for clicks. or b) an irrational fear of Kathleen Kennedy to the point where you'd believe anything that paints her in a negative light.

as for your other points:
1) Financial decline? You expect 2 billion per film? GTFO
2) It happens. blast got ugly.
3) All toy sales are down for major toy companies. Not just Star Wars.
4) Ryan Coogler is relatively inexperienced. Joe and Anthony Russo were relatively inexperienced. George Lucas wasn't experienced. Lame attempt at making light of a guy with Johnson's track record.
5) Only one has had real problems. Canning Trank/Trevorrow before production is normal business. Patty Jenkins was signed on for Thor 2, Edgar Wright was doing Ant-Man. The Favreau fall out etc etc....do people want KF's head? No. Nonstory.
6) Every Star Wars film does this.
7) What PR disaster? Some made up bantha poodoo? A bigger disaster is your side attacking KMT until she quits social media but yeah blame LFL.
8) They aren't. Known liar.
9) Politics are always divisive and they've always been in Star Wars. Sorry to burst your bubble.
10) Then oh well. It's a Maclunkey MOVIE. Get over it and wait for one you like. No one is so special they are worthy of "their" Star Wars except those lucky enough to make it. Find a new hobby for a few years. If not, you had a 30 year run. That's pretty good. Longer than most marriages and better than most sports teams.

 

Let me guess: you hated TLJ didn't you?

 

About number 7: Maybe Lucasfilm employees are sick of people making death threats, people harrassing actors, etc. ?

About number 9: Haha, divisive politics are now brought into SW. There has always been divisive politics in SW. And no, they were not subtle.

About John Campea: if i'm correct, he said that in his opinion, she had to leave because she struggled to be on the same page with her directors (except JJ and RJ), but maybe i missed something (if you can provide a link, is always helpfull)

We should indeed take these articles with a cannister of salt, especially Disney related "sources" from Randolph.
And tell me: why would Iger call in a meeting with the heads of Pixar, Disney and Marvel to talk about KK (an industry source said that this meeting never happened). He is the big boss, he doesn't need their advise or blessing. If he wants her out, then he fire's her. He doesn't need the opinion of the people who answer to him. And why would they meet at Pinewood?

That Solo wasn't going to make big money, was written in the stars. That it was going to lose money, was probably expected by Disney (they gave the money to do the reshoots but they didn't want to delay the movie to a place with more breathing room, they didn't spend a lot of money on advertisement, ...). Believe me, they knew before the new year, that this movie was going to lose money.

And then that 'Force is Female' t-shirt BS. What a joke!

And then this: Dave Filoni would love this job. Who said that? Did Dave ever suggested that he would love to be the head of a company? That he would love to do something else then animation? If he would, we would have seen him do a short movie or something else then animation.

And even this: if Disney is so unhappy about the TLJ backlash, why are they still funding the development of the RJ trilogy (Ram Bergman just signed to produce the movies, would they sign him on if they plan to cancel it after IX?)?

KK was chosen by GL to take over the lead of his company (she already worked there as his second in command) and Iger was eager to agree with her taking the lead (having the producer of some of the most iconic movies of the last 30 years leading your asset).

Now the big question: will she leave LF in a couple of years? Probably, she is 65 years old. I guess she will probably stay for another 3-5 years.

 

.....aaaand here we go again with this opinion being presented as fact. Please point me to the statistically significant poll that backs this up. For starters. RT doesn’t count.

 

... nuthin' but Beyond Silliness here.
We All are on the Outside ... a few're .. they be playin' "guessin' games"
'The Loud Few' ... Yeah, Them.

No, I dunno, ... They dunno an' .. You Don't Know !
What some 'Others' ... "say" , "youtube' an' such ... Rilly ?!
Ya Gonna Rilly Believe ....'That' !?

STOP!!!!

Just ... STOP !!!

Go Yer Own Way !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I turn 40 next year and I frequent Twitter/Reddit/YouTube. These are site that are overwhelming male. Most of the content generated on YouTube is male. That's not a negative thing, but it's influencing the idea that's there's a great divide. Keep in mind all online polling is flawed. It's not a controlled sample of the general audience. These are people who feel so strongly about a film that they vote.

Let's look at the IMDb demographic breakdown.


First thing you notice is the overwhelming number of votes are men. 32% of the votes are men 30+ who like the film the very least. Even with this over sample most people still like the The Last Jedi. One thing YouTube is good at is having content creators who generate content for tiny/vocal groups. This is why there's a ton of videos making up content. Grace has to eat. She has nothing to lose by making up stuff. It's pure ad revenue and there's a tiny legion willing to watch an spread the lies all over the internet.

This is fine, but remember there's no massive backlash. This is how the internet works and it's sometimes effective at inflating the numbers of vocal groups.

I can guarantee Disney has done controlled samples of the movie going audience and they know this "internet reality" is good for clicks, but it's not the truth. Lucasfilm isn't going to be intimidated by this stuff.

All that aside... I wouldn't be surprised if Kennedy steps down after Episode IX. Not because she's being pushed out, but because she's 65 and I can't imagine she's gonna want to do this forever. Kiri Hart seems to be the next in line.... but I don't envy anyone taking the job. Kennedy has made 4 good films. None of them could be considered awful. Look at all the heat she's getting after one film simply because it lost money due to reshoots. It's a thankless task.

 

I don't think it will happen. I think she'll keep her job. For now.

 

Current gossip summary. Time will tell.

Richard Rushfield, The Ankler Report: "There has to be more than some thought that it’s time for new blood at the helm [of Lucasfilm]. The talk out there is of a September changing of the guards. We'll see. There’s also plenty of reason to believe that Kennedy herself is tiring of this. The fights, the bad press – can’t be fun after a very gilded career. The job requires constant commuting between LA and London, which also gets old. An Ankler friend points out that she elected not to stand again for the AMPAS Board of Governors, even though she had not been termed out, suggesting that someone who has been omnipresent at poohbah conclaves for forty years now may finally be looking to scale back. And really, having made the big step of relaunching Star Wars, how much more is there to look forward to from here?" (early June 2018 premium newsletter) (Richard Rushfield paraphrase): (38m0s) "Nothing will likely happen in terms of a shift of leadership [of Lucasfilm] before the Fall." (video)

Mike Fleming Jr., Deadline: "Feige is in a league all his own in terms of setting the tone for a franchise: Following the misfire of Lucasfilm’s Han Solo movie after Kathleen Kennedy fired Lego filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller — just the latest instance where up and coming filmmakers were replaced — there have been rumors about how long Kennedy will continue. Even as a hot rumor that Feige might take oversight on Lucasfilm fare was roundly denied." (June 11, 2018)

Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter: "'They haven’t slowed down development,' says a source with knowledge of Lucasfilm’s thinking, 'but they are licking their wounds.'" "'It doesn’t mean those spinoffs don't happen,' says another insider of Solo's underperformance globally. 'It just means they’re trying to figure out how to make, and market, them differently.'" "'They were developing anything and everything,' says another exec. 'It was a case of them stuffing so much sausage and not try to break the casing.'" "'In light of the reaction to Last Jedi and the performance of Solo, they are now just going to look at what’s coming in and seeing how good it is, before dating anything,' says one insider. 'It’s all pretty understandable.'" (June 22, 2018)

Grace Randolph, Beyond The Trailer: "I can't obviously give away my source but I can tell you this news originated from deep inside Pinewood Studios (in the U.K.) where of course they shoot the majority of the films and it was divulged to me late last week and I was traveling and I wanted to make sure I did the information justice. So it's the very first video I'm making upon my return from Los Angeles. All right, so are you ready? - because it is potent stuff. So there was a call - a secret conference call with all the top Star Wars brass in attendance. The kind of call where apparently security guards stand outside the different conference room doors and make sure that no one eavesdrops, right. But here's the kicker - top brass from not just Star Wars but also from Marvel and Pixar were also in on the call but listening only - likely at the request of Bob Iger who wants their advice on how to fix this **** show. And yes, he does know it's a **** show. Evidence? The word that he wants Kathleen Kennedy out - he actually does, but nobody will take her job. Several have been approached but turned it down, including J. J. Abrams who turned it down flat and didn't even hesistate." (June 25, 2018)

There's been no official denials of this rumor to date, only that Kevin Feige won't be taking over Lucasfilm (perhaps he already turned it down). The Wall Street Journal asked Kennedy for comment after Solo's opening and refused to speak to them.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/solo-newest-star-wars-installment-off-to-a-slow-start-1527534820

 

I think we need to call this what it is: gossip and wishful thinking on some fans' part. I'm not at all suggesting fans don't have the right to feel the way they do about KK, but the woman is responsible for three huge movies for Disney, and one disappointment. If there's any truth to the toxicity that Colin Trevorrow suggests within LFL, Iger might have a come to Jesus moment about how she's running things, but I don't think she's going to be let go anytime soon.

 

"Hey guys, a guy on the subway today told me Kathleen Kennedy is a reptillian being, and is also being fired."

*Half of Star Wars community riots

 

Anything need be known 'bout this can be found here:

https://makingstarwars.net/2018/06/common-sense-kathleen-kennedy-isnt-going-anywhere/