George Lucas sells STAR WARS to Disney

George Lucas has sold Lucasfilm and its properties, including Star Wars, to the Walt Disney Corporation for a whopping $4 billion. Lucas has issued a statement saying he belives it is time to sell the franchise to a new generation of young film-makers.

So long and thanks for all the Sith.

 "For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” said George Lucas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm. “It's now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I've always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I'm confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney's reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment, and consumer products."

What effect this will have on The Clone Wars TV series and the long-in-limbo live-action TV show is unknown. However, so-far unsubstantiated Twitter chatter is that Disney is moving immediately into the planning process on a seventh Star Wars film, possibly for release in 2015.

On the plus side, George Lucas no longer gets to write Star Wars material. On the downside, it looks like the carefully-constructed Star Wars Expanded Universe could get chucked out the window in favour of a new series of films. Potentially controversial.

UPDATE: Disney confirm that Star Wars Episode VII is in active development for a 2015 release. 
Oddly, there's been no mention of what this means for the Indiana Jones franchise yet.