By: Russ Burlingame on October 30, 2012
While the Walt Disney Company did mention the Indiana Jones franchise in passing during the conference call announcing the acquisition of Lucasfilm, the company does not plan to make any new movies based on the character in the immediate future, according to representatives for the company.
They did not explicitly say that the rumored fifth Indiana Jones movie had been killed by the deal, but since it seemed to be fairly undefined, it seems likely that the project will be back-burnered.
“We didn’t ascribe any value to the Indiana Jones franchise due to the encumbrances that exist,” said Disney’s Robert Iger, referring presumably to exit fees that would have to be paid to Paramount, who distributed the previous Indiana Jones films, in order to take the property elsewhere.
Disney told investors that the valuation they did of Lucasfilm in order to come to terms for the purchase was almost exclusively taking into consideration the value of Star Wars, and that any other revenue generated from Lucasfilm would be “an upside.”
Asked by an investor whether the studio planned on capitalizing on any of the other intellectual properties that Lucasfilm owns, the company said there were no plans to do so, and that they were “focusing on Star Wars” in the foreseeable future.
