Movies With Butter

A new Indiana Jones movie is at least two to three years away Disney Studio Chief Alan Horn said at Variety's Dealmakers Breakfast on Friday. Apparently, it is not as simple as having Indy retrieve something in suitcase from the Nazis, an actual story is needed.

"We don't have a story. We need a story," Horn said.

No word if George Lucas will be writing the fifth Indiana Jones, but given his "retired" status, there's a good chance someone else will be working on the script. Regardless, Lucas will be involved in some capacity.

As for why Disney acquire the rights from Paramount for all future sequels, Horn said it "didn't make sense to produce the movie at Disney and then have it be distributed and marketed by Paramount."

Under this deal, Paramount will retain rights to the first four movies but will be paid a fee by Disney for all future Indy movies, even though Paramount won't be required to lift a finger in producing and marketing them.

On the Star Wars front, Horn revealed that J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan are still working on the script for Episode VII, and it is expected that they'll be done by sometime in January. Since the script is not done, they don't know how much it's going to cost, but it is expected to be in the $200 million ballpark.

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