The "Star Wars" franchise lives to fight another day.

Credit: Twentieth Century-Fox

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While I was sleeping last night, Twitter apparently melted down over the announcement that Disney has bought up Lucasfilm, an acquisition about which movie geeks and business brains alike have very strong feelings. I don't, but when I absorbed the news that a new "Star Wars" film will be coming down the pike in 2015 -- sans George Lucas, but still -- I was forced to conclude that this hasn't been much of a week for good news. Anyway, Drew McWeeny is both more informed and more invested than I, and offers his view of the situation, while Drew, Kris and Greg serve up a list of 10 things to look out for in the wake of the deal, from the theme park-ification of Skywalker Ranch to "Star Wars" for preschoolers. What joy. [Motion Captured]

Following the news, Tim Robey and Robbie Collin debate whether or not extending the "Star Wars" film franchise is a good thing. [The Telegraph] 

Jon Weisman looks at the business implications of this season's earlier Oscar nomination announcement, noting that films now have an extra two weekends to benefit from the post-nom box office bump. [Variety]

With "Cloud Atlas" currently taking flak for low returns on high ambition, Sasha Stone cheers on the risk-takers in this year's awards race. [Awards Daily]

Why the legion of Hollywood blockbusters to have destroyed New York on screen don't quite match the less whizzy, more disconcerting threat of Hurricane Sandy. [Vulture]

Steven Zeitchik wonders if the aftermath of the storm will affect the publicity campaign for "Life of Pi." [LA Times] 

While everyone else hails "The Central Park Five" as one of the year's standout documentaries, Jeff Wells has some issues with the film. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

Meanwhile, the film took the Audience Award in the documentary section at the Chicago Film Festival, while "Any Day Now" and "Quartet" shared the prize in the narrative division. [MCN]

Park Chan-wook's "Stoker" unveils a gorgeous new hand-drawn poster, as well as a fresh clip reel. [Empire]

Finally, this may be a few months old, but it's made for Halloween: Time Out's extensive poll of the 100 greatest horror films of all time. My own Top 10 is listed somewhere in the mix. [Time Out]

Guy Lodge
Critic

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Guy Lodge is a South African-born critic and sometime screenwriter. In addition to his work at In Contention, he is a freelance contributor to Variety, Time Out, Empire and The Guardian. He lives well beyond his means in London.