On May 4th, Disney+ and Lucasfilm announced that Light & Magic will be premiering on Disney+ on July 27, giving viewers a look at the groundbreaking studio Industrial Light & Magic.
The six-part docu-series will be explored further in a panel at Star Wars Celebration later this month, where attendees will get a first look at the series. The panel will feature Lawrence Kasdan and Ron Howard, who will be joined by Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, Joe Johnston, Rose Duignan, and Lynwen Brennan. Based on a tweet he posted, it sounds like Howard is very involved in the production of the project, alongside Brian Glazer and their studio at Imagine Entertainment. Kasdan’s involvement in the project was revealed last September, and he was said to be directing it. Both Howard and Kasdan have a long history with George Lucas and Lucasfilm, so it’s exciting that they seem to be spearheading this series.
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) has been at the forefront of moviemaking for nearly five decades, having been founded by George Lucas in 1975 to work on Star Wars. Since then, they have worked on a staggering number of projects and have pioneered countless advances in CGI, mo-cap, and other digital filmmaking techniques. Quite frankly, if not for ILM we wouldn’t have movies as we know it today, from Star Wars to Indiana Jones to Jurassic Park to Harry Potter to Pirates of the Caribbean to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and so much more. It’s tremendous news that some well-deserved attention will be shone on them in this project.
As readers here well know, I’m a big fan of behind the scenes projects and documentaries connected to Star Wars, and while this one isn’t exclusively about Star Wars, it’s inextricably connected. ILM was one of the major factors behind the believability of the world George Lucas created, and their technological improvements was one of the motivations for Lucas to finally delve back into the saga for the sequel trilogy. Their impact on the franchise has continued ever since.
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