• Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige is teaming up with Lucasfilm to develop a new Star Wars film. Walt Disney Studios co-chairman Alan Horn told the entertainment trade paper The Hollywood Reporter that it made sense for Feige to team up with Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy to help usher in a new era in Star Wars storytelling. As the president of Marvel Studios, which Disney acquired in 2009, Feige turned the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the most successful franchise in movie history, boasting over $22 billion in worldwide ticket sales. Star Wars is entering this new phase after the Skywalker saga comes to a close this December. Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are also developing new Star Wars films, as is The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson.
• Jann Wenner will retire next year as chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation in New York. Wenner announced Wednesday that he will step down on Jan. 1. The co-founder and publisher of Rolling Stone magazine is one of the founding members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and is credited with recruiting the late architect I.M. Pei to create its Cleveland museum. "I just felt I had done what I set out to do," Wenner told The New York Times in response to questions about why he decided to leave his post. "That it had been built, stabilized and become well-financed and managed -- and, after 30-plus years of running it, time for new energy, new ideas, a new generation." The 73-year-old Wenner will be replaced by rock hall board member John Sykes, the co-founder MTV and VH1. Wenner will remain on the board of directors. Wenner produced the hall's 25th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in 2009. The concert was headlined by U2, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, Stevie Wonder and Sting. Springsteen and Jagger praised Wenner in a statement for having the foresight to build the hall of fame into a major cultural institution. "A long time ago, when no one was thinking about our music and its posterity, Jann saw that we needed a place to celebrate popular music and recognize the people who had made the music grow. It was a visionary idea and he stuck with it," Jagger said in a statement. "He built a beautiful and credible home for our history and deserves our appreciation and respect for this tremendous accomplishment," Springsteen said. Reflecting on the twilight of his career, Wenner said he is working on a book, although he declined to offer details. He said seeing Rolling Stone and the Rock Hall passed to another generation brought him "enormous satisfaction," and added, "That's better satisfaction than to hold on to some bitter end."
A Section on 09/27/2019