Disney Buys Lucasfilm, Plans New Star Wars Movie

Big news from Hollywood: Disney has agreed to buy Lucasfilm—yep, the George Lucas company behind the Star War franchise—for about $4 billion in cash and stock, reports USA Today. Lucas currently owns it all by himself. What's more, Disney announced that the next Star Wars movie, called Episode 7, will be out in 2015, and that more will follow after that on a regular schedule.

"For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next," said Lucas in a statement. "It's now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers." (More Walt Disney Co. stories.)