Disney buys 'Star Wars' for $4.05bn

The three Marin ranches that Lucas owns, two of which host Lucasfilm operations, are not part of the deal, a Lucasfilm spokeswoman said.

The news that the Star Wars tale will be revived thrilled some fans, although others said they had little appetite for new installments after the first six movies.

Lucas, in the video interview, said he felt Disney was the right home for his franchise. "I really wanted to put the company somewhere in a larger entity which could protect it," he said.

The next Star Wars movie installment will be Episode 7 in the series, followed by Episodes 8 and 9, Mr Iger said.

Disney's long-term plan is to release a new movie in the series every two to three years thereafter, he added.

Mr Iger said he and Lucas first discussed a possible sale about 18 months ago.

Lucas was pondering his retirement, and Mr Iger was looking to add another well-known brand to the Disney empire. The two signed the deal at Disney's Burbank, California, headquarters yesterday.

"Everywhere I went, Star Wars was already there, and sometimes they got there ahead of us," Mr Iger said in an interview.

"I kept seeing that brand and decided maybe we should buy it."

He told analysts he believed there was substantial pent-up demand for new Star Wars movies.

Each of the last three films in the series would have grossed $1.5 billion in today's dollars at the box office, Mr Rasulo estimated.

The film's iconic characters also will boost Disney's sales of toys and other consumer products, particularly overseas, executives said.

Sales of Star Wars items such as Darth Vader and Yoda action figures total roughly $215 million a year, Mr Rasulo said.

In 2005, the year the last Star Wars film was released, LucasFilm generated $550 million in operating income, he added.

Lucas will not sit on the Disney board despite his 2.2 percent stake in the company, Iger said. Jobs, who held a large stake in Disney after it bought Pixar, had a seat on Disney's board.

Earlier this year, Lucas had told the fan magazine Empire: "I'm moving away from the company, I'm moving away from all my businesses, I'm finishing all my obligations and I'm going to retire to my garage with my saw and hammer and build hobby movies.

"I've always wanted to make movies that were more experimental in nature, and not have to worry about them showing in movie theatres."

Reuters