Walt Disney Studios has secured another classic LucasFilm franchise, announcing on Friday that it had reached a deal with Paramount Pictures to acquire distribution and marketing rights for future films in the action series created by Star Wars visionary George Lucas.
Disney bought LucasFilm–creators of both Star Wars and Indiana Jones–in October 2012 for $ 4.05 billion, though the company did not have full ownership of the Indiana Jones franchise until now. Financial terms of the deal were not specified.
As outlined in a report on Variety, Paramount will retain distribution rights for the first four Indiana Jones films and will receive “financial participation” on any new movies that come out of Disney.
A great to-do was made of Disney’s purchase of the Star Wars series last fall, and three new films were announced in the process. The same can’t be said for this deal, as no new films or other brand extensions were announced or even hinted at.
Still, it remains possible that Disney’s acquisition of the Indiana Jones franchise could result in new video games based on the beloved action series. The most recent console Indiana Jones game was 2009′s Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues. Facebook game Indiana Jones Adventure World, from social game studio Zynga, will close on January 14, 2014.
After Disney acquired LucasFilm in October 2012, the media giant signed a 10-year deal with Electronic Arts to make the Battlefield publisher the exclusive publisher of new games based on the Star Wars series. One of these products is Star Wars: Battlefront, a new entry in the shooter series currently in development at DICE in Stockholm, Sweden.
