There’s Life In The Old Ewok Yet
Star Wars – THE movie of my younger years, inspiration for a generation of scientists and Sci-Fi fans and cinematic extravaganza – is about to be reborn as a musical, proving that no matter how many times you release and re-release a great idea, it’s still commercially a good move. And at more than 30 years after the launch of the first film, it also proves that there’s life in the old dog (or should I say, Ewok) yet!
Star Wars: A Musical Journey is not going to be a traditional musical. To start off with, there will be no actors on stage, only a live score performed by the 86-piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with narrators telling the story of Star Wars. Don’t worry – there will be something for the audience to watch as well, as massive screens will show a two-hour-long condensed splicing of all six films to illustrate the story and accompany the music and narrator.
With the score re-written by the original Star Wars composer John Williams and the premier of the musical being staged at the O2 Centre in April 2009, the tickets are bound to fly out the door like mini Millennium Falcons.
So why am I allowing myself this little flight down nostalgia lane? It is to prove the point that not every new business needs to be a new idea; sometimes it’s a case of doing something better than your competitors that will win you market share, and sometimes it’s finding a new twist on an old idea that will revolutionise a sector. Think of the flat screen TV: before it came into existence, there had been televisions producing perfectly adequate images on fatter, squarer screens for years, then someone came along and told us that we all needed more space in our living rooms, or to watch TV as if we were in the cinema, and we bought into it hook, line and sinker. Nowadays, if what you’ve got in your home isn’t an HD-ready flat wide 42-inch plus screened box, you can’t really call it a TV (or maybe that’s just a new EC directive). Attempting to open up a totally new sector and educate a nation to buy into your idea is a long, hard and inevitably expensive slog, but by recognising a way of presenting an existing business concept differently you could tap into a warmer market. The familiarity that results from years of promotions seeping into the public consciousness will make launching, running and building your businesses far easier than if you had to start from scratch answering the question: “But why would I want one of those?”
When we arrange for business investors and entrepreneurs to meet to discuss the possibility of working together, there is always just as much excitement in the room about a great new slant on an existing concept as when it’s an entirely new idea. If you have a business or idea that you would like to pitch to our Angel investors, simply go to our website at www.angelsden.co.uk and click on the News and Events page to read about the success of our December Speedpitching event, which was filmed by global news channel CBS, and opportunities to get involved in our January event. It’s fun, but also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a select few entrepreneurs to get the sort of financial help that could skyrocket their businesses to a new level of success.
Good luck and may The Force … you know the rest, and the fact that you do kind of proves my point.
Source:
Star Wars becomes stage spectacle
Image © @cdharrison
