DISNEY DELAYS NEW EPISODE OF STAR WARS

Episode VII of Star Wars won’t be released until Dec. 18, 2015, Disney said on Thursday. It is the latest big film that Disney has bumped to a later date — the movie was originally scheduled to be released during the peak summer months of 2015 — following the postponement of Pirates of the Caribbean 5 and The Good Dinosaur. Speaking during a conference call to discuss the company’s fourth-quarter results (income was up 8 percent to $6.1 billion on a 7-percent rise in revenue of $45 billion), Disney chief Robert Iger said, “This obviously is one of the most important movies we have in the next few years and we’ve chosen a date we believe will allow the creative team the time to make a great film.”