ST Lucasfilm Confirms: Michael Arndt To Write Screenplay For Episode VII

Not sure what to think of this. I definitely want a Star Wars fan to write them, but I haven't liked either of this guy's movies. TS3 was Pixar's worst offering since Wall-E, and LMS was - well, I fell asleep, quite literally. I mean, it's cool that he's got other movies coming out soon to help widen the pool by which I can judge him, but at this point, I legitimately would rather just about anyone else write them.

 

Screenplay and storytelling mechanics (e.g. turning points, inner and outer motivation, etc.) are not obvious to the uninitiated. What Arndt is saying is perhaps not revolutionary to anyone who knows how these things work, but clearly he knows his craft and is interested enough in SW to think it is worth analysing from a screenwriter's perspective.

 

The Toy Story movies deserve their place on the All Time Great Movies list, along with the Star Wars OT.

At least give the guy a chance, I doubt he'll be the only one considered to write a script draft he's just the only one we know of. And if it sucks, it will most likely be rejected so it's not a big deal.

 

What exactly is Star Wars caliber these days? Phantom menace? Attack of the clones? Revenge of the Sith? Clone wars?
Sorry, but "star wars caliber" is no longer something to strive for, it's more an insult than anything.
And just because he wrote "hippie kiddie stuff" once, doesn't mean that's the only thing he can do. That's like saying Spielberg can only direct animated movies because of tintin, or only produce WWII tv shows.

I'm intrigued by this choice if it's true. The thought of an actual writer/storyteller writing a Star Wars movie almost brings a tear to my eye.

 

He seems like an interesting choice if he does end up doing more than a treatment. I like his take on the ending of Jedi. Though I feel it has deep, deep flaws throughout, it's nice that he realizes that you can have a deep, at times dark film and still have an upbeat ending. Everybody doesn't have to die to make the climax powerful. In fact I think it takes a much more talented writer to produce a story with a happy ending that still has weight and depth.

 

I really dug Little Miss Sunshine and thought Toy Story 3 was pretty awesome as well so I see this as great news thus far.

“...God created the world in six days. On the seventh day, he rested. On the eighth day, he started getting complaints. And it hasn't stopped since.”
― James Scott Bell, Sins of the Fathers

 

Agreed. A movie about talking toys seems like it should inherently silly, but Toy Story 3 moved from comedy to action to tragedy without skipping a beat and Woody watching Andy drive away was heartbreaking.

 

I'll be honest that I thought TS3 was mostly a retread of TS2 and a step-down for Pixar after WALL-E and Up. However, I thought the writing was solid with a lot of heart and pathos, and if Arndt is basing his treatment on Lucas' own (presumably brief) story treatment, this should be awesome.

 

I'm perfectly fine with it. The main thing here is to have a writer that can juggle a large cast of characters and give them something to do. Sorry for most of you, but I highly doubt this first film will be that big of a passing of the torch. Fully expect the older cast to all come back, and expect them to have large enough parts to play.

Boil it down for you, no OT character will have a CAMEO, they will all play a part. Well if you concider Wedges character a cameo type, then you might get a cameo from him as a fleet commander or something I guess, but the big 3 and friends will play sizeable parts. I bet money on it.

Since that WILL be the case, as I said you have to a writer that can juggle the new and old characters. If not you end up with a Crystal Skull and a Tron: Legacy. Perhaps both are good movies, but each film has a critism that brings it down and causes major harm everytime something like this is done. With Crystal Skull we got Shia, and nobody wanted to see Shia we came to see Jones. In Legacy I garuantee that a majority of viewers cared less about the new kid and wanted more Bridges. So you have the character you like pretty much stand around and do nothing, and are forced to go on the adventure with this new kid that hardly anybody likes. A killer senerio for your film. One that can work, but hardly ever works.

Joss Whedon made sure every character had something to do in Avengers. They didn't just stand around and talk. They did things. The writer of Ep7 is not only going to have to create an interesting group of younger hero's, but will also have to give 6 older characters something to do also. It's going to be very interesting to see how they pull it off. A failure here could kill the trilogy ought right, because if you have new characters who suck, and old character who do nothing, then your pretty much causing movie suicide. Arndt handled a large cast very well in the Toy Story movie and Miss Sunshine, so I hope he can work the same majic here.

 

Apparently he also wrote the outlines for VIII and XI...

 

Pablo said Lucas had him doing research (we assume on the EU, either to see if certain things had been done before, or to make sure things fit in, or whatever) since June. Was this done jointly with Arndt?

 

From Motion Captured:
Michael Arndt has already written a 'Star Wars Episode VII' treatment - Will the 'Little Miss Sunshine' writer also take a crack at the script?

 

More 'confirmation' from Deadline...

http://www.deadline.com/2012/11/nex...-by-hunger-games-sequel-scribe-michael-arndt/

 

This may sound uncharacteristic coming from me, but it's impossible to second-guess this. There's simply no way to know what kind of product Arndt has created, if it's really him creating it, unless he tells us, which he won't. We'll get a lot more mileage out of griping about the director, once we know in a year or so.

 

So now it appears Lucas didn't even write the outlines? Or did he and Arndt wrote the treament? It's getting more and more confusing.

 

I have only played the original Mass Effect all the way through (My xbox broke before I could finish the second one). It was a fun game, with well written dialogue and the story moved at a good beat, but it did rely on a lot of overused scifi tropes, like the old alien race that left behind derelict technology, that people use to move around the galaxy, and then mysteriously disappeared. I did read the Mass Effect: Revelation novel, and it was decent, but not great by any means. Seriously though, I hope that the Star Wars movies never incorporate the ancient alien race concept, because it way, way over used. Alien franchise, Ring World, Stargate, Mass Effect, Halo......

 

Already did. They're called the Rakatan Empire.

 

Or the Celestials.

 

This is Lucas we're talking about.

I know one thing, like the article above stated, I definity wouldn't wish this job on anyone. Way to much baggage, and expectations. More so than the PT.

Still if Joss Whedon can do the impossible and take 5 movies with different tones and hero's, and mash them together and create a great film that has a 92% Fresh rating on RT, and is also the 3rd hightest grossing film of all time. Then God @#$^&* we can get a great Star Wars film.

 

^That too^

I just looked at this guy on Wikipedia and got to say... His background is really broad, I mean we've got far future sci-fi with Oblivion, kids film and humor with Toy Story, critical acclaim with Little Miss Sunshine, and guaranteed nerd knowledge with Phineas and Ferb. Sounds like a winner.

 

This link says he already wrote it

http://screenrant.com/star-wars-episode-7-story-michael-arndt/

 

It says a treatment, not a full script. Man are they going to be rushing to get this done for 2015.

 

It's hard to look at a personal passion project like Little Miss Sunshine, which became a standard bearer of the modern "indie blockbuster," without thinking of American Graphitti.

 

I said that the ancient alien race hasn't been used in the 'Star Wars movies'. I'm not counting the extended universe, because the canocity of that is ambiguous

 

What's his take on the ending of RotJ?