Discussion Frank Marshall: Director search down to a few

Disagree BIG TIME! I loved LOST.

 

Lost is Disney. But, I do believe him when he says he doesn't want to do it. On the other hand, he's not lined up for any directing gigs.

 

I'm pulling for Brad Bird now that Arndt has been chosen. I think their styles would work well together. Looking at their past work, an Arndt + Bird Ep 7 would be something far different than the typical CGI-heavy blockbusters. It's rather exciting just to discuss this at all, though!

 

Hopefully, the director should be announced sometime soon. Then the real discussion can begin.

 

edit- so sorry, weird double post after I refreshed!

 

I'm hoping for Brad Bird more than anyone else. I certainly wouldn't want Joe Johnston.

 

What if it's Gary Ross? I think Kathleen worked with him before...

 

I don't like the message a pick of J.J. Abrams or some other big director favorite of the masses would send: "they're going to save STAR WARS like they saved whatever else, Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, whatever."
I wonder if the director is being chosen with the whole trilogy in mind or just one film.

 

It's not going to be J.J he already said he wont be doing it,as for Brad Bird I think we can take his name off the list as well because he's scheduled to direct 1952 next year. I think the short list that FM speaks off is Favreau, Johnston, and name we haven't heard yet. I think that Favreau might be the leader, He's worked with Kathleen, he has a history with Disney, he's proven he can handle big budget films, he really really wants it and of course he's a diehard fan.

 

Star Wars To Be Directed By Former Pixarian Brenda Chapman? Here’s Some Evidence…

 

Hmmm. That one kind of came out of nowhere. More speculation than evidence, but anything's possible at this point.

 

Given Brenda Chapman's background, I would be happy if she directs E7 .

 

I mentioned this before but it bears repeating:

TESB is what I consider to be the best SW movie. That was written by Lawrence Kasdan and Directed by Irvin Kirshner. Neither of which were/are known for sci-fi action. The pattern seems to hold true right now. The writer Arndt wrote Little Miss Sunshine, which was a good movie but it was heartfelt and touching. He also wrote TS 3 which, although with some action, was mostly sentimental. So I think what we're going to see is a writer that knows how to deliver emotion, complex familial issues, and a touch of wry humor. Conversely the director should be able to handle such material but action and adventure as well.

 

Not really completely out of nowhere. http://www.themarysue.com/chapman-pixar-lucasfilm/

She deserves a shot. But neither or her animated director gigs have quite the accolades of someone like Andrew Stanton or Brad Bird. That being said, she's certainly competent enough to do the job.

 

Enough of these Pixar people.

 

Nothing against the girl but I took my neice to see Brave and was thoroughly bored, what's worse is she was too. She's 5.

 

I agree with your premise. But just to play devil's advocate for a moment, both of those guys had Lucas supervising them.

What's interesting about Marshall's statement is that it seems to confirm that there hasn't been a director signed yet. Meaning that there's no secret director overseeing pre-production right now.

 

Yes, but, GL is the creative consultant and KK even sais she feels confident about taking over knowing she has an angel on her shoulder. Also, since KK joined Lucasfilm in June there must have been a plan to do this, sale, movies etc.... So GL has already been involved in the pre-production already. Look how fast the writer was announced. People speculated and the heat was turned up to the point that elaks started springing. The fans are just now catching-up to what's been happening.

 

I guess what I'm asking is... who's in charge? Star Wars, even during ESB and ROTJ, has always come out of one person's head. Let's say Brad Bird is hired. Is he in charge of the overall story? Is it Arndt, with guidance from Lucas? He certainly seems to have a big role in the writing of the overall trilogy.

To make an analogy, there's little doubt that Whedon has a great deal of control and leeway when it comes to shaping the Avengers franchise (under the supervision of Kevin Feige). It's just such a new, weird place for Star Wars to exist.

 

I see your point. KK is in charge now. From what I gathered in the two videos posted thus far, she intends to hold true to Lucas' vision as truly as possible. The Director must first love SW. No problem there. Almost every person in HW is influenced by it somehow. The Director is there to execute ideas and vision. Here we may see some innovative new ways (shot-wise) at looking at the SW galaxy.

 

I think it's more likely that she's working on some animated Lucasfilm project. But she's definitely in the building, and she has a lot of talent and experience.

It's also worth noting that there was some controversy about Brave being taken out of her hands and re-configured before release.

 

There is no way Brenda Chapman will direct Star Wars. She's done 2 movies in 15 years and was likely fired from one of them. Another guy to bring up is Seth McFarlane who is a huge Star Wars fan and directed a hit movie this year in Ted.

 

Star Wars has always been a highly collaborative creation. George Lucas just got all the credit (and the money).

 

Collaborative, yes, sure. But with a clear hierarchy. George was basically like the TV version of an Executive Producer during his more collaborative moments. Seriously, I'm not fishing for a tedious ESB argument here. I'm just asking who's actually in the cockpit of this project.

 

If you doubt how much collaboration was involved, read this: http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/magicofempire.html

The scene as written barely resembles the one in the film. The tone completely changes from being a bit too light and hopeful into something in-character, tragic and dramatic. And the scripted dialog is almost Prequels-like. No wonder it was rewritten on the spot by Irvin and Harrison.

And yeah, George Lucas has regularly hired other writers to put his ideas on paper. Dialog, in particular, has always given him trouble. Problem was, the Prequels had too many actors probably too in awe of George to really play around with his dialog or offer their own input. Do I think George did an amazing job directing American Graffiti and Star Wars? Absolutely. But he also had script help/input on both of those. Star Wars certainly got extensive rewrites to mainstream it--or else we'd have the adventures of Luke Starkiller and Han, the green gilled alien. You can hear some of that unfinished dialog in all those audition tapes. The dialog definitely got refined, pared down and rewritten, even if the scenes are recognizable as parts of the film. The rewrite and outside input process is one thing the OT had more of. There seemed to be more hands shaping it, as well. Also, Lucas does better with constraints regarding what is possible in SFX. He might not be happy with the tools he has at the time to make his creations, but he sometimes doesn't know when to stop before he actually makes something worse. He focuses so much on the technical details and proving that his newest toys can finally duplicate real sets and actors that he sometimes loses focus on the dramatic part of his creation (some of his troublesome dialog scenes probably could have been fixed had there been some more takes with input from others and on-set rewrites).