Speculation Now Guillermo Del Toro Confirms That He Turned Down Episode 7

Yes, that would be nice but Star Wars is now a Disney "product". With that said, Disney has done a good job with Marvel and Pixar properties.

 

My biggest fear isn't who will direct per se as much as what sort of director they get. I want a director that will be respectful to the existing body of work in both content, and tone/style.

What I don't want is another Ron Moore BSG or Abrams Trek with "shaky cam", "found footage" fx, lens flares and inappropriate sound tracks. I do not want "re-imagined" or "updated".

 

Considering how many times alternate reality was done in Trek, it was not a tragedy. The audience was used to it.

 

The burden will be tremendous, of course, this is the biggest movie franchise on Earth. With so many saying no so far, only 1 director who didn't say no, yet and that is Jon Favreau! Correct me if I am wrong. Everyone got their favourite directors but I think Favreau could be perfect for this gig.

 

It's just covering their bases. As an example-there were something like four or five directors all up for Jurassic Park; at least a few turned it down because they had other projects going on.

 

He is my front runner atm. Although Vaughn wouldn't shock me either.

I will say Favreau is the least bit of a surprise. He has an R2-D2 ironman on his twitter for months, and he named dropped Star Wars several times on the Marc Maron podcast when he was interviewed recently.

I think its safe to say he will be doing at least one Star Wars installment. Whether its episode 7 or not.

 

I guess I could accept either Vaughn or Favreau if they get the job. However, I think they're both untested up to this point. Robert Downey Jr carried a lot of the weight of Iron Man, and I wasn't impressed with the sequel nor Cowboys and Aliens. As for Vaughn, I think he's good on a technical level, but there's something about his movies, a tone, that just feels too cynical and mean-spirited to gel with SW, especially with Kick Ass. Personally, I'd like to see the following directors get the shot first over them:

• Alfonso Cauron - I love A Little Princess, and I thought he did an amazing job with Prisoner of Azkaban (which was part of a big established franchise like SW), even though some key scenes were left out. His movies usually have some pretty imaginative visuals and are fast-paced. As long as he didn't go too overboard with said visuals, we'd probably get a fantastic SW movie, IMO.
• Ang Lee - Lately, he's made some iffy films, but his style is nice and elegant (usually), especially in Crouching Tiger. I think he could pull off the more subdued, duel-based moments of SW quite well, especially with a good script. Elegance being the key.
• Joe Johnston - Yes, he never really reached a level of greatness, but he would be a solid choice if you wanted to a simple, workman-like approach. While I'm not a huge fan, Captain America was quite solid given what he had to work with. Not to mention his SW heritage which goes all the way back to the OT. How many directors nowadays can say they worked with Kershner on ESB?
• Robert Zemeckis - Now that he's finally gone back to live action, I think he (like Johnston) would be a solid choice. Nothing too fancy, just solid. Of his recent work, I liked the action in his version of Beowulf, and he's been Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg's protege for over 30 years. The guy knows his stuff, and nothing sums that up better than the Back to the Future trilogy.
• Frank Darabont - Now this is the guy I think they should get for the more dark, dramatic episodes. He's got that simple, yet elegant style, and when it comes to drama, what else can you say about the director of The Shawshank Redemption. I really enjoyed that film, but I notice most people LOVE it. He also worked with Lucas on scripts back in the day, if I remember correctly.

That's all I have for now. If any of these directors have already confirmed their un-involvement, please let me know.

 

I think you got to give a pass to Vaughn with Kick Ass. The source material, in general, is mean spirited and cynical. It also kinda sucks, but that is just my opinion. I think he did fine considering what he was adapting.

Did you see Stardust? That movie was the anthesis of cynical. How about Xmen: First class?

Curano would also be a good choice. Ang lee? He is too cerebral, and stylized for Star Wars.

 

Favreau said he had learnt a thing or 2 from making Cowboys and Aliens..., could that be hinting on something?

I don't think SW is for Ang Lee. If moving East, imo, I would say John Woo or Prachya Pinkaew (Thai action movies director).

Joe Johnston? He helped to design and shape OT SW so, I think he is a good candidate!

Darn, can't wait for the director/cast to be announced!

 

Joe Johnston knows our favorite movies from the inside out. It would just be proper to put it into the hands of someone "in the family", as it were.

 

Eh...idk about Johnston. Yeah he helped out in a big way during the OT, but the last film of his I saw was JP3. Which was good (at least it made more sense than The Lost World did) but it's not exactly a movie that sticks with you. It's not inspiring, in other words, and SW and non-inspiring is DOA.

 

That's why I love him as a director. That tone was also highly evident in X-Men: First Class. Still, he has also shown that he can make films with a more light-hearted and innocent feel.

 

The title of the article couldn't be further from the truth.

As Toro says himself, he was only asked if he was 'interested'. He's not tooting his own horn.

 

If it's anyone who's already done a superhero film I'm going to be pretty bummed.

 

Exactly. Disney (like many studios practice out of efficiency) have sent out multiple phone calls to various directors to see if they'd be interested. It doesn't mean they'd end up being the final choice. People make it sound as if they wanted Del Toro or Abrams to sign on the dotted line to make it official and they turned it down at that stage.

For every Del Toro and Abrams that don't want to do it or can't make it work, there'll be some that send back word that they are interested. Then it will be up to the big wigs to decide who is best fit for the job.

 

ROTJ is the least visually interesting entry in a saga that's mostly notable for it's visual storytelling. Not surprisingly, it was the worst (initially) reviewed of all Star Wars movies. People it give it a pass out of nostalgia and maybe 20 minutes of awesomeness.

Not for direct sequels to the OT featuring (I assume) the big three.

 

I agree visually that ROTJ is fairly disappointing compared to Peter Suschitzsky's work on Empire Strikes Back. It's a cinematic travesty's that Peter's work wasn't even nominated for an Oscar(especially finding out what actually won that year and why). Empire Strikes Back, for me, might be one of, if not THE, most beautifully shot film in movie history. Really showing what you can do when you use natural lighting to create mood.

Return of the Jedi went with Alan Hume it was mostly uninspired and business like. Its competent but not very interesting. I also think they changed to another film grade(I don't remember which one)that really hurt the color saturation.

With that said, Jedi is competent and fun. It does have some of the best moments in the saga. It has a great opening act, and a great ending act(luke, vader etc). But it suffers from kinda of a dragging middle act, and a general feeling everyone involved just wanted to get it over with. Not to mention recycling plot devices like the death star but its forgivable.

Jedi, is a much better film, than any of the prequels imo. Largely because of the of the goodwill, and story arcs from the previous movies. We are invested enough in characters, that we can tolerate the fumbles. Taken as a trilogy it does it job admirably if not as interestingly as the other two films.

Which is exactly my point. The next trilogy will probably be the very definition of "playing it safe." I think once Disney gets comfortable with the property they may wanna stretch out in more creative ways.

 

My guess is that nobody outsideLF/Disney has seen it.

 

Yeah, and even within that only a very small cabal of people. Lucas, Kennedy, Ardnt, perhaps a couple script doctors. My gut tells me they may be starting the second draft about now. You won't start hearing the avalanche of rumors until casting starts.

Although we may get some minor design work leaked out.

 

Indeed!

 

Check out "Captain America". Like, now. It's really good, miles ahead of "Jurassic Park 3". But to be fair, if Joe Johnson gets a Star Wars movie, he should be allowed to do whatever the heck he wants with a spinoff Boba Fett movie.

Fun story: Steven Spielberg beat out James Cameron on Jurassic Park by, literally, hours. No, really.: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/201...jurassic-park-steven-spielberg_n_1864996.html

 

Right, forgot about Captain America. Felt it was two movies smushed together, myself. Good, but not great, or even a movie I think about a whole lot.

 

Well, no concept design work can start well before a script. Its basically snowballing, and in some cases is used to set up scenarios for the script.

Ralph Macquiree did TONS of concept designs even before he saw a script. Lucas just told him, at times, "I want something that is kinda like a samuraiish thing mixed with Moebius."

But it is largely minor stuff, and probably will not make it to the final film. Remember, Lucasfilm is an integrated production company. They have entire departments of concept artist they can have specifically designed for that.

 

Here's a few more to add to my previous list:

• Kenneth Branagh - I think everything he's made has been solid, and his style matches Star Wars pretty well. It would also be good to inject his Shakespearean sensibilities into the proceedings.
• John Milius - He's one of Lucas' old buddies, who was unfortunately screwed over by the Hollywood systems. Despite that, I think he's a great writer and director. Everyone likes the original Red Dawn, and I consider the original Conan to be a masterpiece, especially given the pitiful budgets he had to work with. He'd be perfect for the dark episodes, or better yet, give him the Darth Bane novels to adapt and direct.
• Mel Gibson - This obviously won't happen, but it's too bad he had to go nuts and get black-listed from Hollywood, because I also consider him one of the best directors alive today. Braveheart is essentially a Star Wars movie, minus the violence and setting. He probably wouldn't want to make such a kid-friendly movie as SW, but you never know.