ST Colin Trevorrow NOT directing Episode IX

You are too optimistic that people are still able to watch the Rian movies after the first 4.

 

This isn't being written in a vacuum, though. Kathleen Kennedy, Kiri Hart, Michelle Rejwan (who interestingly is one of Abrams's people) and the Story Group have been putting this story together with him. And based on how willing KK has shown herself to be to replace writers and directors when something isn't working, I feel OK about the product we'll end up with.

 

Dude. Not cool.

 

Or the way this thread has developed. It wasn't as negative overall at the beginning. Maybe TBOH is terrible. I haven't seen SNG or JW, but because I'm already not expecting much thanks to this thread, I might actually like them. However, JP is one of my favorite films, and 2&3 weren't much, so...

EDIT:

Just saw Home Base on You Tube. It's been many years since my brief stint as a film student, and I'm surprised just how much you can do with compression in a short film.

That said, the boyfriend is despicable. But, is CT despicable for making a movie about a despicable character? Are Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel despicable for Beguiled? I've never seen it, but after the Jacobin review of the Coppola version, I guess I'll watch both versions. Is Kubrick despicable for Lolita? And Jake LaMotta according to Ebert has a Madonna-whore complex, so what of Scorsese?

Now is CT a misogynist for making a misogynist the protagonist? And are the 2 actresses misogynistic sympathizers for participating? Yeah, both women characters are dim, and maybe that's a poor understanding of women on CT's part. But maybe they're dim people who happen to be women. The boyfriend may be clever, but psychologically he's a mess.

However, the co-scenarist of 4 SW films made the classic Body Heat in his directorial debut. Is he misogynistic for having a woman be the villain? Thing is, I love film noir, and this film is a great homage to the genre. BH and HB deal with sexual relations in which people manipulate each other. That said, I didn't find KT's character disgusting like I did the guy in HB. And she's a felon. Maybe it's because she's beautiful and bewitching and I was 16 when I saw it? Or just because I know the rules of the genre and LK wrote and directed so brilliantly?

I hate the guy--I'm a guy, btw--in HB. And this is a situation comedy about human imperfection, but that mail box scene is disgusting. But is CT is disgusting for making a character disgusting? I found Archie disgusting in All in The Family, and didn't understand the story at age 7. It would become one of my favorite shows.

Is HB satire? Maybe. I hope so. Too early for me to tell as I'm still processing this. Now on to finishing the homework assignment.

 

Do it.

 

Honestly, the worst thing about Home Base is that it's filmed like a sitcom. I find the writing to be laughably bad, but it's like Trevorrow has zero visual imagination. I'd expect a short film from a budding filmmaker to be eagerly experimental on some level, be it via editing, framing, sound design, etc. Home Base is a failure on every level in that regard. Compare it with The Psychology of Dream Analysis by Rian, which was made the same year.

 

Bro, you avatar is of Kylo Ren, a TFA character. I don't understand how you could hate a movie and yet make your avatar a character from that movie. Talk about mind f-.

 

Hey, that's on You Tube too. YT has gotten so stingy with big budget films and prime time TV, but at least I can watch short films.

I wonder if FF Coppola's porn films from early in his career are on YT. Should be tame enough. Since one topic of this thread is portrayal of females, I'd like to compare..

 

All I know is that Christopher Nolan is a pretty good filmmaker.

 

I'd love to see him finally do a Bond film. However, as both Inception and Spectre have homages to that one scene in the Alps in OHMSS, I doubt we'll see so overt and homage again.

I really want to see Dunkirk.

As SW and GL were among the influences of Interstellar, maybe CN can do that young Kenobi film.

 

All I know is that I found JW to be satisfactorily entertaining.

From my limited knowledge of the film industry, I understand it's normal for large movies to have 'ghost writers', and such like all over the place. Besides, considering the way Rey has been promoted as LFL's flagship heroine since TFA. I'm sure LFL will give CT plenty of hurdles to jump, to ensure that his portrayal of the character is up to scratch.

 

There was one of the interviews for BoH I remember hearing where Trevorrow said he doesn't want the cinematography to stand out where you're saying 'hey, nice shot".

That explains so much about why his films look the way they do.

 

Fine. We can get a monkey to shoot it in that case.

 

The Legions of Lettow

I honestly think he never direct a SW film. It just isn't his style. Plus he seems to really enjoy creative freedom and with the story group team set at Lucasfilm, I just don't think Chris would like that. Him and Bond though is just a match made in heaven.

And on a side note, I am happy my first instinct was right and ColinGate blew over. Moving on....

 

Doesn't Lucas take the same approach to cinematography? So it would fit the Star Wars aestethic somewhat. (No George hating intended, merely an observation). I don't get that kind of thinking though, I want beautiful shots.

 

Hollywood has the tradition of zero style or invisible style. I think Spielberg attempted this in Always, IIRC from an interview long ago. Even so, even prior to the New Hollywood, there are European influences, particularly in film noir and horror. Hawks could do so many genres, and was a master of the Hollywood film style. Even so, he had overlapping dialogue. And Ford has centrifugal space with a static camera, IIRC--film school was in another lifetime. So, if CT doesn't have Ridley Scott breathtaking art direction and cinematography or Kubrick-style tracking shots and zooms, so be it.

A lot of the film is going to be thanks to the story group and FX crew.

Come to think of it, in ANH GL battled his cinematographer and fired his editor because they tried too do the invisible style. And Lord and Miller only had 2-3 setups for YHS. I wonder, does Ron Howard have all that unique a style?

Yeah, maybe SW isn't for him as a director. That said, JJ did ST and the 1st SW ST film. Imagine a director doing Batman, 007, and SW.

You're right. Nolan and 007 would be great.

 

The thing is, if the cinematography is invisible, the screenplay and performances have to be at 100%. Good cinematography is like a good score--it supports every other element. If you take that away, any weak points elsewhere will be exposed.

Unfortunately, Trevorrow's writing isn't that great, either.

 

Been a while since I've seen THX. But for it and AG be shot in Techniscope and it was 2-perf to get the Scope aspect ratio, they'll be a bit grainy. He has 2 cinematographers on THX and AG. He was supposed to be the unofficial supervising cinematographer on AG, , but turned that over to Haskell Wexler, who became visual consultant and who also is one of the greatest cinematographers in history. GL wanted to do Apocalypse Now in 16mm.

On ANH he had a deal with Geoffrey Unsworth, another great, who did 2001, Cabaret, and Superman. GU bailed and GL got GT--Gilbert Taylor--of Dr Strangelove, A Hard Day's Night, and Thr Omen. They just didn't click.

He didn't retain GT for V and VI and they're better-looking films. And GL directed some of VI.

As for the cinematography and videography of the PT, I think they're great if you're talking composition, angles, and color. He does seem to favor a static or at least unobtrusive camera, unlike Kubrick, a big influence on him. Spielberg is more dynamic, too.

With JJ we maybe had one lens flare?

I thought R1 was beautiful. Let's hope Rian and Ron continue the great work.

 

You get a like just for mentioning OHMSS! Ugh, my attention has been plagued by that movie for the last 24 hours. Do you listen to BondCast?!

Ah, on topic! Since you haven't seen JW, do you feel spoiled by all this discussion?

 

Yeah, I love OHMSS. One of the best Bond films. Soderbergh loves it too. I didn't know about Bondcast. I do now. Thanks!

Not really spoiled. In fact, as the 6th grade students I teach and I returned to Tokyo from their School Trip on the tour bus the DVD that we watched was JW. I was way in the back and couldn't hear anything and the subtitles were in Japanese. We got as far as the kids getting their ultra safe ride destroyed by the Megasaurus or whatever it was. So didn't see the whole thing and didn't hear anything. And I then read wiki on the development hell of JP 4 and the transition to JW.

Since Joe Johnston was supposed to have directed JP 4 at one point, imagine if he had directed JW. Would he be doing IX, then? I hope he does the Boba Fett film.

Actually, they are writing it in a vacuum. Method writing to simulate space to have more of a scientific realism SW lacks.

 

There's not talking down your own film (understandable), and then there's the tone deaf arrogance of calling your film a "piece of art."

 

Colin will surprise us all.
The biggest surprise in Episode IX will be that this time the Rebels build a Death Star

 

Wasn't that an abbandoned plotline from TFA?

 

I think the Resistance had the Sledgehammer in Arndt's earlier version.

 

Wasn't it like Leia has to make the decision about whether to use it or not? Certainly would have been more interesting than what we got and mitigated a lot of the SKB rehash complaints.