ST JJ Abrams to direct Episode VII

That's a horribly disturbing image.

 

Well, aren't you the Internets? Certainly you've seen more disturbing images around!

 

Yes. Enough to drive a person mad...

 

Wait, is there confirmation somewhere that Arndt is working on 8, or are you speaking from a wishing stand point?

I love the ending of the interview: "Really quick..." "I won't be able to sleep tonight" done. wth??

 

I'm pretty sure Arndt isn't working on 8. He's been replaced on the project. If it was to switch on to VIII they would have announced it at the time.

 

Good point. Seems like a detail they wouldn't keep secret. Rather the opposite.

 

That was a good impression at the end by the interviewer

 

Exactly. It would have made any bad news spin on the announcement impossible.

 

I kind of figured that too. I could have used a lot less diplomatic phrasing then "are you speaking from a wishing stand point" (though I would have kept the first four words in that sentence)

 

Hah. Accidentally clicked on the first page of this thread, without noticing... there's links all over saying "JJ Abrams to direct next SW film" and people all going "I'll wait for confirmation on this..." and for like 5 minutes I kept scrolling around thinking it was confirmed he'll be directing Episode 8 as well.

That's the most fun I've had in this thread in months

 

Why wouldn't JJ and Co. simply make VIII and IX consecutively? That is to film and edit them in the style of the Hobbit.

 

Actually, that might not be 100% out of the question at this stage (or at least have been under consideration).

 

Filming them together would make quite a bit of sense.

 

Practically speaking, yes. Although, one of the things I've always liked about saga flicks is that each movie had it's own style and feel, unlike LOTR, which all felt like they were in the same movie. I've always kind of suspected that the years between the shoots had a lot to do with that.

 

With the release date pushed back Disney executives might insist and JJ may be planning on it anyway.

 

I don't think they'll be filming the ST back to back given that it requires a huge amount of planning and precision on the production teams part. It would mean that they'd have to be much further on (certainly in terms of script) than what appears to be the case. Of course the advantage Jackson had with TLOTR was a wealth of material to kick into shape... we assume Lucas didn't hand over something equivalent to TLOTR when he sold to Disney.

 

Also the more I think about it, the more a back-to-back shoot doesn't even make sense practically at this point. Not only would it push the Ep.7 release date even further back, throwing Disney's marketing plan into disarray, but it would needlessly leave extra time after post and before release for 8 and 9

 

I doubt they will. Most movie franchises don't shoot that way for a reason. It takes a very long time and its hard on the actors.

 

Fair point about the different styles and feels to movies. That makes sense and in light of that, yeah, it might be better off to shoot them one by one.

All other arguments, of practicality, planning, schedule, etc. - those can be fixed, since there is quite a bit of time until they get on to working on Episode 8 (and/or 9). I don't think those would pose any kind of problems if they decide to take it down that route in the next year or so.

 

The problem is that when attempting to shoot concurrent stories it obviously often necessitates shooting parts of Ep IX in the same shooting block as Ep VII etc. That would mean shooting scripts for all 3 films would need to be locked down by spring 2014. That's possible, but not probable given what we're privy to.

 

Not with the second two necessarily. I agree about the different feel/ directors etc. But they could quite easily right the development log-jam they've been under on VII by the time they would need to start shooting 8 & 9.

 

As I said, possible but not probable. I don't think they'll have the shooting scripts for all 3 movies ready for spring 2014. We assume that pushing out the release dates for Ep VII was to allow provision for the script for that particular movie to be in fit shape... Do we really think they'll start shooting scenes for Ep IX in spring?

 

true, but that doesn't mean they can't shoot 8 and 9 back to back.

 

That is true.