ST JJ Abrams to direct Episode VII

interesting article with lawrence kasdan.

http://www.wired.com/2015/11/lawrence-kasdan-qa/

It was completely out of the blue. I was really surprised. I hadn’t had anything to do with it since Jedi. George and I had stayed in touch, and I would see him occasionally, but we weren’t close. And then Kathy Kennedy called. This is before Disney was in the picture at all.She said, “we’re going to make more Star Wars movies. Will you come up and talk to George and me?”

I had a lot of hesitation. I went up to the ranch not at all convinced I would do it. I was happy to see George again, and Kathy and I have never been out of touch, because we have a lot of connections. And they said, “look, we have hired Michael Arndt to write the next one, but there are these other ideas, and you can take your pick.” I said, “the only one I really want to do here is Han Solo (spin-off film), because Han is my favorite character.” And they said OK. That got me over my hesitation. We made a deal for me to write Han, and a deal to come on and help Michael and with some other people develop what would be the next Star Wars. I did that as a kind of consultant at the same time I was starting to write Han. It went on for months, and it was quite a large brain trust.

Weeks after that meeting, Disney bought the company, and I was involved in trying to get J.J. Abrams to direct what would becomeForce Awakens. When he agreed to do the movie it got very exciting. He and George are so different, but they’re the same in that they’re both very funny and both brilliant. He and I hit it off right away, even before we were officially writing the script, when we were just helping Michael. We all worked on the story for a long time, and it was a struggle. Then they decided the script wasn’t coming along fast enough. There were people being hired and money being spent, and Michael stepped away.

By the time J.J. and I came on to write the script, again, just like Empire, there was enormous time pressure, and there were people on payroll in England. It was very intense.

Force Awakens, New Hope, Empire-—these are movies about fulfilling what is inside you. That’s a story that everybody can relate to. Even when you get to be my age, you’re still trying to figure that out. It’s amazing but it’s true. What am I, what am I about, have a fulfilled my potential, and, if not, is there still time? That’s what the Star Wars saga is about.

Yeah, but now you’re also beholden to big corporations with their own stories to tell.

I’ve been lucky. On these series I worked with George, with Kersh, with [Jedi director] Richard Marquand, who was lovely. I worked with Kathy, and I worked with J.J. These are very strong people and they’re not gonna be swallowed by the corporate machines. I don’t think there’s a lot of difference between the way George and Kirsch approached it and the way J.J. approached it.​

Last edited by thejeditraitor, 1 minute ago

 

great because these movies should never look like they came out of a committee of execs

 

I think, unlike the Marvel Studios films, which are generally much better than the average blockbuster but still feel like they came out of a committee (with some, such as Guardians of the Galaxy, letting a bit of individuality shine through), we're going to get films that feel far more like they come from individual directors with their own vision. At least, that's what I hope we get, and that's what it seems like so far.

 

The thing is ultimately what he or anyone likes or doesn't like about any of the movies doesn't really matter because they exist the movies are the movies and the story is the story.

All they can do is build upon what is there which obviously is exactly what they are doing.

 

For once I absolutely, completely agree with you. Regardless of the respective quality of any film in the saga, despite any flaws, they're part of the mythology and *are* what happened in this fictional universe. While we can all speculate at length about character motivations etc, we do need to always bear in mind that every film is part of every characters personal history, or contextual history

 

Precisely. And with regards to JJ, I think amongst all fans it's roundly known now that he's primarily a fan of the OT. But despite that, I can't ever recall him stating that he 'hates' the prequels? Behind closed doors, those that know the man privately probably know that, perhaps he dislikes them? Hell even George Lucas more than likely knows this. Personally, I couldn't envisage a scenario in which JJ would lie to George if he happened to ask in conversation what he thought of them? But whatever the case, 'hate' is much too strong a word to use IMO.

 

My personal feeling is that unlike SP JJ respects another film-maker telling the story that person wants to tell. For whatever reason Pegg can't do that.

As film-maker himself of a much higher level than Pegg JJ knows how difficult it is to get to do what you want to do. That George was able to take over the system to work for him can't be understated. He got to make his movies in a way that few in the history of the business ever have.

What I find interesting about the above comments by JJ and Kasdan is that though they relate it to the OT I see it all being the same thing that the PT and therefore Star Wars always does.

LK:

Force Awakens, New Hope, Empire-—these are movies about fulfilling what is inside you. That’s a story that everybody can relate to. Even when you get to be my age, you’re still trying to figure that out. It’s amazing but it’s true. What am I, what am I about, have a fulfilled my potential, and, if not, is there still time? That’s what the Star Wars saga is about.

Odd that he leaves out Jedi there.

 

JJ apparently completed the final cut of TFA!

http://makingstarwars.net/2015/11/yahoo-reports-star-wars-the-force-awakens-is-finished/

 

JJ will be on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Monday 11/30 - http://www.interbridge.com/lineups.html#JKL

 

The 6 small things to be done... De-Foxing the Saga?
Removing the 20th Century Fox themes from the start of the old movies?

 

Disney already did that with the digital downloads a few months ago. Only ANH has the Fox logo since the studio still owns the movie.

 

Disney/Lucasfilm owns it, Fox owns distribution rights.

 

Going to be strange seeing a Star Wars movie without the Fox logo/tune coming up first

 

nice article, i really hope they go with a classic more static type of camera movement, with added touches styles and flair thrown in but not too much. one of the things that pulls me out of the movie over past ten or so years is the constant camera movement over animated landscapes or scenes. i think things would look more real if just left alone as if a real camera were actually recording a scene unfolding rather than mimicking impossible movements that a director could not capture.
cant wait, no matter what people, some loved or hated the prequels but they were always fun to go and see a few times and thats what at least well get and most likely much much more !

 

From Empire: "Before he started The Force Awakens, Abrams watched some movies. No, not those ones, Other ones. He looked at “the confidence” of John Ford Westerns. He took in the “unbelievable scene choreography and composition” of Kurosawa’s High and Low. And he studied “the powerful stillness” of Terrence Malick. “It’s not something I would normally have thought of coming to Star Wars,” he says. The spare visual style of Ford, Kurosawa and Malick points to a key mandate for Abrams’ approach to Episode VII: the distinctive less-is-more quality of the originals."

Clearly with each interview i'm starting to think JJ is reading my mind and knows exactly what I want to hear. As I said many times before i was worried when i first heard about him being appointed to direct episode 7....2 years later I think he was definitely the right choice (now bring on Rian Johnson for episode 8!!).

"Powerfull stillness"? i like that. I always found JJ's films to be a bit messy with the camera shaking or moving all the time. It seems his approach will be more self-contained this time, and yes i can see that in some shots from the trailers (Rey's scavenging being one). Other shots look very dynamic of course but i think (hope) it will be less of a frenzy than, say, into darkness//

 

He keeps saying all the right things...I think its gonna turn out JJ was the absolute best choice for this movie.

 

funnily enough if you go to the pt forum they seem to twist all of these positive's into negatives.

PT - A Thread For Prequel Fans To Discuss New Star Wars Content (spoiler tags required) | Page 165 | Jedi Council Forums

does any of this make sense?

 

They're deliberately misquoting him. He was talking about Malick and they tried to make him sound uninformed by Kurosawa's influence. I'm embarrassed by a segment of SW fans.

"I hate him"

8 people liked this ****.

 

I really should not have clicked on that link! Different world over there.

 

Drop it.

 

You too.

 

Don't make me destroy ban you.

 

You either