Speculation Lawrence Kasdan may write Episode 8

T-R - I think everyone is aware of the need to believe every tiny rumour, but the same reports saying Arndnt wrote a 40-50pg treatment are the ones who first broke the news he was going to pen the script. Is it that much of a stretch to believe they were on the money on that part of the report too? I'll tell you this, I highly doubt Ardnt would go straight from a treatment by GL to writing the script without doing his own treatment first.

 

A treatment is written like a story outline in that it BROADLY covers what the plot is along with the main characters and conflict.It might have some details as far as types of dialogue or important aspects that come into pay with the story. It's like an outline in that it has 3 parts. The screenplay is then written based on this outline. A screenplay is basically a blueprint for the story in terms of camera shots. Here's an example:

Episode V:

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK ...
After the destruction of its
most feared battle station, the
Empire has declared martial law
throughout the galaxy.

A million worlds have felt the
oppressive hand of the Emperor
as He attempts to crush the
growing rebellion.

As the Imperial grip of tyranny
tightens, Princess Leia and the
small band of freedom fighters
search for a more secure base of
operations ...

The roll-up disappears into the black horizon.

2 EXT PLAIN OF HOTH - HELICOPTER SHOT - DAY 2

The camera tilts down bringing into view a small figure galloping across the windswept ice slope.

The bolded part is the shot, The story is written in the form of camera shots. Aloty of time there will be very little detail as to creatures and action. That stuff is worked out by the other departments. This is where GL will come into play as "Creative Consultant," with the details and style that we're familiar with.

There's alot to producing and I don't claim to know everything but essentially they are the ones spearheading the project. Alot of times you start to see actors producing IE Brad Pitt in Tree of Life. Generally they invest in the movie because its a project they happen to like. There's alot of complexity to it. But generally the Executive Producer is the Captain of the ship even above Dircetor. People don't get that. (Unless the Director is both) The producer funds the project or gets funds for the project. However they are the vision of the project as well. They detail the things they want to see, theme, tone etc... Remember, GL was the producer for Eps V & VI so his vision still set the tone for the films.

The various producers are divided into repsonsibilities. Executive is the captain and they deligate to people, even other producers.

Kathleen Kennedy's job isn't to secure funds -- that's done. She is making sure they hire the writers and they produce screenplays that live up and honor SW. Then she will make sure that all departments -- art, CGI, costumes -- have everything they need to start working and porduce what is needed. Etc . . . .

 

Any chance you can help with the screenplay? This is funny as h3ll. Thanks for the laugh!!

 

From what i understand, GL is only writing/wrote an outline for each movie, Arndt is writing a treatment for a trilogy and scripting Episode VII. I suppose GL went back to his little notebook he planned everything out in during the 1970's. The only concern i have with Kasdan is his view of writing Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, back then he said he thought they shouldn't make the film as Raider's had been perfect and couldn't be improved on. He had a similar view with ROTJ and had to be pursuaded to write that one. But hopefully he can bring some decent dialogue back.

 

I believe the original "rumour" about Ardnt, that originated on Vulture, says that he only wrote the treatment for Episode 7. Then Deadline Hollywood chimed in and said that he actually wrote a treatment for the entire trilogy. A lot of people on this site don't seem to understand that Deadline isn't just your average movie rumours blog. They're pretty much correct 99% of the time. So whenever they report on something, you are safe to assume it’s the truth.

 

Oorah.

 

Just to nitpick , treatments don't all have to break down into 3 parts. They can do, but it's not always the case.

You tend to have different types of producers. You have creative types who take on more of a shepherding role to the get the script to the screen, money men who secure the finance and do most of the hiring, line producers who oversee the daily running of the shoot and of course - the hangers on who get a credit because they're part of the talent's inner circle or something and others besides.

I get the feeling with Kasdan that he was weary of GLs controlling input on Jedi and that was partially the reason he turned down the offer to work on the PT. With GL taking more of a backseat now, that's no longer an issue. Of course there may be different reasons.

 

Treatments come in a variety of shapes & sizes.

 

If Lucasfilm is using Lucas' treatment for the movies, I highly doubt Arndt would write his own treatment or rewrite Lucas'. I guess we'll have to wait for the "Making of" book, because the official announcement mentions screenplay and not a word regarding the treatment. Why would they omit that if he wrote both?

The reports stating Arndt wrote treatments probably made the same assumptions that are being made here. They heard he was writing the screenplay and thought if he is writing the script he must've writen the treatment.

 

GL himself said treatments

 

^ You REALLY don't get it, do you? The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline Hollywood don't make assumptions. If they report on something, they've personally vetted what they're reporting on. As for why Arndt having worked on a treatment for the trilogy wasn't mentioned, there could be many reasons why it wasn't mentioned, but just because it wasn't mentioned doesn't mean it didn't happen.

 

Deadline Hollywood were the first ones to mention Arndt writing a treatment for the entire trilogy, so it was mentioned.

Deadline Hollywood = better than aintitcoolnews

 

Yeah, but everything is better than AICN

 

T-R - My suspicion is that GL provided the initial outlines/ treatments, as per the video. Then KK and GL sat down with at least Arndt (but I'm guessing Kasdan and possibly Kinberg if these reports turn out to be correct) and developed them/ polished them further.

I don't see why you think this wouldn't be the case.

It's very rare that an article announces who wrote the treatment for a project because it's not usually of interest. In this case, it makes sense that they announced (and who knows when this video was actually recorded) that GL's treatments were being used because it says to the world at large that the next SW trilogy is still the brain-child of the creator of the franchise.

I personally think KK is shrewd enough to have wanted to develop those treatments further to get them into the best possible shape. One of the biggest criticisms of the PT was GL's writing. Getting a better writer than GL to rewrite his treatments is a sensible step.

Also, as has been pointed out by GL himself in the vid, there are a lot of holes in his treatments (and I don't mean dialogue - I mean gaps in the story). He's not going to fill them. Hence, already those holes need to be filled and who better to do that than the writer who will be taking on the first screen-play.

Purely from my own experience, no writer is going to leap straight to script from a basic, hole-filled treatment written by someone else, especially on a job with so much resting on it. If Arndt gets this right, he's the guy that gets SW back on track in a big way. Not to mention the fact that he's a structure nut and very thorough professional. He will be taking this very, very seriously.

 

Echo,

Thanks...your comments as well those from others have helped to clarify things immensely.

So, someone said here the script/screenplay are more or less the same thing. My biggest hope is that we don't end up with the same stilted/awkward dialogue from the PT. Is the reason for that dialogue because George Lucas wrote the screenplay and was also the director so little to no modifications/tweaks were made along the way?

 

AFAIK, Kasdan hasn't done screenwriting for anyone else since ROTJ (He only did it that time as a favor to George because he'd been so helpful to his career).
Maybe that's the problem with the movies he's done since then? Maybe he needs someone else to get him started with a really good idea?





"I need your help, Lucas"
/LM

 

And GL said there'd be no more films after ROTS, seriously though one man's treatment is another man's outline.

GL said he had the outline for 9 episodes already on paper from when they filmed in Tunisia during ANH and Arndt has started work already hasn't he? May be its just as simple as that

 

As has been pointed out, the screenplay fills in the gaps of a treatment. No one writes a treatment that has no gaps.

 

No problem!

First, I really like the PT and think GL gets alot of undeserved bashing for it. However, there asre definitely some tweaks I would have made. And as for your last question -- YES! Definitely. GL didn't have an editor and everything he wrote essentially went into the film. He definitley could have used a co-writer. We would have gotten better dialogue and less or at least funnier Jar Jar.

 

pretty much

I think GL, KK, Iger, and the rest know the difference.

 

Pretty much everything in the PT was GL's vision, including the dialogue, which suffered because of his lack of skill in that area. If Arndt, Kasdan and Kinberg are involved you can guarantee the dialogue will be far less stilted and cringeworthy (although I'm sure there will still be the odd SW style clunker - before anyone mentions nerd-herder). You also won't have everyone referring to each other by their own name or title every 5 seconds.

 

Will GL get a "story by" credit at the end of the movie?

Will the first credit be created and story by George lucas?

 

??

Again, there are no rules when it comes to treatments.

 

Given that we know Pablo was doing research for (at least) Lucas since June, I would suspect Lucas had the bare bones, and Lucas and Arndt sat down and worked through a detailed treatment.

Can't imagine Pablo doing a ton of research for a couple of pages outline.

 

Chaos - Something like that. Whatever the credits he got on Empire or ROTJ perhaps (although was he an E P on that? can't remember). It feels like he's stepping away much further this time though so who knows.

Also, minor point, but GL hates the writing process. Why wouldn't he hand over the lion's share of the work to someone else? As Garth says, he probably did the bare bones - an outline for each story then handed over to Arndt to do the legwork.