ST Rian Johnson to write and direct Episode VIII (and also new SW Trilogy - see page 194)

I honestly think that film-makers who want to do fan service should be mindful of actors age. 100 years old Christopher Lee's young stunt double doing backflips and stuff was ridiculous. I know that fans want to see Luke kick ass with a saber but he ain't in his 20s and 30s so it's gonna look fairly ridiculous if they give him some OTT choreography that befits young characters. Just my 2 cents cause that stuff takes me out of the movie. Like that fit, young, lightfooted Gandalf double that didn't even bother to mimic Sir Ian. Ugh.

 

Yoda was 900 yrs and I liked it

 

I don't think we'll see any of that in TLJ. I think it'll be more "he's barely putting any effort in and still destroying the enemy." That's way more kickass than any backflips or highly choreographed stunts IMO.

 

Lol. Unlike RotJ, this time when Luke does a Force kick, it won't just be 10 inches from the enemy's face, it will be 10 yards.

 

Guess I'm in the minority but I would love to see Jedi superpowers like Force jumping and pouncing

 

vader in RO barely moved but he was clearly very skilled and powerful, so even a centenarian could be portrayed as that, luke is not even an octogenarian and I've always felt that Jedi continue to get better with age unlike athletes

 

But old people doing that is not appealing. There's an age for everything, keep it real. Fantasy works the best when it's based in reality meaning a 50-60 years old Jedi shouldn't do physical stuff like a 20-30 something. As temtam says, "barely putting any effort" should do the trick. At that point in his life and age, mastery of the Force should take precedence to crazy stunts.

 

Well, the guy in green pants is Mark's stunt double... make of that what you will

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKGjoTCBPKD/?taken-by=flostunts

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMXZ9FGjmU7/?taken-by=flostunts

 

Nothing OTT (by OTT I mean parkour and gymnastics) and he's clearly doubling for a younger actor/character here.

 

Luke is still just 53. According to canon, parkour shouldn't be too big of a problem

 

I don't think that would look good at all but whatever.

 

Mark is only one actor in Star Wars trilogies who has lightsabers skills since he was young. Christopher Lee, Ian McDarmid and Alec Guiness didn't have such experience. For now this will be strangely different.

 

I'm much more interested to see how male/female fight scenes are going to be choreographed. from Crouching Tiger and many wuxia movies to Zorro/Elena to Will/Elizabeth, those fights are awesome and sparkly whether they fight against each other or together and synchronized.

 

Yep the old school Kung Fu movies excelled at the whole legendary warrior that barely lifts a finger to destroy opponents reveal. It never gets old. For some reason Lucas went the opposite route in the PT.

 

Sgt. Carver Very true. Yoda fights come to mind. I find it ridiculous that he has no problem jumping around and spinning and summersaulting, yet can't walk w/o cane. likewise, the Jedi can lift ships with the Force but can't unlock handcuffs.

 

I'm sorry, you consider vader in RO to be making huge moves? i could absolutely see dooku in his place, he just walked forward and swung his wrist and it would look just as cool
making luke a heavy hitter isn't fan service it's the logical progression of canon

 

I assume Rian likes lightsaber duels.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BS2n0iilDGg/

 

Some folks over at NeoGAF are in line for the panel and have met with Rian in the past few minutes. Apparently Rian's been going at a nice leisurely pace, giving every single person as much time as he can, one at a time.

This man is a treasure, folks.

 

As much as I can't wait to see the first trailer, I'm also psyched to see Johnson talk about the movie. It's clear as crystal that this is a dream come true for him, and I can't wait to hear what he has to say about the experience.

 

very curious too! id like to know what he's aiming for with the movie, in terms of tone and themes. Something like "there's really some deep psychedelic high fantasy stuff in that movie" or "i wanted to bring some hard sci fi elements", something that gives us clues about what the film will have as its unique quality, what will differentiate it from the rest of the saga (just like R1 was a grittier war movie take on SW). What kind of SW is the Last Jedi? Id like to know more about that!

 

It's almost scary how much faith I, and most fans, have in Rian Johnson to deliver one of the best SW films. Expectations are perhaps too high! If he senses this danger, I imagine he might even try to temper expectations a bit through being super humble. "I hope you all like it," "I tried my best to do x, y, z," "not sure I succeeded," etc.

It's gonna be a great film, I'm sure, but he may need to apply the brakes to the hype train a little...