ST JJ Abrams to direct Episode VII

Sort of. It has had one, but it only required a single headline.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/disney-buy-lucasfilm-405-billion-384448

 

Not necessary. JJ's ST success is still smaller than the prequels in terms of box office success. At the end of the day, what the general movie going public thinks of the movie isn't going to matter much because most of them won't post about it on the internet and make comments about it. It's the fans who will do videos that will shape what people thinks about the new movie.

Well, a key difference is the SW fanbase is generally larger than ST fanbase. Any division among the fans would be more vocal and thus encourages more casual fans to agree or disagree with them. If you repeat the same comments over and over again by enough people, you will end up convincing more people to share your viewpoint.

The question is how big is the split going to be, and how does that affects the word of mouth for this movie. If there are more fans saying TFA is horrible, it will deter some casual movie goers from watching it. This would have an important impact in the sense that the movie might make less money than it is expected to be. Superman Returns made a profit, but fans backlash has caused the franchise to be rebooted. The Spiderman franchise has been rebooted and is going to be rebooted once again due to fan backlash over SM 3 and TASM 2.

 

It won't be SM3 bad. In fact I suspect it will be better than either of the two Star Trek films (which far outgrossed the previous Star Trek films). It will play big with the Avengers demographic.

If something is going to sink this movie it's primarily going to be two choices IMO -- the decision and reasoning to keep Luke out of the movie and the floating lightsaber thing.

There has to be two very good reasons for taking story risks like this, and it can't be done in a LOST type of way (ie: we did it because we thought it was interesting).

 

JJ Abrams has revealed that there is plenty of teaser material he could share aboutStar Wars: The Force Awakens – but wants to wait until the time is right.
“First of all, I’m always grateful that people would be asking. But the truth is it’s like we haven’t shown anything,” he said.
“There’s sort of an abundance of riches with the stuff we could put out so we’re just trying to make sure it’s as good as it could be before we put anything out. The disaster would be to race something out for the sake of making an impact and it being not as good as people deserve.”
JJ, who will be taking the reins on the seventh instalment of the sci-fi franchise, added: “We don’t want to be coy but we have almost a year until the movie comes out, so we have to be smart about what we say and when. We’re always having conversations about it.”
The 48-year-old director, who hosted the gala, reassured fans that the film will be worth waiting for.
“I would say thank you for being interested. Thank you for your patience and honestly, I can’t wait for you to see the film,” he said.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/breaki...s-hints-at-more-star-wars-teasers-663366.html

 

The Trek fanbase is split on Abrams' movies mostly because large swaths of the Trek fanbase have bought into a conception of what "Star Trek" is that doesn't necessarily line up with the best films/shows .

Essentiallly, at this point there are people who think Next Generation was the apex of what Star Trek was always supposed to be (these people tend to deify Gene Roddenberry's "vision" without really digging too deep into what that "vision" consisted of, and why it came to look the way it did post Star Trek's cancellation), and JJ's take on Star Trek doesn't line up with that one very well (although it DOES line up with the Original Series' pretty decently, as did a large part of Deep Space Nine).

The parallels between the Star Trek & Star Wars fanbase have always been kinda solid. I don't think The Force Awakens is going to change that, really.

 

I really hope Abrams knocks it out of the park with this one. He deserves it after all the scrutiny he's been under since getting hired two years ago (wow, time flies). Given his enthusiasm and genuine love for the material, I really do think we could get something at the quality of A New Hope; not quite at the level as The Empire Strikes Back, but still a couple notches above Return of the Jedi, and with all the spirit of adventure and discovery the original had.

 

I would put 2:1 odds he's going to have made, at minimum, the third best Star Wars film.

Like, I think the floor for the box-office is a billion worldwide, and the floor for this movie is going to be just under Star Wars and Empire.

That's the floor.

 

JJ is great! I approve of his approach. Don't rush it man, take your time. It's Star Wars people will go to the movies, just keep working till it's the best it can be.

 

But its also more like "your floor". For an new generation of audience this could be the best Star Wars film ever. Thats what JJ is aiming for. And Disney. Us, old timers, we will never experience the best Star Wars film again, maybe.The best, Its name is The Empire Strikes Back, well for me it is. But of course, i really do hope for this film to be great, and have high hopes of so...i just think JJ is making this film as a fanboy, but not for fans. But something fans will respect. Sure it will be a split. You can not please anyone...

 

Honestly I think Jedi gets slagged on a bit too much. It's the most emotional of all the films, particularly that second half. I think its on par with ANH, Empire being a notch above both.

I'm not sure if this film will reach those heights. I'm starting to wonder if this movie will be the inverse of the prequels ... meaning its strengths will be the opposite of the prequels -- character/acting, dialogue, fast moving plot, emotion ... but its weaknesses will be in relative scope, plot gimmicks, and story arc.

 

I do love Jedi, don't get me wrong.The fight between Luke and Vader on the Death Star II, especially when Vader goads Luke into fighting by threatening to turn Leia, is possibly the most powerful scene in the entire saga. It would be on par with ANH for me, but I just think the film is brought down by some lesser acting from Ford and Fisher (both don't seem nearly as into their roles as in ESB) and a couple of minor quibbles here and there.

I think the scope will start off smaller in this trilogy and gradually increase. I get the impression they just want to bring it back to basics to start with. As for the trilogy-long story arc, it's hard to really make out what it'll be at this point. Only time will tell.

 

I agree. JJ is doing and saying all the right things and I've the utmost confidence in him.

But however good TFA is, I can't imagine it surpassing ANH or ESB

 

I would thing that it is best to approach the movie as "it's own thing" and not to compare it any of the previous films - at least in watching it for the first time.

 

Question is, is he able to do something really different ?

 

Different to what?

 

Different of what came before. Is he able not to rely too much on nostalgia ? to take the risk ?

 

You mean a risk like starting a Star Wars movie with a lightsaber (possibly attached to a severed hand) floating through space or

Having Luke Skywalker marooned/in refuge on a planet and only having him in the last minute of the movie

That kinda risk?

 

I take most of the "rumors" with a big grain of salt but I guess it will be about how many changes he has done to Lucas treatment.

 

I don't think there is a Lucas treatment. Abrams junked the whole thing is favor of his own script/story with Kasdan.

Maybe one day we'll be able to see the Arndt/Lucas script/treatment, but I don't think that will be until TFA is many years old and something like that can be quietly rolled out.

 

Are you worried that he might try to make everything look, sound and feel so much like the OT that it will be completely unoriginal?

You base this on what?

 

Based on Lucas saying they (Abrams/Kasdan/Disney) decided not to use any of his ideas in a recent interview.

 

If they really ditched his treatment what do you think is the probability we are going to have completely new stories instead of a rehash ?

 

I considered that but we don't know how much Lucas is actually in the know - he is no longer involved. Is he just speculating based on hat he has heard or does he know for definite?

Nothing in that interview made that clear.

 

I would think out of common and professional courtesy he would be told.

I mean it would be ridiculously disrespectful to have him think they were using his ideas, and say have him show up to set and be made to look like an idiot (for example). Or have him talking to the press that they're using his ideas, when in actuality they weren't.

I'm sure Kathleen Kennedy phoned him and told him. His quote is fairly unambiguous too, he says they didn't want to use his ideas, they wanted to use their own. Doesn't sound like he's guessing or speculating.