A/V Obi-Wan TV show happened, Ewan McGregor returned

A very distinguished career in theatre and three Best Director nominations at the Oscars? He's no mug.

 

I'm fascinated by this news because The Hours is easily one of my favorite movies. Tonally, it's just aching and very lyrical--both visually and script-wise. It puts some people off who find it boring, though not me. I've seen Billy Elliot and Extremely Loud as well, and overall, right now it's sounding to me like he's up for the job because he can do bittersweet, he can do whimsy, and focuses heavily on characters' inner lives. I have no idea how he'd handle the almost requisite Star Wars action/fantasy elements, but I suppose that's why it's just early talks.

 

I'm sure they will come up with something reasonably entertaining, but the concepts out of Lucasfilm lately are just plain lazy.

 

I don't think it's fair to call this one a lazy concept when we know absolutely nothing about it --- all we've been told so far is that a movie about Obi-Wan is in the earliest stages of development. We know zilch beyond who its central character will be, and there are an infinite number of potential actual concepts for what the film will be about.

I've only seen The Reader from Daldry's resume, but I read both Mrs. Dalloway and Extremely Loud last fall and have been meaning to watch The Hours and the latter's film adaptation. I wasn't crazy about Extremely Loud the book, but I mean I doubt the writing style transferred to the screen.

I want at the very least a flashback to his origins, just to see if the new canoneers will sycophantically commit to naming his homeworld Stewjon like the old canoneers did.

Fake Edit: Crap, they already did.

 

They should get Dave Filoni and Henry Gilroy to write the script. Twin Suns was a good story despite the episode being 22 minutes. They've also had many experience shaping Obi-Wan in TCW. Maybe this movie could be like the Yoda arc in Season 6 but for Obi-Wan on Tatooine. Currently, all the essential stories of Dark Times Obi-Wan seems to have been told but when it comes to tight spots in continuity, the Story Group and Filoni are able to work it out. I mean, they've got Hera, Chopper, and the Ghost in Rogue One and the remaining characters might still be alive even if Rebels is ending. Ahsoka survived and almost took down Maul on Mandalore.

 

Yes, but what about a career in the theater and experience making a handful of staid, stuffy, sometimes maudlin Oscar-baiting dramas makes him qualified to direct a necessarily actiony genre film that everyone agrees will be riffing on Westerns? There are plenty of Oscar-nominated prestige directors out there who would make terrible choices for a Star Wars movie. And Disney-LFL has yet to convince me it knows what it's doing when it comes to picking directors.

 

To be perfectly honest I don't think it makes a huge difference who directs a SW movie at this point, given that the basic style feels baked in. I couldn't really name you three directors of the Marvel stuff, and they're all extremely consistent in tone and feel (you get different art direction, sure, but there's an essential Marvelness to it all.)

You can see Abrams in Force Awakens, sure - a certain slickness - and we'll probably see Johnson in Last Jedi, which'll probably feel a little more distinctive and weird in places. But I feel like the director's not such a big deal here - it'll feel like Star Wars whoever is at the helm. Daldry'll get good performances out of the actors, the rest can probably be taken care of by the giant machine that is modern Star Wars storytelling.

 

Obi-Wan versus Darth Maul!

DESTROY CANON!

 

I disagree I thought it was an awful story full of filler slapstick and typical Filoni ignoring a plot hole/point if he doesn't like it or if it doesn't gel with his story

If they adapt Millers quality Kenobi book I will be happy

 

I'd say do it Jude Watson style:

Obi-Wan Kenobi is visited by a vision of Qui Gon who tells him to leave Tatooine and go rescue a bunch of Jedi from a Jedi prison. He successfully does so but most of them die in the process. It turns out he was actually rescuing some else from the prison who turns out to be important.

Say, Chewbacca.

 

I don't like complaining about getting new SW but I am not interested in the least about an Obi Wan movie. Make something NEW. Like the era before TPM.

 

We could have a Siriwan movie. And make a lot of Siriwan fans happy.

However, what's this wanting Old Republic materials? Don't people want sequels? (not ST, but what is after ST)

 

The Obi-wan movie I'd like wouldn't fit in with "canon".

I'd like one set between 3 and 4 if Satine had lived.

 

They may have to change ANH dialogue a bit if so

"Boy you said it Chewie, where did you dig up that old fossil ?"

"What ?! I said that Obiwan is a great man who saved my life and knows what he's doing"

 

They wasted a golden opportunity to bring Maul back in live action

 

"Hey, he almost got all of us killed last time!"

 

Oh how delightful!!!! The OT rocks. And my dear Obi-Wan specialist in fanfiction serendipityaey will be chuffed and hopefully inspired

 

The world of difference between TFA and Rogue One is pretty good evidence of just how much difference the director can make.

 

Who says they still can't? They could do a Maul movie easily. Maybe even set before TPM, which is what I would prefer. (Robo-Maul always seemed kind of stupid to me, and you don't survive being bisected).

 

How. Does. The. Guy. Push.?

 

I don't think you've been paying much attention to the Marvel movies. The MCU has been doing right precisely what I fear SW is doing wrong by firing Lord and Miller --- they've been hiring a wide range of directors to give their films distinctive tones and styles. Joe Johnston's Captain America is a WWII Period Piece that echoes past Johnston movies like The Rocketeer. The first Thor has Kenneth Branaugh's fingerprints all over it. The Russo Brothers' Cap sequel is very visually and tonally distinct from its predecessor, and films like The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy are very much products of Joss Whedon's and James Gunn's styles, respectively. And the primary reason I'm so pumped for Thor 3 is because Taika fricking Waititi is directing it.

Lucasfilm seemed on track to be doing the same thing, but, eh, they did all of those late Rogue One reshoots. And then Lord and Miller were fired because they were trying to direct a Lord and Miller movie instead of a movie that looked and felt exactly like what LFL thinks a SW movie should look and feel like. And trusty old hand Ron Howard was brought in, who can happily play by Lucasfilm's rules.

The choice of director matters very, very much. Working in a franchise like the MCU does bring certain limitations with it, sure, but there's still plenty of freedom given. Thor 3 will be the seventeenth MCU film, and only one director has left a project so far, which he claims is because of script re-writes rather than directing limitations.

The MCU's model is what Lucasfilm should be following. But with Lord and Miller's firing, I fear that every SW film is going to be so similar that we're all going to burn out on them sooner rather than later.

 

Every MCU movie since the first Avengers movie looks and feels like an episode of a tv show.
Compare Homecoming to the Raimi movies. Homecoming has no vision or style.

 

You can't really say that without knowing what Lord & Miller were doing. From all reports they were creating a disaster. A full-blown silly comedy that would have been decimated by fans. Giving directors freedom to do their thing is all well and good, but you have to have directors that are not going to **** it up. If you had to say they made a mistake it would probably be hiring them in the first place, but even then you can't expect them to predict how immovable Lord & Miller were going to be when it came to their vision.

 

The keyword being From all reports.
What does that even mean? We won't ever know which "mistake" if any, in the film that is Lord and Miller's work and which is Ron Howard's. This is thanks to all the inevitable re shoots.
Anyway, Emperor Horus, you said it yourself. We can't really say .... without knowing what Lord & Miller were doing. We can't bash and support them now that Ron Howard took over.

 

I think everyone has been trying to follow Marvel's model, however, they're tending to find it's not as easy as they thought.