Russo Brothers Interested in Making Star Wars Films

Hey. Not sure you saw it, but Waititi is directing the season finale of the Mandalorian.

He’s my favorite MCU director, so I’m looking forward to that. Also, for those expecting humorless grimdark from this series, don’t. It’s going to be fun.

 

Yep, I saw that. Definitely excited about it! Ragnarok is one of the most joyous filmgoing experiences I've had in a long time. If the rumors are true then Waititi has been meeting with Marvel about an upcoming project (probably either Thor 4 or Guardians of the Galaxy 3) so it looks like his schedule will be full for the time being but hopefully he'll get to do more in the GFFA. For now though I'll just be happy with what we get from The Mandalorian.

 

Oh man, I hope it’s GotG3. That’s the perfect fit for him, and I can’t think of anyone else who could succeed Gunn. Except for maybe...Lord and Miller.

 

The Russo brothers have certainly made some great Marvel films. I'd love to see what they can do with Star Wars. I'm just wondering what what their best area of focus would be.

Beyond their general talent for interesting action scenes and maintaining a serious tone amidst quips, they appear to handle psychological conflict well, in individual characters and between them. This suggests to me they could develop one of the more emotionally resonant series of films in the SW franchise. Something on par with the OT.

 

This reminded me that I want John C. Reilly in a Star Wars something. The Mandalorian seems like the perfect place for it, but I'll take anything.

 

^ What he said

 

Honestly, I'd throw the credit for that emotional conflict a good deal Markus & McFeely's way. Yeah, the Russos obviously pitch the big broad conceptual story arc stuff, but I'm not even all that sure I'd trust them without M&M, who wrote the Cap movie they didn't direct too. Which had plenty of heart.

I dunno, just in general they strike me too...cynical for Star Wars, or something. They like their deconstruction a whole lot, and come at things with that political-thriller mindset (which was nailed in The Winter Soldier, but I felt was a good deal weaker and more contrived in Civil War - even if the movie's a million times superior to that cruddy comic arc).

They'd work for something like a Cassian/darker-side-of-Rebels story, but we're getting that covered anyway and arguably by people even better suited to it.

 

Deconstruction isn't always cynical. Sometimes it's as idealistic as you can get.

 

Well, sure. But it's not in the Russo action-movies we've had so far, which are all basically about exposing dark underbellies of institutions/our gleaming hero having his faith shaken in the whole system and basically no longer believing in anything except individuals.

That's a part of Cap through the years, totally. I do feel he's become maybe a bit *too* much full-on insurgent under the Russos though, like going beyond just skepticism. It's like Cap basically believes in the goodness (is goodness a word? ) of individual people, but as soon as they coalesce into an organization of any form then that's bound to get corrupt by definition.

Steve sort of straddles that line between FDR left and Reagan right, historically, and that's there in the movies absolutely, just kinda feel like post-Winter Soldier he's gone a little too in that tinfoil hat direction. He's still pure himself, but sees everything around him as ****ed-up.

Just don't know I'd want that sort of outlook in Star Wars, outside of a Cassian type of series, the seedier side of the Rebels. And for something like that, Steven Schiff over the Russos anyday. The Americans just brings all of that seedy paranoia stuff, but with a bit more of that classic Spielbergian/Amblin type of thing to it than the Russos' post-modern-everything.

And hey, I loved Infinity War bigtime, and The Winter Soldier's the best Marvel Studios flick. That just doesn't necessarily transfer to Star Wars, tonally. I'd kinda say the same thing about Favreau if Iron Man was the only thing on his resume and he didn't have like three big bright family-friendly films under his belt, only he...does.

 

Agreed. There’s a cynical, extreme libertarian, anti-government, anti- democratic individualism to the Russo’s approach which I don’t like. It’s the kind of philosophy that’s plunging us into all kinds of trouble these days.

 

"I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too."

Tony: "How were you guys planning on beating that?"

Steve: "Together."

Tony: "We’ll lose."

Steve: "Then we’ll do that together too."

 

Honestly, in a world where I decided to go to film school, worked my ass off, and was offered a Star Wars film... I'd probably turn it down. I'd be way too terrified of screwing it up, and similarly, I can't really chagrin anyone who looks at this franchise and goes "**** no."

On the other hand, I've been writing an Indiana Jones movie in my head for like three years, so... Kathleen, gimme a call.

 

I haven’t read the comic, but I’m glad to hear the Russos toned it down. In which case, it may not be the Russos who share that philosophy. They were just adapting the comic as best they could, and toned down the extreme anti-government BS. Good to know.

 

I despise the Civil War comic. Like, true, deep loathing. I essentially have to categorize my appreciation of the Marvel Universe into “pre-“ and “post-“ Civil War, with “post-” being a dark mirror world in which everyone shrugs off the actual atrocities beloved superheroes committed against each other.

The Russo Bros. honestly did a great job making every character likable in their adaptation of that story, as loose of an adaptation as it was, instead of making everyone straight up deplorable. Bringing this around full circle, I think they’d be able to handle shades of grey morality in their Star Wars characters really well were they to do a film in this series.

 

Say it louder for the people in the back.

His 12-year old edglelord writing style is both grating and morally repugnant.

 

unless the Game Of Thrones guys tackle Knights Of The Old Republic then the Russo Brothers would have to come up with something else.

 

You guys piqued my curiosity, so I took a look at part of one of his digital comics. You weren’t kidding. This guy’s the absolute worst.

 

He was the “it” writer during the second half of the 2000s, and an absolutely baffling amount of films were developed based either directly or loosely on his comics, most of which were far better than they had any right to be, usually because of key deviations from his material. Captain America: Civil War. Logan, from his Old Man Logan arc. The first Avengers film pulls from his comic The Ultimates, which was the Ultimate Marvel version of the Avengers. The Josh Trank Fantastic Four movie looked to his Ultimate Fantastic Four comics. There were two Kick-Ass films based on his comic of the same name, same for the Kingsman films, and Wanted with James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie was very loosely based on his comic, as well. Fun fact: the comic book Wanted is one of the most vile, morally bankrupt things I’ve ever read in my entire life. Not so fun fact: he signed a huge deal with Netflix last year to start producing original series and movies.

His stuff is the sort of thing I’m ashamed to say I ate up like candy during my angsty, edgy, angry “the world is against me and I’m against the world” phase when I was, like, thirteen. Today I find a lot of it literally stomach churning. Again, anyone who can find a way to take his material and turn it into films in which the characters are not literally pieces of walking turd has my respect.

 

Why not have the Russo brothers also do old republic continuity as well since there’s thousands of years of history of it.