Discussion Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Star Wars Movie - NOT FILMING April 7th, 2024 (Blame Fredrik!)

Interesting comments from Sharmeen starting at 17:50 in this.

 

True!

 

She is extremely well educated and is able to put her feelings to words which is likely part of the reason they chose her for the project.

 

I no longer believe it is anything other than on purpose. Any attention good or bad is still attention. It will get the clicks and that’s all that matters.

 

I would love to watch a long-form interview with Sharmeen, but I don’t know of any out there (anybody have a link?) and John Stewart just falls pathetically short for moderating a four-way panel like that. He wasn’t a great interviewer to begin with, sometimes a Charlie Rose parody guy (which could be funny back in the day) but he’s completely out of his depth now. You’d get a far better interview from her if she went on the Joe Rogan podcast (which would never happen for obvious reasons).

Sadly, I’m inclined to agree. They’re supposed to be communications wizards but oftentimes they seem just as susceptible to the exhilaration of “engagement” as your typical ****poster.

 

But that doesn't address the video. Personally, I am not offended by it, but I have seen on other websites people became VERY irate about her comments and feel that she is offending the "base" of SW fans as if it were a political demographic being attacked by a candidate seeking election or nomination.

So I am curious as to what people think she meant and what their feelings about her comments are in respect to her making a SW film.

@Glitterstimm the question is not about John Stewart as an interviewer but about Sharmeen's meaning behind the comments that she "enjoys making men uncomfortable".

 

I wouldn't spend a second of my time on 99% of those websites and videos. As the vast majority of them are just looking for clicks and they know acting outraged will bring them more of that.

She is simply saying that she will be the first female director to helm a Star Wars film. Big deal. No need to act outraged over a simple statement like that.

 

For that specific statement she made, I think it reflects the format of the discussion she was participating more than any creative vision she has for the movie. It’s basically a “gotcha” format where John was trying to pull some sound bites from them, and it’s an old clip like 8 years old. Pretty much nobody would care what she said there except that she’s directing a SW movie now. She was sitting next to Meryl Streep so she’d be inclined to ham it up as well. Yes she hammed it up but that was the whole point of it, so I can’t hold that against her.

The bigger problem imo is that LFL hasn’t done the basic PR work to set her up for success, they’re throwing her out in front of the movie without actually showing the got damn movie. It’s just not a good PR strategy imo, they seem to be deliberately courting controversy at her expense. Remember Tran Loan (Kelly Marie Tran) was hung out to dry like this in the fallout of TLJ? Pretty soon the story will be all about SOC instead of the actual movie, and let’s remember that Disney is a multinational corporate empire, they could coordinate her public personae with high-production material if they wanted. They’re not doing that right now! It’s utterly inexcusable, the movie must come first.

Kathy and co. aren’t some virgins, I just can’t have a charitable read on this. I really hope I’m wrong, I hope they have casting announcements and concept art and something *real* rolling out in the coming weeks . . .

 

I think it’s too early to tell if they’ve made a PR mistake here at her expense. The movie has yet to enter production, there’s no real reason why they need to have already crafted a PR strategy around her yet.

What’s really inexcusable is that Star Wars fans continue to be absolute ***** about anything and everything. I’m always kind of shocked how fans will take stuff and create a storm around it. What they really need to do for her is have a support network around her until release and in the event the film isn’t well received. It’s terrible, but Star Wars fans have proven time and again unable to control themeselves. It’s absolute madness that her comments caused a stir, and the reason that LFL has very little in the way to dealing with it, is because you’d essentially need to gag your cast and crew to stop fans behaving like this (to which they’d also have a negative reaction to). There’s a problematic party here, and it’s not her or LFL, it’s the people kicking up a stink.

 

I couldn't care less... I just want a good Star Wars film. The first female director of a Star Wars film *is* a big deal, and it's a positive thing for cinema generally IMO... However, there is an associated risk that if DLF market this fact, and if the film isn't successful/well received, any progression may stall.

 

I seriously doubt that. We’re going to have more female directors in the future. This film not being successful won’t change that in the slightest.

I can’t rule out them using that as a marketing feature, at least in some circles (I can see it appearing in puff pieces in the press but that’s just to pander to people who may choose to see it because of that fact) but there’s no serious person behind the scenes who is going to say that the film wasn’t successful because it was marketed as the first by a woman, especially not KK. For all her faults, that’s not one of them.

 

And we need to also give them lots of money, please you can't forget that part. That could make a support network around her, yeah

That's what LFL needs right now, a support network

 

I don’t follow? I thought we were talking about her being ‘hung out to dry’?

 

So Sharmeen is an accomplished director who has actual, real-world experience with authoritarianism, severe oppression, and conflict, and has already directed in the genre space, yet somehow…she’s not qualified to make a Star Wars film.

 

So you’ve edited in more context, but I still don’t understand what the problem is? She goes out there and makes fairly innocuous comment, and fans have a typically stupid reaction to them. Itd be different if she was making many, many comments all over the place, but she’s not. Fans are making a storm in a teacup, as usual. People make the odd comment about a film before production material is revealed all the time. Why is this any different? The only difference is that people are following this more obsessively than sense and can’t put it in perspective, and so we have ridiculous reactions; are we at the point where LFL needs to go “our fans are going to create a controversy out of whole cloth because they have nothing better to do, we better get ahead of it, and throw them a bone.”

Unless she’s at press junkets, for which she will have PR training, the only thing LFL needs to do is make sure she’s supported personally given how vicious and unreasonable fans can be.

I don’t really see what exactly we’re meant to be blaming LFL for, or what else they are meant to be doing at this point?

 

I just realized and learned that the discussion is 9 years old. Not only is it innocuous, but it's an old interview.

 

If Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy had only gone on the Joe Rogan podcast 8 years ago, then maybe I would take her seriously

 

Make men uncomfortable, she is in the RJ camp.

 

Which should be logical, the best people to sell Ghostbusters to are Ghostbusters fans.

Afterlife did a much better job of capturing the feel of the original while also passing the torch to a new team that would appeal to a younger audience.
Common sense, so one wonders why the studio didn't do that with the 2016 movie

 

imagine if she did AND cast doubt on vaccines?!?! In seriousness, the comments are of little relevance to me. The bigger question persists about Kathleen Kennedy. Her office has produced content divisive not for social commentary or themes, but because of questionable value. She's had a number of high profile behind the scenes fiascos, and even in today's full on digital/social media world, "word of mouth" still means something. K.K.'s LucasFilm is certainly not revered for its story telling or competence. Dan Shapiro, right wing YouTuber, called her "the worst entertainment executive in my life time." Granted he's obsessed with woke-ness, but the claim is not without merit just in terms of the quality of the content being produced. This Rey film is literally a Hail Mary for Kathleen, who has failed to get a Star Wars film into production in over five years.

 

Calling Kathy Kennedy the worst entertainment executive in someone's lifetime is ridiculously dumb. Just look at the resume she's had during her career.

 

Lol,

 

At best someone can say Kathleen Kennedy isn't a great fit for Star Wars. But the moment someone tries to say she is a bad producer is the moment they need to be ignored.

 

No you’re right, as long as they just surround her with a support network to insulate the absolute **** then everything is hunky dory. Best movie studio in the world.

 

She isn't a great fit for Star Wars, and she's a bad producer.