J.J. Abrams to direct new Star Wars movie

[Bryan_Ekers]

The fact that they managed a vastly superior second film back in 1982 is the only thing keeping me cautiously optimistic now.

[Gagundathar]

Ah yes, the famous evenly numbered ST movies are superior to oddly numbered ones legend.

[Peremensoe]

@sparky_1

Oh my! Lensflares could finally explain why Stormtroopers are such bad shots!

Remember the original movie? “Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise.” Off-camera, maybe.

[TBG]

@Peremensoe

Remember the original movie? “Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise.” Off-camera, maybe.

Surprised that hasn’t been retconned into a snarky comment on what bad shots they are.

[AncientHumanoid]

@TBG

Surprised that hasn’t been retconned into a snarky comment on what bad shots they are.

Trained by Worf they are. hmmm?

[smiling_bandit]

@Gagundathar

Ah yes, the famous evenly numbered ST movies are superior to oddly numbered ones legend.

No. The first Star Trek movie (way back when) was a cinematic abortion. The 2nd was an instant classic.

[Lantern]

@Alessan

It’s more than that - it’s that Lucas wanted to excise anything spontaneous, anything roguish, anything less-than-noble from the series. You know, anything Han Solo. He wanted his story to be about princesses and knights and Promised Ones, not about down-on-their-luck criminals who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

One of my dream projects for a long time has been a movie about the early adventures of Han and Lando directed by Joss Whedon. I didn’t think it would actually happen but suddenly it appears likely. Disney has the rights and Whedon has just directed a monster hit for them. And it’s pretty clearhe would love to direct a Star Wars film:

Avengers director Joss Whedon would’ve liked to helm Star Wars: Episode VII, but…

“I’m as angry as you should be,” says Whedon about not being able to take on a job of that size because of his Avengers 2 commitment. Which isn’t to say that he was ever actually offered the Star Wars gig anyway. But still, CNN says that “With new Star Wars movies on the horizon, Whedon was eager to see if he could be a candidate to direct.” But then he remembered that he’s got S.H.I.E.L.D. and Avengers 2 to worry about.

As for what Whedon would like to see in new Star Wars movies, how about more Han Solo? “We all missed the Han [Solo] of [the prequels],” he says. “It got very portentous, which was justified by the story, but I think we’d all like to see a little anarchy in the mix.”

Once Whedon has launched SHIELD and finished with Avengers 2 I think it could happen. Disney would be smart to branch out both in terms of directors and storylines.

[GuanoLad]

Well, rumours confirmed. Doubts quashed. JJ Abrams it is.

Not sure he’s the ideal choice at all, but I don’t think he’ll mess it up.

[Stephe96]

If I say I’m dying can I see it early?

[drastic_quench]

@Stephe96

If I say I’m dying can I see it early?

Yes, but this is Disney; they’re going to hold you to your end of the bargain.

[randwill]

@Lantern

Once Whedon has launched SHIELD and finished with Avengers 2 I think it could happen. Disney would be smart to branch out both in terms of directors and storylines.

Can’t he multitask? It’s just movie directing. How hard could it be?

[RickJay]

I’ve three thoughts about this:

1. I know it’s damning with faint praise, but it is almost impossible for Abrams to make a worse movie than “The Phantom Menace” or “Attack of the Clones,” and he’s have to try very hard to make one worse than “Revenge of the Sith.” Those were just atrocious movies, made by a director who’s forgotten some of the basics of effective filmmaking. Abrams will be a step up no matter what he does.

2. For all the concern about lens flare and vague endings and other things Abrams is infamous for, this isn’t just anything he’s being asked to do. It’s STAR WARS, the biggest franchise ever. It has a history of quality films Star Trek cannot boast - no Star Trek movie, not even Wrath of Khan, is remotely as good as “Star Wars” or “The Empire Strikes Back,” and Star Trek movies just aren’t as visually unique and iconic. I have to think Abrams is smart enough to know he has to be respectful to the source material.

3. Joss Whedon? Bleah. There are fifty better directors. I don’t know why people worship the guy, but he isn’t any better a director than Abrams and I’d be much more worried about him Whedoning up the franchise than I am about Abrams doing his thing to do. Whedon’s basic things are ironic zinger dialogue and magical skinny girl ninjas, neither of which would suit “Star Wars.” If you’re going to complain about directors who DIDN’T get picked to do Star Wars, why not someone with some real directing chops, like Sam Mendes, Steve Soderbergh, Edgar Wright, or Christopher Nolan?

[AncientHumanoid]

Alfred Hitchcock!

Now THAT would be an interesting Star Wars.

[AncientHumanoid]

@NoClueBoy

Alfred Hitchcock!

Now THAT would be an interesting Star Wars.

with that thought in mind…

[sparky_1]

I saw that Ben Affleck was in the running to direct. I think that would have been awesome: out of his three directorial films, all three have been excellent.

As for Abrams, his Trek and Super 8 films had a fun quality similar to the Lucas and Spielberg films I grew up seeing, so I’m hopeful.

[drm]

Wow, You can certainly count on a thread to kill a joke [lens flares]. I think JJ is a solid B plus director which is a bunch of letters higher than the grades I’d give Lucas or Joe Johnston.

Im generally of the opinion that a great director will churn out great work more often than not and genres aren’t really an issue.

Liked the new Trek movie but generally dislike everything Star Trek. A few of the movies were pretty good though. (2, maybe?)

[Miller]

@RickJay

Whedon’s basic things are ironic zinger dialogue and magical skinny girl ninjas, neither of which would suit “Star Wars.”

We’ll, I agree that one of the hallmarks of Star Wars is the absurdly ponderous dialogue, so Whedon would be a poor fit there, but I’m a bit agog at the idea that magical girl ninjas are somehow inappropriate to the setting.

[Justin_Bailey]

@RickJay

Whedon’s basic things are ironic zinger dialogue and magical skinny girl ninjas, neither of which would suit “Star Wars.”

I think I’ve read four books in the Star Wars Expanded Universe and, if I remember right, I managed to come across three different magical girl ninjas. And not a single one was a Jedi.

[RickJay]

@Miller

We’ll, I agree that one of the hallmarks of Star Wars is the absurdly ponderous dialogue, so Whedon would be a poor fit there, but I’m a bit agog at the idea that magical girl ninjas are somehow inappropriate to the setting.

Those are all links to cartoons and video games. Yes, I know they’re part of a cascading set of things called “canon,” but most people don’t care. The movies are their own thing, and are rightly held to a higher standard.

The idea of a female Jedi is one thing, a potentially super cool thing. Bastila Shan in “Knights of the Old Republic” is a cool character. Whedon going back, again and again, to the well of “a little wisp of a girl who kicks ass in defiance of the laws of physics” is both tiresome and tends to overwhelm other stuff.

I mean, why aren’t people begging for Jon Favreau to direct a Star Wars movie? “Iron Man” was a better movie than “The Avengers.”

[GuanoLad]

@RickJay

I mean, why aren’t people begging for Jon Favreau to direct a Star Wars movie? “Iron Man” was a better movie than “The Avengers.”

Because that’s not true, that’s why.