Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

[stip]

I keep forgetting to follow this. Can someone sum up what we know so far?

[B]

Not much beyond the fact that Luke, Han, and Leia have signed on, and that JJ Abrams agrees that he overdid lens flare on Star Trek 2.

[dimejinky99]

Abrams and Kasdan to take over as screenwriters for SW7 from Arndt. Sceenplay being rewritten.

Quote:

J.J Abrams & Lawrence Kasdan Take Over As ‘Star Wars’ Scribes

The new Star Wars movie has a new screening writing team. It was announced online today that Episode VII director JJ Abrams and Empire Strikes Back co-writer Lawrence Kasdan will take over as scribes for the upcoming Disney project. The duo are taking over from Michael Arndt.


http://www.deadline.com/2013/10/j-j-abr ... s-scribes/


Quote:
Star Wars: Episode VII': J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan now rewriting screenplay -- BREAKING

Is this a disturbance in the Force?

Lucasfilm has just announced that Star Wars: Episode VII director J.J. Abrams and Raiders of the Lost Ark writer Lawrence Kasdan have taken over screenwriting duties from Michael Arndt, an Oscar winner for Little Miss Sunshine and nominee for Toy Story 3, who had previously been working on the script.

The movie is slated for release in 2015 but no firm date has been set. In its announcement about the screenwriter shuffle today, Lucasfilm said the current plan is still to begin shooting in Spring 2014.


http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/10/24/s ... -breaking/


.

[McParadigm]

Is there ever going to be any news out of this Star Wars production that just provides a simple, no-worries “hey, cool!” moment?

Or is it all going to keep going this way?

[dimejinky99]

This is kind of cool.

Kasdan wrote Empire.

[epilogue]

And he's been a script/story consultant on SW7 since the beginning.

Really, if this thing tanks, it's pretty much JJ's fault. But I think he'll get it right.

[dimejinky99]

It's got phantom menace syndrome all over it.
No matter how brilliant it is, it's never going to love up to expectation.

Best we can hold for is that they're better than the prequels. And that's a lukewarm bar to reach for. Settling for 'also ran' not even second best.

[Strat]

Why is Arndt out now?

[dimejinky99]

Why is Arndt out now?

They didn't say but I'm betting its confidentiality claused up to its balls

[McParadigm]

Kasdan wrote Empire.

Which is why they were in such a hurry to pull him in from the start. Taking a guy who had previous success with a franchise and making him a "story consultant" is a calculated move...you attach their name to your project because you know it will effect the way people perceive the project.

What made me so excited by Arndt...what made him the only truly great news about this whole thing, in my opinion...was that he was new blood.

If you're going to move Star Wars forward, and make it exciting and special again, then packing it full of the past is the wrong way to go. It doesn't even bother me that the only thing Kasdan's written in the last 12 years was a movie about "a woman who loves her dog more than her husband. And then her husband loses the dog." His history tells us he can write a great emotioned-core adventure story...even if that history is a quarter century old. He can do that, and certainly he can do it better than Lucas (so can the aforementioned dog).

I just don't feel a lot of confidence that he's the pen man to ship this once-special universe into anything other than a pleasantly self-referential far far away.

Really, if this thing tanks, it's pretty much JJ's fault. But I think he'll get it right.

I'd argue that, starting from a base point of "JJ Abrams directs the original cast in 2013," there is literally zero chance of this being a great movie. So if it's just kind of good, I'll be at least a little impressed. I'd love to hope for remarkable....sadly, I'm expecting something closer to An Unexpected Journey or Into Darkness.

I'm not as comfortable with "pleasantly self-referential" as some are, either, because we're going to be seriously redefining the way people think of Star Wars with this new collection. Just as the Phantom Menace can never not be a part of the Star Wars history, these movies will adjust the scope of the cultural story being told. Eventually, the volume of "decent" becomes so overwhelming that THAT'S how people think of Star Wars. "It's decent....kind of samey, I guess. But my kids like it." Sort of like how Rolling Stones albums like Beggar's Banquet, Goats Head Soup, and Exile on Main Street sell a tiny fraction of what other classic albums of their era do, because Mick Jagger has spent almost 40 years giving the Rolling Stones a cartoon-like quality that has changed the way the larger public perceives that band.

They didn't say (why he's out) but I'm betting its confidentiality claused up to its balls

Suffice to say that, when things are going well, key figures don't generally drop out of projects almost a year into doing their part.

[bune]

Why is Arndt out now?

I saw some tweets - not live, but pictures someone took of tweets - that basically said that Arndt was the reason JJ almost walked a few months ago.

[epilogue]

I'd argue that, starting from a base point of "JJ Abrams directs the original cast in 2013," there is literally zero chance of this being a great movie. So if it's just kind of good, I'll be at least a little impressed. I'd love to hope for remarkable....sadly, I'm expecting something closer to An Unexpected Journey or Into Darkness.

Obviously we disagree, but Into Darkness is leagues better than An Unexpected Journey. If SW7 is as good as Into Darkness, it's a runaway hit as far as I'm concerned.

But I do agree that there is little chance of this being a great movie. Out of the six SW films already in existence, only one of them is great. So, yeah, the odds area against it. But that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Abrams.

What made me so excited by Arndt...what made him the only truly great news about this whole thing, in my opinion...was that he was new blood.

JJ isn't new blood?

[McParadigm]

Obviously we disagree, but Into Darkness is leagues better than An Unexpected Journey. If SW7 is as good as Into Darkness, it's a runaway hit as far as I'm concerned.

Ugh.

Out of the six SW films already in existence, only one of them is great.

Two. But even with that correction, this still illustrates my point about how new material redefines the way people perceive the franchise in general.

What made me so excited by Arndt...what made him the only truly great news about this whole thing, in my opinion...was that he was new blood.

JJ isn't new blood?

JJ is new blood in the same way that a stylized cover band is new blood. His whole gimmick on Star Trek could pretty much be summarized as: "remember this?" And even Super 8 is 95% homage to classic Spielberg.

[McParadigm]

Why is Arndt out now?

I saw some tweets - not live, but pictures someone took of tweets - that basically said that Arndt was the reason JJ almost walked a few months ago.

Arndt probably wanted to tell a story that took more than 185 seconds in between action sequences and didn't involve stretching rational thought just enough to get away with putting Darth Vader in as a Jedi ghost.

[Thejambi]

Dark Forces/Jedi Knight was a great story arch.


Honestly it cant get much worse from the last 3. Im interested to see what happens with this.

[dimejinky99]

I watched Into Darkness the other night and there's a loads of exactly the same scenes and plays been worked into it directly from the SW prequel trilogy. Most obviously the fight on the flying platform. It happens to Obi wan and Skywalker as well as Padme, in two different movies. There were loads of other references.

I'm hoping this wont become a thing.

I just want new films that do new things without being nauseatingly self referential which both Star Trek movies have been so far, to a really irritating degree.

[dimejinky99]

That said if the Millennium Falcon isn't in this ill fucking break something.

[McParadigm]

I just want new films that do new things without being nauseatingly self referential which both Star Trek movies have been so far, to a really irritating degree.

[epilogue]

Ugh.

Two. But even with that correction, this still illustrates my point about how new material redefines the way people perceive the franchise in general.

Yep. We agree on this. Well, except that it's really one. But other than that.

JJ is new blood in the same way that a stylized cover band is new blood. His whole gimmick on Star Trek could pretty much be summarized as: "remember this?" And even Super 8 is 95% homage to classic Spielberg.

And lens flares. Don't forget lens flares.

I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to reconcile the whole 'remember this?' argument with the 'he tried to turn Star Trek into Star Wars!' argument. I'm not saying you're making both arguments, but plenty of others out there do. And I don't get that. Is JJ's take vile and offensive because it adheres too closely to Star Trek or is it vile and offensive because it's too unlike Star Trek?

[dimejinky99]

Its a cheap bad gimmick to begin with.

Lens flare.

Seriously.

We're supposed to admire someone's work and trust them because of lens flare??
Again, seriously??