Who Wants To Play in the Star Wars VII Pool?
Since last week's relatively surprise announcement that after years of George Lucas denying he had ever even thought about there being a Star Wars VII there's going to be a Star Wars VII, the big speculation has been who will be involved. Lucas has handed everything officially over to Kathleen Kennedy and will stay on as "Creative Consultant," and Disney Chair Bob Iger has said they already have begun working on it.
But this means Lucas isn't directing it. We now know he isn't writing it. At one point, word was that it was The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn (which we still highly recommend reading), but recently it's been said it's an all-new story. Unless you believe Mark Hamill, who has said for decades that Lucas had a VII, VIII and IX in mind all along.
Or if you believe the original novelization by Alan Dean Foster writing as George Lucas, in which it is clear that Episode IV: A New Hope is nowhere near the end of something called "The Journal of the Whills." (Pretentious? Maybe. But jeez, did it sound exciting when I was 11.)
We're doing our best to keep a tally of what we know here.
Who Is Writing It?
UPDATED 11/21/2012: Lawrence Kasdan has been confirmed to be writing Episode VIII. Feel that sudden excitement in the Force? That's because Kasdan wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark for Lucas. He has a way of taking Lucas' most muddled concepts and shining them into clear bright pop-culture gems. Or at least he did, once upon a time.
Simon Kinberg is on Episode IX. He's played in the fantastic before with X-Men: First Class and Sherlock Holmes. If VIII follows the darker pattern of The Empire Strikes Back, Kinberg could bring in some snappy redemption.
We still have Michael Arndt on Episode VII, which remains a great choice.
THIS MUCH WE DO KNOW! It has been confirmed by Deadline that screenwriter Michael Arndt has written treatments for the entire trilogy of VII, VIII and IX, and that the treatment does revolve around Luke, Leia and Han Solo. What ages? We don't know, but see below.
Arndt wrote Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3 and has written Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games. He's also got a whole mess of upcoming projects, some for Pixar, some not, including a Phineas & Ferb movie, which I find strangely awesome.
Vulture also claims that Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams and Brad Bird are being sent the treatments.
Who Will Direct?
- #1 Front-Runner: Colin Trevorrow, who allegedly met with Lucas over the summer about the possibility of directing. Why? He directed a little relationship comedy/drama with science fiction hints called Safety Not Guaranteed. I haven't seen it. I've heard it's good. I'll be checking it out as soon as I can.
This isn't a crazy choice. What had Irvin Kershner or Richard Marquand directed that had people dying to see their take on Star Wars?
- #1 Possible: Mish'al Samman, who should know since he's actually in continuity, says that Steven Spielberg has expressed some interest. That wouldn't be crazy, and after Robopocalypse, it doesn't seem like he has anything lined up. But then again, he has that movie to take care of first, which makes it hard to think that Disney would accomodate him. On the other hand, maybe Spielberg has something else Disney wants in exchange -- like half of Roger Rabbit.
- Longshot #1: Matthew Vaughn. After working for months to develop X-Men: Days of Future Past, he suddenly switches roles with executive producer Bryan Singer, stepping back to let Singer take the helm of the latest X-Men film. Fanboys want this to be because the guy who could absolutely rock grounding fantasy sci fi into believability has also had secret meetings with George Lucas.
But Matthew Millar says it's because he wanted to move on to adapting Millar's The Secret Service, and may include Mark Hamill in that cast. That seems most plausible, but yeah, Vaughn would be interesting.
Longshot #2: Joss Whedon. That's just because we want Joss to do everything cool. But fanboys, he's already busy making sure we stay in love with the Marvel movies. For the love of Peter Parker, he's only one man!
Longshot #3: Darren Aronofsky. Because everybody attaches him to these kinds of projects despite his seeming inability to actually make them. He was supposed to make Batman, he was supposed to make The Wolverine, so why not Star Wars?
Who Will Return?
- We don't know what the plot is. We don't know when it will take place in relation to Return of the Jedi. What we do know is that Carrie Fisher has said, "wouldn't you?" when asked if she would come back. Harrison Ford's "people" have offered that he is willing to return, though possibly with a death clause for Han Solo. Mark Hamill has told everybody who would ever listen since 1983 that he would return. Even Jeremy Bulloch (the original Boba Fett) has offered to come back.
Carrie Fisher is right. Wouldn't you?
And by the way, it isn't an Episode 7 update, but David Tennant is guest-voicing on The Clone Wars this weekend, playing a droid. So maybe HE could appear in the movie...
Check back for updates!
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