JJ ABRAHMS to Direct Star Wars Episode VII

[Opera Ghost]

http://cb.sailthru.com/4e8c83d615b30dde9be1f161tpp9.6wh/UQGrvG-oi-iDq2bVA8996

[general gruesome]

I have to say that I'm not against that

[Count_Zirock]

Imagine all the awesome LENS FLARES!!!

[marsattacks666]

Why am I not surprised? Good for him. Super-nerd with a dream job.

[Mord]

He's a much more creative director than George Lucas ever was.

[Count_Zirock]

He's a much more creative director than George Lucas ever was.

Not that tough of an accomplishment, really.

[Mord]

Not that tough of an accomplishment, really.

So true!

[Paladin]

I didn't read the article yet, but does this mean that Star Trek's rebirth is gonzo??

[BlackLagoon]

This is about the best news Star Wars fans could've gotten..save for that rumor about a time machine going backwards and destroying everything that resembles Jar Jar Binks 

His name linked to the events after Jedi is definitely a step in the right direction for the franchise--super excited over this!

[general gruesome]

This is about the best news Star Wars fans could've gotten..save for that rumor about a time machine going backwards and destroying everything that resembles Jar Jar Binks 

His name linked to the events after Jedi is definitely a step in the right direction for the franchise--super excited over this!

I'm a fan of stars wars new and old, I enjoyed Jar Jar Binks, I don't get why people dislike him. I watched Star Wars Episode 1 in theaters when I was little and really enjoyed the film and Jar Jar Binks, he was awesome/ also enjoyed the advertisements at KFC and Taco Bell, as well as the toys

[zombiehorror]

I'm a fan of stars wars new and old, I enjoyed Jar Jar Binks, I don't get why people dislike him. I watched Star Wars Episode 1 in theaters when I was little and really enjoyed the film and Jar Jar Binks, he was awesome/ also enjoyed the advertisements at KFC and Taco Bell, as well as the toys

When you were little, that has a lot to do with it.....you didn't grow up only knowing of the original films!!  Us older fans new the Star Wars movies/universe as a completely different animal than the current/younger Star Wars generation!  There was a whole faction of Star Wars fans that grew up with Star Wars movies that were made for both adults and children to enjoy, then there is the faction that grew up with the films that completely and ashamedly pander to children.  I've said it before the new Star Wars universe is fine in cartoon form, I love the Clone Wars, but when it comes to live action it was horrible!  Previous attempts to turn the Star Wars universe into kiddie fair was usually either brought in cartoon form, Droids/Ewoks, with the only other exception being the inclusion of the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi.....Hell now that I think about it the 2 made for tv Ewok movies, Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, were probably darker, better and closer to the 77-83 films than the new Star Wars movies!

[zombiehorror]

I'm a fan of stars wars new and old, I enjoyed Jar Jar Binks, I don't get why people dislike him. I watched Star Wars Episode 1 in theaters when I was little and really enjoyed the film and Jar Jar Binks, he was awesome/ also enjoyed the advertisements at KFC and Taco Bell, as well as the toys

You watched them when you were little....that has a lot to do with it!  Us older Star Wars fans knew only the universe created in the original films, which didn't pander to children like the new films do.  Any attempt to water down Star Wars was done in cartoon form (save for that wretched Holiday Special), Droids and Ewoks; And there was the inclusion of the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi in the first place, which didn't go over well with most Star Wars fans at the time.  The new movies are the celluloid embodiment of the Ewoks and now that I think about the Ewoks the two made for tv movies, Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor were probably closer to the "real" Star Wars universe than the new dumbed down-kiddiefied universe of the newer films!  Hopefully the next round of films will find the simple formula that made the original trilogy part of sci-fi history and leave out about 80% of what made up the newer films!

Well crap...I was showing some kind of error, so I retyped my whole message and then see it did post the first time....oh well!  Read them both and pick your favorite, they both have the same message.

[general gruesome]

I watched the old Star Wars films when I was little as well as the new films and I prefer the old to new anyways, and understand what you mean when you say about the people who grew up watching them back in the day compared to now/ There's nothing wrong with Jar Jar Binks tho, I enjoy the different creatures and environments that were written into the new films [example, the underwater city in Episode 1 and the where the submarine travels in the water and there's a monster fish], the old Star Wars films were better tho/ I dislike when people all totally say bad things about Jar Jar when there are worse stuff in the film such as Episode II being an awful film/ I understand what you mean tho and understand/ I still do enjoy the 1977-1983 Star Wars era way better, and there are some stuff I like about the new films, the former more than the latter of course

[Fester]

For those of us who were adults (I was 22) when we saw Star Wars in theaters, the series has become increasingly more of a kiddy show.

For what it is worth, Star Wars was originally a one-off, stand-alone movie.  There were no real plans for a sequel.  The episode number was merely a nod to the old Flash Gordon/ Buck Rogers serials that used to run on Saturday Kid Matinees.  When the money started rolling in, then some further adventures and back story had to be made up.

This is a modern mythology, that unlike most world mythologies, was made up at the spur of the moment. And it was made up not to explain the world, but to attract more ticket sales.  While the story line maintains some semblance of the traditional Hero's journey (a-la Joseph Campbell, JRR Tolkien, Homer, or even the anonymous author of Beowulf) the connection was more likely accidental.

As regards Abrams taking the helm of a new Star Wars movie:  I'm fine with it.  If he does half as good a job as he did for Star Trek, this may be the best thing to happen to Star Wars since opening day 1977.

Science fiction writer John Scalzi presents a pretty good argument for Abrams new directing gig.
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/01/26/all-right-fine-heres-what-i-think-about-jj-abrams-directing-star-wars-episode-vii/

[zombiehorror]

For what it is worth, Star Wars was originally a one-off, stand-alone movie.  There were no real plans for a sequel.

I don't see what that matters?!  The Journal of the Whills, which became The Star Wars, which became Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars, back to The Star Wars and finally Star Wars.  By the time Lucas got the point of calling it Star Wars he was envisioning a multi-film franchise, even the the basis of the prequel(s) was mentioned back in 1977.

"In an interview with Rolling Stone in August 1977, he said that he wanted his friends to each take a turn at directing the films [other entries in the Star Wars franchise] and giving unique interpretations on the series. He also said that the backstory in which Darth Vader turns to the dark side, kills Luke's father and fights Ben Kenobi on a volcano as the Galactic Republic falls would make an excellent sequel."

The Star Wars novel Splinter of the Minds Eye (released in 1978) was originally written because Lucas hired Alan Dean Foster to write it (at some point in 1976) as a proposed sequel (he was hired for 2 novels/sequels) to Star Wars which would be used as the basis for future screenplays!

The Empire Strikes Back, title and all, had a handwritten treatment by November of 1977, written by Lucas and Leigh Brackett; It was at this point that he added the episode indicators, this of course being (at the time) episode II!  In late 1978/early 1979 Lucas decided on the trilogy concept, and in that the initial series would truely be the middle part of a bigger story (which again is a concept he had from early on).  He corrected episode II to episode V at that point.

Revenge of the Jedi was in it's initial writing phases in 1981!  Originally from there plans were to take Star Wars into the future with episodes VII-XI but at that point Lucas abandoned Star Wars for several reasons both professional and personal.  And we all know what happened with the prequels.......

I don't really care who directs it, any director of the Star Wars prequels would have had to pull some major directorial weight in order to make those better movies.  They need to get rid of the cartoon stereotypes that populate the new Star Wars universe, again it isn't bad in a cartoon but it is very distracting in a live action film; Part of this would be the exclusion of the horrible character voices!  Go back to alien languages with subtitles, it is so much more realistic and believable and consistent with the established Star Wars universe.  Next get rid of the blatant comedy, it isn't necessary and was yet again not part of the original universe; In the original films there were comical aspects but they didn't detract from what was happening, characters could be funny without being over the top......just look at the introduction of Yoda!  Unfortunately I don't see them doing away with needless-non stop action sequences, of which the prequels are full of, which is just part of the expectation of modern day sci-fi/action films.  Hopefully most of the more horrendous aspects of the prequels will be done away with/fixed during the writing process of the new films but if not it will take a strong director to steer the project in the right direction!