Star Wars fans dust off your light-sabers and bust out your cinnamon roll hair buns, Star Wars: Episode VII has a director!
J.J. Abrams will helm the next Star Wars installment set in “a galaxy far, far away.” This will be the first new Star Wars since 2005’s Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith. Fans will have to be patient though. While Michael Ardent is busy writing the script for the new movie, it likely won’t hit theaters until 2015.
Princess Leia buns will be back in style come 2015!Abrams, most recently known for directing the revamped Star Trek franchise, wasn’t the only big name director being considered for the role. Steven Spielberg was once in talks to direct, but declined because “It’s not my genre, It’s my best friend George’s genre.” Word on the street from Deadline.com, Argo director, Ben Affleck, was also up for the gig but Star Wars producer Kathleen Kennedy pushed hard for J.J. instead.
Initially Abrams told EW he wouldn’t be directing any of the new Star Wars franchise. Back in December, Abrams was quoted declining involvement because “I’d rather be in the audience not knowing what was coming, rather than being involved in the minutiae of making them.” Abrams reportedly had no problem revamping Star Trek since he wasn’t a fan growing up. Star Wars, on the other hand, inspired Abrams to make a career out of movies.
“Watching movies I was constantly trying to figure out how they did it, whatever the effect was. Star Wars was the first movie that blew my mind in that way; it didn’t matter how they did any of it because it was all so overwhelmingly and entirely great. It was funny and romantic and scary and compelling and the visual effects just served the characters and story. It galvanized for me; not for what was exciting about how movies were made, but rather for what movies were capable of.”
Abrams will likely pay homage to the original Star Wars that so heavily influenced his career choices. Hopefully with this in Abrams’ mind Episodes VII – IX will try and do Episodes IV-VI justice. Many Star Wars fans (myself included) were very disappointed with the overall execution of Star Wars: Episodes I-III , in spite of the groundbreaking new film technology and special effects available for those movies.
Only time will tell if Abrams directed Star Wars will hold a candle to the original three, I’m not holding my breath.
