The Force Awakens J.J. Abrams to Direct Star Wars Episode VII - Part 3

[Gianakin_]

The kids part was gold. As opposed to the alien part. It shoulda stayed that way.

 

[Lord]

The difference between Abrams and Whedon is that prior to Avengers, the only film Whedon directed was Serenity, which didn't do so well at the box office. Abrams already has a few blockbusters under his belt, but none bigger than this. Abrams does seem exhausted, but in a different way than Whedon. I don't think there was much interference from the studio at all for this, unlike Marvel. Still, even though Abrams has a hand in both the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises moving forward, I think the next movie he directs will be a smaller passion project like Super 8. Maybe even a little smaller than that.

I wouldn't call any of his previous films blockbusters though, they haven't even gone past 500 million. Blockbusters usualy are the highest grossing films of the year, nowadays, a real blockbuster seems to need to have made 1 billion on the very least. None of his films have been failures, but they have mostly been moderate hits, Mission Impossible III's grossing actualy seems pretty disappointed in comparison to what the other films in that franchise did. Even then, Star Trek's not exactly in a strong position as a franchise, it only takes a real critical turd (with a rotten tomatoes score that actualy is rotten) to break it down.

But yeah, would like to see him doing more stuff like Super 8. Right now he doesn't seem all that exhausted though, he looks like Joss Whedon did after The Avengers: a bit exhausted but also very confident about his product. But i wonder what he will do now, will he go for smaller scale projects for a while? Will he pull a Nolan and Bay where he uses his success to kickstart more passion projects of his?

Regarding studio interference, he might have had plenty of interference from Lucasfilm and Disney, but he so far has proven to work very well with other people, i don't think he has ever complained about that sort of stuff. My guess is that he's just the kind of Director who can work well in that environment, Joss Whedon on the other hand, also had some problems with the studio and the people who adapted his scripts back when even the Buffy film was released.

 

[TheVileOne]

The Star Trek movies are definitely blockbusters by the very definition of the term.

 

[Lord]

Blockbuster, as applied to film, theatre, and sometimes also video games, denotes a very popular or successful, usually big budget production.

Jaws and Star Wars are usualy considered that, but before them, Quo Vadis, Ben-Hur, Ten Commandments and Gone with the Wind were considered blockbusters due to the vast ammount of money they got, all of them were also number 1 at the box office in their respective years. In the past few years, the internet seems to have started calling "blockbuster" every single expensive action/ adventure film, even when they don't do much. The Abrams Trek films didn't even reach the top 10 highest grossing of the year number, so no, i won't call them blockbusters. Nowadays, for a film to realy be called a blockbuster, i think it needs to make a billion. Just cause a film has a high budget and is an action/ adventure, i don't think it deserves to be called a blockbuster, that term has been trivialized a bit on the internet IMAO.

 

[mc7791]

one thing I dont understand, why wont Abrams direct Episode 8 or 9? I have not a reason why that he will not be doing that.

 

[Snow Queen]

one thing I dont understand, why wont Abrams direct Episode 8 or 9? I have not a reason why that he will not be doing that.

It took him away from his family, plus they want to have different directors on each film.

 

[Octoberist]

Also the turnover per sequel is demanding.

 

[mc7791]

thank you.

 

[Tim_Riggins]

I don't think it's been said at any point that they specifically wanted different directors. JJ just doesn't want to do a sequel, 3 years is a long time, although I kinda hoped he'd come back for Episode IX, there was a rumor about that until Trevorrow was announced.

Trevorrow is fine, and JJ pretty much established what the tone, look and feel of the new trilogy is, so I think that Rian & Colin will pretty much follow that through and not put too much of their stamp on the film.

Obviously, Colin after two films doesn't have a recognizable style, but Rian does with his trademark camera moves, but I don't expect much of it to come through in Episode VIII, no doubt that Kennedy, and JJ (who I have no doubt will be very involved with the sequels) will want consistency.

 

[Gianakin_]

I'm pretty sure they'll let Rian keep a significant part of his style.

 

[BatLobster]

Besides Abrams not wanting to do it, I think it would have been physically close to impossible for him to leap directly into pre-pro on Ep. VIII while he was knee-deep in post for VII. It would have been a detriment both to his own sanity and the film itself.

That said, I don't think KK is going to ask Rian Johnson to copy JJ's style. That's not why you hire an emerging talent like Rian. I'm sure each director will be largely influenced by the Star Wars style in general and do their version of it. But there's precedent for the style of the series changing with directors. Kershner's sensibilities on Empire were very distinct from Lucas' on ANH.

 

[Gianakin_]

Exactly. So were Marquand's shortcomings.

 

[Tim_Riggins]

@BatLobster: I'm not saying he's going to have to copy JJ's style, but think of it like the pilot to a tv series, it establishes the look and feel of the piece.

I don't think we can have a completely different Ep VIII film, Rian Johnson has a completely different style, and it could be too jarring if it strays too much from Ep VII, that's what I mean.

And yes there is precedent with Kershner and Marquand, but it's not like they were completely different films compared to ANH.

Rewatch the Breaking Bad episodes, and Looper, I highly doubt we'll see some of those camera moves in Star Wars. I'm very curious to see what Rian will bring, I love him, but I think it'll be more on the writing side that he'll make it different.

 

[Saitou Hajime]

I think this is a sign of what J.J. can do when he doesn't have to make due with writers like Orci, Kurtzman, Lindolf, or even himself. It still has the same J.J. flaws, but overall his strengths in direction and casting are utilized more effectively.

 

[craigdbfan]

Exactly. So were Marquand's shortcomings.

I still don't understand how ESB visual quality looks so much more sharp and crisp yet in the newer ROTJ it looks kind of foggy and t.v quality at times. That always bothered me.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

New interview with Abrams:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/awards-chatter-podcast-jj-abrams-853171

 

[Filmfan93]

I still don't understand how ESB visual quality looks so much more sharp and crisp yet in the newer ROTJ it looks kind of foggy and t.v quality at times. That always bothered me.

Yeah, ESB looks much better visually as a whole, but I give credit to ROTJ for the Battle of Endor. It was beautiful to watch and you could clearly see how much technology had advanced between ANH and ROTJ.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Variety - J.J. Abrams Interviews Bob Iger About ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’