Who should be the Director for Star Wars Episode 7?

[Locutus of Bored]

Brad Bird. With The Iron Giant, he showed that he understands the 50's scifi and serials that inspired Star Wars in the first place. With The Incredibles and Ratatouille he showed that he can work effectively with the CGI characters and other elements that are so common in Star Wars films, and can make a great family-friendly yet exciting action film with the former. With Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, he showed that he can competently make a compelling and exciting live-action film with some great high tension drama and action sequences. He's also an excellent screenwriter, so he can oversee the final script and make sure everything works well. He hasn't done a lot of films, but what he has done have been very good.

 

[JD]

I went with Brad Bird, John Carter was very Star Warsy

That's Andrew Stanton.

Who I can't imagine is the guy Disney is offering any plum assignments to right now.

Brad Bird would be good though... I guess I just have reservations about crossing over from animation. Bird has done some amazing movies, but his really good ones were animated - Ghost Protocol was quite good but not exactly The Incredibles. But then maybe with Star Wars and without Cruise he'd have more creative control and take stuff in a more interesting direction so who knows.

Oops my bad, I always get them confused. But he's still done some good stuff, so I wouldn't be totally against it.
As for Stanton, I stand by that vote, even though I got the names confused. I don't care how badly John Carter did at the box office, I still really enjoyed it. I remember several people calling it a better Star Wars movie than the prequels after it came out.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Matthew Vaughan is a good choice, I think. He can do style but also adhere to a tone. I look at the difference between X-Men First Class and Kick-Ass as good evidence of genre versatility. In fact I love the serious tone of FC.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Duncan Jones is my top pick followed by Neil Blomkamp. Young, hungry directors who have both proven they can bring the goods to a sci-fi action movie. Also the model work in Moon I mean come on lost art that movie was gorgoeus

Jones then to tame the CGI excesses of the prequel trilogy?

 

[Starkers]

I would also be interested in Euros Lyn.

Nice

 

[Garak]

Other: Joe Kosinski.

Out of the list though I'd go with Matthew Vaughn.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

Secondly, sometimes I wonder how people pick dream directors. That second link in the OP suggests Ridley Scott because he "understands how vast and terrifying space actually is." Does that sound like a Star Wars movie to anyone? Because it sure doesn't sound like one to me. I mean, David Fincher is my favourite director, but what has he done that would suggest he's a good fit for a Star Wars movie? Other than actually working on Jedi, that is.

I went with what had been suggested on those sites I mentioned. I thought about Joss Whedon and Christopher Nolan afterwards, even if was unlikely due to Avengers 2 and something I saw about Christopher Nolan in the first article.

 

[Mach5]

No one does an epic better then Peter Jackson.

Except perhaps Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg or Jim Cameron. Or Zack Snyder. Or Zhang Yimou.

On topic, I say give one of these movies to Frank Marshall. The other two should go to JJ and Joss.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Anyone but Joss Whedon.

Star Wars can be witty and funny, but only within the parameters of its own universe and only as much as the characters allow.

Whedon would make every character so damn witty. Not to mention a list of other problems with his style that conflict with Star Wars.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Anyone but Joss Whedon.

Star Wars can be witty and funny, but only within the parameters of its own universe and only as much as the characters allow.

Whedon would make every character so damn witty. Not to mention a list of other problems with his style that conflict with Star Wars.

Yes, it would be horribly conflicting if Star Wars was stuck with a director of a critically acclaimed $1.5 billion dollar grossing ensemble scifi adventure film who is a lifelong fan of the franchise and has previous experience making a show that was basically Tales of the Millennium Falcon.

The characters in Star Wars were cracking wise to each other all the time. There's nothing conflicting in tone between Whedon's dialogue and the OT, and he's perfectly capable of writing serious dialogue when it's called for.

 

[Gojira]

I would love to see Spielberg direct a Star Wars movie.

 

[jadcox@mindspring.com]

Brad Bird would have been my vote, but I am still hoping he'll do Justice League. Sooooooperman!

 

[tighr]

Whoever the director is, I think it needs to be one that is focused on the characters. What was lacking in the prequel trilogy was development of the characters and their reasons for their actions. Rather than Palpatine just being a bad guy, why weren't we shown why he was bad? Rather than Anakin just saying "Hey, I want power, I'm gonna go all dark and stuff", we should have compelling reasons for his turn (and more than "hey I had a bad dream about Padme. Teach me evil stuff"). I know that Star Wars boils down to an epic about good vs evil, but dynamic characters would make the film a classic.

So due to that, I would steer away from directors who are simply going to make an eye-candy movie.

 

[kirk55555]

I'd say Whedon. The other people on the list (that I know of ) don't seem like good fits, especially Abrams. He's already destroyed my favorite sci Fi franchise. If they let him near SW, I'll probably go insane.

 

[Ryan8bit]

M. Night Shyamalan. And you thought Darth Vader being Luke's father was a twist!

 

[Holdfast]

Put me in the Spielberg camp.

Ridley Scott second choice.

 

[Mach5]

Ridley Scott second choice.

The senil old fart who said dialogue scenes look much better in 3D, then made Prometanus?

No thanks.

 

[Mooch]

Brad Bird sounds good. Andrew Stanton would be good too. I bet Martin Campbell or Danny Boyle would do interesting jobs as well.

 

[Candlelight]

Michael Bay.

Seriously, the battle sequences would be amazing. Though there would be the sudden arrival of the US military to help out the rebellion.

Spielberg was due to direct Return of the Jedi but got shafted by the unions. Pity.

 

[Mach5]

Michael Bay.