Colin Trevorrow no longer directing Episode IX.
- Thread starter Gepard
- Start date
If JJ ends up directing then the big question is where will Kylo Ren's scar be on his face?
I think he's writing both films.
Domestic: $936,662,225 45.3%
+ Foreign: $1,131,561,399 54.7%
= Worldwide: $2,068,223,624
Production Budget: $245 million
I am reasonably certain NO ONE at Disney/LucasFilm sees The Force Awakens as a "disappointment."
This is not about whether Lucasfilm considers the film disappointing. It's about my opinion of the film and the opinions of other fans... and, for me and others, the film was not as good as it could and should've been, and was therefore disappointing.
When Johnson was hired, he was said to be writing The Last Jedi and writing a story treatment for Episode IX. When Trevorrow was hired, he and Derek Connolly said they were tossing Johnson's treatment and starting over.
Are we really still equating financial performance with quality in 2017?
But you suggested LucasFilm exercising more control over Abrams and Kasdan. Why should they? The movie made $2 billion. The way they made the movie worked.
^ Because they were allowed to make TFA according to a very specific and narrowly defined set of expectations that rendered it disappointing in many aspects to myself and other longtime SW fans, and I do not want to see the same thing happen were Abrams to return to direct Episode IX.
Nope, using it to state there is no reason for Disney/LucasFilm to make the movie any way other than they did. It reached its goals. Some of us may be unhappy with it, but there is no way that anyone in production there are second guessing how it was made. Other than keeping Harrison Ford away from the Millennium Falcon's door when it is opening and closing.
And it is reasonable for you and anyone else disappointed with the film to want that. It is not reasonable to expect Disney/LucasFilm to want that.
Given the fact that Lord and Miller and Trevverow were fired for trying to be too independent and reports of Kennedy and Abrams clashing, it actually IS reasonable to express hope that, if brought back for E9, Abrams would be asked to make a film that wasn't quite so driven by narrow personal interpretations and more in line with the overall spirit of the franchise as opposed to just a single installment of it, regardless of how much money his first foray into the franchise made.
Well, I won't belabor the point further other than to say I completely disagree, because movie studios like consistency and are risk averse. Letting Abrams do what he did before would be the least risky option.
^ There is zero risk in asking Abrams to make a Star Wars film that is not so narrowly driven by his own personal viewpoints on the franchise.
There is when his previous at bat is the highest grossing movie of all time, domestically. The choice is let him do it the same way again and assume the same or similar returns, or take a chance that if they meddle with his process that it may or may not change the amount of money that the film brings in. One is more of a known quantity than the other, thus is less of a gamble.
You're assuming that TFA's profits were based specifically on Abrams' directorial and narrative approach, and there's no way of quantifying that, but even if there were, a Star Wars film doesn't need to make as much as TFA to be considered financially successful by Lucasfilm.. or anyone else.
That may be the way YOU look at it, but a company expects to make as much money as possible on any investment. They are not making art, they are making commerce. They will do whatever they need to do to extract the maximum possible value for shareholders.
By now you'd think these directors would realize that when they are signing on for these kinds of movies, that they are making the studio's movie, not their movie. I understand that a lot of these directors who are coming in from non-studio movies are used to being the highest authority with their smaller movies, but they need to accept that the situations in these big movies is very different.
If I were in that situation, I would do everything I possibly could not to lose the opportunity to work on a Star Wars, or Marvel movie.
It looks like people like Taika Waititi, Rian Johnson, and Patty Jenkins have found a way to work with the studios.
There's also the Russo Bros., but they are a special case since they came from TV and TV directors are pretty much guns for hire working for the producers.
If I were in that situation, I would do everything I possibly could not to lose the opportunity to work on a Star Wars, or Marvel movie.
It looks like people like Taika Waititi, Rian Johnson, and Patty Jenkins have found a way to work with the studios.
There's also the Russo Bros., but they are a special case since they came from TV and TV directors are pretty much guns for hire working for the producers.