JJ Abrams confirmed to direct Star Wars VII

I still think Brad Bird was the best choice, but I think JJ will do a great job. Though, part of me is really weirded out by one person being in charge of both Star Trek and Star Wars, as those universes have always felt so different to me. Now I fear they will both start to seem like two versions of the same thing. I'm very curious as to how much money they paid him, as everything initially pointed towards him not being interested in the job.

In any case, I think it's pretty safe to say JJ is now probably the most powerful person in the industry outside of Weinstein and Spielberg.
 
I'm willing to trust the man who managed to make the latest Star Trek film vastly more interesting and entertaining than the latest Star Wars films. I think he's good fit for the tone and sensibility of Star Wars.
 
I still don't get what JJ Abrams has done that gives him enough clout to get projects like these. He has directed 3 feature films that have been released so far (MI3, Star Trek, Super 8), all of which had a lot of potential, but were ultimately unfulfilling. I have been mostly disappointed by any of the TV shows I've seen of his (Fringe, Revolution).

I don't really consider him to be a creator of Lost, as he wasn't involved in most of the show, but that was disappointing as well.
 
He was connected to Lost back when it was the biggest thing though (he got the MI3 job when Lost was still good I seem to remember). MI3 was quite good, insofar as it was the film that most closely resembled the actual TV show.
Before that he was big because of Alias.

But yeah, he seems to have had a lot of luck.

If anything Joss Whedon would have seemed like a better choice?
 
I don't like this at all. He is a decent director but I didn't care too much for Star Trek and like someone else mentioned, Star Trek and Star Wars are two totally different universe, why give them both to the same director?

I'm actually pissed off about this. But lets hope I eat my words come 2015.
 
agcohn said:
He has directed 3 feature films that have been released so far (MI3, Star Trek, Super 8), all of which had a lot of potential, but were ultimately unfulfilling.
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If by "unfulfilling" you mean "grossed a total of 1 billion dollars worldwide" (all together), then you'd be on to something.
 
I'll grant you that season 3 of Lost was... well a bit lost, but the last couple of seasons the show really worked for me. Having said that, I did feel like it could have used some lens flare.

Oh, and I agree about Joss Whedon. Star Wars with the style of Firefly would have been great. Here's hoping they'll give each of the final 3 SW films to 3 different directors, with Whedon getting one of them.

But... who should get the 3rd if they did it this way? (They probably won't, but it's fun to speculate.)
 
keylight said:
I'll grant you that season 3 of Lost was... well a bit lost, but the last couple of seasons the show really worked for me.
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Wait. How did the last season work for you? It completely ignored the entire premise of the show established back in the pilot, and carried forward in every single season up until the last couple of episodes when it became clear that the writers had given up and decided to derail and end the show instead of pay anything off.
 
Ryan Farnes said:
Wait. How did the last season work for you? It completely ignored the entire premise of the show established back in the pilot, and carried forward in every single season up until the last couple of episodes when it became clear that the writers had given up and decided to derail and end the show instead of pay anything off.
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I completely disagree, but really don't care to argue the issue here. The key takeaway should be.... it needed more lens flare!
 
ya know... lens flare should technically be the most taboo thing to have in a narrative film, for the hopefully obvious reason that it breaks the 4th wall (good god im bringing out textbook film terms)

but seems that prettiness overcomes logic these days...
 
imdjay said:
ya know... lens flare should technically be the most taboo thing to have in a narrative film, for the hopefully obvious reason that it breaks the 4th wall (good god im bringing out textbook film terms)

but seems that prettiness overcomes logic these days...
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Logic is not important in fiction, but rather consistency. If you see a lens flare every time there's a flashlight, for example, the audience will readily accept it because it is consistent. If lens flares randomly pop out of pencils or tennis shoes, that would be inconsistent.

There is nothing logical about time travel in Star Trek, the magic in Harry Potter or the supernatural in Vampire stories, but they do have to remain consistent, i.e. Vampires are killed by wooden stakes all the time, not just sometimes. Once you create the rules, you have to stick with them.

The fourth wall is broken all the time in Sci Fi in the found footage genre like Cloverfield, or Chronicle where someone is carrying around a video camera, or we see security camera footage, etc. It's not one of my favorite ways to tell a story, but it is consistent.
 
I think JJ is a fine director. Great at times even. The issues I've had with his films have usually been script related. Funny coincidence, I was just watching this youtube video on the screenwriter Michael Arndt, when the camera panned over to one of his "fans"--

 
keylight said:
I completely disagree, but really don't care to argue the issue here. The key takeaway should be.... it needed more lens flare!
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Abrams has writer credits across the entire series. I'd hate to see the Star Wars universe abandoned the same way the LOST universe was abandoned at the end.

Star Trek seemed solid, so I'm cautiously optimistic.
 
Ryan Farnes said:
Abrams has writer credits across the entire series. I'd hate to see the Star Wars universe abandoned the same way the LOST universe was abandoned at the end.
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I completely disagree, but really don't care to argue the issue here. The key takeaway should be.... it needed more lens flare!

Ryan Farnes said:
Star Trek seemed solid, so I'm cautiously optimistic.
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Here I will agree... except not enough lens flare!
 
Gary Huff said:
If by "unfulfilling" you mean "grossed a total of 1 billion dollars worldwide" (all together), then you'd be on to something.
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No, I don't think 3 movies put together making $1B total world-wide gains you the clout to make a new Star Wars movie. That's only $300-400M a piece world-wide. There are multiple movies every year that make that much in domestic alone.
 
agcohn said:
No, I don't think 3 movies put together making $1B total world-wide gains you the clout to make a new Star Wars movie. That's only $300-400M a piece world-wide. There are multiple movies every year that make that much in domestic alone.
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Apparently it does.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?view=Producer&id=jjabrams.htm

As director, WW total 3 films:$1,043.5 million
As producer, WW total 6 films: $1,734.5 million
As writer, WW total 5 films: $1,376.1 million
 
keylight said:
I completely disagree, but really don't care to argue the issue here. The key takeaway should be.... it needed more lens flare!
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Hehe, point taken. Lost will never quite get out of my system.

keylight said:
Apparently it does.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?view=Producer&id=jjabrams.htm

As director, WW total 3 films:$1,043.5 million
As producer, WW total 6 films: $1,734.5 million
As writer, WW total 5 films: $1,376.1 million
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His Mission Impossible III was the lowest grossing of the series, yet I enjoyed it and the first one the most, which both fall below II and Ghost Protocol....so whatever. His Star Trek film was highest grossing in that franchise, even inflation adjusted. His non-franchise film, Super 8, was well above $100 million domestically, quarter billion worldwide for a $50 million price tag. So yeah, he is a legit director as far as money is concerned.

I don't know my writers very well, but people are high on Arndt, so I'm glad for that and the rapport that appears to exist between him and Abrams.
 
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