From the official Star Wars website (and everywhere else)

"J.J. Abrams, who launched a new era of Star Wars with The Force Awakens in 2015, is returning to complete the sequel trilogy as writer and director of Star Wars: Episode IX. Abrams will co-write the film with Chris Terrio"

http://www.starwars.com/n...episode-ix



To me, this is great news. I was hoping he would come back to wrap it all up. When the original director for the movie was fired I was worried! Now I am excited!

He does a better job at Star Wars than Star Trek

Bad news. Abrams is the Justin Bieber of film directors. He's the very definition of a hack. He's servicable, but no imagination. Most of his movies have a weak third act that rarely makes sense to the overall plot. And now he is being tasked with wrapping up the entire trilogy. Good luck with that. There was a recent article that said Rian Johnson had free reign over the story for the Last Jedi because Abrams and Disney had no idea where the story was going or how these characters would fit in the overall plot.

And then they pair him with Chris Terrio the guy that wrote the disasterous Batman v Superman. I guess it doesn't matter. These movies will make a ton of money no matter how poorly they are conceived. I had some hope it would improve with the trailer for Last Jedi, but no more.

[Edited 9/12/17 13:57pm]

Did they not want Rian Johnson?

TFA was a solid movie, but I'm afraid that the arcs for this trilogy will mirror the OT a little too much. But The Last Jedi promises a game-changer, and based on Looper, I think Rian is going to re-set the board.

Still hopeful all of the flicks will be good-to-great.

lrn36 said:

Bad news. Abrams is the Justin Bieber of film directors. He's the very definition of a hack. He's servicable, but no imagination. Most of his movies have a weak third act that rarely makes sense to the overall plot. And now he is being tasked with wrapping up the entire trilogy. Good luck with that. There was a recent article that said Rian Johnson had free reign over the story for the Last Jedi because Abrams and Disney had no idea where the story was going or how these characters would fit in the overall plot.

And then they pair him with Chris Terrio the guy that wrote the disasterous Batman v Superman. I guess it doesn't matter. These movies will make a ton of money no matter how poorly they are conceived. I had some hope it would improve with the trailer for Last Jedi, but no more.

[Edited 9/12/17 13:57pm]

into
There are 2 ways to read into that report:

(1) Lucasfilm lost faith in Johnson seeing how The Last Jedi actually turned out.

(2) Lucasfilm is confident that Johnson has so successfully "set the edge" with The Last Jedi that Abrams can wrap it up without it feeling too similar to Episode VI or hackneyed.

I don't get how people keep thinking Abrams is going buck the trend and bring the final film home. This guy is not a newcomer with a wealth of potential. He's been writing mediocre scripts like Regarding Henry, Gone Fishin', and Armogeddon since the 90s. He was writing, producing, and directing tv shows the late 90s with Felicity. The last 15 years are littered with tv shows he lent his name to made, but had little involvement over the course of the series. His feature directorial debut was Mission impossible III in 2006. He's been in the game for over 20s years is almost 50 years old and he is still an unoriginal hack. A very successful hack ,but that shows the declining quality of mainstream moviemaking.

His directing style is derivative of Michael Bay with lots of camera swoops, saturated colors, and fast cutting to bombard the audience with imagery and noise so they don't notice the lack of plot. He just hit the geek audience and Bay is all about hot women, guns, military, America, fast cars, and sunsets. He wrote Armogeddon for Bay and they been great friends ever since.

I have greater respect for Bay because he, at least invented that style. And the movies he makes are really the movies that fit his tastes. Abrams just said after Force Awakens he was done with reboot films and wanted to make his mark in movies with original stories. Two years laters and he hasn't written or directed anything and he is right back to probably reboot Return of the Jedi.

[Edited 9/12/17 15:08pm]

[Edited 9/12/17 15:09pm]

namepeace said:

Did they not want Rian Johnson?

TFA was a solid movie, but I'm afraid that the arcs for this trilogy will mirror the OT a little too much. But The Last Jedi promises a game-changer, and based on Looper, I think Rian is going to re-set the board.

Still hopeful all of the flicks will be good-to-great.

They asked Rian first and he turned it down.

Then they asked JJ.

SquirrelMeat said:

namepeace said:

Did they not want Rian Johnson?

TFA was a solid movie, but I'm afraid that the arcs for this trilogy will mirror the OT a little too much. But The Last Jedi promises a game-changer, and based on Looper, I think Rian is going to re-set the board.

Still hopeful all of the flicks will be good-to-great.

They asked Rian first and he turned it down.

Then they asked JJ.

That explains it.

SquirrelMeat said:

namepeace said:

Did they not want Rian Johnson?

TFA was a solid movie, but I'm afraid that the arcs for this trilogy will mirror the OT a little too much. But The Last Jedi promises a game-changer, and based on Looper, I think Rian is going to re-set the board.

Still hopeful all of the flicks will be good-to-great.

They asked Rian first and he turned it down.

Then they asked JJ.

are you sure he was asked? I did see where he said he was not interested in it but that could have been playing hard to get and he may not have even been asked.

Garbage.

kpowers said:

He does a better job at Star Wars than Star Trek

omg I do not like what he did with star wars

OldFriends4Sale said:

kpowers said:

He does a better job at Star Wars than Star Trek

omg I do not like what he did with star wars

Why?

I actually thought Rogue One was better than Episode VII. While it felt derivative of Episode IV, and maybe the prequels set a low bar for it to clear, I thought The Force Awakens was good.

I have faith that Johnson will make The Last Jedi great.

There were too many jokes in TFA and they were only amusing the first viewing unlike the classic trilogy. They make it unpleasant to watch once you've gotten your fix for new Star Wars. I have no desire to watch TFA again and I'm not thrilled he's doing IX.

lrn36 said:

ufoclub said:

lrn36 said:

I don't get how people keep thinking Abrams is going buck the trend and bring the final film home. This guy is not a newcomer with a wealth of potential. He's been writing mediocre scripts like Regarding Henry, Gone Fishin', and Armogeddon since the 90s. He was writing, producing, and directing tv shows the late 90s with Felicity. The last 15 years are littered with tv shows he lent his name to made, but had little involvement over the course of the series. His feature directorial debut was Mission impossible III in 2006. He's been in the game for over 20s years is almost 50 years old and he is still an unoriginal hack. A very successful hack ,but that shows the declining quality of mainstream moviemaking.

His directing style is derivative of Michael Bay with lots of camera swoops, saturated colors, and fast cutting to bombard the audience with imagery and noise so they don't notice the lack of plot. He just hit the geek audience and Bay is all about hot women, guns, military, America, fast cars, and sunsets. He wrote Armogeddon for Bay and they been great friends ever since.

I have greater respect for Bay because he, at least invented that style. And the movies he makes are really the movies that fit his tastes. Abrams just said after Force Awakens he was done with reboot films and wanted to make his mark in movies with original stories. Two years laters and he hasn't written or directed anything and he is right back to probably reboot Return of the Jedi.

[Edited 9/12/17 15:08pm]

[Edited 9/12/17 15:09pm]

Actually, I value him simply because of the first two seasons of LOST which revived the mood of 70's sci-fi/thriller TV shows (Like The Incredible Hulk pilot, or Six Million Dollar Man), and 60's and 70's movies in a way that was very fresh and convincing, and actually seemed more Star Wars to me then his actual Star Wars movie. I remember watching that first two seasons, and by the time they got into the first hatch with it's retro sci-fi mystical feel, I thought, "this is what Star Wars 1977 felt like to me!" I never imagined he would actually make a Star Wars movie (which I am not a huge fan of at all). I think his Star Trek movies are all flash, smoke and mirrors, and emphatic emotion with no story / plot structure substance. But it seems younger audience these days like it that way.

Yeah, I saw that movie and remember thinking this movie makes no sense. In what military, can you skip from ensign to captain? On top of that, Kirk just graduated from the Academy. It's the complete lack of interest in those details that annoy me. Also Kirk is kicked off the Enterprise on some barren planet instead of being held in the brig. He gets chased by a monster and runs into a random cave and old Spock is there. Did Spock jump into the alternative timeline and knew Kirk would would be there? I don't know, it's never explained.

Abrams only cares about individual scenes and has no interest in how it all fits together as a whole. This has been his weak point for his whole career. He has a whole theory called the "Mystery Box" where you keep the audience in the dark about every plot point until the very end and at that point they wont care how the story is concluded. You have to be a master storyteller like Hitchcock to pull off something like that. And Abrams aint Hitchcock. And now he is in charge of wrapping the whole trilogy to a satisfying conclusion.

Hudson said:

There were too many jokes in TFA and they were only amusing the first viewing unlike the classic trilogy. They make it unpleasant to watch once you've gotten your fix for new Star Wars. I have no desire to watch TFA again and I'm not thrilled he's doing IX.

I liked TFA, and for whatever its shortcomings, I thought it was a great table-setter.

If Johnson succeeds with a darker, somber tone and a reset of the board with Ep VIII, it could dictate the tone for IX.

OldFriends4Sale said:

kpowers said:

He does a better job at Star Wars than Star Trek

omg I do not like what he did with star wars

He destroyed Vulcan, unforgivable

JJ is not great with story or structure, and absolutely terrible at figuring out how to end a movie, but I give him props for BB8. Cute little guy and apparently he had a lot of input into designing him. Probably the best thing about The Force Awakens.

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

JJ is not great with story or structure, and absolutely terrible at figuring out how to end a movie, but I give him props for BB8. Cute little guy and apparently he had a lot of input into designing him. Probably the best thing about The Force Awakens.

BB8 was based on a rejected Ralph McQuarrie design for A New Hope.

This rejected concept art for BB8 looks better than the end result. It looks more sturdy and durable.

[Edited 9/18/17 12:48pm]

lrn36 said:

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

JJ is not great with story or structure, and absolutely terrible at figuring out how to end a movie, but I give him props for BB8. Cute little guy and apparently he had a lot of input into designing him. Probably the best thing about The Force Awakens.

BB8 was based on a rejected Ralph McQuarrie design for A New Hope.

This rejected concept art for BB8 looks better than the end result. It looks more sturdy and durable.

[Edited 9/18/17 12:48pm]

But the original concept doesn't roll, which is much better for toys. Gary Kurtz was rumored to have left the franchise because Lucasfilm became more about the toys than the movies.

namepeace said:

lrn36 said:

BB8 was based on a rejected Ralph McQuarrie design for A New Hope.

This rejected concept art for BB8 looks better than the end result. It looks more sturdy and durable.

[Edited 9/18/17 12:48pm]

But the original concept doesn't roll, which is much better for toys. Gary Kurtz was rumored to have left the franchise because Lucasfilm became more about the toys than the movies.

Georege Lucas stopped working with Gary Kurtz because Kurtz lost control of the ESB set. Lucas wrote a 30 page treatment for ESB which had all the main story points after scrapping writer Leigh Bracket's first draft attempt. Lucas still gave her a writing credit because she worked on it while dying from cancer. Lucas did it out of respect for her work. Lawrence Kasdan took Lucas treatment and turned it into a working screenplay.

The funding, basic story and preproduction in California was supposed to be the extent of Lucas' involvement. He was pulling backed because his wife Marcia wanted to settle down and start a family after the massive financial success of Star Wars. Gary Kurtz and hired director Irvin Kershner were responsible for the filming in England.

Things started to fall aprt when Kershner who was unfamiliar with working on a big production with visual effects fell behind schedule. He was also known for taking a ton of takes and was tiring the actors. Kurtz was unable to control Kershner and things started to fall behind so much Lucas had to fly over to England to get things back on track. Remember the money was coming out of Lucas own pocket. Soon Lucas was making multiple trips to England to get things in order and causing further stress on his marriage. The production eventually ran out of money and Lucas had to get bond insurance to complete the film.

When Lucas saw Kurtz and Kershner's rough cut, it was disaster. Lucas started to panic and started reediting the footage to fix the problem. Eventually kershner came on and helped to refocus the movie to the main story points.

Lucas blamed Kurtz for the problems on the set and his own marriage. And never worked with him again. He went on to take greater control over the set of Return of the Jedi. Some say he directed a large portion of the movie and hovered over director Richard Marquand. Lucas' greater involvement in ROTJ and the building of his Skywalker Ranch empire caused a great split in his marriage to Marcia.

They divorced in 1983 the same year ROTJ premiered.

[Edited 9/18/17 14:44pm]

[Edited 9/18/17 14:44pm]

lrn36 said:

namepeace said:

But the original concept doesn't roll, which is much better for toys. Gary Kurtz was rumored to have left the franchise because Lucasfilm became more about the toys than the movies.

Georege Lucas stopped working with Gary Kurtz because Kurtz lost control of the ESB set. Lucas wrote a 30 page treatment for ESB which had all the main story points after scrapping writer Leigh Bracket's first draft attempt. Lucas still gave her a writing credit because she worked on it while dying from cancer. Lucas did it out of respect for her work. Lawrence Kasdan took Lucas treatment and turned it into a working screenplay.

The funding, basic story and preproduction in California was supposed to be the extent of Lucas' involvement. He was pulling backed because his wife Marcia wanted to settle down and start a family after the massive financial success of Star Wars. Gary Kurtz and hired director Irvin Kershner were responsible for the filming in England.

Things started to fall aprt when Kershner who was unfamiliar with working on a big production with visual effects fell behind schedule. He was also known for taking a ton of takes and was tiring the actors. Kurtz was unable to control Kershner and things started to fall behind so much Lucas had to fly over to England to get things back on track. Remember the money was coming out of Lucas own pocket. Soon Lucas was making multiple trips to England to get things in order and causing further stress on his marriage. The production eventually ran out of money and Lucas had to get bond insurance to complete the film.

When Lucas saw Kurtz and Kershner's rough cut, it was disaster. Lucas started to panic and started reediting the footage to fix the problem. Eventually kershner came on and helped to refocus the movie to the main story points.

Lucas blamed Kurtz for the problems on the set and his own marriage. And never worked with him again. He went on to take greater control over the set of Return of the Jedi. Some say he directed a large portion of the movie and hovered over director Richard Marquand. Lucas' greater involvement in ROTJ and the building of his Skywalker Ranch empire caused a great split in his marriage to Marcia.

They divorced in 1983 the same year ROTJ premiered.

[Edited 9/18/17 14:44pm]

[Edited 9/18/17 14:44pm]

lrn36 said:

namepeace said:

But the original concept doesn't roll, which is much better for toys. Gary Kurtz was rumored to have left the franchise because Lucasfilm became more about the toys than the movies.

Georege Lucas stopped working with Gary Kurtz because Kurtz lost control of the ESB set. Lucas wrote a 30 page treatment for ESB which had all the main story points after scrapping writer Leigh Bracket's first draft attempt. Lucas still gave her a writing credit because she worked on it while dying from cancer. Lucas did it out of respect for her work. Lawrence Kasdan took Lucas treatment and turned it into a working screenplay.

The funding, basic story and preproduction in California was supposed to be the extent of Lucas' involvement. He was pulling backed because his wife Marcia wanted to settle down and start a family after the massive financial success of Star Wars. Gary Kurtz and hired director Irvin Kershner were responsible for the filming in England.

Things started to fall aprt when Kershner who was unfamiliar with working on a big production with visual effects fell behind schedule. He was also known for taking a ton of takes and was tiring the actors. Kurtz was unable to control Kershner and things started to fall behind so much Lucas had to fly over to England to get things back on track. Remember the money was coming out of Lucas own pocket. Soon Lucas was making multiple trips to England to get things in order and causing further stress on his marriage. The production eventually ran out of money and Lucas had to get bond insurance to complete the film.

When Lucas saw Kurtz and Kershner's rough cut, it was disaster. Lucas started to panic and started reediting the footage to fix the problem. Eventually kershner came on and helped to refocus the movie to the main story points.

Lucas blamed Kurtz for the problems on the set and his own marriage. And never worked with him again. He went on to take greater control over the set of Return of the Jedi. Some say he directed a large portion of the movie and hovered over director Richard Marquand. Lucas' greater involvement in ROTJ and the building of his Skywalker Ranch empire caused a great split in his marriage to Marcia.

They divorced in 1983 the same year ROTJ premiered.

[Edited 9/18/17 14:44pm]

[Edited 9/18/17 14:44pm]

Other accounts point to weather as a factor in delays, and the rising value of the british pound sending costs of shooting at famed Pinewood Studios skyrocketing. The financing loan had to be transferred to another bank and Fox had to guaranty the loan. These factors, inter alia, are separate and apart from Kurtz's version of events, which differ in several material respects from Lucas'.

It seems the truths we cling to do, in fact, depend greatly on our own points of view. Kurtz and Lucas are no different.

namepeace said:

lrn36 said:

Georege Lucas stopped working with Gary Kurtz because Kurtz lost control of the ESB set. Lucas wrote a 30 page treatment for ESB which had all the main story points after scrapping writer Leigh Bracket's first draft attempt. Lucas still gave her a writing credit because she worked on it while dying from cancer. Lucas did it out of respect for her work. Lawrence Kasdan took Lucas treatment and turned it into a working screenplay.

The funding, basic story and preproduction in California was supposed to be the extent of Lucas' involvement. He was pulling backed because his wife Marcia wanted to settle down and start a family after the massive financial success of Star Wars. Gary Kurtz and hired director Irvin Kershner were responsible for the filming in England.

Things started to fall aprt when Kershner who was unfamiliar with working on a big production with visual effects fell behind schedule. He was also known for taking a ton of takes and was tiring the actors. Kurtz was unable to control Kershner and things started to fall behind so much Lucas had to fly over to England to get things back on track. Remember the money was coming out of Lucas own pocket. Soon Lucas was making multiple trips to England to get things in order and causing further stress on his marriage. The production eventually ran out of money and Lucas had to get bond insurance to complete the film.

When Lucas saw Kurtz and Kershner's rough cut, it was disaster. Lucas started to panic and started reediting the footage to fix the problem. Eventually kershner came on and helped to refocus the movie to the main story points.

Lucas blamed Kurtz for the problems on the set and his own marriage. And never worked with him again. He went on to take greater control over the set of Return of the Jedi. Some say he directed a large portion of the movie and hovered over director Richard Marquand. Lucas' greater involvement in ROTJ and the building of his Skywalker Ranch empire caused a great split in his marriage to Marcia.

They divorced in 1983 the same year ROTJ premiered.

[Edited 9/18/17 14:44pm]

[Edited 9/18/17 14:44pm]

Other accounts point to weather as a factor in delays, and the rising value of the british pound sending costs of shooting at famed Pinewood Studios skyrocketing. The financing loan had to be transferred to another bank and Fox had to guaranty the loan. These factors, inter alia, are separate and apart from Kurtz's version of events, which differ in several material respects from Lucas'.

It seems the truths we cling to do, in fact, depend greatly on our own points of view. Kurtz and Lucas are no different.

It might be unfair for Lucas to blame Kurtz's handling of ESB, even if some of those problems were out his control, for the growing tension in his marriage, but it that's what people do. Lucas said the divorce destroyed him and left him in a state of depression for almost ten years. That's why we saw little output from him outside of Indiana Jones sequels and Willow. He didn't start thinking about the prequels until the mid 90s. Lucas' reasoning for not working with Kurtz sounds a lot more plausible than Kurtz disagreeing with the direction of the series. These guys haven't talked since the early 80s, there has to be sometihng more than merchandising more toys.

Mark Hammil hinted that the final trailer will be shown Oct 9th on Monday Night Football. That should be followed by ticket pre-sale! I hope to get 3 good ones for Dec 14th at 7PM!

lrn36 said:

namepeace said:

Other accounts point to weather as a factor in delays, and the rising value of the british pound sending costs of shooting at famed Pinewood Studios skyrocketing. The financing loan had to be transferred to another bank and Fox had to guaranty the loan. These factors, inter alia, are separate and apart from Kurtz's version of events, which differ in several material respects from Lucas'.

It seems the truths we cling to do, in fact, depend greatly on our own points of view. Kurtz and Lucas are no different.

It might be unfair for Lucas to blame Kurtz's handling of ESB, even if some of those problems were out his control, for the growing tension in his marriage, but it that's what people do. Lucas said the divorce destroyed him and left him in a state of depression for almost ten years. That's why we saw little output from him outside of Indiana Jones sequels and Willow. He didn't start thinking about the prequels until the mid 90s. Lucas' reasoning for not working with Kurtz sounds a lot more plausible than Kurtz disagreeing with the direction of the series. These guys haven't talked since the early 80s, there has to be sometihng more than merchandising more toys.

It doesn't all come down to toys, of course. But profit motives are invariably the most plausible reasons for why things unfold. Kurtz disagreed with the direction of the series, which just so happened to be more merchandise-friendly. Kurtz wanted to go the Greek drama route, which of course led to him hiring Kershner, which led to more delays, which cut into Lucas' pocket since he was self-funding the movie and had to fork over more profits to Fox to get the financing through the wrap on production.

Anyone who's been through a divorce knows how scarring it can be, so I can definitely understand Lucas' reason for delaying the series through the 90's (though Kurtz rejects the notion that Lucas envisioned 9 episodes ab initio.) The issues with Kurtz and constant travel on V were aggravators to be sure, but there's no one single factor in the end of a marriage. My guess is there was more there.

Ultimately, the choice between these varying accounts is not either/or.

It's both/and.

OnlyNDaUsa said:

SquirrelMeat said:

They asked Rian first and he turned it down.

Then they asked JJ.

are you sure he was asked? I did see where he said he was not interested in it but that could have been playing hard to get and he may not have even been asked.

BBC reported his was asked, but of course, there could be more to the story. I like to think they did, which means they are happy with how The Last Jedi has turned out!