There’s a popular piece of news floating around the movie blogo-sphere, (is that a word?), tethering J.J. Abrams’ name to the Star Wars franchise for the next day or so until we all move on but for today he’s riding high on the free press being offered. What’s with all the commotion? Well, allegedly Abrams made a comment stating that he… well, why don’t I just share the quote?
There were the very early conversations and I quickly said that because of my loyalty to Star Trek, and also just being a fan (of Star Wars), I wouldn’t even want to be involved in the next version of those things.
I declined any involvement very early on. I’d rather be in the audience not knowing what was coming, rather than being involved in the minutiae of making them.
There it is, and I’ve seen sites spin this comment and throw in phrases like “ABRAMS REFUSES STAR WARS” and “HE REJECTED THE IDEA” and all that nonsense, which is just buzzwords to get you to click their headlines. There’s nothing here to even indicate that he was offered a directing job, or what capacity may have been offered. That being said, let’s put some fictional context into these comments on how this probably really went down:
Disney Exec: Hey dude, did you hear that there’s a new Star Wars film coming? We totally bought George Lucas and some Ewoks.
Abrams: Oh, word? That doesn’t sound cheap.
Disney Exec: Dude you know how we roll, we have an Enchanted Castle. You want in on any of this? Maybe some stock in our toy company? Or we can hire you to can help us keep the plot a secret!
Abrams: Nah dude, I’ve got enough trouble keeping Khan a secr…err… do you like these glasses? I look smarter than I did without them, right?
Disney Exec: They’re fine, and I hear ya man, I just bought stock in purple lightsabers… wait… WHAT?!
That being said, I don’t think I’d want Abrams working on Star Wars. He’s certainly not my favorite director and although he’s capable of creating some entertaining movies I just wouldn’t be able to live with his incessant demands for secrecy on high profile projects. That shit just annoys me. Now that we know that this guy isn’t working on Star Wars we can move on with real potential directors. I’m still partial to the Jon Favreau idea I’d also consider someone hasn’t been in the discussions like a Robert Zemeckis, Christopher Nolan, or a Ron Howard. You know, a good director who doesn’t rely on the “It’s a secret!” gimmick. Hell, if Andrew Stanton didn’t have John Carter on his resume I’m sure he could have been in consideration as well.
Via: Geek Tyrant
