From Star Trek to Star Wars, it looks like Disney may have landed a dream director for Star Wars: Episode VII as The Wrap, and several other sources confirm, J.J. Abrams will move from directing Star Trek Into Darkness to the first film in a new trilogy of Star Wars films at the Mouse House.
The report comes following previous comments from Abrams himself that he was not going to be involved, telling Empire, "There were the very early conversations and I quickly said that because of my loyalty to Star Trek, and also just being a fan, 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."
Uh... Liar!
All kidding aside, Abrams' next Star Trek film hits theaters on May 17, 2013 with Star Wars: Episode VII eying an unspecified 2015 release.
The screenplay was written by Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and Toy Story 3 scripter Michael Arndt.
As far as my thoughts on this film are concerned, I'm now more interested than I was before, which was not at all. However, I still don't want to see this have anything to do with Luke, Han or Leia. I want a new story and new characters. I doubt that will happen, but oh well. Such is life at the movies.
UPDATE: Borys Kit from The Hollywood Reporter posts on Twitter, "Confirmed: J.J. Abrams will direct Star Wars Episode 7! Sources say the negotiations quite down the road." Variety also confirms the news.
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Come on man!
Nothing against Star Wars or Abrams, but I'm just not excited for another round. It will likely be good, but I'm just more interested in other directors/series/original films.
Hope all the fans get something worthwhile though.
I completely agree. I just don't care about this. It might be good, but I'm not interested in revisiting the universe outside of the original trilogy.
I agree with both of you. Although I do feel a disturbance in the Force regarding the director of the Star Trek franchise directing a Star Wars film. Just doesn't seem right.
I'm already sick of Star Wars: Episode VII and I haven't even seen a synopsis.
This.
J.J. Abrams here to restore a new hope for humanity. I was down on the whole new trilogy idea until this moment. I believe he is the perfect director for these new films. I mean, its not easy making Star Trek cool, but the man did it. Imagine what he can do to Star Wars.
I'm surprised Paramount is up for this. He's been there for years now and seemed important to them.
Well it's not like the '30s-'40s where studios owned directors (and actors). I'm pretty sure he's free to go wherever he wants without having to get permission. Of four films he's directed, three were previous Paramount properties. So it makes sense that he wanted to do Super 8 there, and produce Cloverfield for them as well. They probably just had a good working relationship, but it's not like he was required to make all his movies at Paramount.
Quite obviously not. It was really just more a case that he and Paramount appeared very close and I think he only renewed his production company's studio deal with last year. His home on the features front has really been there for the last few years.
Obviously it doesn't stop other studios making offers but I do wonder what it means for the Star Trek fanchise that Paramount has now got going and which he very much had a part to play in revitalising.
As much as I've enjoyed all of Abrams previous films, I'm still not looking forward to the movie.
I think J J Abrams should stay doing Star Trek and I think someone else deserves the director chair
The idea of lens flares shooting all over the place during a lightsaber battle is reason enough to panic.
Exactly.
Honestly, he doesn't do it that much... I rarely notice it, actually...
Yeah, I don't notice it that much, either.
Do not underestimate the power of the lens flares.
Really? I'm a big fan of J.J. Abrams, but I'd rather see him stick with Star Trek. If he does end up directing then I assume he would be a good choice, as I like all 3 of his previous films. I was just hoping he would stick with Star Trek because I love what he did with the new one.
I'm more concerned about what this means for the future of Star Trek. Disney probably cut him a far bigger check than anything Paramount could to lock him down for a prospective Star Trek 3. And I doubt he'll jump between franchises, because if Star Wars is successful I'm sure Disney will lock him down for another one with as much cash as it takes. This doesn't make me any more interested in Star Wars though...it will be so managed and controlled by Disney that there won't be any unique vision as there was with Star Trek. It'll be a completely safe cartoon just like The Avengers was.
Yeah, considering that "Star Trek" made $385m worldwide on an expensive budget and the next Star Wars will likely be pushing $1b. gross If its any good, I have no doubt Disney had a lot more money to throw at Abrams than Paramount.
May the lenseflair be with us all
Instead of lightsabers, J.J. is gonna replace them with lens flairs that have the capabilities of the lightsabers. My interest will peak even more if that happens (which it won't).
Halelujah!!!! This will be a day long remembered. It has seen the rebirth of Star Wars and will soon see the conquering of Hollywood. I'm very relieved to here this. The same company that publishes Star Trek the Magazine also publishes Star Wars the Magazine. Paramount needs not be worried. Abrams clearly loves Star Trek, but Star Wars was always his first love. Bravo J.J.
Thems the facts
I like J.J. Abrams, but I feel as if he shot himself in the foot with this one. Not only do I fear that Star Wars will be too similar to his Star Trek films, but I am afraid this is going to be one of those situations where he won't have the creative freedom that he has had on his other works. Oh, well. I'll hope that Abrams can bring something good to the table.
Disney seems relatively lax about creative freedom, and Abrams is yet to have a film that failed at the box office (I didn't look it up, but I can't think of one). I'm fairly certain Disney will be good with it.
I agree with your Disney comment but there's no way anyone on the creative end will let that happen. They know that this can go the incredibly cheesy, overly CGI route (aka the prequels) and they will do as much as they can to stay far away from that.
And for our sakes, I hope they do.
The worst thing that could happen is if he accidentally includes a Star Trek item in Star Wars! Very excited for this!
The fact that for the first time the same director is doing a Trek AND Star Wars pic should be enough to get the geek on for a lotta people.
Funnily enough, several years ago I made a facetious comment in a review "if J.J. Abrams ever made a STAR WARS film he'd have no sound in space". Epic space battles that would cut to total silence for every exterior shot? Now that would be cool.
While he's not the first name I would have gone with, he hasn't let me down with any of his movies yet. MI3 is my favorite of the series, and I enjoyed (albeit didn't love) Star Trek and Super 8.
That's like hiring Whedon to direct Justice League. I am not interested in seeing Abrams tackle another space adventure.
Dang! I was hoping for Wes Anderson or Woody Allen. Oh well, just kidding.
I'm sure he'll do well, but Star Wars fanatics are almost as demanding as Trekkies. He just better walk a cautious path, or be sure that if he goes big, it'll pay off. Best of luck to him.
I don't like the idea of the guy who wrote Little Miss Sunshine writing Star Wars. I hated LMS. I just hope nobody is depressed in this one.
I really don't understand why everyone is so down on Episode VII. The studio which brought us all of the enjoyably successful Marvel films has hired the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3, the successful director of Super 8, Mission: Impossible III, and Star Trek, and given them an enormous budget and sci-fi world to play in...so people assume it will suck? Fuck that noise.
Thems the facts
I was in no way, shape or form looking forward to any new Star Wars movies now we get the news JJ Abrams is going to direct this, I am now looking forward to this probably more then any other movie that is coming out over the next few years. I am a huge fan of JJ Abrams. I love everything he has ever done. I'm really looking forward to rhis
Totally agree. I like this news.
Now we know what J.J. in J.J.Abrams stands for.
"MEESA LIKES TREK WARS!"
You made a lens flare joke! How original!
Bland, uninspired choice, a completely unremarkable filmmaker with a grating visual style. The only positive about this is it won't be wasting the time of a more talented filmmaker, I cringed at the thought of an Affleck or Johnson wasting their time with this.
The story is already there, just get the vid game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, nuff said!
Not only have they chosen a completely uninteresting film maker without a shred of originality when it comes to visual style or tonal sensibilities, they chose one who's already helming the directly competing franchise with the same word in the title. Abrams Star Trek is already simply the TV show show filtered through a Star Wars mindset.
What a wasted opportunity to introduce us to someone new and to give a burgeoning film maker a shot at the big time with a lot of money. This is a regrettably watered down, homogenized direction to take the franchise. Instead of expanding the possibilities of our collective cinematic universe, this shrinks it down and filters it through the same outlet. Frustrating.
I suppose if I liked Star Trek or Super 8, I'd feel differently, but I don't.
Overall, I'm still far more bummed that Lucas sold the franchise to Disney. The Wonderful World of Disney is no place for Star Wars.
J.J will finally end the dispute of Star Wars vs Star Trek by combining both universes in the one movie. Expect Trek 3 to end with the Enterprise accidentally crossing into an unknown universe. TREK WARS. Coming to a theater near you in 2022.