J.J. Abrams to Direct Star Wars: Episode VII

[Ouch!]

My lord, is that... legal? (http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/01/24/j-j-abrams-star-wars-director/)

On the one hand, this is exciting. On the other, Star Wars and Star Trek in the same hands? Never thought I'd see the day.

[G13]

If this is true, I have a new hope for this new trilogy.

[The Man]

This is probably the best choice they could have made next to Peter Jackson. I had a hunch Disney would know what to do with the franchise, and thus far they mostly seem to be proving me right.

[Miriel]

They must have thrown a lot of money at him, since just a little while back he unequivocally denied that he would ever direct Star Wars.

[Raistlin]

Despite the fact that Abrams is a good choice, I still would have preferred no new Star Wars movies altogether. But he did pull it off with Star Trek, so who knows.

[Tigmafuzz]

As if we weren't all going to watch the thing anyway.

[Araciel]

Lens flare... My gods the lens flare...

[Shorty]

He made Star Trek amazing, I'm sure he can do the same with Star Wars.

[Ouch!]

Lens flare... My gods the lens flare...
Lightsaber battle lens flare.

[Sephex]

Lens flare... My gods the lens flare...

EDIT: I WAS BEATEN TO THE JOKE!!!

Here is another one then. Lens flare off of Vaders helmet in flashback. And his breathing will incorporate an Eminem cover of "All Along the Watchtower."

[Del Murder]

How exciting! I have high hopes for an Abrams Star Wars movie.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

And his breathing will incorporate an Eminem cover of -

Dear God, NO! Or as Vader would tell you....

...clickie... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s)

and later in the BluRay Wars

...clickie again.... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGxnOnaQyGo&feature=player_detailpage#t=47s)

[NorthernChaosGod]

Interesting. Star Trek was pretty cool, so let's see how this turns out. I wasn't really a fan of Star Trek though, so :colbert:

[Freya]

I heard this on the radio! I'm curious since yeah, Star Trek and Star wars wuuuttt? But He got Star trek to be awesome again. I mean it really was always awesome. But so was Star wars. I actually like every starwars entry despite how others feel. I'm rambling. Intoxication does that too you but really, I love any space related thing so anything that's "stars" I like. Of course the like 70's created both when we were obsessed with space and the moon and trout. Now so, not so much. WHich is really a sad turn of events, we dont' strive for that knowledge of hte unknown anymore. It' more of a thought pushed to the side. Sad really. When we had that goal of space, our tech advanced so quickly, now it's kinda plateauing. ANYWAY i'm looking forward to a lens flary star wars. I love me some JJ.

[Chris]

Yes! YES! OMG, best news in a long time! :jess:

[Psychotic]

Well this is an interesting development. Can't be any worse than Lucas! Then again, I imagine neither would 80% of the members of this forum.

[The Man]

http://24.media.tumblr.com/48f63c79487950d0beda472ca879c405/tumblr_mh5nhxEdqn1qcjzvuo1_500.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/48f63c79487950d0beda472ca879c405/tumblr_mh5nhxEdqn1qcjzvuo1_500.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/374134a375ee83d99d451f028edc2e53/tumblr_mh5oalVDzh1qcm2sko1_500.jpg

http://25.media.tumblr.com/7adeb30f10adbc0b1b265d5194b8d69e/tumblr_mh5qydbwsv1qz5q5lo1_500.gif

http://25.media.tumblr.com/2f8b27d30928e30f80e9d86185c3bc92/tumblr_mh5qydbwsv1qz5q5lo5_250.gif

http://i.imgur.com/9MwzToH.jpg

http://th02.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2012/186/6/8/jedi_master_spock_by_rabittooth-d562ldd.jpg

http://img3.etsystatic.com/008/0/6983754/il_570xN.367108607_j6g1.jpg

[Shorty]

The poster for it makes me really fucking excited. Also, apparently they're lined up to make episodes VIII and IX and that many actors and actresses from the past films are hoping to reprise their roles (I don't know how I feel about this).

I'm a little concerned about Disney making it. Star Wars isn't necessarily the nature of racy or controversial nature, but I'm afraid Disney might try to pad it down and make it a little too family friendly.

Can't wait to see the cast list, though! Hoping to see a lot of new non-lame faces.

[Ouch!]

Ford, Fisher, and Hamill have all said that they would like to reprise their rolls and likely will--they were contacted by Lucas long before the sale was announced, apparently. I have no problem with this. Michael Arndt ("Little Miss Sunshine" and "Toy Story 3") will be writing the screenplay. Between an Oscar-winning writer and J.J. Abrams and some talented actors, I'd go ahead and say that this has potential to be good.

[NorthernChaosGod]

I'm a little concerned about Disney making it. Star Wars isn't necessarily the nature of racy or controversial nature, but I'm afraid Disney might try to pad it down and make it a little too family friendly.

Pretty sure Disney was in charge of The Avengers. :p

[Shorty]

Were they really? I had no idea.

[NorthernChaosGod]

Disney owns Marvel. And all kinds of Disney credits up in this bitch. The Avengers (2012) - Company credits (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848228/companycredits)

[Slothy]

Yeah, Disney bought Marvel in December 2009.

[DMKA]

I'm pretty interested in it now. I wasn't before this. In fact, after Episode I came out, I pretty much lost all interest in the franchise, so much so that I've still never seen Episode II or III.

I'd have preferred a reboot to a sequel though. I guess the sequel will have to take place way in the future or something, since everyone is old now. And surely, he wouldn't reuse that awesome plot device he used to pull off Leonard Nimoy being in the Star Trek reboot. :p

[theundeadhero]

There's years of lore that takes place after the original episodes for them to make movies out of. When we first heard this at work we were wondering which they would chose. I'm personally hoping for Jacen's story.

[The Man]

I thought they said they were going to be doing an original story. If they're drawing from EU I'd like to see some of Timothy Zahn's stuff done, but it's probably too complex for the silver screen. A Thrawn Trilogy TV series would be epic, though, I think everyone would agree.

[Skyblade]

I'm a little concerned about Disney making it. Star Wars isn't necessarily the nature of racy or controversial nature, but I'm afraid Disney might try to pad it down and make it a little too family friendly.

Disney actually has a really good track record with other people's stuff.

Kingdom Hearts (which was at its best in the first installment, which was also the one which most closely involved Disney), the Avengers, Miyazaki's works with Studio Ghibli, Pixar...

Disney only ruins their own intellectual properties that way. When they work with or purchase someone else's stuff, they actually tend to do it justice.

[Ouch!]

They confirmed a while ago that the extended universe will not be the source material for any of the new trilogy. Which officially makes it a secondary canon. Which really upset a lot of people for whatever reason.

[The Man]

Well, a lot of the EU is pretty cool, so that's probably why. But as long as they respect its existence and don't contradict it on any major points it should be fine.

[G13]

I'm looking forward to a new story being told. I'd be less interested if this were an adaptation of the books or comics. Don't get me wrong, there are tons of things I'd like to see from the EU on the big screen, but a movie adaptation could ruin a story as easily as it could fulfill any hopes I have

Plus I don't really want to see Chewie die. :(

Edit: I'm sure we'll see and hear a lot of references to the EU, so I don't think we'll be missing out too much. It would be impossible not to reference anything within it no matter which way they go. :monster:

[Loony BoB]

Tig summed up my feelings: We're all gonna watch it anyway.

He made Star Trek amazing
Can't tell if you're talking up the Star Trek movie, or talking down the rest of Star Trek history. :stare:

[Night Fury]

I quite like J J Abrams, the guy is good at what he does which is good mystery stuff like Lost and Alias.

Star Wars though... Hmm, I'll reserve judgement.

[Bubba]

What's Star Wars?

[Ouch!]

Well, a lot of the EU is pretty cool, so that's probably why. But as long as they respect its existence and don't contradict it on any major points it should be fine.
I'm sure it's going to contradict the EU on several major points. Respecting its existence does not mean that they need to regard it as anything other than a secondary canon. I imagine that it's much more likely that the extended universe becomes an alternate universe. And, frankly, I'll be glad for it. I don't want any contrived crap like Palpatine clones or Vader's Glove in the new movies anyway.

Some of the extended universe is cool. Most of it is crap.

[Shorty]

Tig summed up my feelings: We're all gonna watch it anyway.

He made Star Trek amazing
Can't tell if you're talking up the Star Trek movie, or talking down the rest of Star Trek history. :stare:

Was I speaking comparatively, dummy? I was talking up the movie, of course!

[Loony BoB]

Yeah, I wasn't sure if you were talking about Star Trek (the movie) or Star Trek (the entire series).

[Shiny]

Disney owns Marvel.

Yep...Disney owns almost everything media related now.

[Madame Adequate]

Whoever it was forgot that Disney owns Marvel, ahaha don't you remember the titanic troutstorm that ensued when that happened? e; oh it was Sarah, what a surprise :greenie:

I'd be worried about this if it was a TV show because Abrams is terrible at those, but he's great at movies so this should be some serious trout.

Also every nerd ever is dreaming of an epic crossover now :drool:

[Shorty]

I wasn't aware of any shitstorm that happened!

[Bubba]

I was never a huge fan of Star Trek the series (nothing against it, just didn't get into it) but the film was all kinds of awesome. Pretty excited to see the new installment when it comes out.

In all seriousness, I'm not that excited about a new Star Wars film. The last three really killed it for me. I'll obviously still go and see it at the cinema... if only for the introduction music.

[TrollHunter]

Wasnt disney also behind the pirates of the caribbean movie? (the rest of them never happened)
I dont think disney is as kiddey as people tend to think they are

This
Will
Be
Awesomeeeee!

[Bubba]

Wasnt disney also behind the pirates of the caribbean movie? (the rest of them never happened)
I dont think disney is as kiddey as people tend to think they are

This
Will
Be
Awesomeeeee!

Yeah, they also did the National Treasure films and they were really good. I don't have a problem with Disney taking the reins. Star Wars was never particularly hard core anyway... just a few severed limbs that easily passed the censors.

[Ouch!]

Other reasons to be excited about the new movie: the writer for The Empire Strikes Back is a consultant on the project.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

What's Star Wars? Well I've heard tell of something called Indiana Jones and his Game of Thrones, or something like that. Apparently has a swashbuckling dwarf with a bullwhip or something. Can't tell if it's just the Interwebz messing with me.

[Raistlin]

They confirmed a while ago that the extended universe will not be the source material for any of the new trilogy. Which officially makes it a secondary canon. Which really upset a lot of people for whatever reason.

People are just silly. Who cares what label it has if it's enjoyable?

I'm glad that Star Wars is using an original story instead of the EU.

[Del Murder]

Yeah, don't use the EU. It's its own thing.

[Kossage]

I'm cautiously optimistic about this. Abrams is hit and miss from what I've seen of his output but he has potential nevertheless. I wonder if this means he'll bring in his trusty Michael Giacchino as composer to expand on the musical tapestry which John Williams created; as long as Giacchino follows the template he used for John Carter and actually uses someone who doesn't make the sound mix too dry, it should be okay. On the one hand it'd be awesome if Williams could (and wanted to) return to score the new trilogy simply to have musical continuity between the films (depends on how many old characters and locations will be returning, but the SW theme and the Force theme are a given, at least), but on the other hand it seems more plausible that with a new director comes a new musical direction. I just hope that whoever ends up as a composer will respect the source material and actually expand on it without totally discarding almost everything that came before (which pretty much happened in the Harry Potter film series whenever they changed composers). :)

As for story continuity, the modus operandi of SW films, novels and Expanded Universe is that everything is canon, the level of what can be considered greater canon varies. Still, according to Pablo Hidalgo, even things like the Star Wars Holiday Special are still part of the overall lore, and guys like Hidalgo (who are paid for what they do) find ways to make even the sillier stories mesh in well and establish a proper timeline for events. Whatever story Ep7 ends up using (and if they're not following any EU material), it's going to be very interesting to see how the movie's new continuity will be linked to already existing EU events if that's even going to be possible. So far Hidalgo and co have pulled off pretty amazing feats as far as fitting all stories together are concerned, but this time things might not be resolved so easily. ;)

And then there's also going to be the issue of the overarching storyline. As George Lucas stated, the story of Star Wars has always been about the trials and tribulations of the Skywalker family, particularly Anakin's fall and redemption arc. With Anakin/Vader and the Emperor gone by Episode 7, much of the emotional drama is lost and new foundations are required. I wonder who'll become the new villain for the heroes to face while keeping it in line with what's been shown before. And hopefully Boba Fett will make a return; that'd certainly please many fans but I dunno how well Temuera Morrison would handle him. :D

[The Captain]

This just in, JJ Abrams set to direct next Indiana Jones, James Bond, Pixar movies, as well as Avengers 3, March of the Penguins 2, Batman Begins Again, The next Alien movie, the inevitable Silmarillion trilogy and the next trilogy of Avatar.

He will also find time to create 4 new TV shows and consult on 7 others.

Does this man sleep?


Take care all.

[Ouch!]

Rumors floating around that the other films Disney has mentioned outside of the new trilogy will be character-specific spin-offs, starting with Yoda. I'm not linking any sources since I haven't really found anything more concrete than rumor.

While I'm not sure that Yoda can hold a movie on his own (although being several hundred years old certainly allows for flexibility), the idea itself isn't too bad, especially if it lets us stray from Jedi-centric narratives. There's a lot of possibility in the idea. A Boba Fett movie beginning with him blasting his way out of a Sarlac? A young Han Solo starting his career as a smuggler? There's a lot of ground to cover in the Star Wars universe and plenty of interesting places to go.

[Del Murder]

Hopefully this means we will see a Chewbacca movie.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Hopefully this means we will see a Chewbacca movie.

But what if it tragically ends with his death. Han - NOOOOOOOOOOO

[Del Murder]

Strike Chewie down and he will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Han - "Chewie? CHEWIE!"

Chewie - "Arrgggh, RAR-RARARGARARR." translation for non-Wookie-speakers "I never told you this, but I can touch the force."

Han - "What? Chewie, you've lost a lot of blood.."

Chewie - "RArRARGAhRArgH." * "I know that Han, but I'm telling the truth. Luke confirmed it. Said Yoda came to him in a dream, said there is another. And he's a Wookie yo."

Han - "But, but..."

Chewie - *"Strike me down and I'll come back more pow-" *dies*

[G13]

Rumors floating around that the other films Disney has mentioned outside of the new trilogy will be character-specific spin-offs, starting with Yoda. I'm not linking any sources since I haven't really found anything more concrete than rumor.

While I'm not sure that Yoda can hold a movie on his own (although being several hundred years old certainly allows for flexibility), the idea itself isn't too bad, especially if it lets us stray from Jedi-centric narratives. There's a lot of possibility in the idea. A Boba Fett movie beginning with him blasting his way out of a Sarlac? A young Han Solo starting his career as a smuggler? There's a lot of ground to cover in the Star Wars universe and plenty of interesting places to go.

I read something a while back where Lucas said if he were to make another Star Wars film it would focus on Yoda during... I think the Stark hyperspace war.

Sith Wars? That doesn't seem right.

[NorthernChaosGod]

I would watch the shit out of a Chewie movie. If it was about his death though I'd punch every single employee at that theater.

[The Man]

Why not punch the mothersmurfers who made it instead? And while you're at it throw in a punch for everyone responsible for his death in the EU as well.

[Bubba]

I'm not sure that Yoda can hold a movie on his own

Yoda: "Have faith, you do not..."

[Vincent, Thunder God]

I'm not sure that Yoda can hold a movie on his own

Yoda: "Have faith, you do not..."

"A film for me, I do not want. A Windu film be, a better jaunt."

[NorthernChaosGod]

Why not punch the mothersmurfers who made it instead? And while you're at it throw in a punch for everyone responsible for his death in the EU as well.

Because they'd already be in the vicinity. I don't have time to track down some nerds and filmmakers.

[Ouch!]

"A film for me, I do not want. A Windu film be, a better jaunt."
I like how you went from Yoda to pirate.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

"Me timbers, shiv'rd they be. Use the cutlass Luke!"

[Ouch!]

This just in, JJ Abrams set to direct next Indiana Jones, James Bond, Pixar movies, as well as Avengers 3, March of the Penguins 2, Batman Begins Again, The next Alien movie, the inevitable Silmarillion trilogy and the next trilogy of Avatar.

He will also find time to create 4 new TV shows and consult on 7 others.

Does this man sleep?


Take care all.
Or maybe just a Half-Life or Portal movie. (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/02/06/newell-valve-looking-to-make-portal-or-half-life-move-with-j-j/)

[Ouch!]

Double post because I now have a source (http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/02/06/star-wars-spin-offs-young-han-solo-movie-boba-fett/). The Yoda side story appears to have been wrong. As per the link, it seems we're getting a Han Solo origin story and a Boba Fett spin-off.

Much more palatable.

[The Captain]

Hopefully this means we will see a Chewbacca movie.

Have you not seen this forgotten gem of a movie?

star wars holiday special part 1 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCNGjKnTzaQ)

[Del Murder]

Yikes, maybe we don't want that.

[The Man]

I think it's a bit of a stretch to call the Star Wars Holiday special "a movie." And probably rather insulting to actual movies.

<img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/so_bad_its_worse.png" title="You think it&#39;s so legendarily bad that you&#39;ll torrent it and sit through it just for the kitschy nerd cred. I, too, once thought as you did."

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Dude the Holiday Smurfing Special totally classifies as so bad it's good, just like Troll 2 or the Room yo

Han - Chewie you are tearing me apart!

Chewie - RarrGGhHHH

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Herr Yoda - "Ein Film für mich, wünsche ich nicht. Ein Windu-Film ist, ein besserer Ausflug."

Goering - "Yavol Herr Yoda, yavol."

Mace enters the room and says in broken German - "Herr Yoda is Fraulein Chewie Force Sensitive?"

Herr Yoda - "Nein! verweigert habe ich, dieser dumme Anspruch!"

Mace mixes up languages - "Que?"

Yoda - "No habla espanol, por favor. Sieg Hiel. Hiel Seeth Lorda Eetler."

*ominously exotic Imperial March begins on balalaika, sitar and tabla*

[Del Murder]

Ok you lost me. Should have quit while you were ahead, bud!

[Mercen-X]

Hopefully this means we will see a Chewbacca movie.

Have you not seen this forgotten gem of a movie?

star wars holiday special part 1 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCNGjKnTzaQ)I did not need to know that.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Ok you lost me. Should have quit while you were ahead, bud!

Del, del, you wound me with words, dear Del.

[krissy]

i liked it
especially when the music started playing
don't lsiten to del


anyway any news on jj abrams also doing the half life and portal movies?