Boba Fett’s Creator On JJ Abrams Directing Star Wars Episode VII
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I have a feeling before too much longer, the Internet will need to asexually reproduce, and a small part of it will split off and become its own electronically living and breathing entity. This second Internet will of course be concerned only with what other people are saying about J.J. Abrams directing Episode VII. And the porn inspired by those discussions.
Huffington Post entertainment writer Mike Ryan recently spoke with director Joe Johnston about his thoughts of Abrams’ directorial cohesion with the Star Wars franchise. Johnston’s opinion is a worthy one, though, due to his role as a visual effects artist on all three films in the original trilogy. And even though his face doesn’t have a huge tattoo that declares it, he’s the guy who created Boba Fett. He’s also the guy responsible for Honey I Shrunk the Kids and those amazing sets. So does he think that Abrams is a waste of creative space?
J.J. Abrams is the perfect choice to get the third trilogy off the ground. These films are big logistical nightmares to direct, like any $150 million plus project. They’re like military operations in the attention to detail required while trying to retain a grasp of the big picture. J.J. has more than proven he can handle the pressure, plus it doesn’t hurt to have a guy at the wheel who has produced, written, and created shows of his own. If anything, he may be overqualified.
To be clear, he was just kidding about the “overqualified” part. Because Star Wars films technically have no levels of qualification to adhere to. The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were directed by non-obvious choices Irvin Kershner and Richard Marquand, respectively, who each had a very different experience in bringing George Lucas’ visions to life. Johnston also spoke about these two directors’ differing styles.
I think there’s a lot we don’t know about all those relationships. I think George was occasionally frustrated with the coverage Kershner shot. He refused to shoot a master, a cardinal sin in George’s book.
For Jedi, [Lucas] may have wanted to make sure he had a director who was a little more amenable to George’s requests, but this is all conjecture on my part. We saw a lot more of Marquand in pre- and post-production than we saw of Kershner — I got the sense he was very much interested in the process itself, the creation of the visual effects. George’s attitude has always been that the film is made in the cutting room and production is a process of assembling the raw material. My guess is that George saw Marquand as a guy who could go out and amass the great-looking footage that George would mold into the film in post.
Well since this is the first film that won’t have Lucas’ beard breath all over it, there’s almost nothing to compare it to. But that won’t stop hundreds of millions of people from trying.
