In an interview with The Times (being subscription-only, it’s summarized by The Telegraph and THR,) J.J. Abrams says he understands the feelings set out in the ‘rules‘ video,
“I would say that (the website conveys) a feeling that we share very much… I loved how Star Wars had that sense of a world far beyond the borders of what you can see and have been told – it’s one of the things it did so brilliantly.
If you watch the first movie, you don’t actually know exactly what the Empire is trying to do. They’re going to rule by fear – but you don’t know what their end game is.
The beauty of that movie was that it was an unfamiliar world, and yet you wanted to see it expand and to see where it went.”
The video was controversial, but let’s not make the mistake of thinking it’s the only fan reaction they’ve taken note of. He also recognizes that “a lot of kids who saw all the prequels when they were young really do identify with those movies as much as my generation identified with the originals.”
The original article also apparently suggests Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, Serenity) might be involved in Episode VII – but mainly because he was seen in the Bad Robot offices. (Jedi News thinks The Times is on to something with that; We’ll see.)
Meanwhile, Variety columnist Brian Lowry strikes back at Mike Ryan’s piece from the other day on how fans need to calm down. Hey, aren’t we the ones who’re supposed to be sniping at each other? (But seriously, don’t.)
I hope he doesn’t take the video too much to heart. As impressive as its visual presentation may have been, it was basically just a big “$%& you” to George Lucas and the prequels.
And even as somebody who finds the prequels lacking in about 1138 ways, I found the “suggestions” of that video off by a couple of Kessel runs…
Yeah, that video wasn’t all that well thought out… But I really doubt that’s the only piece of fan opinion that LFL/Bad Robot (as opposed to the writer at The Times) are familiar with, so I wouldn’t be too worried about it.
I liked the video for the most part, but the suggestion that the films have to take place in the outskirts of the galaxy seems a bit limiting. True, the OT was mostly set on uninhabited planets and small communities, but that was because of the limited visual effect resources and the nature of the story. The rebels had to hide far away from civilization. If Abrams tackles the New Republic and the re-founding of the Jedi order, then of course the scale of the cast and locations will be grander, and they should be.
Tauntauns were cute. Ewoks were cute… they were cute with spears, very David and Goliath, but cute. (I love Ewoks. I was introduced to them before RotJ.) Nothing wrong with cute as long as it flows naturally into the story.
I agree with chunks of the video. Though it’s not so much about the frontier to me , so much as the Star Wars universe felt like a place where people lived, not a set but a world. There was a grit factor, but it wasn’t gross. It made logical sense for the prequels to be a little shinier. The story revolved around the wealthy and powerful…. Might be interesting to see a new trilogy deal with a more middle class life. New territory in the same universe.
Well, if Chiwetel Ejiofor is cast, I guess I’ll finally learn how to correctly pronounce his name.