The Rebels blitz continues, with the Wall Street Journal today featuring Lucasfilm’s Kiri Hart.
Tasked by head honcho Kathleen Kennedy to develop and oversees new Star Wars content, Hart and her ‘team of five’ (the Story Group, ahem) keep a tight rein on the galaxy… Although she does know there’s room for a lot of different things in the franchise:
“I think there are boundaries, but we don’t want to rigidly define them,” she said. “It’s obviously not slapstick comedy, but there’s room for many different stories and genres that still feel like ‘Star Wars.'”
One filmmaker says she is “as close to a Kevin Feige as there is at Lucas,” and in a longer interview she details some of Lucasfim’s recent choices.
On development:
We pretty quickly arrived at a content plan that stretches out for several years and we didn’t go looking for those ideas. Those existed internally. We were in a situation of looking for people to help us execute the ideas we had.
On setting aside the EU:
I’m crazily passionate about this idea of narratives travelling across different platforms. It just feels like a golden opportunity. This is a fictional universe that not only supports [narrative coherence] but invites it.
In addition, we wouldn’t be giving the right green space to our filmmakers if we mandated they stay within the stories that have been told [in books.]
On diversity:
I haven’t experienced “Star Wars” being for boys, because I loved it from seven years old. I was so powerfully influenced by Princess Leia as a kid. I remember being transfixed by her — she was so empowered and smart and funny.
There are a lot of different types of characters. “Star Wars” should be diverse because it’s a big galaxy.
This certainly sheds some light for us on how things are working internally these days!
Three cheers for Girl Power in a galaxy, far, far away!
Seriously.
I don’t mean to dredge up any Original Trilogy “What could have been …” moments, but I vociferously maintain that the former Marcia Griffin, who edited Episodes 4 and 5 (and won a 1976 Academy Award for editing “Taxi Driver”, which was a seriously big deal for a woman in the film industry, especially at that time) was responsible for a great deal of the behind-the-scenes magic that went into making Episodes 4 & 5. To me, “American Graffiti” in many regards FEELS like more of a Star Wars film, than the Prequels. This can be traced back to the editing.
What happened between her and George – and what Star Wars became as a result of their relationship ending – ultimately altered the original story line in a very significant way that diminished George’s enthusiasm for the universe he created. It’s a delicate situation to speak of and a tragic one at that.
That women like Kathleen Kennedy and Kiri Hart have this kind of power & clout at Lucasfilm, is reassuring.