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ALL ENCOMPASSING STAR WARS THREAD


RIPPA

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I think it's fair to say that Kennedy has done a poor job with picking and choosing directors. JJ was a success, hopefully we'll be able to say the same for Rian Johnson, and both of them have track records that wouldn't make you think they're awful to work with.

That said, if the vision for Han Solo didn't match the tone of a Lord and Miller movie, then why hire them in the first place? Nothing wrong with wanting a more serious or not as whimsical tone for the Han Solo movie, just don't hire a directing duo that's not known for their seriousness. Trank brought forth a mountain of problems to and through the production of Fant4stick that why she would even consider Trank in the first place is really puzzling. Gareth Edwards is another head scratcher. I don't think I'm alone, but Godzilla was one of the biggest bait and switch, letdown movies I've seen in recent memory. Just nothing but boring direction following around a really implausible hero while teasing monster fights for the majority of the movie. The monster fights were really cool, but that's like 10 to 15 minutes of the movie. I never understood how that translated to being the guy to direct the first ever stand alone Star Wars movie. And I think Trevorrow sucks. Jurassic World was beyond insulting, Book of Henry looks PERFECT for How Did This Get Made?, and he's being trusted with writing and directing Episode 9.

I wonder what drove the hiring of mostly unproven directors. Edwards only had Godzilla, Trank had Chronicle and Fant4stick, and Trevorrow had Safety Not Guaranteed and Jurassic World. If you were looking for kinda visionary or maybe newish directors to help guide your franchise, you probably could have done better than these three. 

Jon Favreau, Drew Goddard, Matt Reeves, Doug Liman (just no shaky cam please), Neill Blomkamp, etc. All with varying degrees of success, but you likely know what you're getting more with some of these people or others than half of the directors chosen so far for the new Star Wars movies.

And I am bummed about the firing of Lord and Miller. I never thought about seeing their take on a Star Wars movie and when they were announced to direct, it sounded like such a cool idea. Unfortunately it seems like it may be closer to Edgar Wright taking on a MCU movie.

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34 minutes ago, Craig H said:

I think it's fair to say that Kennedy has done a poor job with picking and choosing directors. JJ was a success, hopefully we'll be able to say the same for Rian Johnson, and both of them have track records that wouldn't make you think they're awful to work with.

That said, if the vision for Han Solo didn't match the tone of a Lord and Miller movie, then why hire them in the first place? Nothing wrong with wanting a more serious or not as whimsical tone for the Han Solo movie, just don't hire a directing duo that's not known for their seriousness. Trank brought forth a mountain of problems to and through the production of Fant4stick that why she would even consider Trank in the first place is really puzzling. Gareth Edwards is another head scratcher. I don't think I'm alone, but Godzilla was one of the biggest bait and switch, letdown movies I've seen in recent memory. Just nothing but boring direction following around a really implausible hero while teasing monster fights for the majority of the movie. The monster fights were really cool, but that's like 10 to 15 minutes of the movie. I never understood how that translated to being the guy to direct the first ever stand alone Star Wars movie. And I think Trevorrow sucks. Jurassic World was beyond insulting, Book of Henry looks PERFECT for How Did This Get Made?, and he's being trusted with writing and directing Episode 9.

I wonder what drove the hiring of mostly unproven directors. Edwards only had Godzilla, Trank had Chronicle and Fant4stick, and Trevorrow had Safety Not Guaranteed and Jurassic World. If you were looking for kinda visionary or maybe newish directors to help guide your franchise, you probably could have done better than these three. 

Jon Favreau, Drew Goddard, Matt Reeves, Doug Liman (just no shaky cam please), Neill Blomkamp, etc. All with varying degrees of success, but you likely know what you're getting more with some of these people or others than half of the directors chosen so far for the new Star Wars movies.

And I am bummed about the firing of Lord and Miller. I never thought about seeing their take on a Star Wars movie and when they were announced to direct, it sounded like such a cool idea. Unfortunately it seems like it may be closer to Edgar Wright taking on a MCU movie.

That's exactly it. They went after all the hot directors at that time. Trank had a ton of buzz before the info came out about behind the scenes chaos of Fantastic Four. I think Kathleen Kennedy saw the box office for The Lego Movie and damn near broke her phone trying to get into contact with Lord and Miller. Same with Jurassic World and Colin Trevorrow. 

As much I want to tear into Kathleen Kennedy especially since these reports don't her any favors (unless I really needed the money, I would take a pass on working with her), I can't really criticize her too much. Not that it makes it right, but every studio is doing it now. Every studio is going after every director who just put out a worthwhile picture, whether it had critical success or commercial success. None of these studios are trying to see if these directors are a great fit. Sure, you get no brainers every once and while but every studio is making some really head scratching decisions. The Lord and Miller thing is certainly no exception.

However, I thought Michelle MacLaren was a better choice for Wonder Woman than Patty Jenkins so what the fuck do I know? 

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About Trank... The buzz on him was off the charts. He'd just turned a strange $12 million dollar picture into $125 million global box office, and broke Spielberg's record for youngest director to ever open a #1 movie at the box office. The only other guy besides those two to do it by age 30 is Cameron. That's good company.

Fox and Lucasfilm landed him when every studio was pitching him things. He turned down big budget pictures at Warner and Sony (including Venom the last time they were developing it before now)

Lucasfilm grabbed him before FF went sideways, but it's not like Kennedy was the only person excited to get him on a tentpole.

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I think TFA is fine but there's some issues there. It was bound to have great reviews and make boatloads of cash. It had the look and style and practical effects like the OTs and nostalgia was at play and everyone was hyped to finally get a sequel and finally rinse out the taste of the prequels.  At the end of the day it's a pretty well made remake. Which again is cool but not a great movie on it's own. The Last Jedi will determine where we're headed with this trilogy.

Rogue One was awesome.

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FWIW, I thought Edwards did an absolutely spectacular job on Godzilla. Keeping the monster hidden for most of the run time was the right thing to do. And as far as I know, most of the reshoots on Rogue One were story related, not direction, and he doesn't have any story or screenplay credit at least, so I'm not sure how much of a failure he really was.

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Has nobody seen Monsters, Gareth Edwards first film? It's really good. Looks like it cost about 100 times what they actually spent on it.

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On 6/21/2017 at 10:58 AM, Craig H said:

The overwhelming consensus is that TFA was good or better

General consensus is that it was adequate or better. And I don't know many people who would pick "better".

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4 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Hollywood Reporter is saying that Ron Howard is indeed the new director

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/star-wars-han-solo-movie-ron-howard-steps-direct-1015674

Filming will resume on July 10

Does that filming include reshoots? According to reports, there was "already" plans of reshoots during the summer.

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I was thinking, "This film better have a superb editor."

Then, I see in the The Hollywood Reporter article about the acting coach that they also changed editors. 

This is some old school troubled production right here.

 

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25 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

I was thinking, "This film better have a superb editor."

Then, I see in the The Hollywood Reporter article about the acting coach that they also changed editors. 

This is some old school troubled production right here.

 

Yeah, I didn't even mention that part. 

What I don't get though... If they wanted the director to keep tightly to the script, why the fuck did they hire guys famous for building around ad-libs and improv?

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15 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

So apparently before firing Lord and Miller, Lucasfilm also hired an acting coach for Alden Ehrenreich deep into production. That can't be a great sign.

I had no idea who this actor is but I reserve the right to Google Image Search him and make baseless assumptions...he definitely looks like a dude who spends more time worrying about exfoliates and the right kale smoothie recipe than he does working on his craft.

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17 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

So apparently before firing Lord and Miller, Lucasfilm also hired an acting coach for Alden Ehrenreich deep into production. That can't be a great sign.

Would that it were so simple

EDIT: oh fuck you @nofuture for beating me to that by a millisecond!

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EVEN BETTER!

The more this stuff comes out, the more of a bad idea a young Han Solo movie sounds like. The expectations are too high to fell those shoes for an entire movie.

At least with a Lando movie, a young Han Solo could have a guest spot for 15 to 20 minutes.

Honestly, the smart choice would have been doing a Darth Vader movie especially following that ending of Rogue One. Base the story on most of the story from the Darth Vader comic and explore more of Vader being a fucking badass, the Emperor's distrust of him and his distrust of the Emperor, killing fake Sith cyborgs, learning about Luke being his son, 0-0-0, Tatiana Maslany playing Doctor Aphra, 0-0-0, etc. Yeah, it further turns Vader into a anti-hero, but I want that movie so bad.

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A Vader film based on Gillen's comic run would have been awesome. I also would have preferred movies on Yoda, Boba Fett, or Kenobi. Seriously young Han and Lando just don't greatly interest me. I don't think anyone could really capture the same feel and charisma as Ford and Williams.

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