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Star Wars Episode IX (was) to be directed by Colin Trevorrow - DUEL OF THE FATES RIP

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http://www.starwars.com/news/colin-trevorrow-to-direct-star-wars-episode-ix

Thoughts?

My feelings are mixed. Obviously you could do way worse. But, while I liked Jurassic World, I didn’t love it, and just because it’s a mega hit doesn’t necessarily mean its director should be given this trilogy’s conclusion. Trevorrow clearly has a more old fashioned approach than most modern directors, but he’s not perfect. JW was enjoyable enough but I thought the pacing was a little off in spots. And he’s probably better at directing than screenwriting, so I sort of hope that he’s not taking up writing duties.

On the other hand, Rian Johnson is still signed on to write this one and Trevorrow revising the script is sort of to be expected. It probably shouldn’t be a surprise that Trevorrow was hired though I guess I was still holding out hope they’d sign on Brad Bird. But maybe this is the next best thing? Bird himself has said that Trevorrow reminds him of himself and the two almost co-directed Episode VII (which should have made this hiring even more obvious).

I guess the most important thing to be happy about it that there are different directors for each film. Not only is this keeping with the OT, it ensures that each film will feel like its own beast and that each film will have its director giving it his everything with the knowledge in mind that this is their one chance to make a good Star Wars movie - so they’d better not mess it up. One thing I notice a lot these days when sequels are announced to films that aren’t out yet is that the filmmakers often seem to be too busy setting up for other movies. With different directors, you can be sure that they’re not going to want to have they’re one shot at the galaxy far, far away be a throw away feature length advert. Similarly, each film will be fresh and, with new blood in for the trilogy capper with their own ideas, hopefully Episode IX will not fall victim to the curse of the threequel (even if I’m already anticipating a repeat of the reaction to the OT - 1 is the audience favorite, 2 is the fan favorite, and 3 is mostly regarded as the least favorite).

Anyway, there’s really no reason for anyone to be pessimistic about this for the next four years. Trevorrow is a talented filmmaker and I’m excited to see what he brings to the franchise.

 

As a courtesy to fellow members, when linking to youtube videos or articles etc, please give both the title and source to which you are linking to - thank you.

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I'm cautiously excited about this. Trevorrow has the right amount of enthusiasm but Jurassic World had some strange gaps and elements from previous drafts that made it into the final film that stuck out like sore thumbs.

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People had doubts about Abrams when he was announced for TFA, but he seems to be going in the right direction.  Of course, we won't know for sure until the film is released.

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I’m also somewhat cautiously optimistic about Trevorrow as director of SW IX.
If Rian Johnson actually ends up writing the scrip then I’m fine with it. But if Trevorrow ends up writing it, then I’m anticipating bad things. But if his writing influence remains on the same level as Abrams’ on TFA, being second to a more competent writer, then I think it can work out pretty well.
Also it’s not like he’s going to have to think up SW from scratch, Kasdan and Abrams will already have defined a new lore, and Johnson will have continued it by that point.

Visually speaking however I’m not really worried at all. Now that Abrams have set a standard with TFA, one which I assume that Johnson will follow, there really isn’t much that Trevorrow can add. Sure, I was very disappointed at all the CGI in Jurassic World, but I’m getting the impression that it wasn’t really up to him, and again Abrams have set a standard in TFA that I doubt he will be able to deviate from. Considering how TFA have already been marketed as a “practical effects film,” and Johnson seems to intend to do the same, it would be weird if Trevorrow would even be allowed to do anything else.
I also don’t think that he’ll shoot the last film in the trilogy digitally, since he after all shot Jurassic World on 65mm and was described in a Kodak interview as a “film convert.” And even if he directs any films digitally in the following years before SW IX, I don’t think Disney will want such a big inconsistency after TFA and SW VIII will have been shot on film. Heck, even Rogue One is beeing shot mostly on film, which is weird since Gareth Edward have so far shot all his films digitally(EDIT: seems like the anthology films will be shot digitally). My guess is that either Disney is trying to keep the films visually consistent, or that Abrams may have had some influence on their decision.

It may sound kind of strange, but I don’t think Trevorrow will have too much of an influence on the making of the film, and therefore I don’t mind him directing it.

Also, isn’t Abrams supposed to be the producer on both SW VIII and IX?

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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Oh good God he better not end up writing it. Safety Not Guaranteed was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Jurassic World was fine though. As you guys have already said, as long as this isn't Trevorrow's singular vision, I think we'll be all right.

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Rian Johnson isn't confirmed to be writing Episode IX, yet?

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joefavs said:

Oh good God he better not end up writing it. Safety Not Guaranteed was one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

 Not sure if those two sentences are separate thoughts or related, but I don't believe he wrote the script.

unamochilla2 said:

Rian Johnson isn't confirmed to be writing Episode IX, yet?

 I believe he has written an outline at this point, but a script writer has not been announced. 

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towne32 said:

joefavs said:

Oh good God he better not end up writing it. Safety Not Guaranteed was one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

 Not sure if those two sentences are separate thoughts or related, but I don't believe he wrote the script.

I just looked it up and I guess you're right. Huh. I was under the impression that that movie was entirely his baby. If he had less to do with that than I thought, that makes me feel a bit better.

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My opinion is that Trevorrow is an easily controlled puppet director with little to no real voice of his own. 

So it looks like they're following the precedent established by ROTJ. 

As such, we can expect it to be the ROTJ of the ST - Not as good as we hoped it'd be, but... in the end, good enough.

I'd be delighted to be proven wrong, though. Here's hoping he does just that.

"These deadly rays will be your death..."

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From what I remember Johnson is, in fact, writing the Episode IX screenplay, though I'm sure there's room for another writer to add to it.

When all is said and done I'd really like to see a comprehensive book on the making of this trilogy.

From what I understand Lucas had an outline that was entirely thrown out by Abrams (by the way, Abrams is a very competent writer and I think he was calling the shots more so than Kasdan). I'd imagine Abrams has an outline or at least an idea of where he thinks the trilogy should go but I imagine his priority was to make his film stand on its own (as many first parts do). I don't know if its been confirmed that he's producing VIII and IX, but I'd be surprised if he didn't as he's still a producer on the Mission: Impossible sequels and the new Star Trek. I think he really wants to move on to making his own stuff as soon as possible but he'll probably be around to consult and give feedback to Johnson and Trevorrow.

It actually makes a lot of sense that they'd have Johnson write both VIII and IX, as second parters are in many ways set ups for the conclusion, and conclusions are in many ways pay offs to second parts. They go hand in hand so its good that one person's there to breakdown those stories. 

The one thing I wonder is where is Kasdan in all of this? I know he's developing the Han Solo movie but it'd be strange if he didn't at least do some revisions to VIII and IX to keep them consistent with each other and the OT. There's certainly enough time before those films come out for changes. I'd honestly be surprised if Johnson ends up being the only credited screenwriter on both. To me it seems like he's laying down the groundwork for later drafts to be written with Kasdan and (in the case of IX) Trevorrow. 

When it comes to the visuals, I'm not all that worried. I hope that Trevorrow tries to remain consistent with what's come before but I do want some visual differentiation between the films which is part of the point of the different directors (though if Trevorrow even thinks about applying a color grade like in JW I'll be pretty angry). I think Trevorrow actually wanted more practicals in JW but didn't have the clout to make it happen. Obviously now he has a mega blockbuster behind him and it's become almost a mission statement on the part of Lucasfilm to go as practical as possible (and there's reason to believe that Johnson will go even further in that regard than Abrams). And I think it's safe to say at this point that the whole trilogy will be on 35mm (save the stray IMAX scene).

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Seems like an awful lot of strong opinions for a film that wont be released until at least four years from now. 

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DominicCobb said:

by the way, Abrams is a very competent writer...

 Does not commute. Most of the projects coming out of Bad Robot have serious writing issues. And he had three of the worst writers in the business working for him for the longest time.

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It could be worse... they could have gotten Michael Bay or Lucas. ;-)

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Tobar said:

DominicCobb said:

by the way, Abrams is a very competent writer...

 Does not commute. Most of the projects coming out of Bad Robot have serious writing issues. And he had three of the worst writers in the business working for him for the longest time.

I did not call him a great writer (though I think he is a good one). But calling him incompetent is ludicrous.

Producing =/= writing. 

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Since this was the only ep. 9 related thread I could find, I’ll post this here;

Colin Trevorrow’s ‘Star Wars: Episode 9’ Will Be Shot On 65mm Film

(He’d already made it clear he wanted to shoot it on film, but it’s neat to see that they’re going for 65mm.)

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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Neat! That increases the chances they’ll make some 70mm Imax prints again.

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Where were you in '77?

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ZkinandBonez said:

Since this was the only ep. 9 related thread I could find, I’ll post this here;

Colin Trevorrow’s ‘Star Wars: Episode 9’ Will Be Shot On 65mm Film

(He’d already made it clear he wanted to shoot it on film, but it’s neat to see that they’re going for 65mm.)

Darn, beat me to it!

For what its worth, I agree with Dom and Zkin about Trevorrow. I think he’s got a great chance.

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

END OF LINE

(It hasn’t happened yet)

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Trevorrow seems to have some pretty ambitious ideas for Ep. IX.

“I asked the question, 'Is it possible for us to shoot IMAX film plates in actual space for Star Wars, and I haven’t gotten an answer yet.”

Source

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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This is pretty stupid… What is it in actual space to shoot that cannot be done better and cheaper on a computer? The earth? The moon? The stars (and their familiar constellations)?

Someone tell him that Gravity wasn’t shot in actual space!

Han: Hey Lando! You kept your promise, right? Not a scratch?
Lando: Well, what’s left of her isn’t scratched. All the scratched parts got knocked off along the way.
Han (exasperated): Knocked off?!

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ZkinandBonez said:

Trevorrow seems to have some pretty ambitious ideas for Ep. IX.

“I asked the question, 'Is it possible for us to shoot IMAX film plates in actual space for Star Wars, and I haven’t gotten an answer yet.”

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pretty hilarious. It seems like he might be having a bit of fun with his comments though!

although, it almost seems like Disney might spend the money to shoot in space…

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Z6PO said:

This is pretty stupid… What is it in actual space to shoot that cannot be done better and cheaper on a computer? The earth? The moon? The stars (and their familiar constellations)?

Someone tell him that Gravity wasn’t shot in actual space!



And “plates” are backgrounds, which could probably be obtained by sending the proper gear up on a future supply run to the International Space Station. If rich millionaires can go there, why not a film crew? 😉

And IMAX has been in space before…

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Where were you in '77?

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I don’t really see anything that actually going to space adds without spending ridiculous amounts of money on a filming set that’s actually in space (and thereby getting our actors to act in space).

If you just need a backdrop from real space, it’s easy enough to just go through the NASA image archive and find something you like, then mix it in a bit with research on how star-fields and the atmosphere interact if you’re near a planet.

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Those photos of nebulae are from the Hubble telescope! (And many of them are in false colors) There’s no way to film that by sending an IMAX camera in spaaaace.

Han: Hey Lando! You kept your promise, right? Not a scratch?
Lando: Well, what’s left of her isn’t scratched. All the scratched parts got knocked off along the way.
Han (exasperated): Knocked off?!

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Tobar said:

DominicCobb said:

<span style=“font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.2em;”>by the way, Abrams is a very competent writer…</span>

Does not commute.

Old comment but…lol.