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Michael Arndt heavily involved in writing the new SW trilogy — Page 2

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Padme is only vapid and dimensionless in the PT films as they currently stand.

If the OT was made to unhappen Anakin would be much, much worse.

It's his Vader persona that's interesting and has impact.

In ROTJ as it stands she gets barely a mention.

Padme as either an historical influence or a mystically or technologically revived character could define the character anew for the ST in much the same way that Vader is a distinct character from Hayden's Anakin.

Imagine Leia in a fix unearthing a cache of holographic memoirs of her mother.

How would she react to her.

Even if the PT remains unaltered there is potential there to take all the things we see as awful about the character and turn them into pluses.

She marries a guy AFTER telling her he killed women and children.

She loses the will to live AFTER JUST GIVING BIRTH over the fate of a the man who just slaughtered children, all his friends and handed the galaxy over to a Sith Lord (not to mention tried to kill his pregnant wife).

If you were Leia and had Force powers how would you react to that?

How would you respond to your children after learning that?

How would that effect the people you represent (if she is still a politician).

See what I mean?

Turn the wonkyness of the PT into a stronger ST.

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They wouldn't have to spend story time on it. Luke and Leia probably investigated their family history prior to the events of the sequels.

Presuming Artoo has never had a memory flush, he's probably got a hologram of her in his memory somewhere.

Leia could have adopted Naboo as her home away from New Republic politics. (Or even live in Padme's apartment on Coruscant if it's still standing.) That and/or having Leia or Luke gaze solemnly at a portrait of Padme on the wall is enough.

Dear old Darth Dad is not something either Skywalker is going to want publicly known though. Especially if Leia has political enemies.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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Ignore the PT. Don't try to retcon the PT. Don't try to fit the PT more into the OT. Just tell a story that takes place after the OT.

Let's expand the SW universe, not shrink it further.

“Grow up. These are my Disney's movies, not yours.”

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I really hope that the writers can see that when people think of 'Star Wars' they think of the classic films, not the disposable trilogy, and build on the success of that, not on the recent mistakes

J

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Tyrphanax said:

I wish I wasn't getting so excited about this considering all the past disappointments, but man I can't help it.

Same here.

“It is only through interaction, through decision and choice, through confrontation, physical or mental, that the Force can grow within you.”
-Kreia, Jedi Master and Sith Lord

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Nature of the beast since 1980 (arguably earlier).

Star Wars was about a young adult growing in skill and courage to face the being that 'betrayed and killed' his FATHER.

It's a family saga not an open space opera.

You can have spin off stories which expand the universe but numbered saga does all boil down to a Larkinian (NSFW) outlook on history.

We have had the dad side so why not the mum side?

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Bingowings said:

We have had the dad side so why not the mum side?

Because no-one would want to see it

J

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Jaitea said:

Bingowings said:

We have had the dad side so why not the mum side?

Because no-one would want to see it

J

As it hasn't been made how can you know that?

Having a link to a bad film will not stop a good film being a good film, it might even make the bad film make a little bit more sense.

And it's perfectly possible to make a good film out of such a premise.

Besides there are no shortage of bad films that get audiences.

Three and a half of them have been Star Wars films (four and a half if you include the theatrical release of The Clone Wars).

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The dad story worked because the Villain......probably the most iconic bad guy of that time (& even now) turned out to be the protagonist's Father.

What possible draw could be built into a story about Padme in the new films

It just doesn't compare, If I heard this was the plot line, I definitely would think they had f**ked up again

J

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I go with Bingowings on this.  There are some fans who want to rewrite reality in the way that Lucas is accused of doing - ergo, "when people think of Star Wars they think of the OT".  Maybe some people, but by no means all.

And in the way that certain plot points of the PT enriched the OT for some, I think that Bingowings's ideas for how Padme could feature in the story of the new trilogy would certainly enrich plot points of the PT (a trilogy where Padme's character was seriously un-developed).

That's some bad hat, Harry
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So lets build on the weak parts (to try & repair the Prequels).....that's the ticket for success.

Easterhay said: There are some fans who want to rewrite reality in the way that Lucas is accused of doing - ergo, "when people think of Star Wars they think of the OT".  Maybe some people, but by no means all.

Recently in the UK a leading electrical retailer (PC WORLD & Currys) spent a fortune on advertising, all their ads used OT characters (Vader's Shuttle landing in the customer car park, Chewie with a hair dryer etc), even though EP1-3D was due in cinemas.....the OT in peoples mind is Star Wars, & it sells.....it is the premium.....

J

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So you are saying if the multi-award winning actress Miss I Can't Believe It's Not Keira Knightly was headlined to feature in a Star Wars film without George's paws on it you wouldn't see it?

Not out even out of morbid curiosity?

Not even if her role and Carrie's tied into an interesting new character?

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Bingowings said:

So you are saying if the multi-award winning actress Miss I Can't Believe It's Not Keira Knightly was headlined to feature in a Star Wars film without George's paws on it you wouldn't see it?

Not out even out of morbid curiosity?

Not even if her role and Carrie's tied into an interesting new character?

Doesn't sound like a Star Wars blockbuster to me, maybe a Star Wars version of Mamma Mia,....I'm looking forward to a film were all hell breaks loose, and a movie that throws you into another galaxy on a roller coaster ride that you would line up to see again and again, the film you are painting sounds like an episode of Desperate Housewives.

J

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Jaitea said:

So lets build on the weak parts (to try & repair the Prequels).....that's the ticket for success.

Easterhay said: There are some fans who want to rewrite reality in the way that Lucas is accused of doing - ergo, "when people think of Star Wars they think of the OT".  Maybe some people, but by no means all.

Recently in the UK a leading electrical retailer (PC WORLD & Currys) spent a fortune on advertising, all their ads used OT characters (Vader's Shuttle landing in the customer car park, Chewie with a hair dryer etc), even though EP1-3D was due in cinemas.....the OT in peoples mind is Star Wars, & it sells.....it is the premium.....

J

The "Mini Me" Vader in what was last year's most popular Super Bowl commercial is a case in point. There isn't a single prequel character with that kind of worldwide instant identification.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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I think you underestimate the powers of the Gungan.

Darth Maul is probably as recognisably Star Warsian as Boba Fett or Jabba.

We are old and jaded, we forget the impact TPM had in the day.

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SpilkaBilka said:

I hope it's an adventure movie, like Star Wars.

This.

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Bingowings said:

I think you underestimate the powers of the Gungan.

Darth Maul is probably as recognisably Star Warsian as Boba Fett or Jabba.

We are old and jaded, we forget the impact TPM had in the day.

Perhaps, but the people putting up millions of dollars for a tv ad want a sure thing.

Would be interesting to see a reporter do one of those man in street things, where they show people a photo and ask them to identify the character.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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Bingowings said:

I think you underestimate the powers of the Gungan.

Darth Maul is probably as recognisably Star Warsian as Boba Fett or Jabba.

We are old and jaded, we forget the impact TPM had in the day.

Yes indeed, it was popular in '99, but the Characters from the Classic films are built with good foundations, unlike the Prequel sandcastles on the beach.

Did you ever see the BBC's 'The Long Way Down' in which Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman travelled from John o'Groats to Cape town in 2007?

On the way they stopped at the Lars Homestead filming location used in Star Wars, the place was full of tourists and no-one recognised him, he was even wearing a T-Shirt with MCGREGOR on the back of it, the place was full of Star Wars posters....and one magazine cover sized pic of AOTC...with Ewans face on it.

He said he thought he'd be mobbed.....

Hopefully Michael Arndt & the writing team can leave the Prequel mistakes to dissolve and be forgotten, and build on the strong points of the Classic Films

Check out Empire Magazine's top 100 movie characters,...Darth Maul isn't thought about along with his Prequel friends:

http://www.empireonline.com/100-greatest-movie-characters/default.asp?c=2

J

 

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Yeah but 99 was (sit down when you read this because it scares the crap out of me) thirteen years ago.

That's 1990 in OT years.

If Jar-Jar and Maul are still recognisable now it proves that despite the quality of the films the character design was effective (possibly a bad thing with the Gungan but the same is true with the Ewoks).

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They are recognisable.....but they don't register as memorable or iconic, I honestly think Disney will have the sense to ignore the goings on of the PT, Ok perhaps a nod of a cameo, a broken down Battle Droid, a beat up Naboo Fighter etc, just to acknowledge the existence of the PT....but to try and integrate characters, especially characters that were lame like Padme, would ruin the potential creating movies that would blow our socks off.

J

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It's the same thing.

Most of the people who recognise Boba Fett know less about him than they do Jar-Jar.

Character design and brand recognition sadly isn't the same thing as character and story.

You could probably hold up a picture of Nat Portman in her pretzel hairdo and people would twig she was from Star Wars long before they twigged it was Nat Portman or what the hell her character was like.

Similarly Leia is the hairy headphones and the metal bra (at the same time thanks to Friends, a show I have only seen one episode of and it wasn't that one), not the generally more nuanced character of the better made OT.

That's why it's important to make these stories rather than just associated action movies.

While we may not like the PT anywhere near as much some these films have a continuity to them which goes beyond brand recognition.

Luke and Leia will now be the older generation to a new group of characters but they had a older generation who were once the same age as the new group of characters.

I don't want to just look at the wobbly warty romantic lead and think, she's the Star Wars girl who is wobbly and has warts.

I want her to have a character and a story that connects to the existing story, maybe even improving how I see what's gone before.

Certainly not ruining it like the PT did or pretending to ignore it the past like Prometheus did.

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Bingowings said:

Character design and brand recognition sadly isn't the same thing as character and story.

Exactly,...it is a pity that the character design for Jir-Jir & Darth Meul are very good, but sadly their brand recognition doesn't hold with the public and their characteristics and story is forgettable.

Nat Portman is a beautiful woman, she has shown that she can act (well before she appeared in any Star Wars movie and since) but her character was written poorly, she was there to explain the parentage of the Skywalker Twins.

She showed potential in AOTC, but disappeared into the CG background in ROTS

Its a shame you have this mindset, using the ST to connect to the weakest strand of the PT just to try and elevate the PT..........!

Cut that strand and use the strong elements of the OT = Success

J

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I want the new owners to remember it's a story.

Not a random selection of scenes with a similar design ethos.

When the PT was made the then guardian of the saga forgot that characters are the instigators of story.

I want the new films to be grounded in that ethos more than the design thing.

Let the new characters adventures be the consequences of the previous characters actions and yes Nat can act and I think she deserves a better shot at growing that character to provide a better foundation for what the new characters do.

I can't see Hayden adding anything, I can see him subtracting more from Vader and Seb Shaw's Anakin but not adding anything to his Anakin or Jake Lloyd's.

Nat I could see adding value to the saga given a better writer.

I can see her adding to Carrie and Mark's performance and their roles and adding to the next generation of characters too.

I can also see the Clone trooper strand adding value to the whole story in the hands of a good writer.

What do you do with millions of genetically manufactured brainwashed slaves after regime change?

Those are PT themes, just because the PT was badly handled it doesn't mean they can't lead to an interesting ST in the hands of a good writer.

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Na, doesn't excite me, sounds a bit Suzannah York Superman III, andwe don't need to constantly explain things,....thats been done too much in SW recently.....time to move on

In regard to the Clone troops, I think because they have accelerated growth they burn out quickly...(The candle that burns twice as bright....etc, etc)

If the Empire was still using them at the time of Luke & Leia (which I don't think they were) they would all have died out by the ST.

Throw the PT out the airlock

J