Confirmation that Episode VIII will at least feel somewhat different?
Somewhat?
"[Rian Johnson] is going to make some weird thing," Kasdan said. "If you’ve seen Rian’s work, you know it’s not going be like anything that’s ever been in ‘Star Wars.’"
"I would agree with [Kasdan]," said Isaac. "Rian is definitely going to places and investigating things that haven’t really been done in the ‘Star Wars’ universe. For me, it’s so fun getting to explore different things that I wouldn’t have expected in this universe."
It sound like they’re going to do some pretty weird stuff to me, which I wholeheartedly approve of.
I really do doubt that we’ll get the ESB remake that a lot of people are fearing. Sure, I doubt they’ll be able to avoid some similarities, but I doubt we’ll be getting another remake-type plot.
Also, I don’t know if this has been brought up, but according to Wookieepedia Johnson screened the films Twelve O’Clock High and Letter Never Sent to the cast/crew to prepare them for the film.
I haven’t personally seen ether film, but they seem like somewhat odd choices for inspiration for a SW film. It does make me even more intrigued about what ep. VIII is going to be like though.
The entire Death Star battle in the original film draws inspiration from the climax of The Dam Busters
Right, I’d forgotten about that. I remembered Kurosawa and Flash Gordon (plus a lot of other sci-fi stories). I’m actually exited to see that a new SW film will be based on classic movies again, rather than just other SW films. Sure, Abrams mentioned having watched Kurosawa’s High and Low as well as some Westerns (not too far from what inspired ANH), but I’m curious to see what Johnson manages to get out of a Soviet drama from the 60’s in relation to a Star Wars film.