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Star Wars Episode 7 - Thread of Pre-Production

MisterHero

Super Member
It wasn't a particularly high bar that it had to live up to considering the original Tron was pretty shit outside of being 'good looking for its time' (and it's aged horribly). The only appealing aspects of Legacy were the visuals and Daft Punk soundtrack, it was an audio-visual feast but aside from that, pretty bland.
TRON as a film is pretty bad. However, the world that was created in that film was a lot more creative than what they kept in Legacy. If there are no sequels it will be one of the worst misuses of bringing back the old cast.

They could do a lot better than a pseudo-Matrix. The original movie wasn't put together very well, but the creative potential was there. I still think it has hope but I don't think Legacy made the series more interesting to the public.

Now that I think about it, I said in this thread I would see SW7 if it godawful but brought back old actors. I've just argued against my own hype. :p

Given they envision a new series of movies already, I don't think they're prioritizing the quality of the story. What possible reason could force them to rethink this?
 
Directing animation and live action isn't that big a leap, especially when it's pretty well known a majority of the special effects/sets will be animated anyway. It's still a matter of knowing where to put the camera, when to move the camera, how to light the shots and how to elicit the performances from the actors. It's done a little differently in animation than it is in live action, but many of the same skills transfer over.

It's not as if doing animation means you don't count as an actual filmmaker. Nor is it as if not doing films in a similar genre means you're unfit to work in that genre. There is a lot of stuff in Iron Giant and Incredibles (and Ratatouille, even) that would translate really well to Star Wars.

A good example: The two people most credited with Empire Strikes Back's success are Irvin Kershner, best known for "Return of a Man Called Horse" and "Loving," and Lawrence Kasdan, who had written "Continental Divide."

If they had been hired to write/direct a Star Wars movie in say, 2004, under the same circumstances? The shitstorm that would have spun up would pull trees out by their roots.

That's a fair point and I accept that. I wasn't directing a shot at Brad Bird because I thought he couldn't make the transition from animation to live-action well, even looking at something as small as the non-verbal humour "gestures" in Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol that he's carried over well from Pixar films.
 
TRON as a film is pretty bad. However, the world that was created in that film was a lot more creative than what they kept in Legacy. If there are no sequels it will be one of the worst misuses of bringing back the old cast.

They could do a lot better than a pseudo-Matrix. The original movie wasn't put together very well, but the creative potential was there. I still think it has hope but I don't think Legacy made the series more interesting to the public.

Now that I think about it, I said in this thread I would see SW7 if it godawful but brought back old actors. I've just argued against my own hype. :p

Given they envision a new series of movies already, I don't think they're prioritizing the quality of the story. What possible reason could force them to rethink this?
Tron franchise is pretty much dead. Uprising is pure gold though.
 

Izick

Member
Has anyone tried the Machete Order? Episode 4, 5 then 2, 3 and then 6 (omitting 1 completely).

The blog puts forward a very persuasive argument for it: http://www.nomachetejuggling.com/2011/11/11/the-star-wars-saga-suggested-viewing-order/

I'll probably never watch or give a shit about the prequels again, but that article was pretty cool, since I now know about the despecialized HD versions, and this video of two kids seeing the Darth Vader father reveal for the first time. Gives me shivers down my spine and gets me choked up and nostalgic.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Porkins was a childhood favorite.... we would constantly reference him!
 

Izick

Member

RVyP9.gif
 

Skunkers

Member
Why skip TPM? It easily stands shoulder to shoulder with the final three entries in your viewing order.

In a nutshell: Nothing that is important to the story really happens in Episode 1. You can skip it and you're actually not really missing anything relavent to the fall of Anakin and Luke redeeming him. The Trade Federation stuff is irrelevant since the main conflict is the Seperatist uprising/creation of the Empire. Most of the new characters introduced in Episode 1 either die or are largely ignored in II and III. Skipping it also hides the weird age gap between Padme and Anakin, skips over midichlorians, skips over the silly virgin birth, etc.

Read the link he posted for a much more awesome and thorough answer, though, it's worth the read.
 
In a nutshell: Nothing that is important to the story really happens in Episode 1. You can skip it and you're actually not really missing anything relavent to the fall of Anakin and Luke redeeming him. The Trade Federation stuff is irrelevant since the main conflict is the Seperatist uprising/creation of the Empire. Most of the new characters introduced in Episode 1 either die or are largely ignored in II and III. Skipping it also hides the weird age gap between Padme and Anakin, skips over midichlorians, skips over the silly virgin birth, etc.

Read the link he posted for a much more awesome and thorough answer, though, it's worth the read.

I was not talking about what you are talking about, lol. Go back and look at who I was quoting.
 

jaxword

Member
In a nutshell: Nothing that is important to the story really happens in Episode 1. You can skip it and you're actually not really missing anything relavent to the fall of Anakin and Luke redeeming him. The Trade Federation stuff is irrelevant since the main conflict is the Seperatist uprising/creation of the Empire. Most of the new characters introduced in Episode 1 either die or are largely ignored in II and III. Skipping it also hides the weird age gap between Padme and Anakin, skips over midichlorians, skips over the silly virgin birth, etc.

Read the link he posted for a much more awesome and thorough answer, though, it's worth the read.

g8ams.gif
 

Arc

Member
One of the things I'm thankful for on this Thanksgiving is a decent writer on board for 7 and a possible return of Kasdan for 8 and 9.
 
You know, I don't mind that much about the Han shot first thing. I find Christensen at the end of ROTJ a far bigger offense. Seriously, few things in movies have pissed me off that much. I wasn't bothered by the SE until I saw that. I ruined the whole movie for me. I didn't know about the addition before watching that version, so it came as a surprise. I was so annoyed by it.
 

Serra

Member
If it has Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford I'm watching.

I would love to see the same actors play older versions of the characters. I don't think their age would prevent them from doing action scenes. Han wouldn't do fucking backflips anyway.

I really hope Disney does not take inspiration from the million dollar CGI intros of TOR, with all that matrix slowmo dodging lightsabers/blaster shots. Hated those.
 

MisterHero

Super Member
I would love to see the same actors play older versions of the characters. I don't think their age would prevent them from doing action scenes. Han wouldn't do fucking backflips anyway.

I really hope Disney does not take inspiration from the million dollar CGI intros of TOR, with all that matrix slowmo dodging lightsabers/blaster shots. Hated those.
Haha I think they exhausted every cool song Star Wars ever had on those promos.

I agree about the actors. After the Jedi-full prequels, it'll be nice to see a main character or two that know how to use a blaster. :p

Tron franchise is pretty much dead. Uprising is pure gold though.
You're right, but I refuse to believe. :p Uprising is definitely more successful than Legacy was but it's still missing the some of the ideas from the original movie. The plot could've taken place anywhere; the original "world-inside-a-computer" premise is as superficial as how Legacy used it. I say this as someone who loves Uprising.

Anyways, my point was that Disney could put the thought they used behind TRON Legacy and apply it to Star Wars which doesn't really sound good. They'll just churn it out because of an arbitrary deadline and hope fans stick to the viral advertising.

Just concentrate on making a good movie, guys.
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
Reading this thread finally convinced me to watch The People vs George Lucas. It was pretty entertaining as a documentary, but I thought the piece was equally damning of the nerds who continue to give money to this franchise as it was of the fatso. A lot of those comments regarding Lucas being tired of making Star Wars forever also make a lot more sense now that the new trilogy has been announced.
 
Bumping to get some public feedback on an idea regarding director choice - Gore Verbinski.
My sister & I spent a good while debating the remaining field, and fell on him as the best, realistic option. He checks all of my boxes
- Box-office proven (Pirates 1)
- Doesn't have a distinctive "style"
- Already on solid terms with Disney

If Lone Ranger isn't a John-Carter level flop, I'd argue he's the man for the job.
 
Bumping to get some public feedback on an idea regarding director choice - Gore Verbinski.
My sister & I spent a good while debating the remaining field, and fell on him as the best, realistic option. He checks all of my boxes
- Box-office proven (Pirates 1)
- Doesn't have a distinctive "style"
- Already on solid terms with Disney

If Lone Ranger isn't a John-Carter level flop, I'd argue he's the man for the job.

It could certainly happen. I heard the Bioshock film was in trouble so that would free up his schedule a bit.

But that doesn't instil me with any great confidence given the absolute turds that the POTC films were. I guess that also raises the possibility of Depp being involved as some crazy talking outcast Jedi with face paint.
 

Recon

Banned
The first pirates film was a fun movie with good performances. Then it became the depp show with a dumb convoluted plot.
 
Verbinksi redeemed himself again with Rango though imo. And also I think Tintin and John Carter were great adventure films.

So Stanton or Spielberg.
 

NekoFever

Member
Bumping to get some public feedback on an idea regarding director choice - Gore Verbinski.
My sister & I spent a good while debating the remaining field, and fell on him as the best, realistic option. He checks all of my boxes
- Box-office proven (Pirates 1)
- Doesn't have a distinctive "style"
- Already on solid terms with Disney

If Lone Ranger isn't a John-Carter level flop, I'd argue he's the man for the job.
Also has a Lucas connection since he directed Rango, which was ILM's first feature-length movie.
 

shira

Member
Bumping to get some public feedback on an idea regarding director choice - Gore Verbinski.
My sister & I spent a good while debating the remaining field, and fell on him as the best, realistic option. He checks all of my boxes
- Box-office proven (Pirates 1)
- Doesn't have a distinctive "style"
- Already on solid terms with Disney

If Lone Ranger isn't a John-Carter level flop, I'd argue he's the man for the job.
I like.

If he goes Pirates 1 style. That's a great money making, crowd pleaser.
 
Yeah but someone needed to sum it up as a film.

I disagree. Most messageboard arguments don't need to be movies, and people fighting on the internet over Star Wars isn't an aspect of pop-culture that's really worth a 90 minute documentary. The audience for that film has already gotten in those fights. It's more like "Confirmation Bias: The Movie."

That and it's not even that well made a documentary.
 

Anth0ny

Member
I disagree. Most messageboard arguments don't need to be movies, and people fighting on the internet over Star Wars isn't an aspect of pop-culture that's really worth a 90 minute documentary. The audience for that film has already gotten in those fights. It's more like "Confirmation Bias: The Movie."

That and it's not even that well made a documentary.

What?

It's a documentary about why George is a dick for not releasing the original, unaltered trilogy. There's not really any argument at any point... no one but George believes the films should stay unreleased.
 
What?

It's a documentary about why George is a dick for not releasing the original, unaltered trilogy. There's not really any argument at any point... no one but George believes the films should stay unreleased.

It's a filmed messageboard thread. As someone who agrees that the original versions of the films should be made available in as good a quality as possible - the fact I found the film an ineffective pile doesn't say much. I'm the choir they're preaching to and their song was off-key.
 

Kettch

Member
As for the special editions, it's been a while since I've saw the two editions. I can understand the dislike of Greedo shooting first in the set up of Han's character, but I can't say I really "get" the other complaints.

I honestly dont even mind most the nonsense he added. The only one that makes me angry is Han not shooting first. You effectively change his character arc with that major addition.

Oh, and that musical number at Jabba's Palace....wtf.

People do realize that Greedo never shot at all, right? Or are the original versions just that obscure now?
 
People do realize that Greedo never shot at all, right? Or are the original versions just that obscure now?

Nah, it's just that "Han Shot First" became such a meme that what actually happens in the original version is either forgotten or confused to the point that people don't actually remember how the scene goes. It's like how people consistently misquote Casablanca, or more appropriately, the Empire Strikes Back; Vader never says "Luuuuuke, I am your Faaaaather" but people remember it that way. Everyone remembers that "Han Shot First" but the truth is Han was the only one who shot. There was never a second shot for his shot to precede.
 
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