The announcement that Disney have purchased LucasFilm, and are planning to make Star Wars Episode 7 sent shockwaves throughout the film community.
But it's important to remember that it's a film that's been mooted since the earliest days of the franchise.
According to Mark Hamill Lucas has been planning Star Wars Episode VII for quite a while, they dicussed it on the set of the original movie...
“He talked about doing a VII, VIII, IX. You know when I first did this, it was four trilogies. 12 movies! And out on the desert, any time between setups… lots of free time. And George was talking about this whole thing. I said, ‘Why are you starting with IV, V and VI? It’s crazy.’
"[Imitating Lucas] ‘It’s the most commercial section of the movie.’ He said the first trilogy’s darker, more serious. And the impression I got, he said, ‘Um, how’d you like to be in Episode IX?’ This is 1976. ‘When is that going to be?’ ‘2011.’
"I defy anyone to add 36 years to their lives and not be stunned. Even an eight year old is like, ‘No, I’ll never be 47.’ So I did the math and figured out how old I’d be. I said, ‘Well, what do you want me to do?’ He said, ‘You’ll just be like a cameo. You’ll be like Obi Wan handing the lightsaber down to the next new hope.’
"And I’m thinking, ‘I love the guy. If he wanted me to do light yard work at his house, I’d be out clipping the hedges.’ So I went, ‘Sure.’ But I thought he just realized that he’s going to be doing it the rest of his life and he’d rather not do that.”
When the prospect of a TV series was brought up, Hamill went into outright denial. “See, the thing is, on one hand, the way I look at it is there was a beginning, a middle and an end and it’s over. Even though it’s never over. But for me it’s over. But what’ll happen is these fans will come over, ‘But you just became a Jedi. Now what happens? It’s like doing the story of how 007 got his license to kill and then not telling any stories.’
"So I said, ‘I wish my agent had this much passion.’ They really want me to do these stories. I loved it all, I really did, but I never in my mind ever thought it would be something I’d be talking about this long.”
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Comments
Hadouken76
Oct 31st 2012, 17:25
So 2 Star Wars movies for 2015.? Star Wars VII and Star Wars IV: A New hope 3D.
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BoomStick
Oct 31st 2012, 18:08
I certainly wouldn't call Gore Verbinski a 'journeyman' director or ever put them in the same sentence as Ratner and McG. Except, of course, in the sentence I just wrote. I quite liked The Mexican, POTC1 (plus the maelstrom bit in 3) and Rango. He's by no means a master of his art, but he has a pretty distinct style about him. I'm a fan. I seem to remember a year or two back TF did a feature on how to reboot Star Wars - I remember it being an unusually good feature because they did it sort of retrospectively, rather than Top 50 Ways to Reboot Star Wars. They even went up to the premiere of the film if memory serves. Dig it out TF and give it an airing - it's still got legs.
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Wozboz
Oct 31st 2012, 19:08
I'd give that a read as well BoomStick. Get searching TF! I wonder which characters, (if Any!) we'll get to see return from the previous films? I would love to see Darth Maul back he was so underused and the best thing about The Phantom Menace, but I guess he did die a good 40 years ago by the end of Return of the Jedi!
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Ali1748
Oct 31st 2012, 19:14
The thought of Duncan Jones directing does intrigue me.
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kardom1
Oct 31st 2012, 21:32
If they are going to spend so much money to purchase the rights of the franchise they can't now wimp out with a sub standard story, cast and director. They need to go for broke with the director especially, a Nolan, Fincher, Snyder or as a curve ball the Warchoski's. To be fair none of them are probably interested but I would like to see what they could do with the franchise. Of course it has been well documented that Spielberg has always wanted to direct a Star Wars film (not counting the constant rumours that he actually did direct large chunks of Jedi) but maybe that ship has sailed.
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FBJRider
Oct 31st 2012, 22:26
I'd really like to see a film version of The Force Unleashed game to tie the trilogies together, that's not going to happen though and I don't think Lucas should feel too bad about the negativity towards the prequels if the original trilogy came out when the prequels did they'd have been hated. The prequels aren't that bad, everyone just compares them to the originals too much and much about the originals is nostalgia. I'm looking forward to Episode 7. As long as we don't get Episode 10 - 12 and then 7 - 9 in thirty years or so.
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spoonlamp
Nov 1st 2012, 10:50
@FBJRider " if the original trilogy came out when the prequels did they'd have been hated" I think you've missed why most people dislike the new trilogy. As a film for young people the original started with a scrawl about "the empire, rebels, good and evil" while the new trilogy started with a scrawl about "trade federation, routes and taxes, subterfuge...". From there on it was impenetrable, stone-faced and took itself too seriously. Lucas' direction and edtiing was appalling making a ballooned, boring film with a couple of good moments in it. The original series just isn't anything like that in structure at all.
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Bandit1
Nov 1st 2012, 14:39
Well, I think there should be an end and no more Star Wars movies. Zillions of fanboys gonna bash the movie (whenever it's gonna come out) just to go see it numerous of times anyway (and still hate it). It's gonna make lots of money more because of the haters than the lovers (is there gonna be any?) Like with the Howard Stern Show in the beginning...the haters listened lto him onger than the average fan.
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traceelord
Nov 1st 2012, 21:33
Oh god please, if they are made, let them be directed by Edgar Wright....oO
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Stickaross
Nov 2nd 2012, 21:40
More Star Wars films?!? Im all for that. Providing Paul W.S. Anderson isnt put in charge then it cant fail. Granted the prequels never lived upto the hype, but how could they? The originals are absolute classics. But with the amount of books and games to draw ideas from the scope of stories is immense. This could be the greatest news ever. Plus Mark Hamill has hardly been busy has he? So a little reprisal of Luke Skywalker, how can anyone not want to see that?
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Hadouken76
Nov 3rd 2012, 9:03
Actually Andersons' Event Horizon is an impressive little sci fi, and his best film by far, its even better than Prometheus. Hopefully he will remember he used to be good, and not just lazily churn out laughable chunks of cinematic fecal matter to shoddy CGI, dated screamo music and his wife sliding whlist shooting off guns.
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