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JJ Abrams opens up about why he decided to direct IX and his strategy for IX!!!! MUST SEE (Rian Johnson info inside)

pel1300

Member
Nymphae Nymphae #Phonepunk# #Phonepunk# give us your thoughts!


New JJ Abrams interview!!!!!

https://screenrant.com/star-wars-last-jedi-rian-johnson-jj-abrams-differences/

https://uproxx.com/hitfix/star-wars-episode-9-jj-abrams-the-last-jedi/

https://www.express.co.uk/entertain...to-Last-Jedi-JJ-Abrams-Rian-Johnson-interview

"I had some gut instincts about where the story would have gone. But without getting in the weeds on episode eight, that was a story that Rian wrote and was telling based on seven before we met. So he was taking the thing in another direction. So we also had to respond to Episode VIII. So our movie was not just following what we had started, it was following what we had started and then had been advanced by someone else."

Cliffnotes:

-At first he wanted to refuse the offer because it was such a huge undertaking given where TLJ leaves off

-Says he doesn't want to get "into the weeds of Episode VIII" (basically doesn't wanna talk about it)

-His wife convinced him otherwise, and he didn't have time to think, so he took a "leap of faith"

-He felt 2 years wasn't enough, and that it was impossible to write a screenplay because there was "nothing" for him to work with. Not story or outline or script. He says he was basically "starting from scratch"

-He immediately searched for a co-writer thinking it was impossible for him to write this alone

-Says the "lack of complete structure" and lack of "inevitability" have made this ST extremely challenging

-Says he and Chris Terrio were "relentless" about writing their asses off and thinking about how to pull this off, and that it was really hard because of having to cram in so much in what should have been in TLJ (not his words, but the feeling I got from his quote)

-Says he will be 1) CONTINUING where TFA left off by using brain stormed ideas he and Kasdan had in 2014 and 2) RESPONDING to "Episode VIII" (he never refers to Episode VIII by its name, The Last Jedi) specifically he says "We had to respond to Episode VIII" and that "Rian did his thing and took the story in another direction"

-Rian wrote TLJ before ever meeting JJ Abrams

-Says his concerns were a combination of

1. giving bs answers to questions that were impossible to answer
2. having to put "band aids" on wounds (wounds like Luke dying? I don't know)

To end on a high note - he says that

"I know there were many critics of that film" - on TFA

"But this time, I think we may have done it"
 
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Shifty

Member
giphy.gif


MUST SEE
 

Pagusas

Elden Member
I’m semi excited for 9 just to see how the hell JJ scripts his way out of 8. Like even if it’s a horrible mess, It'll be hilarious to see them attempt to navigate around it.
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
the "band aids" talk is... not very confidence-inspiring.

the Batman V Superman co-writer, also, is a bad sign.

looking forward to the RLM.
 

DKehoe

Gold Member
Regardless of whatever you think of TFA and TLJ it’s baffling that they’ve had such little long term planning and structure in place.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Rian still took a shit on it, regardless of the TFA "safeness". At least it (TFA) still felt like Star Wars, and did leave you scouring for theories and answers. Rian left you with abso-fucking-lutely nothing (as a fan). Garbage.
 
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JimiNutz

Banned
The lack of structure makes no sense at all. Having different directors I can kind of understand so that each film had its own unique feel but at least have an overall story planned out.
 

iconmaster

Banned
having to put "band aids" on wounds (wounds like Luke dying? I don't know)

The quote I'm seeing suggests he dodged any band-aids:

this crazy challenge that could have been a wildly uncomfortable contortion of ideas, and a kind of shoving-in of answers and Band-Aids and bridges and things that would have felt messy

But I'll definitely be spoiling myself completely on the story for this one before giving it any shot in the theater. And looking at fan reviews only.
 

Nymphae

Banned
I feel honored to have been asked for my opinion OP lol. I'm no authority, I just like to bitch about Star Wars occasionally lol.

I had some gut instincts about where the story would have gone. But without getting in the weeds on episode eight, that was a story that Rian wrote and was telling based on seven before we met. So he was taking the thing in another direction. So we also had to respond to Episode VIII. So our movie was not just following what we had started, it was following what we had started and then had been advanced by someone else.

I think that was the nicest way he could have said: "Look without taking a shit on that mess, it was written before the writers and directors had a chance to collaborate or share ideas, so obviously there was a disconnect. And we can't just pretend it didn't happen, so now we have the difficult job of addressing and attempting to clean up that mess."

Which is obvious and we all know this. I am confident that everyone other than RJ knows that TLJ was a huge misfire, it's good to see JJ sort of come out and say that indirectly, but I'm not confident the final product will redeem the trilogy or re-ignite my interest. I'm morbidly curious to see how he tries to undo RJ's damage though.
 
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Sorcerer

Member
I’m semi excited for 9 just to see how the hell JJ scripts his way out of 8. Like even if it’s a horrible mess, It'll be hilarious to see them attempt to navigate around it.

I think 9 will a cringeworthy mess, complete fanservice to gloss over how bad this triology is. I fully expect a Death Star to be blown up, if not Ewoks.
 
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gatti-man

Member
TLJ was a great film on its own but not as a middle point to a trilogy imo. Like how do you wrap up TLJ in one movie? Literally impossible.

I feel honored to have been asked for my opinion OP lol. I'm no authority, I just like to bitch about Star Wars occasionally lol.



I think that was the nicest way he could have said: "Look without taking a shit on that mess, it was written before the writers and directors had a chance to collaborate or share ideas, so obviously there was a disconnect. And we can't just pretend it didn't happen, so now we have the difficult job of addressing and attempting to clean up that mess."

Which is obvious and we all know this. I am confident that everyone other than RJ knows that TLJ was a huge misfire, it's good to see JJ sort of come out and say that indirectly, but I'm not confident the final product will redeem the trilogy or re-ignite my interest. I'm morbidly curious to see how he tries to undo RJ's damage though.
What they should do is delete the idea that this is a trilogy. Secure Adam driver for another trilogy of films. Have Kylo kill/defeat/capture/turn Rey and go from there. I don’t see how you wrap up Kylo or the first order being realistically defeated after TLJ in one movie unless Kylo himself does a 180 which will be cringe worthy and make zero sense.
 
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Pagusas

Elden Member
I think 9 will a cringeworthy mess, complete fanservice to gloss over how bad this triology is. I fully expect a Death Star to be blown up, if not Ewoks.

You know the worst thing is if it’s not a mess, TLJ fans will say it’s only good because of the TLJ :(.
 

Pejo

Member
After watching the end of LOST, I have no faith that he can end this shit trilogy with anything other than disappointment.
 

Elfstar

Member
I just expect some kind of shameless, desperate fanservicey crowd pleaser at this point, they'll get Luke back, they'll make Ray Obi Wan's daughter or something, maybe the Emperor will be back.
 

Ovek

7Member7
I can't wait for the next one so I can watch the complete cluster fuck of amazing retons and desperate fan wank spectacle to try and win back the fans.

My most anticipated movie this year.
 

Dazrael

Member
In Abrams defence he didn’t write the end of Lost, or most of it for that matter. He’s good at starting mysteries and effectively leaving others to wrap it up (which is how the trilogy was going to pan out) At least the writers of Lost kinda had a plan, whereas with Star Wars his ideas were thrown out the window.

TFA was a pretty decent start to something that could have been amazing, it’s just the film was tainted by the inexorable pile of shit that was “Episode VIII”. So much so that I can’t enjoy TFA anymore, Johnson not only ruined his own film but the one that came before it too. That takes some epic skills to achieve. I don’t envy JJ’s position in all this but I do hope he makes something decent, at least for his own sake.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
That they didn't have an outline or game plan for the general direction of all three films from the very beginning is mind boggling. What the hell have they been doing...
 

gioGAF

Member
Rooting for JJ even though I can't see how he can bring this one back. TLJ is so garbage, it completely deflated the franchise (zero momentum going into the third act, disrespect for the franchise, SJW propaganda, and the list goes on).
 

Ovek

7Member7
That they didn't have an outline or game plan for the general direction of all three films from the very beginning is mind boggling. What the hell have they been doing...

They will have, JJ will have given them general outlines of how he thought the movies should have gone and maybe very broad plot points like Rays parents. Rian was allowed to throw it out one assumes and do his own thing and "put his stamp on it", i'm guessing whatever JJ gave them was to cookie cutter for Rian and he wanted to "subvert expectations".
 

Grinchy

Banned
That they didn't have an outline or game plan for the general direction of all three films from the very beginning is mind boggling. What the hell have they been doing...
That's what blows me away about the whole thing. The same company that meticulously planned and properly executed the entire Marvel cinematic universe after Iron Man 1 decided to buy Star Wars for billions of dollars and then wing it?? How is that even possible?
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
That's what blows me away about the whole thing. The same company that meticulously planned and properly executed the entire Marvel cinematic universe after Iron Man 1 decided to buy Star Wars for billions of dollars and then wing it?? How is that even possible?
To be fair, the Marvel game plan was already established by Kevin Feige. I assume Kennedy...or somebody, would have been Star Wars' version of Feige, but it ended up being nobody. Sounds similar to the indecisive corporate quagmire of design that plagued Anthem too.
 

MoFuzz

Member
That's what blows me away about the whole thing. The same company that meticulously planned and properly executed the entire Marvel cinematic universe after Iron Man 1 decided to buy Star Wars for billions of dollars and then wing it?? How is that even possible?
The way I understand it is that Disney acquires these large scale companies, but unless something major happens, generally leave their toe out of it and let the studios manage and create as they see fit, individually. You can see this with Pixar films, Marvel films and now Lucasfilm.

With Pixar, I sincerely doubt Disney was telling the makers of Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up, etc how to make their films, and in any event, they have largely been unconnected, separate stories & franchises.

With Marvel, as someone else already pointed out, you have Kevin Feige, who oversees the entire project and ensures that there is running continuity and consistency between projects. Even with multiple writers and directors, there is a cohesion that remains.

Unfortunately for Star Wars Fans, there is no "Kevin Feige" figure of Lucasfilm looking after Star Wars, (just Krazy Kathleen Kennedy and her 'force is female t-shirts) and this shit that they're dishing out now is the end result.
 
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Pagusas

Elden Member
This is 100% Kathleen Kennedy's fault. I cant image how dumb you have to be to allow TLJ to even pass scripting phase as it was, let alone launch this franchies without pre planning a trilogy arch.

That should have been the VERY first thing ever done. They could have had trap doors for all the original trilogy characters that could potentially pass during filming (like what happen to Carrie).
 
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Kadayi

Banned
Regardless of whatever you think of TFA and TLJ it’s baffling that they’ve had such little long term planning and structure in place.

I think it was because they had such utter contempt for the fan base that they thought whatever they did would be eagerly lapped up regardless.
 
Star Wars is pretty well turbo fucked by this point, I want to believe of course that "maybe this time it will be different" but Star Wars fans have been getting burned time and time again for literally 20 years.

Not to mention the fact that JJ has a talent for coming up with good ideas, but never quite sticks the landing and rises above "eh, it was ok"

Anyone remember Super 8?That was the best and the worst of JJ, the movie was a great idea "what if we made a new movie in Spielberg's 80s style" but at the end it just deflates like a souffle.


That they didn't have an outline or game plan for the general direction of all three films from the very beginning is mind boggling. What the hell have they been doing...

It's astounding that they didn't plan it out more ahead of time.

This is 100% Kathleen Kennedy's fault. I cant image how dumb you have to be to allow TLJ to even pass scripting phase as it was, let alone launch this franchies without pre planning a trilogy arch.

That should have been the VERY first thing ever done. They could have had trap doors for all the original trilogy characters that could potentially pass during filming (like what happen to Carrie).

I'm sure all Kathleen Kennedy cared about was if there enough "strong wahmen" characters.
 
S

Shodan09

Unconfirmed Member
After watching the end of LOST, I have no faith that he can end this shit trilogy with anything other than disappointment.

The ending of LOST that he had absolutely nothing to do with?
 

daveonezero

Banned
This is why the shit Dave Filoni and the animation team is way better at telling a story in this universe. They plan a story arch and actually follow through. This lack of planning seems very irresponsible.

I liked TLJ but considering what needs to happen I'm not too confident. I don't think another change in direction to more standard stuff is going to help.

I think the best thing that could happen would be a continuation fo the "rebellion" defeat. And then an ending that expands the universe and an intro to new characters from Rebels like Sabine, Ashoka and Ezra. They have been off helping the rest of the outer galaxy to unite and resist the dark side. All the while training youngsters in the Jedi ways. To then setup a war between the First Order with Rey and Kylo vs the former.
 
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pr0cs

Member
I wouldn't want to touch that disaster TLJ either, how can you repair something so supremely fucked up. Most fans worth their salt recognize star wars is scorched earth at this point. They took forty years of canon and shit all over it, from world building, science, character interaction, everything is a mess with TLJ.
Best chance is it was all a dream in one of the characters head and we get a real sequel.. Fat chance of that
 

Fbh

Member
LoL at the clickbait thread title.

Anyway, while I think this can't possibly turn out worse than TLJ, I have no faith it will be any good. When he had the chance to kick off a new trilogy with apparently complete freedom, all he managed to make was a disappointingly average and unoriginal movie. Now he has to not only finish the trilogy but do so while taking over after the mess that was TLJ.... and the person he chose to help him out is one of the guys behind one of the most hilariously dumb scenes of any movie I've ever seen (the Martha scene in BVS)

That's what blows me away about the whole thing. The same company that meticulously planned and properly executed the entire Marvel cinematic universe after Iron Man 1 decided to buy Star Wars for billions of dollars and then wing it?? How is that even possible?

Yep, that's the part that's really hard to understand. To me Infinity War was a really impressive movie not because of the movie itself but because of how well it ties together 10 years of universe building and anticipation. It's a massive cast and 18 movies of backstory with a lot of it leading to this event and they pulled it off quite well.

Meanwhile... the same company spends billions on Star Wars and is like "So you just write whatever the fuck you want, then we bring someone else to make whatever the fuck he wants with the sequel and we'll see how things go from there"
 
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Sorcerer

Member
LoL at the clickbait thread title.

Anyway, while I think this can't possibly turn out worse than TLJ, I have no faith it will be any good. When he had the chance to kick off a new trilogy with apparently complete freedom, all he managed to make was a disappointingly average and unoriginal movie. Now he has to not only finish the trilogy but do so while taking over after the mess that was TLJ.... and the person he chose to help him out is one of the guys behind one of the most hilariously dumb scenes of any movie I've ever seen (the Martha scene in BVS)



Yep, that's the part that's really hard to understand. To me Infinity War was a really impressive movie not because of the movie itself but because of how well it ties together 10 years of universe building and anticipation. It's a massive cast and 18 movies of backstory with a lot of it leading to this event and they pulled it off quite well.

Meanwhile... the same company spends billions on Star Wars and is like "So you just write whatever the fuck you want, then we bring someone else to make whatever the fuck he wants with the sequel and we'll see how things go from there"

I remember at the time the talk was Disney wanted to recoup that 4 Billion as quickly as possible, thus rushing into the triology headfirst, and getting a movie out every single year. Just bad business all around.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
Absolutely blows my mind that you are doing the third mainline trilogy to one of the most famous and valuable franchises in the world, and you don’t nail the universe and main plot points before you get going.

It’s not like you are shooting 6 seasons of 20 hour long episodes and need to necessarily wing some of the 120 hours, you have a product of mere 6 hours, give or take, you can bash that shit out in a day locked into a meeting room.

Am dying to see how they retcon all this together.
 
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Sorcerer

Member
Absolutely blows my mind that you are doing the third mainline trilogy to one of the most famous and valuable franchises in the world, and you don’t nail the universe and main plot points before you get going.

It’s not like you are shooting 6 seasons of 20 hour long episodes and need to necessarily wing some of the 120 hours, you have a product of mere 6 hours, give or take, you can bash that shit out in a day locked into a meeting room.

Am dying to see how they retcon all this together.
 

Sorcerer

Member
In a way I can see the precedent to do what they did. As much as the prequel triology is supposedly despised, it made money hand over fist. They must have thought although people complain, they will hand over thier money regardless and they would just laugh it off in the end,. and guess what the first three movies out of the gate made that money. I guess they didn't anticpate that they would be percieved as critically damaging the franchise, as though it was above critisim and was invincible.
I remember in the Vanity Fair article, JJ took shots at George by saying he was going to show Jar Jar's bones in the desert. But what did JJ do, just took the script of a New hope and basically redid it. A lot of arrogance before the fall.
 
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Doom85

Member
Although I hope people realize Lucas and co. did not plan a trilogy either:

-Anakin and Vader were at one point two separate people, an earlier draft of the script had the two in a scene together (presumably flashback)
-the "there is another" line was written with no idea who Yoda meant, it was intended to serve as either to add something to the plot or also probably if Mark Hammil wanted out. Because they did not plan on it being a trilogy, the intent was to keep on going with quite a few more movies but during the production of 6 it was decided to end there for now. Kinda telling given how they handle the reveal, "hey, shh, let's just pretend certain scenes in 4 and 5 between Luke and Leia didn't happen, okay?!"
-I'm not sure about Vader, but the Emperor would have not have died in 6 if they had kept going past it as was originally planned.
-while the word Sith is never used in the OT, certain script drafts and novelizations did use it, but it was clear the exact rules of what makes one a Sith were unclear especially since Vader himself apparently wasn't a Sith according to at least one draft. Also, the original novelization of 4 has Vader say he has no equal (after thinking of his non-Force sensitive officers as "not his equal"). Now likely the author wasn't told that the Emperor (who is mentioned once in 4) was a Force user, but it's also possible they didn't know yet if he would be or not
-I've heard two conflicting reports on the ending of 6. One report said it would end with Han dying, Leia fully committing herself to the new government, and Luke leaving for parts alone (like a western where the lead goes off into the sunset sorta thing). Another detail (and this is from Ford himself) that may or may not contradict that is that Ford himself specifically requested Han to die in 6 due to being tired of the character and Lucas said, "dead Han doesn't sell toys." (explains why we got Ewoks instead of Wookies)

Keep in mind apparently all the things Lucas has said about the production of these films sometimes contradict each other so we'll likely never know every single fact about it all. But it's quite clear there was never a definitive game plan, and even if they had a semblance of one it wasn't what we ended up getting.
 

Sorcerer

Member
Although I hope people realize Lucas and co. did not plan a trilogy either:

-Anakin and Vader were at one point two separate people, an earlier draft of the script had the two in a scene together (presumably flashback)
-the "there is another" line was written with no idea who Yoda meant, it was intended to serve as either to add something to the plot or also probably if Mark Hammil wanted out. Because they did not plan on it being a trilogy, the intent was to keep on going with quite a few more movies but during the production of 6 it was decided to end there for now. Kinda telling given how they handle the reveal, "hey, shh, let's just pretend certain scenes in 4 and 5 between Luke and Leia didn't happen, okay?!"
-I'm not sure about Vader, but the Emperor would have not have died in 6 if they had kept going past it as was originally planned.
-while the word Sith is never used in the OT, certain script drafts and novelizations did use it, but it was clear the exact rules of what makes one a Sith were unclear especially since Vader himself apparently wasn't a Sith according to at least one draft. Also, the original novelization of 4 has Vader say he has no equal (after thinking of his non-Force sensitive officers as "not his equal"). Now likely the author wasn't told that the Emperor (who is mentioned once in 4) was a Force user, but it's also possible they didn't know yet if he would be or not
-I've heard two conflicting reports on the ending of 6. One report said it would end with Han dying, Leia fully committing herself to the new government, and Luke leaving for parts alone (like a western where the lead goes off into the sunset sorta thing). Another detail (and this is from Ford himself) that may or may not contradict that is that Ford himself specifically requested Han to die in 6 due to being tired of the character and Lucas said, "dead Han doesn't sell toys." (explains why we got Ewoks instead of Wookies)

Keep in mind apparently all the things Lucas has said about the production of these films sometimes contradict each other so we'll likely never know every single fact about it all. But it's quite clear there was never a definitive game plan, and even if they had a semblance of one it wasn't what we ended up getting.

The production of Star Wars and the critical response before the movie came out was so negative, its understandable that nothing else was planned. Apparently George was so nervous about the opening of the movie he left the country and went into hiding, so he could avoid the backlash. Little did he know.

While Star Wars was pure luck, Empire seems to have benefited from him being somewhat hands off and setting up ILM. What a fantastic movie.

George claims to have it planned out but I thinking he is fibbing a bit. Clearly by Jedi he ran out of ideas, The Ewok section of Jedi is clearly filler that just happened to have Ewoks to sell toys, resorting to a second Death Star, in the same trilogy, is just slumming it. (He also claims Anakin blowing up that droid control station in PM is another echo of the Death star).

My biggest heartbreak is shittychlorions. As a kid hearing that speech in Kenobi's hut about the Force blew my mind. George had no clue what the Force was. Midicholorians is the lamest copout.
 
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trikster40

Member
The lack of structure makes no sense at all. Having different directors I can kind of understand so that each film had its own unique feel but at least have an overall story planned out.

No kidding. Why you start a trilogy and don’t even have the basic storylines for all 3 films prior to starting them baffles me., especially with all the mysteries and unanswered questions that JJ gave us. You would think that he knew where they would lead regardless of who was doing the writing/directing.
 

Sorcerer

Member
People think Colin Trevorrow was fired. I think he saw a rough cut of TLJ, realized they had violated his childhood, and headed for the door first chance he got.

Daisy RIdley read Trevorrow’s script and was in tears. I can’t help what a mistake Kennedy made by letting him go,
 

Sorcerer

Member
There has to be a happy middle ground between Lucas meticulously controling every detail of the film, and no involvement from Lucas at all, because we've experienced both, and it's shit.

That happy middle ground gave us ESB.

Very astute. As bad as current Star Wars is., George’s version makes it look like Shakespeare. Giant Force using squids, WTF., Lol!! George has admitted everybody would hate it. LOL!!’
 
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Chittagong

Gold Member
No kidding. Why you start a trilogy and don’t even have the basic storylines for all 3 films prior to starting them baffles me., especially with all the mysteries and unanswered questions that JJ gave us. You would think that he knew where they would lead regardless of who was doing the writing/directing.

lost.jpg
 
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