Brad Bird Explains Why He Had To Pass On STAR WARS: The FORCE AWAKENS
Having already directed one smash-hit superhero movie for Disney, Brad Bird (The Incredibles) was once a big studio favorite for the Star Wars: Force Awakens job. In a recent interview, the prolific director explained why he had to turn the gig down. Read on for more details!
Back when Disney first announced Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Brad Bird was one of the studio's preferred choices to direct the movie. Having already helmed two critically lauded Pixar flicks in The Incredibles & Ratatouille, Bird clearly had strong ties to Disney, but he turned the movie down in order to pursue a different project for them: his original sci-fi/adventure, Tomorrowland.
While promoting the new movie (set to be released this Friday), the fan favorite director opened up to Yahoo! about his decision to turn down what would have been the biggest movie of his career:
"It absolutely was [a tough decision], but there was no way to do that film without junking this film, and we had already gotten George Clooney involved and I was excited about this film. I understand they had to get [The Force Awakens] made, and they would’ve had to push it in order for me to do it.”
Bird elaborated on these comments in another interview with IGN, claiming that, unlike his new movie, The Force Awakens was "going to get made whether [he did] it or not":
"I thought there's a chance that Tomorrowland wont get made, simply because it loses its momentum. A movie is a weird thing. It's not a tangible thing. You have this wispy cloud that you're trying to solidify and I thought that it deserved to be made. You know, Star Wars is a very robust thing right now and it's going to be fine."
Despite this, Bird noted he still had a lot of love for the revered sci-fi franchise. However, when Yahoo! pressed him about the upcoming spin-off Star Wars Anthology movies, he refused to get into that discussion, simply stating: "Right now I’m writing Incredibles 2, so I’ve got my hands full!"
Bird's decision to pursue a more original work like Tomorrowland over another franchise film was praised by many at the time, but with the movie sitting at 67% on Rotten Tomatoes at the moment, is it possible he made the wrong decision? That's debatable. Would you still like to see Bird involved in this next wave of Star Wars movies? Let us know below!
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