EDITORIAL: The Sad State of STAR WARS Directors
While Marvel is taking risks that pay off with guys like Joss Whedon, Shane Black and the Russo Bros. Lucasfilm is apparently taking the safe route like DC with a narrow-minded idea of potential Star Wars directors as well as just trying to mimic the original trilogy without doing anything fresh or new.
It hasn't been easy, but Iv'e accepted the reality that we can never count on any inspired, risky, unconventional, out-of-the-box directors for future Star Wars movies. We'll never see anyone on the level of George Lucas before Star Wars, Irvin Kershner before Empire Strikes Back, Richard Marquand before Return of the Jedi, Peter Jackson before Lord of the Rings, Alfonso Cuarón before Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, David Yates before Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Rupert Wyatt before Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Brad Bird before Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Bryan Singer before X-Men, Christopher Nolan before Batman Begins, Jon Favreau before Iron Man, Shane Black before Iron Man 3, the Russo Brothers before Captain America: The Winter Soldier, James Gunn before Guardians of the Galaxy or Sam Mendes before Skyfall direct a Star Wars movie. The only people we can expect to see are directors of at least one big summer tentpole blockbuster with special effects and established characters that was released in IMAX 3D within 5 years prior to their tackling of their Star Wars film. Lucasfilm is playing it as safe as possible. But sometimes I like to pretend. Sometimes I like to imagine a world where these were the directors of the upcoming Star Wars movies.
2015 Rian Johnson - Episode VII
2016 Jim Mickle - Boba Fett Spin-off
2017 Rich Moore - Episode VIII
2018 Nat Faxon & Jim Rash - Darth Vader Spin-off
2018 Jeff Baena - Han Solo Spin-off
2019 Jon Wright - Episode IX
2020 David Lowery - Obi-Wan Kenobi Spin-off
Hell get Ron Howard or David Fincher! Spike Jonze or J.C. Chandor! Lenny Abrahamson or Jeff Nichols! Somebody! Anybody with a distinctive style of their own and vision that the current mainstream generation hasn't been exposed to! An animation director, an indie director, a TV director, a romantic-comedy director, an Oscar-season-drama director, a director who hasn't made a big film in many many years and is struggling to pay the bills. Somebody with something to prove! Somebody who can make Star Wars an Oscar contender!!! AURGHRUGHGHGGH!!!! I rest my case. Not the director the Star Trek reboot, the Godzilla reboot or the director of the Fantastic Four reboot. Notice a trend here? Nothing but directors of big-budgeted reboots of established well-known properties released in IMAX 3D and within the past few years.
In other news, Doctor Strange has a director and sadly, I doubt I'll have the same positive response as I did for that piece of news as I will for any future Star Wars director announcements.
I for one dig the selection of Scott Derrickson as the director of the Doctor Strange movie. Good job as always Mr. Feige! I know I can always count on you to find somebody who's never made a movie released in IMAX 3D to deliver something fresh and exciting unlike a certain other president of a Disney-owned company. This is relativity new territory for Mr. Derrickson. We've seen he can tackle horror elements very well. So I have no doubt his style will benefit major elements that make up Doctor Strange. His biggest film was The Day the Earth Stood Still remake which was very mediocre, but that's not his fault as I blame the screenplay. His direction of Sinister was nail-biting and tense. He understands build-up and appears to be a fan of the source material even if his fandom hasn't shown itself in his prior works. It's not easy to make a respectable horror film these days, but I'm at least interested to see how this turns out. Now we just need Craig Johnson, the director of the Skeleton Twins to direct Ant-Man.