Word broke last week that JJ Abrams will be handed the reigns of the first Disney owned Star Wars production, the as yet untitled Star Wars VII. Obviously, this was a huge story and the internet exploded.
I want to know what YOU think. As a producer, Abrams has made a number of famous television projects and a couple of films, but as a director his filmography really boils down to three films, “Mission Impossible III”, “Star Trek”, and “Super 8″ (with another Star Trek film pending).
What do YOU think? Is that enough? Are you excited over the announcement? Does your geek brain recoil at the cross-over between the Star Trek and Star Wars universes? Do you think we’ll be able to WATCH a lightsaber duel with all that lens flaring?
Let us hear it!
I just left another post talking about this and he said ‘bring on the lens flares!!’ Ahah, that’s the first thing that came to my mind
Hey, first!!!
Btw, thanks for the tip about SDCC member ID thing, I did that last night. Fingers crossed I got at least one of the badges!
Ok, cool. No prob. They should notify you by email in advance (without much notice unfortunately) of when they go on sale, and then its really a matter of being right at the computer at the start of it and getting some luck!
Meanwhile, yeah. Abrams. Lens flares
Maybe he’ll tone that down in order to give a distinct look between Star Trek and Star Wars. (Hope, hope?)
It almost doesn’t matter, whatever comes out will be destroyed by a million fanboys suddenly crying out in terror.
I’ll go see it when it comes out, and I hope it’s good.
LOL. It has no possibility of being received well then, you think?
I mean, Im with you, obviously I’m going to see it, and I’ll keep my own opinion on it, but I think so far it looks as though the reception of this news has been positive. I’ll see how this thread runs.
You have to remember the scope of JJ’s work over the last handful of films. Were talking Super 8, Star Trek, Revolution and Fringe. Not to mention Cloverfield. I think this gives him a wildcard pedigree to stretch the franchise in ways in never has been stretched before.
I like to think it has the early potential of a ‘Nolan taking over batman,’ scenario!
Let’s hope. That’s pretty much a best case scenario. I hope Abrams does as well as Nolan did.
Meanwhile though, I wonder how much of we can credit him for his tv work (which has been great dont get me wrong) I mean, its just so different. And its not directing per se (although he did a few episodes here and there) and then, too, not a lot of those series ENDED WELL. LOL
Point taken and granted! I just think his creative palette is much broader for all the work he has done both in both production and direction over the last decade.
If he aims big with his vision his comfort with both sides of the creation business should serve him very well
Let me be the first to say, he needs to quit TV and just focus on feature films. I’m not a Trek fan by any means (have only watched some of the films) but thought his new one was great. Isn’t this kind of a conflict of interest? I think would do a great job for Star Wars but you know the fanboys will be like “it was to much like his star trek films.”
I think it will be an awesome challenge for him to do make the entities different without losing his style of producing/directing.
I think the trekkies are happy and the fanboys should just be happy Lucas is gone.
Well, yeah, I’ve already seen some of the “universe conflict” sprout up. My big thing is… even though the first new Trek movie was great, it was a straight up actioner. It really didnt have any of that original Star Trek thought provoking science fiction in it at all. The Spirit of the original property was pretty much gone
So, I hope he manages to capture the spirit of the first three and keep it whole.
And I AM happy Lucas is gone, no matter. LOL
Part of the problem with his Star Trek, IMO, is that it feels more like Star Wars than Star Trek. So, you know… maybe picking up Star Wars is more his taste anyway.
Hate Star Trek but loved his newest take on it. Not a big fan AT ALL of Star Wars either so I’m thinking I might dig his version of the story. We’ll see!
Wait what was that? Hate Star Trek? Not a big fan of Star Wars?
Speak English, man! I dont understand you!
And I’m a huge fan of sci-fi. I could just never get into either of those, they are just so…. I dont even know. lol.
Hmm. I dont even know either
I’m still not quite convinced it’s a great or bad thing. Just don’t know what will come of it.
I’m pretty much right there with you. Catch me at one moment and I think “Wow, great action scenes ahead” catch me at another moment and I think “Flashy, pretty and empty”
Maybe today’s thread will help me figure out my own opinion.
I couldn’t care less about Star Wars but I think JJ Abrams is a good director. As long as he is not the ideas man (Lost season 6….:/) he will do well.
Ugh. Lost season six was such a disappointment wasnt it? Its my understanding that he was long gone by then though, so… I dont know how much of it we can pin on them.
I’m pretty sure Abrams had little to do with the direction of Lost after the first season. He and Lindleoff created the basic story bible, but Abrams left to go do MI:3 and never really came back to the show.
Yeah, that’s what I heard too.
I put the blame of that whole thing on Cuse and Lindelof.
I’ve never been really huge on Star Wars nor was a big fan of Star Trek but I did love Star Trek a whole lot and really looking forward to Into Darkness. So maybe he’ll be able to bring in a whole new perspective. I mean if its anywhere near the quality of Star Trek, I have hopes for this being good.
Three out of the last four commenters have been like “Not a huge fan of Star Trek OR Star Wars” what is this world coming to?!! LOL
I hope it is as good as Star Trek, but I’d like to see him have a film with some depth and soul to it too. Because I felt as though the original trilogy had that in spades. Aside from that, I feel pretty sure it’ll be a high quality picture….
I just hope he is able to vary his style from the Star Trek films. I mean, anybody who is unfamiliar with either franchise is already liable to mix them up, which annoys fans of both franchises, and I hope having the same director doesn’t make this problem even worse. Additionally, when I go to see Star Wars VII I don’t want to be seeing Star Trek, you know? They are totally different. From Abrams, I have only seen Star Trek and soon I will also have seen STID, so in all fairness maybe he can change it up for other stories but I haven’t seen MI3 so don’t know.
I just want it to recapture the feeling of the original trilogy while also expanding the story. I still kind of wish Joss Whedon was doing it, but oh well.
Also does this mean Abrams is not going to make anymore star treks? Because I’ll be very sad if they don’t make more/pass them off to an incompetent director.
I dont know if it means he’s done with Star Trek. Might be a good thing, and plus, directors rarely wind up doing more than the original trilogy, you know? Cant think of many aside from Spielberg who have done 4.
I wouldnt have minded Whedon, do you know who else I thought of? Matthew Vaughn. I just saw Stardust last week for the first time and I really liked it. And right afterwards I heard this news and thought, you know? I bet Matt Vaughn could have done a good job with it!
As far as separating the feel of the films? I’m hoping he just turns off the lens flare for Star Wars, I think that’d be enough.
Yeah. It would be blinding.
I have not seen Stardust or heard of Matt Vaughn, I will have to check that out.
Abrams is a good choice. He’s vanilla enough that he won’t give the new movie a weird artistic vision or take it down a completely different direction. He’s good enough that he can get good performances from actors and direct some decent action sequences. He also seems to understand what fans like, and will probably give it them. Overall, he’s an inoffensive and good-enough director that Star Wars should do well with him at the helm.
Hey, at least he’s not George Lucas.
You actually have… sound reasoning there…
Who are you and what have you done with my friend Brik??
Anyways, yes, but anyone would get the “at least he’s not Lucas” bump.
You’re right, at least he wont try to get all artsy on us, that’s true. And he’ll try to stay true to the core concepts…. He may even try to give the fans what they want as you say.
But I dont want to give him too much credit just because he wont drive it off a cliff. I’d like someone who can give us an action movie with depth. They’re few and far bewteen, but if these new ones want to register with me on the level of Star Wars and Empire, thats what theyve gotta be.
It’s awesome news. Also, memo to internet: We get it, lens flares.
Just for you Howie.
Man, this news hit me like a brick. It’s like finding out Joss Whedon was doing both The Avengers and Justice League. He’s a good director, but come on! I want to see someone else’s vision come to life on screen, you know? Not to mention that J.J.’s style seems more grounded, which is perfect for Star Wars, and not as operatic as Lucas or Speilberg. Believe it or not, I might have been happier if they said the director was Jerry Bruckheimer.
Ohhhhhhhh cmonnnnnnn. You had me til the last second there buddy. Cmon, now. Bruckheimer? Puh-lease.
There obviously is a little blurring of the lines here with this guy helming Trek and Wars, but at least both franchises are still viable and ongoing, and who would have ever thought that with so many of the principles aging and whatnot?
Thank goodness for Hollywood’s fear of original properties!
Counterpoint: the Pirates of the Carribbean series is very much in the spirit of Star Wars. (What a way to find out, btw, that Bruckheimer is a producer, not a director. The guy knows his epics, though.)
Kind… of….?
So would you like to propose Gore Verbinski, instead?
LOL
Anyways, yeah. Producer not director. And those suffer from diminishing returns anyways.
I’m excited. Of all the directors out there, Abrams seems to be on top of the sci-fi scene. Look at “Super 8.” Put it in space and it’s “Star Wars.”
Mmmmmmmmmm….
I dont know if I were all that impressed by “Super 8″, Logan. I mean I thought it was good, I think I gave it a B+, but I dont own it or anything…
What that movie DOES indicate pretty well though is that Abrams can play directorial chameleon pretty well. He apes Steven Spielberg’s style really well. So…. maybe he can go back to the original trilogy and create another imitative offering her for us.
There’s always hope, right?
I don’t have a problem with Abrams directing Star Wars per se. However, I sense a disturbance in the force. That disturbance writer/buddy of Abrams, Damon Lindelof. I fear he may get tapped to write the screenplay and its going to turn out like Prometheus and Cowboys and Aliens. If that is the case prepare for character stupidity to be a major plot device in the next Star Wars film.
Dude. If Lindelof gets involved, how about me and you use our combined platforms and try to get an internet rebellion started? Some kind of protest movement to save the picture.
That dude is the kiss of $%&$ing Death.
If it eventually comes to light that Lindelof sold his soul to the devil in exchange for becoming a Hollywood screenwriter I would not be shocked.
the guy who wrote Little Miss Sunshine was hired to write Star Wars VII before Abrams was hired to direct. His name is Micheal Arndt I believe and he also wrote Toy Story 3 and Oblivion which is coming out soon.
A ha! Hunter! Swooping in to the rescue with the 411! Nice!
See? Good stuff, good stuff. Phew! No Lindelof! LOL
Happy to help!
Laurance Kasdan and Simon Kinberg are also “script consultants” and producers for VII, and may be the writers for episodes VIII and IX, working off Michael Arndt’s treatment.
And let’s face it… even though he’s retired and has sold the franchise, I can’t imagine a Star Wars movie being made without Lucas at least signing off on the script .
Hunter, that is the best news I have heard all day. However, we must remain vigilant regarding the sith lord Lindelof. He often sneaks into projects. He was most recently brought in to “fix” World War Z ;-(
I bet it was him who suggested those silly, stockpiling Zombies in the trailer!!!
!!
That trailer made me cringe
I’m not expecting much from this film anyway, and Star Trek was awesome, so hey who knows? It might be good!
Heyyy… Livi! I was hoping you were going to have my back on My Best Picture Winner selection.
Meanwhile though, “Not Expecting much”? Ah. Ah. Right. Star Wars… before your time
Got it. 
I’m a JJ Abrams fan, no question, but honestly he doesn’t really have that huge a track record as a MOVIE director, and I still believe theres a huge difference between TV and Movies. I loved Star Trek, and liked Super 8 well enough (although I didn’t LOVE it) but really, thats all we have to go on as far as Directing goes. As a producer and TV show runner we have a greater sampling, but … apples and oranges, you know?
As far as the Star Trek/Star Wars crossover thing goes, well, to me it’s a little like a DC/Marvel thing. The two franchises have different feels, and I’d hope that JJ would be able to bring those different sensibilities to the screen. To me though, the best Director for Star Wars would be someone more like Peter Jackson, with a High Fantasy feel, rather than JJ Abrams who has more of a Hard SciFi feel.
However, based purely on how he handled Star Trek, I give JJ Abrams some leeway.
Your whole first paragraph is exactly what I’m thinking. Most of his name has been built on his production work and tv stuff. As a director, three flicks. Admittedly, theyre all good to excellent, but still…
That second paragraph is what I’m saying, too. Damn dude. Nice take brother!
LOL
IMO, the pilot for “Lost” has been the best movie he’s directed.
Quite possibly true. Great two hours of entertainment.
A good choice for me. A director of style and flair, but never gets too far away from the narrative; a good story teller too. overall happy.
Ok. Cool. Noted. I hope he doesnt get too carried away with the style and flair thing though. LOL
Coming from a “spirit of the originals” standpoint, I really hope he doesn’t make the errors of so many directors today, and of Lucas in the prequels, with an over-reliance on CGI. The Star Trek remake was not bad (though I agree fully with the point you’ve made above about it losing all the intellectual depth of original Star Trek), but this issue is especially relevant to Star Wars in my opinion. What made the originals stand out was a perfect blend of visual stunning without the over-effort you found in sci-fi movies at the time to look “sci-fi,” and that problem today has been replaced by the over-effort to assault your vision with computer graphics like some sort of optical drug overdose (I’m thinking The Hobbit here for the most recent example). All the edge-of-your-seat tension is lost when film makers stop focusing on the complexity of scenarios for the sake of eye candy. The irony is, Star Wars IV-VI provided better eye candy than so many films today because it was never for its own sake, it was always in consideration of the whole. A rambling point, probably, but I hope that makes sense.
Wow. I hadnt even thought of the “over-reliance on CGI” element. You have a strong point there. I have to say though… I doubt he’ll go practical. Even Spielberg says nowadays he would CGI the Shark, so… its just industry standard now. Although I’d LOVE to see him go model work for the space stuff!
I dont think your point was rambling at all…. I think that that’s a huge difference between the two sets of Star Wars movies, actually. The first three had an awesome story, supplemented by visuals, the second put the visuals first and the story sucked.
I hope Abrams takes note!
And on a whole different note: Simply who ever thought the day would come when the same person would be making Star Trek and Star Wars, and at the same time?
Never. It’s a whole new world.
The me from the 1980s is apoplexed.
I feel Abrams could help renovate the series like he did for Star Trek. My main worry is that he might make both too similar.
Well, the Star Wars franchise certainly is in need of a resurrection job, there’s no doubt about that.
I think he’ll be smart enough to give them different feels. At least I hope he will!