Well, anyone other than George Lucas directing the new Star Wars: Episode VII is a better choice than George Lucas shooting Jar Jar Binks into space again, but how do we feel about J.J. Abrams? More importantly how do we feel that Ben Affleck was in contention and Joss Whedon was never, ever going to do it, ever, it seems? NOOOOOOOOO!
No, not really. It’s not that bad. While Whedon would have been awesome, Abrams isn’t a bad choice. There’s just that little pesky matter of the Star Trek franchise.
The Wrap is reporting that Abrams has agreed to helm Star Wars: Episode VII after being highly sought after, but the bigger story is how this could potentially complicate his relationship with Paramount, where he’s been directing the Star Trek series. The series that only has one movie under its belt so far — where many of us are waiting to see if the sequel will have the same fun punch as its predecessor — or if it’ll be like what we’re sure the sequel to Tron Legacy will produce. We joke. There’s no way anything could be that bad.
Interestingly, Ben Affleck was also being considered. And that’s a bit of an odd choice. Not that Affleck isn’t a rising star on the directing front, Oscar snub aside. It’s more of the fact that he’s not known for sci-fi, even though his considerable chops for gritty storytelling could have been an interesting foray, and perhaps taken the Star Wars tale into a place and depth we hadn’t considered. Dear God. We’re not talking about the recent spate of angst-ridden superheroes, but it’s possible all that namby-pambyness that Lucas cultivated in his beloved movies would have been filed down and channeled in a more realistic way that could’ve been rewarding.
But, we can accept Abrams. He’s a fanboy. He loves what he does and really there’s not a lot more we can ask, except that he find a way not to mess up both Star Trek and Star Wars. Double Trouble. That would be like having someone destroy a beloved franchise with a double dose of bullshit like Lucas and Spielberg coming together to destroy the Indiana Jones Franchise.
On the other hand, there could be a fan war of epic proportions brewing between Star Trek fans and Star Wars fans if one thing is sacrificed too much for the other. The nerd uprising could be swift, but we’re going to remain optimistic.
So tell us in the comments what will make Abrams succeed and what could make this a horrible failure. We’re already thinking on the failure front: lens flare, whatever that shite was they did to The Hobbit, overuse of shaky cam, a horrible script somehow penned by Lucas and smuggled in despite strict restrictions, and the appearance of Michael Bay anywhere on set. Now you go!
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