One of the basic ingredients a studio needs is to make a film is writer and it looks like Disney may have already found their scribe in the form of ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ screenwriter, Michael Arndt.
Way before Disney bought Lucasfilm and announced that a whole new trilogy of ‘Star Wars’ films was in the works, Lucasfilm contacted writer Michael Arndt to put together some ideas that could move the franchise forward. What Arndt turned in was a 40-50 page treatment which pretty much guaranteed him a spot to be one of the writers for the “Star Wars” trilogy.
Arndt is said to be the perfect person to scibe the upcoming ‘Star Wars’ films as not only has he worked with Disney before (he wrote ‘Toy Story 3’ for Disney’s Pixar), he is also a self-proclaimed ‘Star Wars’ expert. He often uses the movie as an example of how writers can use it as a model on how to write a creatively satisfying film.
According to the Oscar winning writer, the reason ‘Star Wars’ has become such an iconic movie is that it manages to resolve the plot’s goals and arcs immediately after the point of deepest despair within a matter seconds. Not only that, the resolution was accomplished with the use of just 4 words: “Use the Force, Luke.”
And speaking of Luke, sources have told Vulture that Disney is hoping to bring back the three central characters from ‘Star Wars’ episodes IV-VI with a much older Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo. While no deals have officially been offered to the actors, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford have all said publically that they are open to the idea of returning to the franchise.
Arndt’s treatment is supposedly being pitched to top directors at this moment but according to Access Hollywood, Steven Spielberg has already passed on the idea saying, “No! No! It’s not my genre; it’s my best friend George’s genre.”
Spielberg is not the only person to have publically declined taking on the trilogy as Quentin Tarantino (‘Kill Bill,’ ‘Django Unchained’) recently told EW that he “could care less” about the film mainly due to Disney being involved.
And the rumor of Zack Snyder (‘Man of Steel,’ ‘300,’ ‘Watchmen’) being considered? He feels that it’s too big of a commitment to doing something like this telling the LA Times:
“I don’t think I’d be interested in (directing it)… I’m a huge Star Wars fanatic. I just think doing episodes seven, eight and nine is just a slippery slope. It’s a whole other mythological experiment I’m excited to see, but it’s a lot of effort.”
So there you are! The list has now been narrowed down by three. We’ll just have to wait and see which director will find Arndt’s treatment enticing enough to direct a ‘Star Wars’ trilogy but it’s nice to know that the project is a lot further in the development state than first thought.
So who would you like to see directing ‘Star Wars VII?’
UPDATED: Lucasfilm released a statement on StarWars.com confirming that Arndt will indeed be writing the screenplay for ‘Star Wars VII:’
As pre-production of Star Wars: Episode VII begins, Lucasfilm has confirmed that award-winning writer Michael Arndt will write the screenplay for the new Star Wars film. As revealed in the ongoing video series posted here on StarWars.com, Kathleen Kennedy and George Lucas have begun story conferences with Arndt. Arndt won an Academy Award® for Best Original Screenplay for writing Little Miss Sunshine (2006), and was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing Toy Story 3 (2010).
