By: Russ Burlingame on November 13, 2012
With a writer named and the film officially in pre-production, it’s widely assumed that by now, Disney and Lucasfilm have started talking on some level with directors who might be a fit for Star Wars Episode VII.
Rumors abound regarding the film–its cast, its plot, what characters will or won’t be coming back and whether they’ll be dying, or returning from the dead. No discussion is more active, though, than the question of who will direct the film.
And, for the most part, directors contacted so far have either denied involvement outright, expressed disinterest or claimed ignorance, saying that they’ve heard absolutely nothing and have certainly not been contacted. A few conversations that have gone on in the last twenty-four hours or so, though, seem to have a little more leeway.
During a podcast interview transcribed by Slashfilm, Safety Not Guaranteed director Colin Trevorrow waxed intellectual about what the film means to him as a Star Wars fan, but his phraseology has struck some fans as the kind of thing “a guy who knows something” would say.
“I have very little to say about it,” said Trevorrow. “Certainly, no specifics about what’s going on behind the scenes in the selection of that person [a director]. I think that I can speak as a Star Wars fan, which is important to me. Whoever does do this movie, I think, just needs to have a fundamental understanding of why it’s important to us. We come from a generation who grew up with this as children, to us it’s almost a belief system. It’s harder for people who are older or who were already teenagers when the movie came out to understand how deeply it is our mythology. And there are a bunch of incredible directors who are up for this job… I think whoever gets it will have that fundamental understanding of why Star Wars matters so much to a billion people. It’s just incredible. So that’s all I can say about that. I’m equally excited about it.”
A spotlight fell on Trevorrow after Celebuzz reported that the filmmaker had taken “early meetings” with Lucasfilm about the project; it might seem hard to believe that a candidate with no major box office successes could be considered to direct the new series, but Safety Not Guaranteed has some reviewers seeing shades of Lucas’s own THX 1138.
Another filmmaker who seemed slightly less in the loop, but who stopped short of actually saying “no,” is Guillermo del Toro. The Pacific Rim director has a seemingly endless supply of projects on his back burners, so it’s unlikely we’ll actually see him take the keys to the Millennium Falcon anytime soon. Still, he gave the impression that while he hasn’t been offered anything yet, he wouldn’t dismiss the notion out of hand.
“You know, I saw it on the Internet, but I haven’t approached them, they haven’t formally approached me. I mean, I heard some rumblings, but to me it’s really — I have so many projects to discuss or think about,” del Toro told Fanhattan. “[For] something that is not a possibility yet, I don’t do that. You know, because I have so many things that I need to catch up with. If this becomes ever a reality, and there’s an approach to do it, I would then think about it, but — it’s like thinking if I want to date a supermodel. I don’t think about these things.”
Good. He should be thinking about Heaven Sent. Or at least Hellboy 3.
