Who wouldn’t want to direct the new Star Wars movie? So many fans have armchair quarterbacked the last three, who wouldn’t want to step up and show George Lucas how it’s done?
How many top A-list directors who love Star Wars wouldn’t love a shot at reinventing the franchise? And who wouldn’t want to make millions and millions of dollars to helm what’s sure to be an enormous, money making hit?
Well as it turns out, a lot of directors who hypothetically would be great to helm the empire have passed, even though nobody’s officially offering them the gig yet. In one aspect, it’s obvious why a lot of them wouldn’t do it. The Star Wars legacy comes with a lot of baggage, and it would be nearly impossible to live up to the fanboys expectations. Even Lucas couldn’t live up to them when he made the last three Star Wars prequels.
Among the directors who have passed include Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino (who wasn’t on anyone’s wish list in the first place), Zack Snyder, and now another top person on the wish list, JJ Abrams. Abrams told HollywoodLife, “Look, Star Wars is one of my favorite movies of all time. I frankly feel that – I almost feel that, in a weird way, the opportunity for whoever it is to direct that movie, it comes with tbe burden of being that kind of iconic movie and series.”
Now of course you can make the same case with Abrams taking on another big sci-fi franchise with a rabid fanbase, Star Trek, but as JJ continued, “I was never a big Star Trek fan growing up, so for me, working on Star Trek didn’t have any of that, you know, almost fatal sacrilege, and so, I am looking forward more than anyone to the next iterations of Star Wars, but I believe I will be going as a paying moviegoer!”
Current reports name Matthew Vaughn (X-Men First Class, Kick Ass) as the director, who definitely has his work cut out for him. In the Jaws book, Just When You Thought It Was Safe, when Spielberg passed on making a sequel to Jaws, it was offered to many top directors, and they all turned it down. Jaws was the biggest moneymaker of its time before Star Wars, and these directors knew how difficult it would be to top it, or make a movie even nearly as good.
However, one director who is very excited about the new Star Wars films would make a very interesting choice to direct one: Jon Favreau. While he didn’t say he’d be up to do it, he did tell Entertainment Weekly, “The idea of another trilogy that further shrouds the Force in mystery as its secrets are lost to time – that’s extremely compelling. I want so bad for it to be good. Can you imagine?”
Also like Matthew Vaughn, who just left the X-Men series, Favreau’s next directing gig, Jersey Boys, just got put into turn around, so he’s definitely free if Disney wants him.
