Hey, did you hear they're making a new Star Wars movie? If you just spit Mountain Dew all over your computer screen, you either just got back from an expedition to Antarctica, in which case good for you; or you've been in a coma, which from what I understand can be caused by drinking too much Mountain Dew. Turns out there is such a thing as too X-treme. Lay off the Dew. Right now you're probably thinking the last thing anybody needs is another article about what they need to do to make the new Star Wars movie good. It's well-tread ground, no doubt. And a lot of great points have already been made. Everyone agrees that the new movies need to be character-driven, that they should use as many practical effects and real-life locations as possible and not rely to heavily on CGI. The dialog should be witty, the acting should be good, and the story should be epic. All those are valid points and 100% true. But they're all very big-picture. One of the many things that makes Star Wars special is the details. The epic storyline and amazing characters are what draw us in, what we relate to. But the details are what we obsess over, what we pick apart, and what we doodle in our notebooks. The story is what makes it epic, but the details are what makes it
cool. So, let's assume for a moment that Executive Producer Kathleen Kennedy, Director J.J. Abrams, Screenwriters Michael Arndt, Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinsberg are already planning to have rich characters who banter wittily in an epic story filmed on real sets. Here's a few more specific points they should consider when they start fleshing things out.