DO: Think Outside the Box When Looking for a Director
Almost immediately, the conversation on Twitter and message boards turned to WHO should be the next director to take over Star Wars and bring the new saga to life. Joss Whedon has become an immediate favorite, which makes sense because he is Joss Whedon and this is the Internet. All the old names have been and will be trotted out for speculation. Jackson, Abrams, del Toro, Snyder, Nolan, Favreau, and pretty much anyone else you can think. Pretty much any filmmaker who ever so much as went on Splash Mountain is probably getting talked about. And it makes sense. Star Wars is the Rosetta Stone of modern pop culture, and most major filmmakers view that original trilogy as the Godhead for big screen fantasy. Many directors cite Star Wars as the inspiration for getting into filmmaking and learning about special effects. Disney is going to have their pick of the blockbuster litter in choosing who to helm this. Thats why Im begging them to disregard every obvious choice that might spring to mind. Because there is nothing obvious about Star Wars, or its success. Star Wars, at its best, is one of the weirdest bits of imaginations to ever hit the mainstream. There is nothing safe or ordinary about that first film. Its the lunatic imaginings of a nutjob who had no idea what he was doing and had to fight the studio for every nickel and dime he had. The effects house was making it up as they went along. The cast had no clue what they were doing. Most of the famous designs came from a guy who figured there was no way the film was getting made. The now ubiquitous sounds of Star Wars were cobbled together from old audio tracks and household objects. Star Wars was a miracle of equal parts ingenuity and wild-eyed drive. What Im saying is, dont go with the obvious, easy choice. Dont pick some guy because they have a strong following on the Internet, or have done well with comic book movies or toy franchises. Get someone who is hungry and ambitious. Get a filmmaker who has a genuine story to tell, and is dying to tell it. Get someone who has a clear vision for a science-fiction action film that no one else has come up with yet. Get someone strange, someone who hasnt yet conformed to the zeitgeist or the pressures of industry. Get someone who NO ONE would imagine directing STAR WARS, and then roll the dice on vision. Hey, it worked once. Not too long, long ago.