New Star Wars films from Game of Thrones writers (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

I think the answer is in your question. Better to say that it’s not working now, early on, while there’s a ton of other stuff that is working. It gets lost in the shuffle. Most people don’t care about the names behind the scenes. Enough to fill a message board with protests and all that but that’s such a tiny percentage of the audience that a billion dollar grossing thing attracts. This also lets them go through the press tours for all those things without having to describe a project that no longer exists. To the extent that anyone cares, I think they’ll understand that Netflix was paying more and giving more freedom and who wouldn’t want that? And for the few people who think Kennedy waits too long to make changes, this serves as a counterpoint to that.

 

[Jake Lipson]

All good points. I hadn't thought of it that way before, but when you put it like that, I think you are likely right.

However, this opens up the question of what to do with the 2022 release slot.

I think they have a few options here:

1) The easiest would be, probably, to give the next trilogy slot to Rian Johnson, who is already engaged with Lucasflm to develop another trilogy.

2) Hypothetically, for the sake of argument, let's say that the TLJ haters get what they want and Johnson is also shown the door. I don't think this is likely, but if that happens, Lucasfilm could engage with another filmmaker on the next trilogy. But because the next film is supposed to be something totally new and not Episode X with Rey, Finn and Poe, it will require more development time than another sequel with the current team would. So, if they want to choose this option and find another filmmaker, they can, but they'd better do it soon.

[Edit: I forgot that they also have the mysterious Kevin Feige project now, which could be another contender for the 2022 slot. However, that dude is one busy guy, and he's got a lot in the hopper for the next couple of years. Plus, he is not a director, so they'd still have to hire someone else to develop the property with Feige with an eye toward directing. If they have an idea of who that is yet, they haven't said so, which doesn't mean they don't, but means they might or might not. Anyway, back to my original post....]

3) Back before they were purchased by Disney, Fox had at one point penciled in the Avatar sequels to be released in consecutive Decembers. Then it was going to be in 2 and 3 2020 & 2021, with a break in 2023, followed by 4 and 5 in 2024 and 2025. Then, Disney decided to alternate the Avatar sequels with the Benioff/Weiss Star Wars trilogy, probably so that they could better manage the fact that they now have two major franchises that work well with December releases.

If Lucasfilm and/or their Disney supervisors feel that Star Wars needs more time to rest and figure out what they are doing after the end of the Skywalker saga and the departure of Benioff and Weiss, they could just decide to revert to Fox's original plan and schedule Avatar 2-5 consecutively beginning in 2021. Because Avatar 2 and 3 have already completed principal photography, it would probably be really easy to get the third one in place for 2022 instead of Star Wars. If they chose this option, they could use Avatar to effectively rest Star Wars until at least December 2026.

But that would require both extreme confidence in the Avatar project and a willingness by Disney to let (theatrical, at least) Star Wars rest for that long, which they may not want to do.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

2022 is an eternity away in today’s fast moving marketplace. They have the date staked out and if they want to use it, the competition will cede it. They’ll figure out what to do with it when it’s time, but I think they’ve learned the lesson not to push a Star Wars project out just to make an arbitrary date. It may be that an absence from the big screen only furthers demand. Best thing for them, and I think they know it now, is to worry about making a good thing and then figuring out where it lands when they know what it’s meant to be. Lots of Disney owned things that can use that date if they want it.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I think they’ve learned the lesson not to push a Star Wars project out just to make an arbitrary date.

I hope so.

Best thing for them, and I think they know it now, is to worry about making a good thing and then figuring out where it lands when they know what it’s meant to be..

Agreed.

Lots of Disney owned things that can use that date if they want it.

Again, agreed.

I was just thinking in my last post in terms of, those first two things I mentioned are the options if Disney insists upon having a new Star Wars-branded project in theaters in December 2022. Although it would be nice to think they won't for the reasons you stated, I'm not sure I would bet my life on it.

 

[SamT]

Personally I'm not sad, with the disastrous last season of Games of Thrones they did. Hopefully Rian Johnson will leave too.

 

[Sam Favate]

I don't blame Kathleen Kennedy, but geez... More Star Wars creative folks bite the dust.

Hopefully, Disney will announce soon what is taking that spot. They are not going to want to wait until 2023 for the next Star Wars movie (four years is a long time), and 2022 will be here before you know it. A film coming in 2022 needs to have a script by next year. If they're keeping this date (and I believe they will) we should hear something by the end of the year about who is making it.

 

[TravisR]

Good thing Rian Johnson's schedule opens up after next month.

 

[Tino]

Still don’t think that Johnson trilogy will ever develop.

Too bad about Benioff and Weiss. Their last season of Game Of Thrones was tremendous and satisfying and I was looking forward to their take on Star Wars.

 

[Tino]

I don't blame Kathleen Kennedy, but geez...

She does seem to be at the center of all these issues tho. She is the face of Lucasfilm.

 

[Sam Favate]

She does seem to be at the center of all these issues tho. She is the face of Lucasfilm.

True, but in this case, it seems B&W simply got this massive deal from Netflix and had to pull out of Star Wars. You certainly didn't see Kennedy saying "we hope to work with them again" about Lord and Miller, or Trank, or the others.

 

[Tommy R]

Not “happy” about this, as I had no problems with the final season of GoT, but I did favor the idea of Rian getting to do a trilogy, more so than B&W doing a trilogy. But there seems to be no indication what the effect of B&W’s exit will have on what the potential SW line up of the ‘20s will look like, so I really don’t know what to think.

 

[Jake Lipson]

She does seem to be at the center of all these issues tho. She is the face of Lucasfilm.

True, but in this case, it seems B&W simply got this massive deal from Netflix and had to pull out of Star Wars.

I think you're both right. But what I do think is kind of bizarre is that Benioff and Weiss put themselves in this position. Their deal with Star Wars was announced on February 6, 2018, which I know because that's when I started this thread. Despite this, they still went out and took meetings with Netflix (as well as other studios) about a big overall TV deal this summer after Game of Thrones wrapped up its run. Disney was in the mix for that deal as well before Benioff and Weiss chose Netflix.

They knew what they had signed onto with Star Wars. They also knew what they sought from a new TV overall deal, and it shouldn't be surprising to them that Netflix wants content now, not after Star Wars is over. How is it that they only now figured out "there are so many hours in a day?" I could have told them that last year when they signed the Star Wars contract. I'm not saying it was wrong of them to also look for a new TV deal, but I do think they should have known it was going to be either-or, particularly with Netflix and Disney being the two companies involved. Netflix is about to get a major new competitor in the streaming space in Disney, so it's not like Netflix was going to say, "We'll hold your deal while you work for 10 years for the company that just ended their relationship with us."

 

[SamT]

So I'm reading their statement again and it makes no sense. They supposedly rushed Game of Thrones to do Star Wars and now they are telling they left the chance to do theatrical Star Wars movies because of Netflix? Why they did even take the deal? I don't believe their reasoning, it's PR language. They were fired and they don't want to say it. Imagine being a creative and not knowing what you want to do, getting the reputation that you can not be trusted with a huge project that you wanted and you will quit because of Netflix.

So I think they were fired by Lucasfilm which brings ups the next issue, Kathleen Kennedy. It's completely legitimate to bring her up. How many times? How many times this mess should happen before saying the management, the creative process has a problem? I think the next person to go is Kathleen Kennedy. For how long and how many firings the benefit of the doubt should be given? It's time.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Why they did even take the deal?

Because Netflix offered them a lot of money to produce basically whatever they want with a lot of creative freedom. I totally get why they would take that deal.

 

[SamT]

Then you get a bad reputation of not being trustworthy. Of not knowing how many projects you can handle. From any angle you look at this story, people don't come out right.

 

[Worth]

I'm sure it had nothing whatsoever to do with this...

https://www.esquire.com/uk/latest-news/a29607255/game-of-thrones-writers-disaster-q-and-a-fans/

 

[Bryan^H]

They knew what they had signed onto with Star Wars. They also knew what they sought from a new TV overall deal, and it shouldn't be surprising to them that Netflix wants content now, not after Star Wars is over. How is it that they only now figured out "there are so many hours in a day?"

It is odd.

 

[Worth]

They probably took the Netflix deal because they figured there was a good chance they'd get fired from Star Wars.

 

[Jake Lipson]

An interesting hypothetical which we'll never know the answer to:

As I mentioned, when Benioff and Weiss took the meetings for their new TV deal, they were courted all over town, including at Disney. They chose Netflix. What would have happened with Star Wars if Benioff and Weiss had decided to locate their TV deal at Disney instead? I bet Disney would have been a lot more welcoming to the idea of these guys spreading their time around multiple divisions of the same company (ex: Kevin Feige developing a Star Wars movie in addition to his work for Marvel), rather than rivals Netflix and Disney essentially competing for their time.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I don't see how Kathleen Kennedy keeps her job. She's a movie studio head without any movies in the pipeline. Her unsuccessful hires to direct outnumber the successful hires by more than two to one. The three successful hires were used to working without extensive studio support; JJ Abrams and Ron Howard have Bad Robot and Imagine, respectively, and Rian Johnson comes from the independent film world.

She announced the Benioff and Weiss trilogy without locking them into a contract that would ensure that Star Wars would be their next priority.