November 10, 2012

Jon Favreau Most Likely To Direct STAR WARS EPISODE VII?


HollywoodLife talked to directors J.J. Abrams (Star Trek Into Darkness) and Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Cowboys And Aliens) on the possibilities of them directing the new Star Wars trilogy. Abrams stating he's too close to the material and seeming pulls himself out of the running. J.J. had been linked a couple times to the project but doesn't sound interested here. He joins a growing group of directors uninterested in the project which includes Steven Spielberg, Zack Synder and Quentin Tarantino (via ThePlaylist). On the other hand Favreau has more of an open mind to the gig.

"I think both J.J. and I come from a generation of people who formed our whole creative persona around what we experienced as kids from watching those films, and I have had the good fortune of working with George [Lucas] and around George, and whether it is doing a voice on Clone Wars, or being at the Skywalker Ranch mixing Iron Man – so I have been very happy and lucky to just experience the culture that Lucas has created, both in my own life growing up as a kid and professional – whether it was interviewing him at film festivals on stage, he is just a really wonderful, talented gifted guy who has changed the business so much, so I am just giddy, first and foremost as a fan, to see what happens with it. I think there is a lot of question marks of how they are going to do it, and who they are going to do it with, and what the story is going to be about; but to say that I am not excited about it is definitely an understatement. We’ll see." 

 He doesn't come out and say it but it's sounding like he has the strongest working relationship with LucasFilm. Iron Man opened the gates leading to the massive Marvel franchise now setup at Disney. Jon helped shepherd the Marvel Cinematic Universe (before Whedon took over) and could do the same within the Star Wars universe. He has connections working with ILM on Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and Cowboys And Aliens. Jon has even voiced a character on the Clone Wars cartoon an his icon on Twitter for months has been R2D2. Recently, he was working with Disney on breaking a story for a live-action film based on Magic Kingdom. Originally, Favreau had been tapped to direct John Carter before it landed at Disney who hired Andrew Stanton. In a recent interview with Lucas and LucasFilm's Kathleen Kennedy they mention what they're looking for in a director. My belief after weighing all the options, Jon is currently the strongest candidate to direct the new trilogy.



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