David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have exited their series of Star Wars films
From The Hollywood Reporter:
“Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have exited their planned Star Wars series over 18 months after Disney and Lucasfilm first announced they were joining.
“We love Star Wars. When George Lucas built it, he built us too,” Benioff and Weiss said in a statement. “Getting to talk about Star Wars with him and the current Star Wars team was the thrill of a lifetime, and we will always be indebted to the saga that changed everything. But there are only so many hours in the day, and we felt we could not do justice to both Star Wars and our Netflix projects. So we are regretfully stepping away.”
The pair were set to write and produce the Dec. 16, 2022 Star Wars film, the first to come after this year’s Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker, as well as the rest of the titles in a new series. The series was set to stand separately from one that The Last Jedi filmmaker Rian Johnson is working on, as well as the so-called Skywalker Saga being helmed by J.J. Abrams.
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy remarked, “David Benioff and Dan Weiss are incredible storytellers. We hope to include them in the journey forward when they are able to step away from their busy schedule to focus on Star Wars.”
The news comes a month after The Hollywood Reporter exclusively broke that Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige was developing a Star Wars film, a move that drew speculation that perhaps this could be a testing ground for the Marvel Cinematic Universe architect to have a bigger role in a galaxy far, far away in the future. Earlier this month, Feige’s resume got even bigger when he was upped to chief creative officer at Marvel, overseeing the creative direction of Marvel’s storytelling and content creation across mediums including publishing, film, TV and animation.
Meanwhile, Benioff and Weiss signed a five-year, $250 million overall deal with Netflix in August that was met with envy and a bit of head-scratching, as their commitment to Star Wars would have meant that their new content for Netflix may have taken a decade to come to fruition. The duo have been in high demand since completing Game of Thrones, which swept the Emmy Awards this year with 12 wins, including best drama, but received a divided response from critics and fans. […]”
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Moose
I wonder if any of the chaos related to the comings and goings (whether voluntary or not) of all of these Disney Star Wars creators on most of their movies is due to a realization on said creators part that do not know/understand/love Star Wars near as much as George Lucas, so why even bother. I think Lucas mentioned something about this when, early on, he was asking different folks if they would direct Eposode I. They all turned him down because Star Wars was his baby and they wanted him to direct it.
I did not discover this for myself until I saw Episode I again after having seen (and liking) Episode VII in the theater. You could just feel that gravity and specialness in Episode I from the first scene. Since then, I have not been able to watch a Disney Star Wars movie without a feeling of detachment and a sense that something is missing.
maychild
My personal belief is that there is no director who understands SW as well as Lucas does, and he created it. There was one other director who did understand it as well as Lucas does: Irvin Kershner…but he died 9 years ago. John Williams understands it as well as Lucas does, but he’s not a director.
Interestingly, though, Kershner could only direct one SW movie; he turned down ROTJ when it was offered to him because he felt directing one SW movie in a lifetime was plenty. Interestingly, Lucas felt the same way after the original movie wrapped. But he went on to direct three more SW movies.
JJ Abrams has directed two vaguely SWish, Disneyfied pieces of mediocrity. OK, it’s not fair to say that about Episode 9 because it hasn’t come out yet. But I’m not all that impressed by his efforts so far. And I cannot abide how he magically turned up with an air of, “I, the boy genius, will fix this and make it right…again.” He’s no genius, boy or otherwise. He’s a paint-by-numbers, derivative, risk-averse director who shamelessly panders to butthurt hateboys but is still somehow celebrated as a maverick. And a pioneer who struck a blow for women’s equality, since there were NO strong female characters in SW before Rey.
That last bit is sarcasm.
jpieper668
JJ is full of sh*t
jpieper668
Just That the trilogy would be about the origins of the Jedi