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Benioff and Weiss to Create New Star Wars Series


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Big news out of Lucasfilm, as their official Star Wars site announces that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are planning to go to a galaxy far, far away. Per the announcement:

It was announced today that Benioff and Weiss, creators of the smash-hit, Emmy Award-winning television series Game of Thrones, will write and produce a new series of Star Wars films.

These new films will be separate from both the episodic Skywalker saga and the recently-announced trilogy being developed by Rian Johnson, writer-director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

From Benioff and Weiss’s statement, they plan to jump into this as soon as Game of Thrones is done, meaning they’re keeping themselves quite busy as they’re also supposed to be executive producing the controversial HBO project Confederate.

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You've frequently commented on how exhausted Benioff and Weiss were even by Season 3 of Game of Thrones.  By all accounts, production on later seasons pushed them to the limit - particularly because they insist on micromanaging everything without a full writing staff.

How the heck can they immediately follow by doubling up on BOTH Confederate and a new Star Wars trilogy?

Their reach has exceeded their grasp.

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It's entirely possible that what has been left unsaid is that Confederate has fallen through (perhaps due to the backlash, perhaps to other factors). Or, alternatively, that they are arranging someone else to run the show.

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Or, Elio, Benioff is a crazy person who takes on larger projects than he could ever hope to do WELL:

 

David Benioff & Dan Weiss admit in interview that they don't know how "film production" works and just faked it until they made it for Game of Thrones.  Did they do the same thing to the Star Wars people at LucasFilm & Disney? 

#RhaenyraHasAnArmy

 

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59 minutes ago, Ran said:

It's entirely possible that what has been left unsaid is that Confederate has fallen through (perhaps due to the backlash, perhaps to other factors). Or, alternatively, that they are arranging someone else to run the show.

We need to stop assuming these are rational actors.  That's how they got us.  

"Oh no, [Cersei] would never [reform the Faith Militant in exchange for a bank loan].  That's stupid and against her own interests, so she won't do it."
"Yeah, but you're forgetting that [Cersei] is an incompetent and irrational idiot."

viz

"Oh no, [Benioff & Weiss] would never [double up on not only Confederate and a new Star Wars trilogy at a time when they're already physically exhausted].  That's stupid and against their own interest, so they won't do it".
"Yeah, but you're forgetting that [Benioff and Weiss] are incompetent and irrational idiots".  

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Lucasfilm would surely want to know how much time and involvement they're getting from Benioff & Weiss before handing them over a series that could potentially earn a few billion dollars. So regardless of one's views of Benioff & Weiss, this announcement certainly seems to suggest that Confederate is either dead, on indefinite hold, or that Benioff and Weiss will develop and launch it but will no longer be showrunners so as to satisfy Lucasfilm.

THR has asked HBO to comment on the status of the show.

 

 

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16 minutes ago, Ran said:

Lucasfilm would surely want to know how much time and involvement they're getting from Benioff & Weiss before handing them over a series that could potentially earn a few billion dollars. So regardless of one's views of Benioff & Weiss, this announcement certainly seems to suggest that Confederate is either dead, on indefinite hold, or that Benioff and Weiss will develop and launch it but will no longer be showrunners so as to satisfy Lucasfilm.

THR has asked HBO to comment on the status of the show.

 

 

"[HBO] would surely want to know how much time and involvement they're getting from Benioff and Weiss before handing them over to a series that could potentially earn a few billion dollars, [Game of Thrones].  Surely, [HBO] vetted Benioff and Weiss to make sure they understood the physical basics of television production.  Surely, [HBO] would only hand off [Game of Thrones] to writers who respect the source material.  Surely, [HBO] isn't that naïve."

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Worked out pretty well for HBO, didn't it? But the scale is massively different. And, in any case, now they have 8 seasons of a hit TV show that's blurred the lines between TV and film production under their belt, jumping to film is really going to be nothing for them.

Doesn't change the fact that they can't both launch a new Star Wars film series _and_ showrun a new HBO series simultaneously, and that there's no way either Lucasfilm/Disney or HBO would be okay with their trying to do it. 

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I'm so disappointed by this. I don't think D&D are good storytellers, and this article states that they'll be working on movies (plural), not just an anthology film. What are all these upcoming Star Wars movies about anyway? Rian Johnson has a trilogy and now these two have a saga, but what are they actually making? I don't see the point in promoting a project without actually revealing what that project is.

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Since Season 5 aired, one horror story after another has leaked out that Benioff and Weiss don't understand the physical production process of TV/Film making.  Nor are they willing to learn.

I.e. in Season 6, the director begging them "You're convinced this big battle scene will take 2 weeks to film, but dear god, I've done the math, it will take 6 weeks to film"....and they just refuse to believe him.

Six years of being in unchecked absolute control with no oversight didn't incline them to learn.  So they don't have "eight years of experience" so much as eight years of willful ignorance.  

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When Billy Zane did that infamous Wheel of Time pilot, I remember thinking how glad I was that Robert Jordan is dead and that he can't see that blasphemy.

Now, I feel the same with this news and Carrie Fisher. Can you imagine her POV on the female characters these two would make? 

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On 07/02/2018 at 0:02 AM, The Bard of Banefort said:

I'm so disappointed by this. I don't think D&D are good storytellers, and this article states that they'll be working on movies (plural), not just an anthology film. What are all these upcoming Star Wars movies about anyway? Rian Johnson has a trilogy and now these two have a saga, but what are they actually making? I don't see the point in promoting a project without actually revealing what that project is.

Idk what they will make, (other than its most certainly not about the Skywalkers) but Disney wants to keep releasing Star Wars movies indefinitely until they stop making money off of them. ( Well, the second part is implicit in their decision ^_^) So I guess they'll just hire people to come up with whatever ideias they want, within the SW universe.

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I'm happy I never got into the Star Wars sagas, otherwise I'm sure to be disappointed by this series. I'm assuming the ones that presumed D&D to be talented looked at the viewership ratings of GoT and not the content. Honestly, perhaps they thought D&D wrote the whole story altogether, do they not understand that they essentially rode a huge wave that GRRM had already set into motion? Well, I don't know them, nor do I know anyone in their presence to tell me how they are like, but from what I've read about them - and just watching the deterioration of the latest season of GoT - I'm not impressed.

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16 hours ago, Dimmu Borgir said:

I'm happy I never got into the Star Wars sagas, otherwise I'm sure to be disappointed by this series. I'm assuming the ones that presumed D&D to be talented looked at the viewership ratings of GoT and not the content. Honestly, perhaps they thought D&D wrote the whole story altogether, do they not understand that they essentially rode a huge wave that GRRM had already set into motion? Well, I don't know them, nor do I know anyone in their presence to tell me how they are like, but from what I've read about them - and just watching the deterioration of the latest season of GoT - I'm not impressed.

This is definitely what happened. And they probably don't realize that the success of the show in the first place was due to the quality of the source material. It's true that the show is much more popular than the books but they only see that; for them it doesn't matter what the show is about, just that it created a decade-long phenomenon.

Unfortunately they only see the dollar signs; it's nothing new. They once hired the guy who directed Jurassic World - someone who had no experience in doing a film like that by the way - just because it grossed a billion dollars, basically. And to direct episode IX! He's been fired since then cause his next film was a huge flop lol. But if that hadn't happened he would probably still be there.

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Ha Ha. I'm actually relishing this news. Call me perverse, but I actully WANT to see Dave and Dan go head to head wih Kathleen Kennedy and see who comes out on top. Benioff in particular with his "I'm Goldman Sachs royalty; who tf are you?" autocratic arrogance. Honestly, I've often wondered why Dave and Da didn't get fired from the production after the many controversies during season 5 which caued a noticble dip in the ratings and led a noticble amount of fans to stop watching. Anybody else would have been sent packing after that point; instead, Season 5 wins ALL THE EMMYZ! (not that I regret GOT winning awards; just the wrong seasons.) I think these past few years Dave and Dan have had the attitude that THEY run HBO with regards to this project, not the other way around. 

"they're playing with the big boys now," as the song from "Prince of Egypt" goes. (Gods, that was and is a great movie still.) After TLJ  I've leaned a lot about Ms.  Kennedy; she's changed a LOT from her E.T. naif days with Spielberg to put it mildly. Word will get around in the industry about them if it hasn't already. Will they think they can run Disney too, or just fork over Kathy a bundle of cash and get her to bend the knee like everyone else has? 

 

Then too, SW comes with its own set of headaches. They won't care about the fan any more than they have with GoT, but if they don't luck out and get a set of future films where they don't have to worry about canon/non canon, old vs new EU, etc. And they will find themselves under the global microscope the way they never were for GoT, and they think up until now they've been in the cross-hairs, they're really not. 

 

Welcome to the Big Leagues, D and D...MTFBWY ('cause you're gonna need it.) 

 

One good thing though: I've been fantasizing about Ramin Djawadi scoring a Sw film for months. Who will take over after JW, cause he won't be active too much longer. Ramin has earned it; what other composer today has taken his score out on the road as a popular travelling road show, the way composers like JW and Ennio Morricone used to? GoT has its pop culture chops and global appeal, if not yet the awards (I'm still upset about that Grammy loss; he'd better win for Season 8!) And Ramin can write a theme motif and create "blockbuster" cues with the best. 

Directors like to take composers with them and I hope that counts for Producers too, if they're the writers. I can't imagine Dave and Dan wanting anyone other than Ramin to work with them on their next blockbuster (if only b/c he didn't give them trouble!) 

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