Full frontal Star Wars - D&D Strike Back

[Darth Richard II]

Yeah I don't see Revan working in a filmed format.

[RumHam]

I wonder if the plan is to make some of these movies exclusive to their streaming service? I just can't see releasing that many Star Wars movies in the next decade.  Unless Benioff and Weiss are doing the Obi-Wan project or something. 

[Darth Richard II]

Disney has pretty much said they're doing one Star Wars film a year, so I don't find this that surprising.

[Ghjhero]

15 hours ago, Rhom said:

Yes, that’s Revan.  If done right, the big reveal at the end would be mind blowing for anyone who didn’t know the story.  But I don’t know how you would keep that secret.

Ok now I am really curious about what Revan’s story is. Are there any well written books out there that I should check out?

[Cas Stark]

14 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Disney has pretty much said they're doing one Star Wars film a year, so I don't find this that surprising.

And that is really stupid.  It's guaranteed to destroy the franchise as quickly as possible.

[red snow]

2 hours ago, Cas Stark said:

And that is really stupid.  It's guaranteed to destroy the franchise as quickly as possible.

I can see how they look at the Marvel films and how people have been predicting superhero fatigue since 2010 and think "worth a try". The problem with the Star Wars films so far is that there isn't much breadth to the franchise - it's been the main trilogies and filling in the gaps from the past. What they need is some more varierty exploring different times or at least exploring different aspects of the world from the new trilogy. Maybe the two new trilogies will achieve this?

I do agree that part of Star Wars appeal has been it feeling like an "event". That's bound to diminish as more films come out but as long as they still pull in a ton of money I'm sure Disney won't mind if they aren't as successful as TFA which had a "once in a generation" feel.

But they do need to stick their necks out and not play it safe with the spin off movies like they have so far.

[Rhom]

2 hours ago, Ghjhero said:

Ok now I am really curious about what Revan’s story is. Are there any well written books out there that I should check out?

Well... "well written" and anything Star Wars brook related is obviously a treacherous line to walk.

There are books set in The Old Republic backdrop, but I don't know if there was a novelization of the game or not.  His story plays out over the course of the first KOTOR game and then has some more in the TOR MMO with a book or two sandwiched in between.   

When everyone talks about the Revan story, they are really talking about the first KOTOR.

[RumHam]

At a certain point though between Marvel and Star Wars it's just too many movies for one company to release in a year without cannibalizing their own business to some extent. They're already doing three Marvel and one Star Wars a year. Not to mention all their other stuff, and soon probably all of Fox's stuff.  

[Bronn Stone]

While lots of folks around here have varying opinions, and often widely varying opinions, about the artistic value of D&D's contribution, their financial success can't really be questioned.  They took something from a genre generally considered niche which even its creator described as unfilmable, and filmed it in a fashion that resonated with a wide audience.  I think that is what Disney is buying and I hope that is what Disney gets.  They could do a lot worse.

[Calibandar]

On 7-2-2018 at 3:12 AM, Nictarion said:

I’m certainly in the minority on this board, but I’m a huge fan of these guys, and love GoT to pieces. Very excited about this. 

Same here. They've done a superb job with admittedly strong source material but they've done many great things with GoT.

If you'd ask most people outside of this forum, you'd get a favourable and "that makes sense" kind of reply to the idea that the two showrunners of the biggest most succesful show of the last 7 years, get to run a new series of films in the biggest science fiction commodity there currently is. This seems like a great fit.

 

On 8-2-2018 at 4:18 PM, mormont said:

My main complaint with this is that there are a long list of other creative people who would be far, far more interesting if put on Star Wars. Patty Jenkins. Ryan Coogler. Ava DuVernay. Taiki Waititi, for that matter. I can't think about what Dan and David would bring to the franchise without thinking of how much more any of those people would bring. 

Patty Jenkins has nothing like the body of work D&D have established over 7 hyper popular seasons.

Ryan Coogler did Creed and Fruitvale Station, great films to watch IMO but hardly in any way suggestive as being remotely qualified for a series of Star Wars films. Ava Duvernay? Really?? Taiki Waititi who fucked up Thor and turned into a 2 hour spoof? He should be the very last choice to get nominated.

 

[Darth Richard II]

Heh, I looooooooved Thor 3. Like, possibly my second favorite film of last year after Blade Runner, but I digress.

There are certainly several directors who I want to never, ever, ever, EVER EVER EVER TIMES A THOUSAND see make a Star Wars film. Namely Snyder and Bay.

[Week]

16 minutes ago, Calibandar said:

Patty Jenkins has nothing like the body of work D&D have established over 7 hyper popular seasons.

Other than Hardhome, the Loot Train, and Battle of the Bastards -- what really has been that special that suggests that D&D should be held in such high regard over others mentioned here? IIRC, they've been show-runners so credit for those scenes should go to the directors of each episode. Which would be Miguel Sapochnik (HH & BoB) and Matt Shakman (LT).

16 minutes ago, Calibandar said:

Ryan Coogler did Creed and Fruitvale Station, great films to watch IMO but hardly in any way suggestive as being in any way qualified for a series of Star Wars films.

Black Panther is coming out in a week. All of which are equally, if not more, suggestive of his ability against D&Ds.

16 minutes ago, Calibandar said:

Ava Duvernay? Really?? .

A Wrinkle in Time ?? 

16 minutes ago, Calibandar said:

Taiki Waititi who fucked up Thor and turned into a 2 hour spoof? He should be the very last choice to get nominated. .

I'd define him as the one who directed the Thor movie that made the most money and was the best reviewed by critics and movie-goers.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=marvel2017.htm
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/thor_ragnarok_2017

 

Does it ever occur to you that women and people of color get very few opportunities to direct movies like this? ... so then there is less of a track record to point to, which then is used as justification to continue to marginalize them ... but you really don't seem all that concerned about that.

[red snow]

3 hours ago, RumHam said:

At a certain point though between Marvel and Star Wars it's just too many movies for one company to release in a year without cannibalizing their own business to some extent. They're already doing three Marvel and one Star Wars a year. Not to mention all their other stuff, and soon probably all of Fox's stuff.  

I think that's a bigger risk than "franchise fatigue". It already looks like the Fox marvel films may be having to juggle to stop them falling over MCU films (the New Mutants delay must be partly to do with scheduling rather than it needing to be overhauled that much).

If Disney have 2 star wars films, 3 MCU films and 2 Fox films (and at least a spidey film every other year and I'm guessing there's a gentleman's agreement for sony not to bring out Venom and other spidey spin-offs that clash either) a year that's a lot of major releases to find slots for without even considering the other franchises they have at hand. Maybe Disney will become self-limiting before they can oversaturate a given franchise?

[Magnar of Skagos]

When I first read this headline I got excited hoping Disney fired Rian Johnson...

[Darth Richard II]

Sigh. 

[Magnar of Skagos]

Yeah, one can only wish...

[Darth Richard II]

Yeah, I loved TLJ and feel the opposite. I was sighing at the constant whining from fans.

[Magnar of Skagos]

1 hour ago, Darth Richard II said:

Yeah, I loved TLJ and feel the opposite. I was sighing at the constant whining from fans.

Legitimate question: what did you like about it? I hear people say they like it, never hear anyone specify what about it they liked. For me it was just unsatisfying the whole way through. Just felt like it was a huge missed opportunity for me.

[Relic]

meh

[Werthead]

Here is my take.

My key take is Benioff has shown only patchy form when allowed to work on his own material. When he's working on other people's work, he's a lot more assured, although not always. Weiss, to be frank, hasn't shown any form whatsoever outside of his work with Benioff. OTOH, they've been exceptional producers and enablers of other people's vision.

To that end I'd be far happier with them producing a new Star Wars trilogy and letting someone else write it, or if they were adapting another extant work in the setting altogether.

That actually goes into another discussion. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a success because it has almost 60 years of pre-existing stories to draw on, encompassing thousands of characters and storylines. The 18 Marvel movies to date, in fact, have barely scraped the surface of this. They've done one mega-epic (Thanos/Infinity Stones), several big-ish stories (Civil War, Age of Ultron, Planet Hulk) and a whole load of one-shots. They have a huge amount of material to draw on and Disney have allowed them tremendous personal freedom on a per-movie level, which is how we've ended up with films as diverse as Black Panther, The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and Winter Soldier, whilst also maintaining a tight, over-arcing storyline.

The Star Wars movies have the opposite problem: Kennedy and Lucasfilm have orchestrated a tight, controlling mindset for each film, forcing homogenisation on films from radically different directors. You either get in line or are fired (like Lord, Miller and Trevorrow) or are sidelined (like Edwards). Bizarrely, however, they have no over-arcing storyline or plan for the movies. Writers and directors are allowed to do whatever they want with no regard for continuity. This has led to some solid films, but the series overall is wildly inconsistent and incoherent (within itself and with the earlier trilogies) at the moment.

What would make more sense would be to cherry pick the finest stories from the previous canon (novels, video games and comics) and adapt them directly. Knights of the Old Republic is ripe for an adaptation, for example. Kieron Gillen's Darth Vader comics are extremely well-regarded. Rebels has shown that Thrawn works on-screen but the kid-friendly tone means they haven't been able to really cut loose with how ruthless he can be. If Lucasfilm are really going to be releasing 1-2 Star Wars movies a year every year (and possibly more, later on), they'll need to start replicating what works with the MCU, including drawing on previous, popular stories rather than holding them in disdain.

Or, to put it another way, I'd be much happier with Benioff and Weiss even as writers if they were adapting a solid, well-proven Star Wars story rather than coming up with something original. Their original material has been, charitably, unremarkable.