I just can’t get my head around the idea of another Star Wars film. As the press releases come thick and fast from Lucasfilm it’s clear the idea of a seventh Star Wars film has been in the pipeline for a while, but I’m not sure whether I’m happy about it or not.
I’ve been spurred on by the dedicated Star Wars fans that feature in the documentary The People Vs. George Lucas (Friday 16th November, 8.30pm). The film reminded me of why the Star Wars Trilogy means so much to people, from the obsessive freaks and geeks, those who spend their spare time making tribute films and their money on figurines that never leave the box, to people like me who regard it fondly as a pop culture phenomena from our childhood.
The question that concerns me is the same question that concerned people (as it turns out, quite rightly) when The Phantom Menace was released in 1999. Will modernising and prolonging this saga damage our rose tinted view of the Star Wars legacy? Is it all about the money? And, in this age of special effect wizardly, can the later films be as ground breaking and ambitious as the original trilogy was in 1977?
In the meantime, rumours are swirling about the narrative of Episode VII, and everybody has an opinion. Some news agencies believe Disney will stick to the original stories that Lucas wrote (he wrote material for around a dozen episodes); while others are claiming Disney will opt for an entirely new and original story. To complicate things further, there are also nine beloved Star Wars Expanded Universe novels to draw inspiration from.
There are rumours Darth Vader will be resurrected, the original cast (Ford, Fisher and Hamill) will feature, and Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass) and Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed) are top of the list for directing duties. What we do know for sure though is that Little Miss Sunshine and ToyStory 3 scriptwriter Michael Arndt is writing the screenplay. Surely that’s a good start.
Anyway, I’ll be waiting until 2015 to get worked up about how Disney is going to re-launch one of the greatest franchises of all time. By then my son will be old enough to watch all the Star Wars movies; it will be interesting to see if he prefers the original trilogy (we will be watching the films in order of release!), or the ones aimed at a whole new generation in 2015. One thing I do know for sure, he’ll be dead keen on some of that Star Wars LEGO…