Star Wars Episode VII Lands Director

Recently, Disney acquired Lucasfilms, home to the Star Wars franchise among other film series for an astounding $4.6 billion dollars. Many films were fretting the decision of Lucas to sell his prized production company to Disney. Differing opinions have littered the blogosphere since the announcement of a seventh installment in the Star Wars series of films.

Rebooting the Franchise

Disney’s recent film releases have not exactly lit up the entertainment world. Last year they released an absolute bomb in the film adaptation of John Carter. With a budget production nearing the $250 million dollar mark, it has only made back a quarter or less of that in box office receipts. Hoping to acquire a built-in franchise, the purchase of Lucasfilms gives Disney just that. The days following the announcement of the acquisition, it leaked that they will eventually release 5 more films in the Star Wars series bring the total number of films in the franchise to 12. Episode VII, is due for release sometime in 2015.

Finding the Right Pieces

With rumors abounding after the announcement of a seventh film, the principle pieces are slowly falling into place. Initially, Empire Strikes Back co-writer Lawrence Kasdan was rumored to be interested in writing the reboot in the franchise. Subsequent to those rumors, Michael Arndt was hired on to write the seventh installment. His previous works include the well-received films: Brave, Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine. Those who were hoping to reignite the series with a story from Kasdan shouldn’t be too dismayed. He has been hired on as a consultant and should have serious input in the creative direction of the franchise.

Director of Choice

The most important piece of the Star Wars puzzle fell into place recently with J.J Abrams being named as the tentative director of Episode VII. J.J Abrams is no stranger to film franchise reboots. In 2006, he was bequeathed the opportunity to direct the third installment in the Mission Impossible film series. It was the first time he plied his trade on the big screen. While the film didn’t break box office records it was a reasonable success both financially and critically. His guidance of the franchise led to two subsequent films-one released in 2011 and one currently being filmed. Following Abrams effort with the Mission Impossible franchise, he was tapped to do the Star Trek reboot. The result was a widely praised film that made boatloads on money.

Needless to say, Abrams has the cache to take an existing pop culture comedy and produce great cinematic results. Abrams is the latest choice by Disney that should assure fans that the Mickey Mouse company will not screw up the Star Wars franchise. With competent pieces in place in an established screenwriter and franchise director, Star Wars fans should have great anticipation over the next year with news leaking out slowly about the progress of the film. The biggest piece of information is whether or not some of the original players will reprise their roles-most notably Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher (Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia respectively).