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OFFICIAL NEWS JJ Abrams reveals details on Michael Arndt's departure from writing TFA

Discussion in 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' started by Lord Phanatic, Dec 10, 2015.

  1. Lord Phanatic

    Lord Phanatic Luminous Being
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    Helloooooo Cantina!
    I just read this article by io9 that shed some light on an issue many of us have wanted to know the inside scoop about for quite some time. The departure of Michael Arndt from his script writing duties for Star Wars - The Force Awakens. There's a lot I could say but I think the article pretty much sums it up. I'm interested in reading your thoughts on this now, and after we have seen the movie so.........feel free to kill some time and share your input.

    May the force be with you!!!


    Here's the link.
    http://io9.com/j-j-abrams-told-us-the-origin-story-of-star-wars-the-1747119292
     
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  2. Fussel2107

    Fussel2107 Rebel General

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    I would've done the same as Kasdan.
    Reworking something someone else wrote is extremely difficult.
    You need to constantly second guess yourself to hit their voice or you need to rework every word to to make it yours and even then you need to smooth over edges.
    That takes a lot of time and excuse me...18 months with half the thing already written?

    Uhm..
    Extreme perfectionism or a shitty work ethic or too many projects.
    I understand taking your time when you got it, but when you don't, you don't and you put in as many all nighters as you must.
    6 months is cutting it very close, but 18 is a bit extreme.
    But then I am German, I see writing as a job and I can only talk about books and even that is more of a hobby and side income.

    But when your editor requests 10k in a week, you deliver.
     
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  3. AstromechRecords

    AstromechRecords Jedi General

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    So this confirms that Michael Arndt is the one who came up with Rey and Finn and all .
     
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  4. Antoniop

    Antoniop Clone Trooper

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    I found this part of the article the most interesting:

    “It became very clear that if we were adhere to the Expanded Universe, it would have been a very tricky thing to navigate,” Abrams said. “It wasn’t even clear what is canon in the Expanded Universe. And I don’t think the vast majority of Star Wars fans have ever read a [Star Wars] novel. We can’t try and please every fan of that universe first. We have to try and tell the best version of a Star Wars movie.”

    That said, Abrams admitted they didn’t necessarily throw out every single thing.

    “I thought ‘If ideas that come up feel like they overlap and feel like they work? Great,’” he said. “But we can’t adhere to something that is as vast [as the EU], and frankly [is] lesser known than the films.”

    However, things being “lesser known” was one of the keys to making The Force Awakens stand up with the original films.

    “The fact that the first movie that came out was essentially Episode IV says everything,” Abrams said. “What George Lucas did in that first movie is unparalleled. And one of the great things he did is he didn’t explain what the ‘dark times’ were. He didn’t explain what the Senate was, exactly. He didn’t explain what the Clone Wars were. He didn’t explain what a moisture farm was. I mean, almost nothing.”
     
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  5. Jedi77-83

    Jedi77-83 Force Sensitive

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    I love this because that means the movie will move from Point A to Point B to Point C and won't get bogged down in filler material to get everyone up to speed. We won't know all the details as to what has happened in the past 30 years, or what has specifically happened to Han, Luke, Leia, Chewy, R2, C3PO, but we will know just enough that the movie will make sense, but still leaving asking questions.
     
    #5 Jedi77-83, Dec 10, 2015
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2015
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  6. Derth Nadir

    Derth Nadir Rebel General

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    It was during the process of working with him, but they apparently collaborated on it.
    "[Abrams to Kasdan] ‘Look, we’re gonna start to reincorporate very quickly many things because I know I want this young woman to be at the center of this thing. I know I want this Stormtrooper to abandon his post.’ There are just fundamental tenets of what we had come up with [with Arndt] that were gonna stick.”

    It is my guess that Rey and Kylo were their take on the basic idea of Vader's grandchildren that Lucas had in his drafts, but with a different story for them to live in. And "Rey" was probably male given Lucas's "grandfather-to-son-to-grandson" quotes.

    I hope Lucas's outline gets released sooner than later, or at least some descriptions of the plot. We know his leads were younger teens, but that's it. I'm guessing Luke was not missing in Lucas's outlines and they wanted more of a mystery about "who is Luke Skywalker" where Lucas probably just had him as a Jedi master training the kids. I know there were rumors that Lucas had the old cast in more cameo roles rather than being central to the plot. TFA makes finding Luke the central concern of the protagonists. I doubt Han went on the adventure with them either.
    There must have been more than young protagonists in Lucas's outlines that they didn't like, or else they could have easily changed the plot a little to fit older characters.

    This was a rumor from the Hollywood Reporter from Jan. 2014
    "Arndt is said to have focused on the offspring of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), with the original trilogy heroes taking on supporting roles. Abrams, however, wanted Episode VII to focus on the classic trio of characters, so audiences could have one more chance to enjoy them before a fitting send-off. The new characters, the offspring, will now be in supporting roles, according to these sources, and take center stage in Episode VIII and IX. Some characters have disappeared from the Arndt script and new ones are being drafted."

    I'm guessing that changed somewhat with Luke missing now and the young leads being more central characters.
    And we know now that Arndt didn't actually have a draft, but some notes and story points.

    And here is a possible basic plot of Arndt's story. http://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2014/04/rumor-possible-star-wars-episode-7-plot.html

    "After ROTJ the Empire is never wiped out. It just floundered for a few years. Han and Leia end up in prison during a time when Luke goes away.
    The main characters are the children of Han and Leia . Тhey grow up as orphans for the most part and seek out Luke Skywalker to break out Han and Leia. They are in prison for like 8 years."


    Interesting that there seems to be an inversion with Han helping to find Luke instead.
     
    #6 Derth Nadir, Dec 10, 2015
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2015
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  7. Greg Kirby

    Greg Kirby Rebel Official

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    what I get from this...

    1.Rey & Ren are Vader's grandchildren
    2.Ren turns evil and the clan have to confront him and turn him good
    3.Luke jedi academy
    4.Han solo dies
    5.Snoke is Darth Plaguies

    These things re-invented in some form, from a flashback, different back grounds and names..... But they're pretty much saying we put in the best parts of EU we could to make a great star wars story!
     
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  8. Darth Plagueis is Snoke

    Darth Plagueis is Snoke Clone Commander

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    I really wanna know what GL's concept was.
     
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  9. NotYourFather

    NotYourFather Clone Commander

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    AGREED!!!!
     
  10. HAL'sgal

    HAL'sgal Force Sensitive

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    Me, too. But it might make me kind of sad.

    Then there's this:

    “The very first discussions we had were about feeling,” Abrams told io9 last weekend. “What did we want to feel in this film? What did we want the audience to experience and feel? I know that sounds so stupid and obvious, but it was the most important thing to me. The absolute fundamental ‘What do we want the experience to feel like?’”

    The team settled on a huge mix of things: exhilaration, thrills, heartbreak, joy, fear and spirituality, to name a few. And that lead them to the next step.

    “Why are we telling the story at all? If we wanna feel that way, how do we do it? Who are these new characters? ‘Cause this had to be a new story about new people. And that was all gonna be about trying to serve that feeling,” he said.
    This explains a lot. It really does. I knew Abrams was a master of the feels, but Fringe was a huge red flag to me in terms of the logic. I was hoping Kasdan would save the day, but he didn't, IMHO.
     
  11. 77th

    77th Force Sensitive

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    Now that they have a spot on the creative roster just don't be fools and call in "John Ostrander", he is the best SW EU writer hands down, just remember "SW Legacy".

    That would be my dream team, Ostrander with the plot and L Kasdan with dialogues and superb humour, now just give this guys a more than just good and safe movie director and all the SW Fans will go for a big ride.
     
  12. SMN

    SMN Rebel Trooper

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    One of the biggest surprises for me from the Force Awakens was the full and equal Script writer credit for Arndt and he appeared with JJ and Kasden at the scriptwriters press conference. This, and the article, for me strengthens the idea that Arndt starting working with George Lucas' plot outline, then JJ was unhappy with elements of the script and wanted a bigger role of the originals, which now having seen it pretty much just means Han Solo. I am thinking more and more that the basic trajectory of the ST is following the George Lucas outline and characters, but the narrative that gets Lucas' characters from A to B has been radically reworked.
     
  13. Altgr0160

    Altgr0160 Cantina News Hound

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    Again, that report that JJ wanted to have the original characters have one last adventure was simply false. It was only reported by THR and every blog out there reposted it. Somehow everyone took this as the truth.
    Arndt started on his own script from scratch, George wasn't involved. They had to finish the script in 6 months and Arndt was asking for 18 months.
    Kasdan said he was willing to help out but under one condition, he had to start from scratch as well. He didn't want to be tied to whatever Arndt had written. JJ reportedly said that that was fair enough, but there were certain elements from Arndt's script that he was enamored with that he was going to work in to the new script one way or another.
     
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  14. Darth Holmes

    Darth Holmes Rebel Official

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  15. SMN

    SMN Rebel Trooper

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    My understanding was that Arndt was hired by Lucas before he sold to Disney, if that's the case then we can assume the Arndt script was based around Lucas's ideas.
     
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  16. Altgr0160

    Altgr0160 Cantina News Hound

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    I think he was hired by Lucasfilm before Disney came on board. But Goerge had already decided he didn't want to be involved as he was planing to sell the company.
    But you are right, it is unclear. It could be that Arndt started from George ideas.
     
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  17. Cmdr. Ed Straker

    Cmdr. Ed Straker Rebel Official

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    Me too, I want to see and read it.
    --- Double Post Merged, Dec 22, 2015, Original Post Date: Dec 22, 2015 ---
    Will they release it someday? I have the feeling that it will not happen.
    George Lucas said in an interview that they are not using his stuff.
    He got Arndt on board, he wrote the script and I guess he used Lucas outline.
    Lucas sold Star Wars to Disney - K.K. got J.J. and Kasdan on board they took over and so on. (they used many parts from Arndt's unfinished script)
    With the new information, there is clearly a contradiction to that what George Lucas said in the interview, who is exaggerating or lying?
    To me it looks like that George Lucas is exaggerating.
    That he is still butthurt about the PT critics.
    Maybe he is jealous and he don't want them to be successful who he failed, but I could be complete wrong about this.

    This short clip is interesting too.
     
    #17 Cmdr. Ed Straker, Dec 22, 2015
    Last edited: Dec 22, 2015
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  18. SMN

    SMN Rebel Trooper

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    George Lucas definitely said a lot of contradictory things about VII-IX and it is hard to join the dots to something consistent. Trying to put everything together he definitely had ideas for 3 trilogies and 3 stand alone films, the Sequel Trilogy was always a 'maybe' but he got pissed of by the reception of the Prequels and said "Never again", then changed his mind.

    I think that when George Lucas said they didn't use his ideas, it's true, "from a certain point of view." BUT if Arndt worked with Lucas, and elements of the Arndt script were the core for VII and onwards then I suspect his ideas remain the nucleus, but Lucas was unhappy with how much they changed it.
     
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