Disney Hands Star Wars: Episode VII to the Writer of Toy Story 3

Mike Kayatta

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Aug 2, 2011
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Disney Hands Star Wars: Episode VII to the Writer of Toy Story 3


Academy Award winner Michael Arndt has been given the impossible task of producing a script as good as Episode One's.

It seems that after Disney scooped up Star Wars for about 4 billion (yeah, that's "billion" with a "b", by the way) and change, it didn't want to waste any time in churning out a profit. Imagine that! Thus, almost needless to say, Star Wars: Episode VII has hit its nascent pre-production phase, and already requires someone to start churning out dialog that we can only hope won't include the word "meesa." For this gargantuan task, Disney has chosen Michael Arndt, writer of indie comedy romp Little Miss Sunshine and, more recently, Toy Story 3.

The news comes direct from Star Wars' online HQ, where Alec Guinness Would Kick Me Between the Legs If He Was Still Alive [http://starwars.com/news/a-discussion-about-the-future-of-star-wars/index.html]" Lucas lurking around an office with the new dark lord of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy. We'll likely see meatier content once there's more to show.

No, still no word on who'll be directing this leviathan, but with the film in full swing, that news probably isn't too far far away. Lots of people have wondered about the new direction of Star Wars since Disney confirmed its production, and while the announcement of Arndt wrangling the wordy bits doesn't necessarily answer that question in full, the fact that he's most famous for writing a "kid's movie that won't bore adults" could point to the upcoming trilogy taking a similar tack to previous installments.

Still, we shouldn't forget that Michael Arndt is an Academy Award winner, with his first original screenplay out of the gate, Little Miss Sunshine, taking home a tiny golden man, and his second, Toy Story 3, warranting another invitation to the show. So before you get too worried about Mr. Arndt's pedigree, let me leave you with this little gem once spoken gratingly by a certain Hayden Christiansen: "I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth." Yes, folks, there is such a thing as rock bottom. It's all uphill from here.

Probably.

Source: StarWars.com [http://starwars.com/news/michael-arndt-to-write-screenplay-for-star-wars-episode-vii.html]

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Jack_in_theGreen

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Apr 20, 2012
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At last a good writer steps into the series... :p

The big issue for me is: WHICH GENERATION will the new movies be targetted to?
THE 10 year olds...? soooo Disney can sell also MORE "happy meals" with its merchandise?

Or we can expect "some" level of maturity in the stories and character development? (So we old-timers are not left out for a change?)
 

TimeLord

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Aug 15, 2008
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So still no news about when this will be set? i.e. pre-ep1 or post-ep6?

Also I liked Ep1 a lot, just saying... snarky subtitle and all.
 

Lunar Templar

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Sep 20, 2009
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oh?

some one that can write a good movie as penning the script. interesting, this one might be good after all
 

BrionJames

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I want to be angry about this, but there really isn't anything left in me except my love of the original trilogy. They can't make a movie where I'll say, "oh, that was better than Empire!" or even Jedi for that matter. Maybe if the kids nowadays are lucky, it'll be pretty good, but if my instinct it right they're going to parade out a couple of old guys and an old woman and a cgi gorilla-dogman and expect everyone to eat it up. The sad thing - we all know they will and it'll be another movie that makes a bunch of money but doesn't leave any lasting impression on the young minds of this generation. Who knows? Maybe we'll have to endure another movie where a bunch of kids are the protagonists again.
 

matrix3509

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Tartarga said:
So I guess we can expect episode VII to be a tearjerker then?
Really, I'd take anything besides massive frothing rage. Its all I've felt when thinking about Star Wars these days.
 

Gabanuka

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Oct 1, 2009
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This could go one of two ways.

Hell, everything about this new Star Wars series could go one of two ways.
 

Doom972

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Couldn't they get someone with Action/Science Fiction/Fantasy experience? Toy Story 3 was fine, but it's hardly the tone I expect from a good Star Wars film. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude about it, but this kind of news doesn't help.
 

Azure Knight-Zeo

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I'm slightly more optimistic about Episode VII now, but I'm still not sold on it yet.

TimeLord said:
Also I liked Ep1 a lot, just saying... snarky subtitle and all.
I liked too, it may be because I was still just a kid when it came out, but I don't see it as the movie equivilent of the anti-christ that most nerds make it out to be.
 

fix-the-spade

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Jack_in_theGreen said:
The big issue for me is: WHICH GENERATION will the new movies be targetted to?
Well, this guy wrote Toy Story 3, so I guess the answer to that is all of them!
 

RJ Dalton

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Aug 13, 2009
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Azure Knight-Zeo said:
I'm slightly more optimistic about Episode VII now, but I'm still not sold on it yet.

TimeLord said:
Also I liked Ep1 a lot, just saying... snarky subtitle and all.
I liked too, it may be because I was still just a kid when it came out, but I don't see it as the movie equivilent of the anti-christ that most nerds make it out to be.
Yeah, old George waited until Episode Two to trot out the anti-Christ.

I'm still not convinced. This is still a needless sequel and, while Toy Story 3 was a needless sequel that I still liked against all odds, I don't see this guy as having the experience with the kind of material that Star Wars is made of to make this work.
On the other hand, he can't fuck it up any more than Lucas already has.
 

Scarim Coral

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Oct 29, 2010
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I wonder if Susan Arndt is realted to him :p

Either way I don't have any high/ low expectation toward this news (less pressure for him I guess), maybe once I had read the plot I would feel something toward it.
 

Gigano

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Oct 15, 2009
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I was looking forward to meeting Luke's father-in-law Scrooge McDarth, but toy lightsaber duels is even better. May the force feedback be with you.
 

FEichinger

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Aug 7, 2011
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This is interesting ... I rather expected Disney to split into the "kids studios" and "adult studios" again. (Don't get me wrong, they do both either way, just the "it has more of an X feel, than Y") ... This however sounds more like they're trying to ... let's call it "Disney-ify" Star Wars. Which could be awesome, but could fail dramatically just as well.
To sum it up ... Disney, don't screw this up. Very fiiiine line there.
 

Genocidicles

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Sep 13, 2012
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There is no way this could be worse than attack of the clones, so I'm going to be optimistic.

At worst there'll just be another trilogy to ignore, no probs.
 

Fayathon

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Nov 18, 2009
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I might die laughing if Episode Seven revitalizes the franchise by not being a product of Lucas' insanity.

 

tmande2nd

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Oct 20, 2010
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I actually feel a bit better know.

Toy Story 3 was well written.
I mean yes its a kid movie but it has elements of hell, purgatory, death, etc.

I mean Lotso was probably one of the more evil bastards in a recent disney movie recently.
So I remain optimistic for now.

Disney wants to make money so they probably have more then one guy writing and going over the script. I dont see why people are so ENRAGED at this, I mean look at how well they did for Marvel