The Star Wars universe is up and running, production is underway for Star Wars: Episode VII, and just yesterday it was announced that there are plans for new Star Wars video games produced by Electronic Arts. With that all said, I am more interested in the upcoming Star Wars spin off movies and Simon Kinberg, the screenwriter penning one of them, had a little bit to say about the process.
Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes) and Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back) are the first two men that Disney brought in to work on the Star Wars spin off movies, so they know more than almost anyone not named J.J. Abrams about what is going on. Or do they?
“We’re really at the early phases of figuring out the details, but the spirit of the original movie is the thing I fell in love with, so it’s the spirit of that that I think will guide us,” Kinberg said.
Kinberg did talk about generating brand new material in the popular Star Wars universe, once again proving that Disney is ignoring the expanded universe to instead give fans something completely new. He also mentioned how he is the smaller name involved, among giants like Kasdan and Michael Arndt, who is writing Episode VII. Arndt, of course, wrote Toy Story 3.
“It’s great to have a chance to work with those guys. Larry is really an idol of mine,” Kinberg said. “He is, as much as anybody, the reason I wanted to get into screenwriting when I was a kid. “Raiders” and “Empire Strikes Back” were the two things that I saw when I was younger that I wanted to one day somehow emulate. So having the opportunity to be around him is as exciting as any aspect of the “Star Wars” process.”
As for the stories themselves, Simon Kinberg feels – as many fans do – that the movies should be more like the original trilogy and be more character driven. As someone working on the Star Wars spin off movies, that is a very comforting statement.
“I think what worked so well in all of the “Star Wars” movies is the characters,” Kinberg said. “I think the reason that they’re different than other science fiction or other genre movies is because George created a universe of people that you wanted to go back and see over and over again … like I did when I was a kid. ‘Empire Strikes Back’ was the first movie I saw in a movie theater more than once … I loved Han, I loved Leia, I loved Luke, I was right at the age when I was old enough to start to understand the nuance of that movie … that changed my life, that movie.”
Source: LA Times
