Nerdlumps rejoice, Star Wars cast announced
- Thread starter Fatbat
- Start date
The crazy part is how many 'unknowns' (relatively) there are in the final cast, which is kind of hilarious when you think about how much time and effort was put into trying to uncover the cast. Literally months of rumors flying back and forth about who's reading, auditioning, meeting with Abrams etc. Daisy Ridley, Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow, Andy Serkis ... these people weren't mentioned once in any of the hundreds-to-thousands of 'news' reports covering this movie.
Instead we got rumors about Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Fassbender, Gary Oldman, Zac Efron, Hugo Weaving and more established actors etc - when all along, they never had any shot at all and their mentions were either complete fiction and/or their agents boosting their client’s overall profile.
Fucking Hollywood 'News'.
Instead we got rumors about Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Fassbender, Gary Oldman, Zac Efron, Hugo Weaving and more established actors etc - when all along, they never had any shot at all and their mentions were either complete fiction and/or their agents boosting their client’s overall profile.
Fucking Hollywood 'News'.
I'm not a fan of either - but I know enough that trekkies and star wars nerds will shit kick each other for the next 2 years debating whether the new star wars movie was good/sucked because of the trekies director.
The trekie/starwars fued shall never die.
He is a good director, he did a bad ass job with star trek, not sure who else you would pick who can do a way better job than him?
I'm glad the cast is filled with relative unknowns. When Star Wars Ep. IV came out, the only recognizable face among the leads was Guinness. The casting director's decisions worked to the story's advantage since they avoided causing a disconnect in viewers. Viewers were left to immerse themselves in the story.
Imagine if Brad Pitt had been hired to play one of the leads in Ep. VII. Some viewers would likely sit in the theater and think to themselves "Oh look, it's Brad Pitt... he was awesome in Kalifornia... his wife's pretty hot... I hope Fury is good... man, his hair looks awful...."
Casting unknowns removes that risk (while introducing others, of course).
Abrams is a scene guy. He's great at composing scenes that impress with action and/or special effects (e.g. Star Trek). He's also good at creating short-term suspense (e.g. Lost). But he's far less talented at building a compelling story arc. That's why Lost petered out quickly. Abrams lost focus on the arc.
Star Wars has a huge arc. George Lucas sucks in many ways, but his arc for Star Wars was brilliant. Abrams has yet to show the same degree of skill, creativity, and finesse.
If I were a studio exec or producer, I would trust him to write/direct an action flick. I would not trust him to write/direct Lord of the Rings or the Harry Potter series.
For Star Wars, I'd get excited if Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Curaon, or Christopher Nolan were penning the script or directing the film.
I would pick someone that didn't just make a series of movies for an extremely similar, rival franchise. This Star Wars movie will probably be way too similar to the last two Star Trek movies. Zack Snyder could have done it, Favreau, Del Toro. . . I know a few of them weren't interested since Disney took the helm and I won't say that any of them would necessarily do a better job, but it is just sad that two of the most iconic science fiction franchises in history are now directed by the same guy and one of them is owned by Disney.
JakeStratham said:
I always admired that even some of the "big name" actors recognized this issue and some have addressed it by maintaining an extremely private life given their situation, etc. I always liked Kevin Spacey's quote on this subject as he is a good example of this I think:
Spacey: "We live in a world where infotainment has just run rampant," declared reluctant celebrity Kevin Spacey in an interview several years ago. "Frankly, I don't want anyone to know anything about me. The longer an actor can remain in the shadows, the characters will emerge." Out of the limelight for so long, the New Jersey-born actor has, in the last few years, won a brace of Oscars and finally gone centre stage."
As far as Abrams goes, I agree with others that would have liked to have seen a different director take this project on. A huge part of me is just crazy jealous that JJ Abrams is able to be involved with so many cool projects and bring so many ideas to life. The dude is ON TOP right now, and really has been since LOST/Cloverfield etc. He's the perfect "nerd" director, but there are a lot of other "nerds" mentioned, like some in this thread that would be better for the Star Wars story IMO.
![FanB_DF-02491[2]m.jpg](http://img.trekmovie.com/images/celeb/FanB_DF-02491[2]m.jpg)
I'm calling it right now. Episode 10, due out around 2030, will be a trek/wars crossover pitting captain kirk against a Sith lord out to dominate all galaxies.
Thanks JJ. /sarcasm
Thanks JJ. /sarcasm
JJ knocked it out the park with Star Trek. Could there be someone better? Probably, but let's just be happy Lucas had the good sense to step aside and not shit all over his story again with his vintage 1970s rusty ass director / producer / writing chops like in Ep. I-III.
Denzel Washington is one actor that has never made me think "that was him in training day or man on fire"
Yup, I agree. Denzel one of my favorites for that same reason. When I watched American Gangsta, I forgot he killed it in Training Day (one of my favorite movies).
When I see Denzel, I mentally go through the films he worked on with Tony Scott. Then I always think of him and Dakota Fanning in Man on Fire. Eventually, I end up thinking about Christopher Walken talking about how Creasey's about to paint his masterpiece.
Weird, but there it is. And it's doubly weird since Man on Fire wasn't that great.
To be clear, Denzel is a great actor and I enjoy watching him do his thing. He's just very familiar to me.