Asked at the premier for historical epic Lincoln whether he’d be interested in directing the new Star Wars trilogy, Steven Spielberg told Access Hollywood, “No! No! It’s not my genre. It’s my best friend George’s genre.”
Star Trek director JJ Abrams and Iron Man‘s Jon Favreau more or less declined when pressed by Hollywood Life, albeit it with far more words.
“Look,” said Abrams, “Star Wars is one of my favourite movies of all time. I frankly feel that – I almost feel that, in a weird way, the opportunity for whomever it is to direct that movie, it comes with the burden of being that kind of iconic movie and series. I was never a big Star Trek fan growing up, so for me, working on Star Trek didn’t have any of that, you know, almost fatal sacrilege and so, I am looking forward more then anyone to the next iterations of Star Wars, but I believe I will be going as a paying moviegoer!”
Favreau was a bit more evasive, saying, “I think both JJ and I come from a generation of people who formed our whole creative persona around what we experienced as kids from watching those films, and I have had the good fortune of working with George [Lucas] and around George, and whether it is doing a voice on Clone Wars, or being at the Skywalker Ranch mixing Iron Man – so I have been very happy and lucky to just experience the culture that Lucas has created, both in my own life growing up as a kid and professional – whether it was interviewing him at film festivals on stage, he is just a really wonderful, talented gifted guy who has changed the business so much, so I am just giddy, first and foremost as a fan, to see what happens with it.
“I think there is a lot of question marks of how they are going to do it, and who they are going to do it with, and what the story is going to be about; but to say that I am not excited about it is definitely an understatement. We’ll see.”
The complete Star Wars saga (so far!) is available on Blu-ray priced £56.79 from Amazon.co.uk.
