And so the Star Wars: Episode VII directors search continues, with the latest rumor being that Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class), who was said to be Disney's top choice to direct the film a few weeks back, may be taking on the job after all. With previously rumored director Colin Trevorrow, now announced to be writing and possibly directing Disney's Flight of the Navigator remake, Vaughn is once again the top name up for the job.
Just a week ago the main word on Star Wars: Episode VII was that director Colin Trevorrow had confirmed his involvement with the new film as back as in June in an interview for his film Safety Not Guaranteed. Although very vague about what his next project was, many had automatically assumed he was talking about Star Wars, especially considering how many Star Wars refrences there were in Safety Not Guaranteed. But it looks like we were all off on that one, because Disney has just tapped him and Derek Connolly for their Flight of the Navigator remake. Now the number one name that had come up to be a frontrunner before the Trevorrow thing had started was Matthew Vaughn, who unlike other directors whose names have been attached to the project (J.J. Abrams, Brad Bird, Steven Spielberg) never denied his involvement with the film.
Well now the chances of him directing seem more fact than fiction, considering what Jason Flemyng had to say in an interview when asked about the new Star Wars film. Fleymings has been a frequent collaborator of Vaughn's for quite some time now, and they have done nine films together, so it's safe to say he has a heads up on just what Vaughn is doing next. Flemyng seemingly confirms the Vaughn/Star Wars rumor when talking about if the director would find a role for him in the new Star Wars film. Check it out at the 1:10 mark:
Vaughn has recently been making some odd moves as far as his future films, which further supports the rumor of his plans to direct Star Wars: Episode VII. First the director had dropped out of the Kick-Ass sequel to work on the sequel to X-Men First Class; X-Men Days of Future Past. But recently Vaughn also dropped out of Days of Future Past and was replaced by Bryan Singer, apparently to work on an adaption of Mark Miller's Secret Service comic, which ironically has Mark Hamill attached to star. Now Vaughn has certainly proven through his track record that he can put together great films, and mainly his film Stardust embodied some the very elements needed to make a great Star Wars movie. That plus the many talented actors that Vaughn has worked with, thtat would personally fit well in the Star Wars universe, such as Aaron Johnson, James McAvoy, Henry Cavill, Mark Strong, and Michael Fassbender make him a pretty exciting choice for Disney to go with.
As for the other news on Star Wars Episode VII, writers Simon Kinberg (X-Men: First Class, Sherlock Holmes) and Lawrence Kasdan (Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Raiders of the Lost Ark) had been officially been set on writing duties for Episodes 8 and 9, after Michael Arndt was recently confirmed to be working on the script for 7. But now THR is reporting that Kasdan and Kinberg may not be necessarly working on Episodes 8 and 9, but rather character spinoff films. While this has yet to be confirmd, it's safe to say that this rumor fits with statements by Michael Iger stating that Disney plans on releasing a new Star Wars film every two to three years, as well as a recent staement my Kathy Kennedy herself that they plan on producing a few LucasFilm movies per year.
While that isn’t necessarly limited to just Star Wars, it’s currently LucasFilm’s most active franchise. The rumor also states that Disney and LucasFilm are planning on modeling the Star Wars universe after Marvel’s own Cinematic Universe (Who isn’t these days). Whether this means that we will be seeing origin stories of some of our favorite characters, such as Joe Johnston’s proposed Boba Fett film, or that we will just be seeing spinoffs of the new trilogies characters has yet to be revealed. The expaneded universe of Star Wars has already been shown in books, video games, and comics, so maybe we’ll be seeing adaptions of those some time soon. Force Unleashed movie anyone?
What do you think of Matthew Vaughn directing Star Wars: Episode VII? What do you think of the plans for an expanded Star Wars universe?
