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> At the heart of this mess is Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy Took too long for the article to mention this. How can she possibly still have a job? It wa

> At the heart of this mess is Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy Took too long for the article to mention this. How can she possibly still have a job? It was her call to hire 3 different directors for the sequels (initially, I know Abrams came back) with no agreed upon direction of the plot. Complain about Rian Johnson’s (awful) episode 8, but ultimately it was Kennedy that gave him free reins to do what he wanted. It’s just mind boggling that the very same company that’s done an amazing job building a unified “universe” with Marvel by Kevin Feige has done such an awful job with Star Wars by Kennedy.

gjsman-1000 3y ago
The problem is that her resume of successful productions is strangely amazing for how she's run Star Wars. Gremlins; E.T.; Indiana Jones; Jurassic Park; Twister; Schindler's List; Back To The Future; etc. Presumably, it's partially because she hitched along as Producer for almost all Spielberg films and it did her career wonders by association. So who is the replacement? She's produced on so many successful series that her Star Wars ineptitude is heartbreaking. You need to find someone with a better resume; and if you can't, what's your criteria for picking a replacement if nobody is qualified replace her on previous merits?
- bluedevil2k 3y ago
  A resume only tells you what she did in the past (or way past in her case), not what she could potentially do in the future. And not to sound ageist (I’m old as well), but she’s almost 70 and at some point she won’t be in touch with what “the kids” want any longer. Feige is 50 for comparison. I know I don’t always understand why my kids like certain things nowadays.
  - runesofdoom 3y ago
    You want the showrunners for Rings of Power instead? Amazon went for the best mix of young, talented and well-rexommended they could find, and they blew it.
    - theshrike79 3y ago
      The Tolkien estate blew it. Amazon could only use Silmarillion, NOTHING else. They were seriously hampered on what they could touch without getting sued.
      - Amezarak 3y ago
        They couldn’t use the Silmarillion, only LotR, including appendices, which Tolkien had sold the film rights for long ago when he was in financial distress. Christopher Tolkien, his son and close collaborator, hated the movies and likely was not interested in licensing anything, regardless of price. I think he was right. Since he has passed, I expect that will change sooner or later. Even so, blaming the licensing is absurd. The writers had carte blanch to write a new, original story set in the Second Age, or flesh out the framework in the Appendices - which, by the way, is almost all Tolkien’s writing on the Second Age anyway, so they’re not missing much. They blew it because they can’t write, not because they couldn’t get all the material they needed. They deviated from all the material they did license anyway, keeping basically only character names and the barest outline of plot (magic rings are made), they changed literally almost everything else they “adapted”. Blaming the Tolkien estate is a ridiculous diversion from the utter mediocrities that are running all these major franchises.
setgree 3y ago
This is interesting to me because it's so at odds with how I took in the new trilogy. I thought only Johnson showed any vision at all, and I also thought his sense of small scale combat choreography was way better, e.g. the scene where Adam Driver and Rey fight those guys in the red suits. JJ's movies were so derivative of the original trilogy I sometimes wondered if he was messing with us, e.g. the scenewhere a character says, if I recall, "it's just like the death star!" once they've unveiled...another death star. But yes, the fact that the three movies don't gel whatsoever, in terms of tone or plot, seems like a management issue. Really puts into perspective what the folks at Marvel have pulled off. The X-Men and DCEU movies seem like a similar story.
- gjsman-1000 3y ago
  > the red suits is one of my favorite fight scenes, ever. Well, I hate to ruin it then, but the choreography for that specific scene was widely criticized for having serious mistakes and editing errors. https://youtu.be/CI-W3BEjRtI https://youtu.be/CI-W3BEjRtI (a bit bloated overview, skip to most watched sections) https://youtu.be/qyzwBWsqqw8 https://youtu.be/qyzwBWsqqw8 (50 minute investigation on all the mistakes) The first video doesn't mention it, but the constant red guard spinning, is because stuntmen are trained to quickly add spins and flourishes... when the actors are too slow and behind schedule in the sequence.
  - setgree 3y ago
    I watched a bit of the second vid, and I see why some people would have fun making and/or watching this; but to me it totally misses the point of what is magical about cinema.
    - nordsieck 3y ago
      > I watched a bit of the second vid, and I see why some people would have fun making and/or watching this; but to me it totally misses the point of what is magical about cinema. Could you expand your point a bit more?
marcosdumay 3y ago
> an amazing job building a unified “universe” with Marvel It's about as unified as it's creativity-free. Disney is killing both universes, one is just way more blatant than the other. (But well, the series aren't going through the same path.)
basch 3y ago
I agree the buck stops with Kennedy BUT the original story was that Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3) was hired to write a trilogy. He didn't write fast enough (for Iger?), and Abrams replaced him and his story. What we can deduce, is that ad hoc unconnected movies wasnt plan A. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/nov/09/star-wars-michael-arndt https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/nov/09/star-wars-micha... There is also maybe more recycled Arndt ideas scattered through the trilogy than he gets credit for. https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/michael-arndt-reveals-rejected-plots-from-star-wars-the-force-awakens-a-much-larger-role-for-redacted-95887/ https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/michael-arndt-re...

gjsman-1000 3y ago

The problem is that her resume of successful productions is strangely amazing for how she's run Star Wars. Gremlins; E.T.; Indiana Jones; Jurassic Park; Twister; Schindler's List; Back To The Future; etc. Presumably, it's partially because she hitched along as Producer for almost all Spielberg films and it did her career wonders by association. So who is the replacement? She's produced on so many successful series that her Star Wars ineptitude is heartbreaking. You need to find someone with a better resume; and if you can't, what's your criteria for picking a replacement if nobody is qualified replace her on previous merits?

bluedevil2k 3y ago
A resume only tells you what she did in the past (or way past in her case), not what she could potentially do in the future. And not to sound ageist (I’m old as well), but she’s almost 70 and at some point she won’t be in touch with what “the kids” want any longer. Feige is 50 for comparison. I know I don’t always understand why my kids like certain things nowadays.
- runesofdoom 3y ago
  You want the showrunners for Rings of Power instead? Amazon went for the best mix of young, talented and well-rexommended they could find, and they blew it.
  - theshrike79 3y ago
    The Tolkien estate blew it. Amazon could only use Silmarillion, NOTHING else. They were seriously hampered on what they could touch without getting sued.
    - Amezarak 3y ago
      They couldn’t use the Silmarillion, only LotR, including appendices, which Tolkien had sold the film rights for long ago when he was in financial distress. Christopher Tolkien, his son and close collaborator, hated the movies and likely was not interested in licensing anything, regardless of price. I think he was right. Since he has passed, I expect that will change sooner or later. Even so, blaming the licensing is absurd. The writers had carte blanch to write a new, original story set in the Second Age, or flesh out the framework in the Appendices - which, by the way, is almost all Tolkien’s writing on the Second Age anyway, so they’re not missing much. They blew it because they can’t write, not because they couldn’t get all the material they needed. They deviated from all the material they did license anyway, keeping basically only character names and the barest outline of plot (magic rings are made), they changed literally almost everything else they “adapted”. Blaming the Tolkien estate is a ridiculous diversion from the utter mediocrities that are running all these major franchises.

setgree 3y ago

This is interesting to me because it's so at odds with how I took in the new trilogy. I thought only Johnson showed any vision at all, and I also thought his sense of small scale combat choreography was way better, e.g. the scene where Adam Driver and Rey fight those guys in the red suits. JJ's movies were so derivative of the original trilogy I sometimes wondered if he was messing with us, e.g. the scenewhere a character says, if I recall, "it's just like the death star!" once they've unveiled...another death star. But yes, the fact that the three movies don't gel whatsoever, in terms of tone or plot, seems like a management issue. Really puts into perspective what the folks at Marvel have pulled off. The X-Men and DCEU movies seem like a similar story.

gjsman-1000 3y ago
> the red suits is one of my favorite fight scenes, ever. Well, I hate to ruin it then, but the choreography for that specific scene was widely criticized for having serious mistakes and editing errors. https://youtu.be/CI-W3BEjRtI https://youtu.be/CI-W3BEjRtI (a bit bloated overview, skip to most watched sections) https://youtu.be/qyzwBWsqqw8 https://youtu.be/qyzwBWsqqw8 (50 minute investigation on all the mistakes) The first video doesn't mention it, but the constant red guard spinning, is because stuntmen are trained to quickly add spins and flourishes... when the actors are too slow and behind schedule in the sequence.
- setgree 3y ago
  I watched a bit of the second vid, and I see why some people would have fun making and/or watching this; but to me it totally misses the point of what is magical about cinema.
  - nordsieck 3y ago
    > I watched a bit of the second vid, and I see why some people would have fun making and/or watching this; but to me it totally misses the point of what is magical about cinema. Could you expand your point a bit more?

marcosdumay 3y ago

> an amazing job building a unified “universe” with Marvel It's about as unified as it's creativity-free. Disney is killing both universes, one is just way more blatant than the other. (But well, the series aren't going through the same path.)

basch 3y ago

I agree the buck stops with Kennedy BUT the original story was that Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3) was hired to write a trilogy. He didn't write fast enough (for Iger?), and Abrams replaced him and his story. What we can deduce, is that ad hoc unconnected movies wasnt plan A. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/nov/09/star-wars-michael-arndt https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/nov/09/star-wars-micha... There is also maybe more recycled Arndt ideas scattered through the trilogy than he gets credit for. https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/michael-arndt-reveals-rejected-plots-from-star-wars-the-force-awakens-a-much-larger-role-for-redacted-95887/ https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/michael-arndt-re...