Movies: J.J. Abrams wants Ava DuVernay to direct a Star Wars movie

[playahaitian]

J.J. Abrams wants Ava DuVernay to direct a Star Wars movie

Between Episodes VIII through IX, Rogue One, and the young Han Solo movie, Disney has directors lined up for future Star Wars films all the way through 2019. Beyond that, however, it’s anyone’s game, and more and more people have been calling for the franchise to consider its first female director. (Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy is one of those people.)

Nerdist sat down recently with The Force Awakens’ J.J. Abrams to ask if there’s a specific woman he’d like to see take the director’s chair after him. His “kneejerk reaction”? Selma director Ava DuVernay.

“She is as much a fan of genre movies, and hearing her talk about not just Star Wars, but hearing her talk about those kind of films, is evidence that she would just kill it,” Abrams told Nerdist. “When you look at her work in Selma, which was as well told and as sophisticated and humane a film as I think has come out in the last decade, she is someone who [if] she can do that story that well, there’s no question she’d kill [a Star Wars] movie.”

DuVernay herself responded on Twitter to Abrams’ thoughts.






http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/09/jj-abrams-ava-duvernay-star-wars

 

[playahaitian]

http://bcove.me/30e4g2oc

 

[WhenTheGoingGetsTtuff]

I don't understand why they keep wanting this woman to do these movies. Let her do small budget rom/coms. Let her get her foot in the door. Let her show us what she's got and can be trusted. It doesn't make sense to me.

 

[raze]

I don't understand why they keep wanting this woman to do these movies. Let her do small budget rom/coms. Let her get her foot in the door. Let her show us what she's got and can be trusted. It doesn't make sense to me.

She's never done a romantic comedy. And the fact of the matter is that recently, quite a few white male directors have done exactly those types of films and were rewarded with blockbusters (see Jurassic World, Spider-Man, etc). Don't see why she has to prove herself any more than those guys...

 

[playahaitian]

I don't understand why they keep wanting this woman to do these movies. Let her do small budget rom/coms. Let her get her foot in the door. Let her show us what she's got and can be trusted. It doesn't make sense to me.

You KNOW why.

(You see Coogler is the new flavor of the month too)

But I don't see this as a bad thing

she is such a regal woman and FORCES them to acknowledge her talents and intelligence.

Her limited edition Barbie doll sold out in 15 min (it wasn't EVEN supposed to be available to the public)

they can no longer try to see that woman and black people like her don't exist.

so she is going to continue to get this and its fine.

She carries all the burden so well.

And she is now creating a lane for other sisters & brothers to follow.

Cause now when she turns something down they can't QUICKLY go to a white person

they HAVE to approach at LEAST one more person of color.

Yeah she needs to build up her resume

but why shouldn't she get what any cac with two parents in the industry with a godparent who is an Oscar winner get?

Hell some white kid would do on youtube?

I aint got no problem and I think she CAN do the work.

And yes I have a a huge crush on her...but I still stand by my statement.

 

[playahaitian]

She's never done a romantic comedy. And the fact of the matter is that recently, quite a few white male directors have done exactly those types of films and were rewarded with blockbusters (see Jurassic World, Spider-Man, etc). Don't see why she has to prove herself any more than those guys...

yup

 

[nibbs]

It's called the Halo effect, and its one of the biggest mistakes a primary stakeholder or charter sponsor can make in project management.

 

[nibbs]

She's never done a romantic comedy. And the fact of the matter is that recently, quite a few white male directors have done exactly those types of films and were rewarded with blockbusters (see Jurassic World, Spider-Man, etc). Don't see why she has to prove herself any more than those guys...

That much is true, but many of those white directors were also big comic / comicon / Sci-Fi buffs, knew the character or story cannon, already expressed interest in directing a Sci-Fi / Comic based live action movie, or had big budget movie experience.

Ava ticks none of those boxes.

I am not knocking her abilities either - I just don't think she has a large enough body of work for me to assess her ability at taking on this genre or, more importantly, the passion to do a sci-fi / comic based movie.

She pretty much made it known that she would pass on Black Panther if offered and had no interest. Most young, hot black directors would probably chop a finger off to get their hands on such a high profile property and do it under the Disney banner.

In the end, she seems like a woman who Director abilities are moved by her passions and this genre doesn't seem like her jam.

 

[playahaitian]

It's called the Halo effect, and its one of the biggest mistakes a primary stakeholder or charter sponsor can make in project management.

Halo effect is a cognitive bias in which an observer's overall impression of a person, company, brand, or product influences the observer's feelings and thoughts about that entity's character or properties.

Yeah it is...and looking at the world we live in NOW?

It is EVERYWHERE and EVERYTHING.

And if it can actually help US for once?

then I'm good.

 

[Darrkman]

I don't understand why they keep wanting this woman to do these movies. Let her do small budget rom/coms. Let her get her foot in the door. Let her show us what she's got and can be trusted. It doesn't make sense to me.

See but here's the thing. Thats what they KEEP saying about Black directors. Stay in your lane, don't do anything too big. etc etc. You don't hear that about white directors. Hell they were just saying that about the guy they'e planning on directing Black Panther. The man who directed Creed:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...her-and-defining-black-equality-in-hollywood/

 

[raze]

That much is true, but many of those white directors were also big comic / comicon / Sci-Fi buffs, knew the character or story cannon, already expressed interest in directing a Sci-Fi / Comic based live action movie, or had big budget movie experience.

Ava ticks none of those boxes.

I am not knocking her abilities either - I just don't think she has a biggest enough body of work for me to assess or the passion to do a comic based movie.
She pretty much made it known that she would pass on Black Panther and had no interest.
She seems like a woman who is moved by her passions and this genre doesn't seem like her jam.

Based on what? She wasn't the only person to pass on Black Panther. But maybe you're right, it would be crazy to give the reigns of a big budget film to a director with a handful of documentaries. shorts and feature length films -- oh, wait -- that's exactly what happened to Colin Trevorrow with Jurrasic World *and* Marc Webb with Amazing Spider-Man. I don't remember people questioning the resume of those guys (or the Russo Brothers) when it was announced, but when Ava's name gets mentioned, the goalposts are suddenly moved.

Please stop perpetuating this myth that these white directors were all comic heads. Chris Nolan didn't give a shit about comics, neither did Bryan Singer about X-men (also two white dudes with no sci-fi/action films in their resume prior). Just because you have a comic book collection or watch anime isn't some kind of guarantee that you're capable of making a great comic book movie. We've seen good and bad movies from people who are die-hard fans and those who aren't. It's less about creating/writing dope action scenes or lifting popular storylines, and more about someone capable of presenting the material from an interesting perspective. If Ava can convince the folks at Lucasfilm that she has that interesting perspective for a Star Wars movie, it's fine with me.

And let's keep it real, most cats would be perfectly fine with Ryan Coogler directing Black Panther or being mentioned for a Star Wars movie. He's obviously talented, but questions about his fandom, ability, or (thin) body of work wouldn't be brought up on the regular. I wonder why that is...

 

[Darth Furious]

MARVEL WANTED TO GIVE HER THE KEY - She passes.

JJ ABRAMS IS MAKING NOISE NOW - This is her response?

Im not saying fall on your knees and say thank you but come the fuck on, there are MANY... FAR TOO MAHY talented folks out here that will NEVER get to come close to an opportunity like she has and thumb their nose at anything. You take. You do a passion project. You network. You build. Then the next comes behind you and takes the reins.

After a fine film, this is the reward. The spotlight.

There is no need to stay in your lane here. The variables are there for a reason. Marvel takes chances with directors that NOBODY expects. Look at Winter Soldier. Two comedy tv show guys. Nobody knew what The Russos were up too... now they have the reins. Look at the first Iron Man. Look at how Peyton Reed still came through with Ant Man. And Joss can moan and groan about the after effects of Age of Ultron but... what they did for him was AMAZING... that history lives on, pass his own career - to his wife and his brother and their friends and whomever else is gonna ride the wave off hi, doing The Avengers.

The fact that she thinks shes in a position to pass on commercial viability is losing me...

Her career is a bright star right now. She is a pioneer to other black women behind the scenes.

She is responsible for more than just her own trivial choices now...

In a few years, her name will be forgotten, the spark will fade and Hollyhood will act like that well ran dry and she will be to blame.

Sorry. Fuck outta here Ava. Do The Right Thing Mommy.



oNE

 

[nibbs]

Based on what? She wasn't the only person to pass on Black Panther. But maybe you're right, it would be crazy to give the reigns of a big budget film to a director with a handful of documentaries. shorts and feature length films -- oh, wait -- that's exactly what happened to Colin Trevorrow with Jurrasic World *and* Marc Webb with Amazing Spider-Man. I don't remember people questioning the resume of those guys (or the Russo Brothers) when it was announced, but when Ava's name gets mentioned, the goalposts are suddenly moved.

Whose moving the goalpost? They offered her the film. She said she had not interest.

I said personally, if I were running the budget / production, I probably would not have offered it to her .... but I wouldn't have offered it to the other guys either.

Please stop perpetuating this myth that these white directors were all comic heads. Chris Nolan didn't give a shit about comics, neither did Bryan Singer about X-men (also two white dudes with no sci-fi/action films in their resume prior).

Nolan had a track record of being both a phenomenal writer and conceptual treatment creator and a highly detailed hands on Director with several medium to large budget productions under his belt prior to being handed the reigns to Batman.

Can't speak to Singer. Don't know enough about him outside what he did with Usual Suspects. I guess someone thought that movie was complex enough that he could handle bigger productions.

 

[WhenTheGoingGetsTtuff]

You KNOW why.

(You see Coogler is the new flavor of the month too)

But I don't see this as a bad thing

she is such a regal woman and FORCES them to acknowledge her talents and intelligence.

Her limited edition Barbie doll sold out in 15 min (it wasn't EVEN supposed to be available to the public)

they can no longer try to see that woman and black people like her don't exist.

so she is going to continue to get this and its fine.

She carries all the burden so well.

And she is now creating a lane for other sisters & brothers to follow.

Cause now when she turns something down they can't QUICKLY go to a white person

they HAVE to approach at LEAST one more person of color.

Yeah she needs to build up her resume

but why shouldn't she get what any cac with two parents in the industry with a godparent who is an Oscar winner get?

Hell some white kid would do on youtube?

I aint got no problem and I think she CAN do the work.

And yes I have a a huge crush on her...but I still stand by my statement.

I don't like it. She's never done action. She's got 1 movie under her belt( and i didn't even like that). And this is a franchise movie. None of this is about her being black to me. It's about ability. She should get it because...blah blah is nonsense to me. I say do a smaller film. Sometimes we get to far out there with stuff just cuz they black. I don't like it.

 

[WhenTheGoingGetsTtuff]

Whose moving the goalpost? They offered her the film. She said she had not interest.

I said personally, if I were running the budget / production, I probably would not have offered it to her .... but I wouldn't have offered it to the other guys either.


Nolan had a track record of being both a phenomenal writer and conceptual treatment creator and a highly detailed hands on Director with several medium to large budget productions under his belt prior to being handed the reigns to Batman.

Can't speak to Singer. Don't know enough about him outside what he did with Usual Suspects. I guess someone thought that movie was complex enough that he could handle bigger productions.

Singer got XMen off the strength of doin Usual Suspects. So many people like they were like oh shit this guy knows what he's doing making movies. If ava turned it down maybe she knows something about herself we don't.

 

[WhenTheGoingGetsTtuff]

MARVEL WANTED TO GIVE HER THE KEY - She passes.

JJ ABRAMS IS MAKING NOISE NOW - This is her response?

Im not saying fall on your knees and say thank you but come the fuck on, there are MANY... FAR TOO MAHY talented folks out here that will NEVER get to come close to an opportunity like she has and thumb their nose at anything. You take. You do a passion project. You network. You build. Then the next comes behind you and takes the reins.

After a fine film, this is the reward. The spotlight.

There is no need to stay in your lane here. The variables are there for a reason. Marvel takes chances with directors that NOBODY expects. Look at Winter Soldier. Two comedy tv show guys. Nobody knew what The Russos were up too... now they have the reins. Look at the first Iron Man. Look at how Peyton Reed still came through with Ant Man. And Joss can moan and groan about the after effects of Age of Ultron but... what they did for him was AMAZING... that history lives on, pass his own career - to his wife and his brother and their friends and whomever else is gonna ride the wave off hi, doing The Avengers.

The fact that she thinks shes in a position to pass on commercial viability is losing me...

Her career is a bright star right now. She is a pioneer to other black women behind the scenes.

She is responsible for more than just her own trivial choices now...

In a few years, her name will be forgotten, the spark will fade and Hollyhood will act like that well ran dry and she will be to blame.

Sorry. Fuck outta here Ava. Do The Right Thing Mommy.



oNE

Whedon did Buffy Angel. And Firefly all at once. And wrote comics. It was a passion project for him. Jon Favreau was a fan of iron man. A comic book collector.
The Russo's had experience with a hit show Arrested Development. I believe they directed You Me and Dupree.

 

[nibbs]

Singer got XMen off the strength of doin Usual Suspects. So many people like they were like oh shit this guy knows what he's doing making movies. If ava turned it down maybe she knows something about herself we don't.

Yep. Like I siad a few posts back, her heart wasn't in it.
Or maybe she didn't want the headache of a big budget movie. Any Director will tell you, making these huge productions is no joy for them. 2 years or more of their life go into it and there's a SHIT TON of pressure to make abnormal and excess profits. Failure is not an option and could end their career.

 

[playahaitian]

I don't like it. She's never done action. She's got 1 movie under her belt( and i didn't even like that). And this is a franchise movie. None of this is about her being black to me. It's about ability. She should get it because...blah blah is nonsense to me. I say do a smaller film. Sometimes we get to far out there with stuff just cuz they black. I don't like it.

OK different discussion...

yeah she should but Selma was FAR from a SMALL film

She got the skills

and like a previous poster said NOT to bring up race again but just to make a point

MANY white male directors who don't even have HER limited resume get chances like this all the time.

no one bats an eye.

She CAN do this..

would I like a more emotion drama filmed piece?

Yeah but I think she could inject some of those sensibilities in a big budget film

actually I would love to see her do something with Marvel and Netflix

or Shondra Rhimes.

 

[playahaitian]

Yep. Like I siad a few posts back, her heart wasn't in it.
Or maybe she didn't want the headache of a big budget movie. Any Director will tell you, making these huge productions is no joy for them. 2 years or more of their life go into it and there's a SHIT TON of pressure to make abnormal and excess profits. Failure is not an option and could end their career.

Marvel are notoriously hands on with directors...

but that is so well known that directors get the credit when its good and Marvel gets blamed when its bad.

 

[dtownsfinest]

This is no hate but simply a question. What has she done for them to want her to do all of these comic book movies? I mean there are other black directors. Why her? Her catalog is relatively small. I'm glad she's in demand but it just seems odd you only hear her being associated with comic book movies.

 

[raze]

Whose moving the goalpost? They offered her the film. She said she had not interest.

No. She said that Marvel had their ideas about BP and she had her own. Ultimately, she didn't want to commit to a project where there was the potential for the two of them butting heads at every turn. There have been more than a few rumbles about Marvel not giving directors enough creative control. F. Gary Gray turned down Black Panther and so did Ryan Coogler a while back (but it sounds like talks are back on). Yet I didn't hear anybody question their hearts being into it.

I said personally, if I were running the budget / production, I probably would not have offered it to her .... but I wouldn't have offered it to the other guys either.

That's fair.

Nolan had a track record of being both a phenomenal writer and conceptual treatment creator and a highly detailed hands on Director with several medium to large budget productions under his belt prior to being handed the reigns to Batman.

Can't speak to Singer. Don't know enough about him outside what he did with Usual Suspects. I guess someone thought that movie was complex enough that he could handle bigger productions.

"Several medium to large productions?" You mean Memento ($4.6M) and Insomnia ($46M). I wouldn't call that several. I'd just say two. Neither suggested he'd be capable of directing a big action, comic book movie. Singer did Usual Suspects and Apt Pupil. Good movies, but nobody would call them sci-fi/fantasy/comic book films or having high action content.

Gareth Edwards' claim to fame was a $500,000 sci-fi movie, Monsters, that only shows the monsters for about the last 5 minutes of the movie. He gets Godzilla, a big budget movie that has about 15-20 minutes -- at best -- of Godzilla screen time. Off the strength of that film, which made a profit, he gets Star Wars: Rogue One. I haven't seen anybody here questioning this dude's resume or ability.

The bottom line is that studios are factoring more than just a director's resume and familiarity with the genre when making these picks. If that's the case, I don't see why she's a worse choice than some of the other names bandied about. If you direct/star/write a project that creates big buzz, your name is going to get mentioned everywhere for everything. That's just how Hollywood works.

 

[Darth Furious]

Whedon did Buffy Angel. And Firefly all at once. And wrote comics. It was a passion project for him. Jon Favreau was a fan of iron man. A comic book collector.
The Russo's had experience with a hit show Arrested Development. I believe they directed You Me and Dupree.

Still, none of them did action, especially on that level, save for Whedon. I LOVE SERENITY and what he did on that shoestring budget. He was a TV guy and that change to film is a hard sell.

Shit, even JJ was on the outside looking in until Tom Cruise backed him and got him to do Mission Impossible 3 - that was the beginning of his film career as a director.

None of them were in the big leagues. They couldn't call any shots.

None of them worked on big budget productions before either, they popped their cherries at Marvel.



Ava is right in position to do it and she is ready...
oNE

 

[LennyNero1972]

Let the sista direct, trust Disney will surround her with the right staff to make this work. They will not let a Star Wars flick flop at this point in time.

 

[WhenTheGoingGetsTtuff]

This is no hate but simply a question. What has she done for them to want her to do all of these comic book movies? I mean there are other black directors. Why her? Her catalog is relatively small. I'm glad she's in demand but it just seems odd you only hear her being associated with comic book movies.

Nothin. She did Selma. Before Selma she did documentaries. That's it i believe. The way i feel...let her do 2 more movies then she can hit the big ones.

 

[Darth Furious]

Nothin. She did Selma. Before Selma she did documentaries. That's it i believe. The way i feel...let her do 2 more movies then she can hit the big ones.

Im always afraid of the director that might Matty Rich themselves out of the network too soon. That's my issue. Keep passing on shit and thinking you have more clout than you actually do.


You know what? You might be right fam. Im ready for her to take the lead and shine her ass off but... what if it is too soon, she might not be ready and don't wanna take a misstep that could fuck her career up.


Matter fact, I will never forget Stephen Norrington for what he did with Blade but stepping up to the big leagues too soon killed his whole career. That man was chased outta HoolyHood and aint been back since.



oNE

 

[playahaitian]

Let the sista direct, trust Disney will surround her with the right staff to make this work. They will not let a Star Wars flick flop at this point in time.

agreed

 

[playahaitian]

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