LOS ANGELES -- The
madness is building. No movie this year, or even this decade, has been as
eagerly anticipated as Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.
As a direct result, the
pressure on J.J. Abrams, the co-writer and director of this monumental opus, is
unlike anything he has ever endured before in a productive career. He has
significant TV and film credits that include his successful 2009 reboot of the
Star Trek series, which he accomplished by setting it in an alternate reality.
Yet even Abrams agrees
that continuing George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise — without Lucas involved,
except early on as a consultant whose ideas were generally discarded before he
retreated gracefully — is entirely different. And it is far more dangerous for
the filmmakers and for Walt Disney Studios, which bought Lucasfilm from its
founder for $4 billion in 2012 and launched this new and ambitious phase of
episodes in the space opera series.
So Abrams is as nervous
as he is excited, given the intensity of the fanbase and the encyclopedia-level
knowledge many of them hold as they share conspiracy theories about The Force
Awakens on the Internet before its official debut on Dec. 18. That said, one
box office insider has predicted that the movie will become the first $3
billion mega-hit, shattering the $2.788 billion worldwide record that Avatar
generated in 2009-10.
The Force Awakens
itself remains under a cone of silence. Abrams and the Disney executives even
withheld screenings from media members who were attending a day-long interview
and press conference extravaganza at the Los Angeles Convention Center last
weekend. This is the first time in my personal experience - 35 years of
covering Hollywood and international cinema — that filmmakers have refused to
show what they did on-screen before sitting down off-screen to discuss the
films.
But there was the
49-year-old Abrams, full of apologies for the secrecy but eager to sit down for
a one-on-one session. He avoided any kind of spoilers - no surprise - and
continued that a few hours later in a large-scale press conference hosted by
his friend, comedienne Mindy Kaling (one of the star voice actors in the Pixar
hit, Inside Out). What follows is my Canadian exclusive one-on-one with Abrams.
Given the “cone of
silence” around The Force Awakens, what do you want people to know before
seeing it?
They don’t need to know
anything. What you need to know is given to you (in the same kind of ‘crawl’
that Lucas used in all six previous Star Wars episodes). What you could know is
that this is a story about characters that you have seen before, two of whom
are at the centre. One is Rey (Ridley’s role) who is a scavenger who lives in
the middle of what is absolutely nowhere and scavenges off of what is a
spaceship graveyard, the remnants of an enormous battle that was fought on a
planet called Jakku. And there’s Finn (Boyega) who is a Stormtrooper who
abandons his role and his past, which is not necessarily a safe or a good idea.
Then these two characters, in classic Star Wars fashion, are thrust into an
adventure when their paths cross. And they are suddenly, desperately, trying to
get somewhere before they are caught because they are being pursued. Those two
— plus BB-8, who is our new droid and who’s got some new information that is
critical to the defeat of the First Order — they ... well, it is the beginning
of the plot. That is all ‘very-early-on-in-the-movie’ stuff.
I sense this is an
interesting, auspicious, scary, weird, serious, giddy and potentially exciting
experience for you as The Force Awakens is ready for its close-up. How do you
really feel about it?
It’s very loaded.
There’s a lot of expectation and anticipation and noise — and all of that is
potentially overwhelming. In moments, (it is) successfully overwhelming. It
actually does sometimes feel paralyzing. But it’s also just noise and what I
hope it speaks to is people’s interest in seeing the movie. When I actually
think about the movie and what I think about the work that has been done — the
performances that these actors have given, the design and the music and the
sound and the editing and the visual effects and the action, all the work that
went into every scene — it’s more exciting thinking about what people are going
to get to experience. (That is better) than being paralyzed thinking about the
latest article speculating on what might not work or how much money it may or
may not make or any of those things.
Why do you call this
“very loaded” in terms of your own experience making The Force Awakens?
It has been about three
years working on this movie and there has been a lot along the way of
hypotheses and speculation and criticism and concerns and fears. I don’t try
and read all of it and I don’t try to avoid reading all of it. And I’ve gotten
used to being told how I’ve already destroyed people’s childhoods by taking
this on and how (other) people expect this to be the best Star Wars movie ever.
(The truth is going to be) somewhere in the middle and I hope that people go
and I hope that they have an experience that is meaningful.
Did rebooting Star Trek
prepare you for this movie?
Yes, but this feels
very different to me on every level. There are so many differences. It seems at
first blush that, yes, this is old hat. But Star Trek is a true science fiction
story and Star Wars is a fairytale. It’s a fantasy. At the heart of Star Wars
is that idea of The Force, which is almost the antithesis of sci-fi and it’s a
long time ago in a galaxy far, far away and there are princesses and castles
and things that happen (in a fantasy world). This is a very different approach
and always has been to what Trek was.
Do you think of The
Force Awakens as a reboot, given that 10 years have passed since the final
prequel that Lucas himself made?
This is not a reboot.
This is a new chapter, a story that I hope feels very much like continuation of
episodes IV, V and VI. It wants to go forward and of course tell a new story
with new young characters (played by Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver,
Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis and Gwendoline Christie, among
others). But it is using the DNA of everything that has come before to do that.
We have, obviously, characters we already know (with Harrison Ford, Carrie
Fisher and Mark Hamill reprising their roles, 30 years older than they were in
Return of the Jedi). But we also knew that this would be the first Star Wars
movie for some people and we didn’t want to tell a story that felt like it was
required reading to understand what came before.
What role does the
music play in The Force Awakens?
Star Wars to me has
always been, essentially, a musical. Not with lyrics but with the incredible
score of John Williams. Like the superhero he is, John again wrote a score that
is spectacular, that is inclusive of some existing cues (from past Star Wars episodes),
and is full of brand new cues.
Did you become a Star
Wars expert while making this movie?
Because the diehard
fans are remarkably attentive to details, and often are skilled at interpreting
things that were not always necessarily intended, some of their discoveries are
really wonderful and some of them are, of course, absurd. But I will never know
as much as some of the fans do. And my guess is that that is true about every
actor and person involved in the making of this movie!
How did you keep up
with Star Wars lore to avoid insulting the fans who do know more than you?
I had at my side this
incredible writer and researcher, Pablo Hidalgo. He has the unbelievable
knowledge base of every arcane detail, every fact about every character or ship
of unit of measurement or anything that you would need. This was the guy to go
to. So he was someone we would show the movie to, and have him kick the tires
and shake the tree, and sort of fan-proof it. He was (also) invaluable at
answering questions that were either critical technical things or historic
things about what had happened and that people already know and expect. I could
never have done what was required of me on this job and also study the
information that was necessary.
Bruce Kirkland
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