Fresh off the success of the newest ‘Godzilla’ movie, Disney and Lucasfilm has hired Gareth Edwards to direct the upcoming ‘Star Wars’ spinoff movie slated for a 2016 release date…
Strike while the iron is hot.
That’s exactly what Disney did on Thursday when the mouse house announced that Gareth Edwards — currently enjoying the top spot in the movie world for his direction of the new movie ‘Godzilla’ — would be directing the upcoming ‘Star Wars’ spinoff slated for a December 16, 2016.
“Ever since I saw Star Wars I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life — join the Rebel Alliance! I could not be more excited and honored to go on this mission with Lucasfilm,” said Edwards.
With Edwards directing the newest Star Wars adventure, the writing for the script will be left up to Gary Whitta, who is best known for his work on the screenplay for ‘The Book of Eli’ starring Denzel Washington. Whitta has also worked on several video game projects and probably would rather forget the fact that he also wrote the 2013 film ‘After Earth’ starring Will Smith, which was a critical and theatrical disaster.
As far as the subject matter for the new Star Wars movie, that remains to be seen. Rumors have circulated for months that the ‘Star Wars’ spinoff films would likely focus on three characters — Han Solo, Boba Fett, and Yoda.
With ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’ ready to hit theaters in 2015 and Harrison Ford starring in that feature, a stand alone movie focusing on Han Solo would seem to make a lot of sense, but at this point everything is just speculation.
