Episode 7 Writers Change Was Due to “Time Frame”.

star wars


Finally J.J. Abrams revealed why he and Lawrence Kasdan took over the writing duties from Michael Arndt about Episode 7…



Abrams told Deadline:

 It became clear that given the time frame and given the process and the way the thing was going that working with Larry in this way was going to get us where we need to be and when we needed to be. Working with Larry Kasdan, especially on a Star Wars movie is kind of unbeatable. 

Working with Michael was a wonderful experience and I couldn’t be a bigger fan of his or adore him more, He’s a wonderful guy and was incredibly helpful in the process,” Abrams said of Arndt. The director also noted that while he and Kasdan have taken over the script for the first of the three new Star Wars films that Disney has planned over the next few years, “that doesn’t preclude working with Michael again in the future.” Abrams added,  “he is one of the best writers around.”

So there you have it. Better later than never. 

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Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.Born on April 24, 1980.

22 thoughts on “Episode 7 Writers Change Was Due to “Time Frame”.

  • November 7, 2013 at 7:31 pm
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    I guess that mean that May 2015 release date is lock, right?

    • November 7, 2013 at 7:39 pm
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      Only two things in this world are certain, death and taxes.

      In any event, there’s really nothing to see here. Screenplays are routinely rewritten by writers, every day, all the time, on nearly every film in existence.

      Folks are getting all riled up over standard practices.

    • November 7, 2013 at 7:40 pm
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      For now I think this means no delays later than end of 2015. IMHO May 2015 is almost impossible.

  • November 7, 2013 at 7:49 pm
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    I HATE…. both i mean death and taxes. But at least we has optimism that things are ok and in 2015 we will watch Star Wars 7. But even 2015 look too long date and period. I miss new Star Wars movie so much. Waiting for SW animation series next year. And may be SW tv series or some star wars characters.

  • November 7, 2013 at 8:06 pm
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    Pretty sure it will be 2015, november/december time. Which sucks, 2015 sounds too early, even if it is at the end of the year, plus star wars films are traditionally out in may. May 2016 is the best date, but incredibly unlikely with Disney’s stupid demands. Also I’m not sure how much belief I have in JJ’s claims about letting Arndt go because of time issues. If there were issues to do with time then why not all three of them assume writing, There are scripts out there that have been done with well over 5, even 10 screenwriters. I don’t see how giving Michael the boot could have helped with time.. It must have sadly been a disagreement on story or something. It would be absolutely brilliant if Arndt is involved with episode 8 and/or 9.

  • November 7, 2013 at 8:49 pm
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    I don’t want them to rush anything. So I’m fine with early 2016/ late 2015

  • November 7, 2013 at 9:18 pm
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    They already announced it’s Dec 18th… like right now. 2015 btw.

  • November 7, 2013 at 9:22 pm
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    12-18-2015 opening date, just officially announced a few minutes ago.

  • November 7, 2013 at 9:27 pm
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    They need to take their time and make this the best movie they can

  • November 7, 2013 at 9:43 pm
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    Totally fine with the delay. I wouldn’t care if they told me 2016.

    A delayed movie is eventually good, but a rushed movie is forever bad.

    Yes that’s a play on a quote from Shigeru Miyamoto.

  • November 7, 2013 at 9:53 pm
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    What Abrams says actually makes a lot of sense.

    Disney allowed a very short time frame for this movie to be made from the get-go, and now a full year later the production is just now beginning to get on its feet, with the script not yet finished and apparently the cast not yet selected (and it’s possible that the latter may be a direct result of the former, depending on what they have script-wise.)

    Different writers have different paces at which they write. I don’t know much about Michael Arndt, other than I really dug his screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine. He may be one of these guys who takes time to process everything in order to come up with good scripts. I don’t know.

    Kasdan, on the other hand, is an old hand at writing Star Wars screenplays in a comparatively short amount of time. Leigh Brackett’s ESB script was completed in February of 1978, and had to be almost completely rewritten from scratch. I believe Lucas did a draft or two before Kasdan took it up in summer of 1978. They had the shooting script done by the end of October of that year, and shooting began in March of 1979, with the movie release being on May 21, 1980.

    Were they on course to follow a similar time frame for Ep 7, they’d have the shooting script by now with several months to do pre-production design for a March, 2014 start date. But they obviously don’t have a script yet. I assume that Kasdan and Abrams will have a shooting script done by the end of the year at this point, and maybe it was just that Arndt’s writing style/pace doesn’t lend itself to cranking the thing out that quickly. Who knows?

    If Kasdan and Abrams work well together, I think they are perfect to finish off the script on a short turnaround deadline.

    We shall see!

  • November 7, 2013 at 10:05 pm
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    Decmber 18th, 2015 release date

  • November 7, 2013 at 10:09 pm
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    Remember folks, the story was laid out by Lucas. These guys are connecting the dots and working on great dialog to make the story as compelling as possible. Not to minimize their talents, but they are not really “changing” the meat and potatoes of the story.

  • November 7, 2013 at 11:34 pm
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    Lucas came up with the broad strokes for the story, but it’s not like he wrote a script that Arndt/Kasdan/Abrams are just making minor tweaks to.

    Remember, we’re talking about the same guy who didn’t really know what his prequel stories were going to be until he started making each one, and even then he changed key scenes in mid-stream. Even the one big story element you’d figure he’d have had worked out all along, the moment when Anakin turns to the dark side, he didn’t really know what to do with and ended up changing it at the last minute to a different point in the movie entirely. Originally he was supposed to turn when he confronts Palpatine in his office and discovers that he was the Sith Lord. Then Lucas got into production and realized that it didn’t work and came up with something else.

    I hardly think that he’s got the sequel trilogy or any of the movie stories set in stone. I think he probably just has general ideas of the main thrust of each plot, and then some notes that may or may not go into the final screenplays.

    Otherwise, Abrams and Kasdan wouldn’t be jumping in to crank the shooting script out this late in the game.

  • November 8, 2013 at 2:41 am
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    Writing space opera like Star Wars isn’t rocket science, but the financial pressure-points bearing down on the VII project are immense: the vast amount of money paid to purchase Lucasfilm/Star Wars (and relatively rapid return expected on investment, which isn’t going to be repaid and exceeded until a few movies are completed). Secondly, we have a script that is one third of a trilogy and it looks to be the case that VII will be less of a standalone story than IV and I (which are, I know, not 100 percent self-contained, but we don’t have to watch their sequels to appreciate them more). So, I guess that the writing phase of VII is more akin to completing a shootable screenplay and two fairly detailed plots for VIII and IX. Maybe there is even some groundwork being laid for X-XII in the broadest sense. Bringing myself back to the first sentence in my post, I think it’s more stress felt by the production team that is causing screenplay problems. With a simple, relatively shallow mythos like Star Wars, taking 3 years to write a film script is not necessarily going to result in a better story than one rattled off in 3 months? There’s only so much depth and complexity a Star Wars script can take before it loses the feel of what makes SW fun, which is colourful action, fights and space battles varnished thinly with soundbitey dialogue and plot-driven (rather than character-driven) revelations.

  • November 9, 2013 at 1:00 am
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    i like movies…

  • November 11, 2013 at 6:35 pm
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    So ….
    A full year in & still no script, no cast
    and the due date embarrassingly pushed back.
    What a clusterfuck ….
    But you comic book-movie worshiping dummies wanted
    that hack Abrams, well, you got ‘im!

  • November 13, 2013 at 7:56 pm
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    Now all they have to do is get rid of JJ Abrams and they have a chance of making something special. Come on now! JJ Abrams?…..The man who remade E.T and called it Super 8. The man who created Cloverfield and used a camera techinique that was used in The Blair Witch Project. Cloverfield. Hmmmmm..If I was in NYC and it was being attacked by a 400ft tall monster. I woudnt be concerned with holding a camera. Thats just me. That being said….JJ Abrahms the man who turned Star Trek into a video game…I mean lets look at Into Darkness..Is that the best he can do to remake the best Star Trek movie, “The Wrath of Khan” Come on.This is the person who they “hand picked” to take the reigns of the greatest saga in cinematic history? I know I am a nobody. I have no resume or films. What i do have is avast 40 year track record of wathcing these so called “talented” directors butcher great concepts. To some the Star Wars miovies are personal. Me personally, I have been writing ideas down for 7, 8, and 9 once they announced episode 1,2 and 3. The thing with the prequels is that you knew the inevitable outcome. What made The Empire Strikes Back the best one?…..Simple Story….Story and story…and when you were done with that….add more story. That is what episode 7 and 8 must be. You have the original cast coming bacl but they CANNOT be used to carry the load. You make 4 or 5 somewhat stand alone films alongside Episode 7 and 8. What episode 9 should be is the culmination of all the films for one big grand finale. It’ll be like dosing the Star Wars saga on steroids. JJ Abrams…sorry I just dont get it…I can go shot for shot and answer many times over the who, what, where, when and why. But…who am I..I’m just a nobody.

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