Brad Bird Talks Why He Turned Down Star Wars: Episode 7.

brad bird

While promoting his latest movie Tomorrowland, Academy Award winning director Brad Bird briefly discussed why he turned down Episode VII and if it’s possible to see him directing one of the future installments in the Star Wars franchise…

 

Because of Bird’s close relation with Disney he was considered a major contender for Episode VII’s director chair back in the days. He even met with Lucasfilm about the project. Speaking with MTV at the NYCC, Bird said:

“We were already deeply into [‘Tomorrowland’]. George [Clooney] had committed to it, and we were down the road a bit,” he said about the timing of his choice. “For a moment there, I thought that it would work out to do this and go right into [‘Episode VII’]. It was supposed to be summer of this coming year. There was no way to make that schedule and give this film the attention that it deserved, so I had to step away.”

 

“I know [‘Episode VII’] is going to be terrific and everything, but I’m really happy to do this film,” he said. “It’s rare to do a film of size that’s original, so those opportunities can’t be missed either.”

 

Also while speaking with IGN Bird discussed the possibility of him directing one of the upcoming Star Wars movies that still don’t have assigned directors:

 

 

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

9 thoughts on “Brad Bird Talks Why He Turned Down Star Wars: Episode 7.

  • October 14, 2014 at 8:11 pm
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    If we get Bird to direct episode 9, we will be some lucky star wars fans. As much as I love Rian Johnson, directing one film in the trilogy is enough.

  • October 14, 2014 at 9:33 pm
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    Brad Bird is an outstanding director AND writer. Look no further than his work on the Simpsons (classic era, no less), the Incredibles, and Mission Impossible 4. I wonder if he would have taken over the writing reins from Arndt with Kasdan like J.J. did. I’m still dying to find out how Arndt’s story and characters would have been different from what we will eventually get.

    Nevertheless, in an ideal world Abrams and Johnson will be collaborating for VIII and Johnson and Bird will do the same for IX. One can only hope.

  • October 14, 2014 at 9:34 pm
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    Brad Bird could direct the Obi-Wan Kenobi Trilogy.

    I’d like to see that. Or maybe just the first one.

  • October 14, 2014 at 10:00 pm
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    I think Arndt script, or some of the ideas, might be used for episode 8 as rumors were said that his story mostly focused on the offspring of the Solos and possibly Luke. And i think Rian Johnson will do better than most expect. Of course if Bird isn’t the one directing part 9, maybe we could get……
    P A U S E …

    TIM BURTON hahaha just kidding.

    im just glad they making at least one more trilogy for us. its just amazing how much work and money they have put into just episode 7 alone. and they want each episode to be better and bigger. GEEZE

    Lucas did say his goal was to make each trilogy ( in order of episodes 1 to 6 ) better than the other. And he did accomplish that. Episodes 1, 2 , and 3 was the start and 4, 5 and 6 was better. So hopefully 7, 8 and 9 will be the most magical.

  • October 14, 2014 at 11:21 pm
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    I read somewhere once, that Mr. Lucas’s original plan was to direct episodes 1 and 9. That was before doing all 3 of the PT. But he seemed very set on directing the last movie. So it’s just a guess, but that’s who I think will be doing 9.

    • October 15, 2014 at 12:28 am
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      That’d be literally insane. I’m honestly not against it, it’s pretty poetic actually. Its just the storm of disapproval that I’m worried about.

  • October 15, 2014 at 3:04 am
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    For fun, here is an list of Directors for an Old Republic or pre-Old Republic Trilogy of films in particular. I’d have them work together on what an over all story was going to be, as well as what they wanted to do with their individual episodes. The priority would be as long as an episode was consistent with an previous episode, it could pretty much be what it wants A safety net would be what they all decided the trilogy was going to cover before hand generally in relation to the individual ideas/takes. So room to move between discarding and continuity for most things through-out.

    Yeah, i would be happy with Lucas to officially co-direct the last episode of trilogies of trilogies how he did to some extent un-officially with RoTJ.

    Anyhow….in no order:

    David Twohy
    Andrew Adamson
    Wolfgang Petersen
    Joseph Kosinski
    Sami Raimi
    Andrew Niccol
    Michael Bay
    Andrew Stanton
    Karyn Kusama

  • October 15, 2014 at 3:13 am
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    VH why is it my confirmation email isn’t getting sent to me?

  • October 15, 2014 at 3:44 am
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    REBELS EPISODE 3 fighter flight vodlocker (dot) com/dgc0n1ggxqq2

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