JJ Abrams: Directing The Force Awakens is “a Dream Come True.”

J.J. Abrams

J.J. Abrams, received the Visionary Award at this year’s VES Awards (Visual Effects Society). The honor recognizes an individual who has uniquely and consistently employed the art and science of visual effects to “foster imagination and ignite future discoveries by way of artistry, invention and groundbreaking work.” During the ceremony The Force Awakens director briefly talked about the highly anticipated movie and the special people around him.

 

 

From Deadline:

“Spending the last two years in the world of lightsabers and tie fighters has been absolutely challenging and a dream come true,” Abrams said.

 

Abrams said before the show that being chosen for the VES Visionary Award was “clearly a clerical error. But mostly, I just work with a whole lot of incredible VFX artists. This is what made me want to get involved in movies.”
When VES called to say they wanted to present the award to him, Abrams said he accepted mostly because he wanted to say thank you to his parents, “who let me blow s*it up,” and his sister “who let me blow her up.” He had several other thank yous to pass around, especially to all the visual-effects people he’s worked with, but he saved one for the head of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy.

 

kathleen-kennedy-jj-abrams
“I want to thank Kathy Kennedy for saying the words, ‘Do you want to direct Star Wars?’ and actually being in a position to let me direct Star Wars,” Abrams said.

 

Zoe Saldana, who starred in Abrams’ Star Trek movies, presented the award, saying, “This man has truly done many things, but one thing he did no man has done before: He gave Spock a girlfriend. And then he gave me a job too.”

 

Visual Effects Supervisor Roger Guyett, a frequent Abrams collaborator who was onstage earlier to present other awards, took time to talk about Abrams too. “The one thing about J.J. is he always wants to know who’s doing the work,” he said. “In that way, he’s a true friend to the business we’re in.”

 

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49 thoughts on “JJ Abrams: Directing The Force Awakens is “a Dream Come True.”

  • February 5, 2015 at 3:42 pm
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    May the force be with him.

  • February 5, 2015 at 4:05 pm
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    ‘has been absolutely challenging’ = it’s not my fault that the movie is gonna suck?

    • February 5, 2015 at 5:18 pm
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      Jealous?

  • February 5, 2015 at 4:18 pm
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    the only fx i think he has been a part of is star trek.
    all around terrible movies, I am holding my breath

    • February 5, 2015 at 6:47 pm
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      You have obviously already made up your mind that you will complain about the film no matter what is on screen. What a shame.

      • February 5, 2015 at 8:28 pm
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        VFX in Star Trek were very good. Please mention other outer space sci fi’s with better VFX than that in recent history?

        *crickets chirping*

  • February 5, 2015 at 4:34 pm
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    JJ Abrams: Directing The Force Awakens is “a Dream Come True.”

    … And the worst NIGHTMARE for all of us.

    • February 5, 2015 at 5:22 pm
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      All of us = you

  • February 5, 2015 at 4:43 pm
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    Moan,moan,moan – I mean we were all so much better off pre October 2012;this guy is one of us,he`s a fan,why`s there so much negativity floating round here – I`ve got complete faith in JJ.

    • February 5, 2015 at 4:51 pm
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      Same here!

    • February 5, 2015 at 5:08 pm
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      To me is because:

      1) All the movie JJ directed are quite average (or worse), and more over, in all his movies there are many very very low points.

      2) I hate what he has done with Star Trek, and I am not even a Star Trek fan;

      3) I hate “The Force Awakens” title, it so fan fiction, so foregone, no imaginative at all;

      4) I hate that he chose not to use the original material that came directly from no other that the creator of the saga, George Lucas;

      5) I hate all the new names he has chosen for the characters, again, very silly, low fan fiction quality stuff,

      6) I hate the new lightsaber, so useless, so ridiculous, maybe good for a fanboy comic but not for a proper Episode 7; But I fear that this is just the beginning…

      7) I hate all the “mystery box” agenda of JJ, all smoke with zero substance;

      8) I hate how he pretend to be the new Spielberg, how all the industry treat him as if he was the new Spielberg/Lucas.
      He simply doesn’t deserve it at all.

      He simply was the wrong choice for the saga.
      He simply is the worst thing happend to Star wars.

      • February 5, 2015 at 5:11 pm
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        I’d love to see you with your foot in your mouth when The Force Awakens blows audiences out of the water.

        • February 5, 2015 at 6:15 pm
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          Hurry up child! Go to see the next SW:Rebels episode!

          Ahahahahah!

      • February 5, 2015 at 5:24 pm
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        Replace the word hate with love everywhere and you are right!

      • February 5, 2015 at 5:40 pm
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        Get over yourself, man.

      • February 5, 2015 at 6:53 pm
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        If you are so disappointed with Abrams and the direction of the film then stop reading Ep. 7 news and go watch A New Hope on repeat. But you know you will go see the film opening weekend just to be another annoying voice on the internet bashing it regardless of it being a good film or not.

      • February 6, 2015 at 3:29 am
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        Key word being “hate”. I sense much fear in you…

    • February 5, 2015 at 5:08 pm
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      There’s a lot of “fans” out there who either don’t have anything better to do with their lives, or think they can do a better job at directing the damn thing…which is ridiculous.

  • February 5, 2015 at 5:13 pm
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    But…Lucas’ use of CGI back in 1998 was pretty innovative, for the time. We only deem it sub-par today because, well, CGI has advanced, as most things do.

    • February 6, 2015 at 3:56 am
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      Word. Lucas may have some problems with writing dialogue but his eye for effects is second-to-none. He redefined what motion pictures are (with both good and bad results).

      Never judge old movies (or art, or music, or people for that matter) by the standards of today. Things change. What we have in the world of visual effects today owes almost everything to George Lucas and ILM.

  • February 5, 2015 at 5:14 pm
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    Damm…. lighten up. At least SEE the movie before you bash it and its creator!

  • February 5, 2015 at 5:20 pm
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    The hate begins.

  • February 5, 2015 at 5:22 pm
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    So there will be lightsabers and tie fighter in starwars 7? Wow… i had no idea…
    Who would have guessed that!

  • February 5, 2015 at 5:54 pm
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    A true “visionary” is someone like Lucas who starts with a blank page and struggles to the degree he puts himself in the hospital coming up with a whole new universe from nothing. Not JJ who comes along and makes crappier karaoke versions of the worlds others create.

  • February 5, 2015 at 6:02 pm
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    unfortunstrly JJ did not establish himself as original film maker sofar.

  • February 5, 2015 at 7:07 pm
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    Wow. I didn’t know the Star Wars Universe had so many trolls. Quit complaining until Dec 18th 2015!!!!

  • February 5, 2015 at 7:15 pm
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    The comments on this article is a clear indicator that SW fans are the absolute WORST!

      • February 5, 2015 at 9:59 pm
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        “Fans” is debatable at this point it seems.

          • February 5, 2015 at 11:07 pm
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            Yes really. See, we can do this all day.

          • February 5, 2015 at 11:34 pm
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            None of us have the right to tell someone that they aren’t a fan. If someone wants to be a fan and thinks that they are a fan whether positive or negative their attitude is towards what ever it is, they’re still a fan.

          • February 6, 2015 at 1:15 pm
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            When someone claims to be a fan yet search for any and every reason to complain about the material they “are such a fan of”… It’s pretty pathetic.

  • February 5, 2015 at 7:19 pm
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    If The Force Awakens sucks…we riot!

  • February 5, 2015 at 7:40 pm
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    Real serious question:

    No one else feels that the image of the new sith in the wood with the red-cross sword seems taken directly from a Fan Made Star Wars movie? I can remember one or two that looks very alike.

    I do not know, probably the setting, the cut of the image, or the sword itself, but it looks not so great to me.
    It seems really home/fan made.

    No one else share this thought?

    • February 5, 2015 at 7:57 pm
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      Anything done from this point on is going to be a “fan film”. And that’s not a bad thing. Even the original Star Wars movie was a “fan film” of the old Flsh Gordon serials.

    • February 6, 2015 at 3:31 am
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      No.

  • February 5, 2015 at 7:47 pm
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    I’m not ready to hate Ep7 just yet, it’s got a lot of good people working on it.

    However I do think JJ has had too much gold painted onto him, considering his films aren’t exactly Jaws or Close Encounters material. That said I think with Kasdan writing the script, we have OK odds at getting a good Star Wars film here.

    • February 6, 2015 at 5:57 pm
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      I’d also bank on having Harrison Ford on set (although he might have been hiked up on painkillers…which may or may not be a bad thing) along with Hamill, Boyega, Max Von Sydow and Andy Serkis.

      Film is so collaborative. ANH and Empire probably aren’t what they are without Harrison Ford just like Dark Knight is…well…what is Dark Knight without Heath Ledger’s performance?

      He’s got a good team around him. The story is the only thing that will hold this back.

  • February 5, 2015 at 10:12 pm
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    JJ’s big mistake on this film is not focusing on the Big 3. Instead, he is trying to create a new Big 3.

    You only get one chance to do this. When I hear Mark Hamill is not in the film that much, when I hear nothing about Carrie Fisher’s role, but plenty of Daisy and Boyega, I think, what the fuck is JJ doing here?

    • February 5, 2015 at 11:36 pm
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      JJ was the one arguing including MORE of the big 3 if I recall correctly. Someone else can elaborate on that history.

    • February 6, 2015 at 6:00 pm
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      They’re old. Real old. You don’t want Carrie Fisher on screen for longer than 90 minutes.

  • February 5, 2015 at 10:49 pm
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    If the Crossguard Lightsaber was in ROTJ or in the Thrawn Trilogy, everybody would like it.

    And if EP7 is fan fiction because it don’t use GL ideas, The Thrawn Trilogy, Shadow of the Empire and KOTOR are nothing more than fan fiction too, but they’re better than most of the movies!

    • February 5, 2015 at 11:15 pm
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      Well, to be fair, The Thrawn Trilogy, SofE, and KOTOR ARE fan fiction now.

      • February 6, 2015 at 10:25 pm
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        Then do the rest of us a favor and stay away from this site and the theater it will make it easier for me to get a ticket

        • February 8, 2015 at 1:16 pm
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          Soooo true. It’s funny how people can bitch and moan about a movie that hasn’t come out yet. And why in the hell would anyone try to start a new trilogy focused souly on the OT “big 3” when it’s been done, years and years have passed, they’re old and it’s time to push onto new characters and stories?!!? Makes no logical sense. He’s giving them much more of a send off then what was originally intended. Plus if he centered it around the big 3, people would just bitch about how they want new characters. Or “how can these old characters still do anything dramatic” or god knows what else. Because people who bitch and whine NEED something to bitch and whine. Instead of just appreciating the simple fact WE GET MORE STAR WARS NOW! Which is amazing.

  • February 8, 2015 at 4:35 pm
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    It’s compellng – ya know – to love these films… for whatever my/your personal feelings are and in some ways even more so to read this site and others like it; to stoke the excitement about the new films.

    But the way you all express yourselves… It’s got to be one of most negative experiences one can have reading in the Internet.

    Even the sanity of the few who provide it gets mired down in the mess…

    What’s not enough about being excited that one must add slander, or vitriol or etc.

    I stood in line to see all the prequels and couldn’t stand yet but was present at Empire and stood for Jedi and I wish people spoke more about how exciting it is that this is happening again – instead of this garbage and ugliness.

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