JJ Abrams Talks Star Wars: The Force Awakens Final Cut and his Relationship with Disney

JJ Abrams in The FalconVanity Fair recently facilitated an hour long conversation with JJ Abrams, Jony Ive, and Brian Grazer on “Inventing Worlds in a Changing One”. Indiewire has the break down on the bits relevant to Star Wars including some informative comments from the director himself, JJ Abrams.

 

 

During the discussion, JJ Abrams discussed his relationship with Disney, specifically Disney CEO Bob Iger and Studio Chief Alan Horn. Early in production rumors swirled of a rift between Kennedy and Abrams and the studio over time constraints and release dates leading many to speculate there was a troubled relationship between the bigwigs at Lucasfilm and Disney. Those rumors only intensified after Harrison Ford’s on set accident delayed the production during filming.  But as we approach the home stretch, it seems that rift either never existed or has become water under the bridge.

 

 

I cannot say enough about how Bog Iger and Alan Horn have understood this thing that is now part of the Disney company,” Abrams added. “And they’re not trying to Disney-fy it, they’re not doing anything other than, I think, an incredibly smart thing, which is letting Kathleen Kennedy — who is a remarkable person and producer — run and lead Lucasfilm to a place where I think it wants to go.

 

 

Iger Abrams and Ford

 

Abrams was also asked about final cut and whether he had control of the final form of the highly anticipated film.

 

“Yeah, yeah” — but also noted that “when you do a Disney project, there’s a clause in there that you kind of go, ‘Well, if I were a lawyer I could probably drive a truck through it….’

 

As Indiewire points out, this is not unexpected or uncommon. With a tentpole of this size, a studio would be irresponsible to not have some sort of loophole to retrieve the film in case things fall apart in production. But from Abrams’ comments it appears Disney has not needed to use the loophole and the film rests firmly in the hands of the people at Lucasfilm just over two months from release.

 

As we get closer and closer to the release date, optimism and enthusiasm from Abrams is a promising sign that all going well and good things are in store ahead of us.

 

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52 thoughts on “JJ Abrams Talks Star Wars: The Force Awakens Final Cut and his Relationship with Disney

  • October 11, 2015 at 6:36 pm
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    67 days to go!!! Just take my money already!!!

    • October 11, 2015 at 7:31 pm
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      Send it to me and it’ll all work out 🙂 you can trust me.

  • October 11, 2015 at 6:41 pm
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    Two months give or take and we have seen almost nothing compared to how some films are marketed nowadays.

    • October 11, 2015 at 7:04 pm
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      Yeah. The way some movies spoil the entire story in their trailers is shameful.

      • October 13, 2015 at 5:56 am
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        We need to give them a public outcry, so that change is made. Get the word out. Strength in numbers.

    • October 12, 2015 at 8:22 am
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      Because they need to, they could go to premiere without a single teaser or trailer and still make a gazillon dollars

  • October 11, 2015 at 7:08 pm
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    Cool. In the last article on this site there is a video with this discussion. Break it down to JJ’s answers and give credit to the person that posted it. A lot can be found in the Cantina before it is found on line. I know.

    • October 11, 2015 at 7:17 pm
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      The source articles linked in this story also contain the video discussion and are the proper source of the story as Vanity Fair posted the video and Indiewire provided the breakdown.

  • October 11, 2015 at 7:18 pm
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    Small typo – last sentence, second to last paragraph. “twom months”
    Delete my comment, mods, post correction.

  • October 11, 2015 at 7:19 pm
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    I really trust Disney. I like how they are unifying the universe, as they did with Marvel. Who knew Marvel would chart the course for Star Wars?

    • October 11, 2015 at 7:40 pm
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      “I really trust Disney.”

      Isn’t trust something that’s always earned first?
      So at this point, expressing supreme confindence in Disney and JJ may be premature and ultimately rather short-sighted.

      • October 11, 2015 at 8:06 pm
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        It has been earned. The Guardians of the Galaxy did it for me. Not to mention all the other great movies they’ve made with Marvel. It is clear you are an injustice collector.

      • October 11, 2015 at 8:18 pm
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        Hiring Colin Trevorrow sure didn’t build any trust with me….

  • October 11, 2015 at 7:48 pm
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    Please be good. It doesn’t have to be the most epic thing I’ve ever seen… just decent. Everything leading up to now has sounded great… I can only hope it all comes together.

    • October 11, 2015 at 11:17 pm
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      Judging by what they’ve been saying and from some of the things that I’ve been hearing from alot of people who were skeptical at first, it’s sounds like it’ll be more than good. Think of it this way, at least they don’t have those two magic-blood loving knuckleheads who wrote the last 2 Star Trek films so that in itself is enough to get me excited 🙂

  • October 11, 2015 at 7:51 pm
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    The moment of truth is on the horizon….will JJ Abrams go down as a genius who brought Star Wars back to glory? Or as the most hated man in Hollywood?

    There’s no in between…this is do or die, all or nothing.
    Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock….

    • October 11, 2015 at 7:56 pm
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      Guys…come on now. Can you not IP ban? Is this clown going to keep making new accounts?

      • October 11, 2015 at 8:49 pm
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        Just “collapse” his messages if they bother you so much.

    • October 11, 2015 at 8:03 pm
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      J.J. directed Star trek, get over it already.

  • October 11, 2015 at 7:53 pm
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    Jesus Christ, this Sawyer character ( now a ‘General’ ) is back to stink up this thread too.

    • October 11, 2015 at 8:08 pm
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      I’d wager this is the same guy who has been trolling us for a year now..

  • October 11, 2015 at 10:29 pm
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    i wish disney would buy fox. i really would like to hear the fox fanfare again. its not like they couldnt afford it.

    • October 11, 2015 at 11:29 pm
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      Maybe Disney will do something similar. Just for us =)

      • October 12, 2015 at 12:12 am
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        John Williams designed the Star Wars intro music to be a companion to the Fox fanfare. Perhaps Disney asked Williams to compose a new fanfare companion to the Star Wars theme…

    • October 12, 2015 at 1:22 am
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      Not as good as the Minions Universal one

    • October 12, 2015 at 5:51 am
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      They can but Disney’s notorious for cutting costs.

  • October 12, 2015 at 12:55 am
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    Reading between lines, JJ did went through something against Disney and now, it settled. After TFA, I bet he will go back to Peramount where Badrobot has contracted first look deal and doing his own creation with much more freedom.

    • October 12, 2015 at 3:18 am
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      Um…what?

  • October 12, 2015 at 1:05 am
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    Patience, we must have.

  • October 12, 2015 at 2:15 am
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    Do any of you realize J. J. Abrams co-wrote 1997’s “Gone Fishin'”? #funfacts

    • October 12, 2015 at 5:49 am
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      It’s a large part of why I was completely against him getting hired.

    • October 12, 2015 at 9:16 am
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      Hahaha you all are dumb. Here’s a fun fact, that was 19 years ago. I mean to write someone off for being his fourth credited “co-write” in the very beginning of his career just makes you all look like over-zealous douche nozzles. As a writer in the beginning of your career, I’m sure most people would take on any job to get experience. Who’s to say he had any actual say in how that movie went. Generally as the cowriter of a screenplay, in the beginning of your career, I REALLY doubt he had much to do with that movie. Plus it was a B comedy in the 90’s, all were shit.

      • October 12, 2015 at 11:12 pm
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        Wouldn’t “over-zealous douche nozzles” just clean more thoroughly? Sounds like a good thing to me.

    • October 12, 2015 at 2:31 pm
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      Does anyone know who wrote “Regarding Henry”? not CO-wrote. WROTE, as in the singular, with a capitol ‘W’.
      I disliked JJ until I watched that movie, when I saw it I was like “OH so THAT’S why everyone in Hollywood likes him.”

    • October 12, 2015 at 3:27 pm
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      do you realise that Steven Spielberg directed the abysmal 1941? 😉 and that the people responsible for American Graffiti were also responsible for Howard the Duck?

  • October 12, 2015 at 4:54 am
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    J.J. also said something interesting in the interview that most people seem to have skipped over. During the Q&A portion, a guy asked about VR, and J.J. mentioned in passing that they are working on something incredible for Star Wars that made him feel like he was back on the actual set when he tested it. I think maybe the 360 degree Jakku video from a week or two ago was a proof of concept for this new thing, which they decided to reuse as a cool little promotional video. That’s my speculation anyway.

    • October 12, 2015 at 5:52 am
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      There is a company called ‘The VOID” which is delving in to Virtual Reality theme parks. They already have There main headquarters, which is responcable for R&D and testing, but they are planning on having buildings set up all over the world.

      Basically, there will be room with walls/rooms/objects, but you will have a backpack and headset on. Then they can make the environment look like ANYTHING they want. a space ship, a castle, an office building, etc. Hell, they can extend the walls up miles if they want. You can touch the walls, lean on them, and they even use environmental effects, like bursts of air, heat, cold, water, etc.

      They will be like theaters. You will buy a ticket for a specific amount of time, and for a specific program/experience (Maybe a sci-fi shooter. Or a mystery puzzle type maze/dungeon. Or….. the halls of a Star Destroyer? 😉

      I hope these projects get up and running soon, and we start to see some star wars experiences. hell, some lightsaber battles would be awesome lol

  • October 12, 2015 at 5:35 am
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    68 more days!!!

    • October 12, 2015 at 8:54 am
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      only 59 more if you don’t count Sundays!!!

  • October 12, 2015 at 6:14 am
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    In that photo Bob Iger has no hands visible, Harrison Ford has four fingers towards Iger and a thumb towards JJ. JJ Abrams only has a thumb. I know I might be reading too much into this but are they trying to tell us that Finn was already a Jedi before he became a stormtrooper?

    • October 12, 2015 at 9:06 am
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      OMG, I was thinking the same thing.

    • October 12, 2015 at 5:46 pm
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      This is the best comment I have ever seen…

    • October 14, 2015 at 5:59 pm
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      How about a spoiler warning next time, Bro?

  • October 12, 2015 at 7:56 am
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    I never understood any worrying about the relationship between Disney bosses and Lucasfilm. Disney has owned Marvel and Pixar for many years, and they have always let them do their own thing. That is an important part in their ongoing success. Personally, I never had any doubts. Disney is the best possible home for Lucasfilm.

    • October 12, 2015 at 6:44 pm
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      Seriously. My father in law will not shut up about how Star Wars will have Mickey ears in it now, and I’d better just wait and see because he’ll be right. Doesn’t matter to him that nothing Disney has happened in the MCU except “No Strings On Me”.

    • October 12, 2015 at 8:12 pm
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      They most certainly have not let either company “do their own thing”. Pixar, outside of TS, had a longstanding policy of no sequels, and of making sure good stories trumped titles in that respect. First thing that Disney did after buying them? Announce a neve ending slew of sequels based on box office and release dates. On the Marvel side, the stories of unhappy writers and of directors having movies taken out of their hands are common.

      • October 12, 2015 at 9:22 pm
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        But that’s more of a Marvel thing on that end. Marvel wants to make sure everything coalesces in the overall cinematic universe that they’ve planned out. Writers and directors are sometimes unhappy because they’re not allowed to explore their vision—they need to explore Marvel’s vision. That’s the way it’s been with Marvel Studios from Day 1. It’s a strategy Disney inherited with the acquisition.

    • October 12, 2015 at 9:57 pm
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      the best part about it is they have the most money so the production is gonna be great

    • October 13, 2015 at 4:57 am
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      You mean aside from immediately making movies under those franchises that never should have been made? Yeah, you couldn’t possibly be more wrong if you tried.

  • October 12, 2015 at 4:02 pm
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    Unrelated and a little late but I thought you and JJ might enjoy this

  • October 16, 2015 at 6:46 pm
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    I have deep deep reservations about episode VII due to JJ directing it, as i am huge Startrek fan and what he did in that disaster i have my reservations about this movie.

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