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Films // FEBRUARY 6, 2018
Game of Thrones Creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to Write and Produce a New Series of Star Wars Films

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are going from Winterfell to a galaxy far, far away.

It was announced today that Benioff and Weiss, creators of the smash-hit, Emmy Award-winning television series Game of Thrones, will write and produce a new series of Star Wars films.

These new films will be separate from both the episodic Skywalker saga and the recently-announced trilogy being developed by Rian Johnson, writer-director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

“David and Dan are some of the best storytellers working today,” said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm. “Their command of complex characters, depth of story and richness of mythology will break new ground and boldly push Star Wars in ways I find incredibly exciting.”

“In the summer of 1977 we traveled to a galaxy far, far away, and we’ve been dreaming of it ever since,” Benioff and Weiss said in a joint statement. “We are honored by the opportunity, a little terrified by the responsibility, and so excited to get started as soon as the final season of Game of Thrones is complete.”

No release dates have been set for the new films, and there have (thankfully) been no sightings of White Walkers around Lucasfilm.

Ookay. What trilogy by Rian Johnson? That's news to me as well.

Certainly not going to be short of films anytime soon. I wonder when we're going to hit saturation. (But then by all rights we should have hit saturation on comic book films years ago and we're still getting 3 mcu films a year and more)

Surprised they're still going with the Johnson trilogy, given the fan backlash to TLJ. Pleasantly surprised, on the whole, but surprised.

Well, if Disney is moving away from simply reacting to the latest bout of fan whining, it'll be to the overall benefit of the franchise.

The Game of Thrones guys...

Well, visually and acting-wise, Game of Thrones raised the bar for televised speculative fiction, and arguably for film too. But I don't particularly want gritty grimdark porno Star Wars.

Crazedwraith wrote: ↑2018-02-06 05:09pm Ookay. What trilogy by Rian Johnson? That's news to me as well.

Certainly not going to be short of films anytime soon. I wonder when we're going to hit saturation. (But then by all rights we should have hit saturation on comic book films years ago and we're still getting 3 mcu films a year and more)

I find the saturation argument a bit odd, really, when applied to films- I mean, some TV series put out 20+ episodes a season every year for a decade or so. You'd need a lot of films to equal the same amount of screen time. But then, I guess films are an event in a way that new TV episodes just aren't, so they get more hype.

But I don't think there's a fixed limit- its just a question of how long they can manage the delicate balance of keeping things fresh without utterly alienating the fan base by changing too much too quickly (or, alternative, attract new fans to replace the old ones).

So long as someone writes the trilogy for them to adapt, it'll be fantastic. If they actually have to write the plot themselves.... I've got a bad feeling about this.

jollyreaper wrote: ↑2018-02-06 07:16pm So long as someone writes the trilogy for them to adapt, it'll be fantastic. If they actually have to write the plot themselves.... I've got a bad feeling about this.

Funny. That's pretty much exactly how I feel about JJ Abrams.

The Romulan Republic wrote: ↑2018-02-06 07:20pm

jollyreaper wrote: ↑2018-02-06 07:16pm So long as someone writes the trilogy for them to adapt, it'll be fantastic. If they actually have to write the plot themselves.... I've got a bad feeling about this.

Funny. That's pretty much exactly how I feel about JJ Abrams.

I think the only thing he's done I've ever truly enjoyed was the original Cloverfield film and he was only a producer on that one, not involved with the story or direction. Otherwise he really bugs the shit out of me because he plays with genres and themes that are squarely in my wheelhouse but does it so poorly I'm left in tears. It wouldn't bother me if he was ruining things I don't like.

The Romulan Republic wrote: ↑2018-02-06 05:20pm Surprised they're still going with the Johnson trilogy, given the fan backlash to TLJ. Pleasantly surprised, on the whole, but surprised.

Well, if Disney is moving away from simply reacting to the latest bout of fan whining, it'll be to the overall benefit of the franchise.

They already had decided that before the backlash started to come in.



Honestly I'm pretty iffy on this new crew because, well, they're not known for world-building either, and yet *another* series? I know SW can handle a heck of a lot, but there is still a such thing as a saturation point, and I don't see them as a particularly daring or different team that offers anything Rian doesn't. Maybe we could get a woman director in there somewhere...? Someone of a different background?

I find the saturation argument a bit odd, really, when applied to films- I mean, some TV series put out 20+ episodes a season every year for a decade or so. You'd need a lot of films to equal the same amount of screen time. But then, I guess films are an event in a way that new TV episodes just aren't, so they get more hype.

But I don't think there's a fixed limit- its just a question of how long they can manage the delicate balance of keeping things fresh without utterly alienating the fan base by changing too much too quickly (or, alternative, attract new fans to replace the old ones).

Movies require a lot more money to see too, and, yea, are bigger events. Plus with each movie comes X amount of related merchandise, books, etc..

I'd be far less worried if they were going to do a young adult one back in the era of the Republic or something. Or had someone who focused on worldbuilding to make stuff for others to work on, not just put down a plot either sitting in the still-underexplored-void or the incredibly-explored old turf.

GoT quality performed a crash dive the moment they ran out of books.

Rian Johnson getting a trilogy, and those two with a "series of films"... the future looks bleak.

Bob Iger said recently that there's "a few" SW shows for their streaming service in the works, so at least that's something I can look forward to. Of course until they announce Steven Moffat as the showrunner.

JJ Abrams, brought onboard to kickstart the trilogy with episode 7, had someone else take a hatchet to his work in ep 8, brought back to somehow salvage it in ep 9.
Rian Johnson - responsible for the weakest and most controversial SW film to date, given a trilogy before said film was released
B & W - adapted someone else's story well to television, ran out of steam once the source material ran out, given a trilogy probably before even a word has been written

DisneyWars is a lost cause.

eMeM wrote: ↑2018-02-07 05:18am GoT quality performed a crash dive the moment they ran out of books.

I'm still not sure how much of that complaint is actually the show getting worse, and how much is "It stopped being like the books", and angry book fans equating "Not like the books" with "bad".

Rian Johnson getting a trilogy, and those two with a "series of films"... the future looks bleak.

Only if you hate TLJ.

If anything, this might be a plus- switching directors every films is going to likely lead to more sharp shifts in plot, characterization, and themes, like we saw between TFA and TLJ. Having one guy at the helm for multiple films may at least lend a little stability and consistency, in the absence of proper executive oversight.

Bob Iger said recently that there's "a few" SW shows for their streaming service in the works, so at least that's something I can look forward to. Of course until they announce Steven Moffat as the showrunner.

Ugg, don't even mention that.

Even if you like Moffat's style, I don't think he's a good fit for Star Wars. If they're going to tap washed up TV SF writers who used to be good, Joss Whedon would be a better fit.

GuppyShark wrote: ↑2018-02-07 05:36am JJ Abrams, brought onboard to kickstart the trilogy with episode 7, had someone else take a hatchet to his work in ep 8, brought back to somehow salvage it in ep 9.
Rian Johnson - responsible for the weakest and most controversial SW film to date, given a trilogy before said film was released
B & W - adapted someone else's story well to television, ran out of steam once the source material ran out, given a trilogy probably before even a word has been written

DisneyWars is a lost cause.

I mean, I wouldn't write it off, they aren't the entire talent team, and personally I liked TLJ (more than TPM to be sure, which had nothing on the Rey/Kylo plot), but yea, this is disappointing, It's three sets of basically the same type of people with somewhat similar flaws.


Diversity in hiring is not merely about preventing people from being disadvantaged in the workplace, it's about getting people with different points of view, and this many movies from people with very similar POVs does not speak well. Of them, Rian's is easily the one I'm most interested in, and he's still no worldbuilder.

I'm still not sure how much of that complaint is actually the show getting worse, and how much is "It stopped being like the books", and angry book fans equating "Not like the books" with "bad".

Well, the question of quality is a matter of opinion but compare the writing for Tyrion in the early seasons with the later seasons where it boils down to him saying rude swear words rather than anything memorable and witty. Look at how character motivations drove them to act in ways that helped the plot unfold instead of the plot dragging the characters about to where they were needed. The whole theme of the show was this ain't your gram's fairy tales. Good, evil, you only win by being better than the other guy. Ned was good and honorable and got his head cut off for it. We had the sense that there was no plot armor and every action had a consequence. If we had any doubt, Robb's clear mistakes earned him that Red Wedding.

Fast forward and we end up with omnicompetent Ramsey Bolton who can outfight an entire ship of quasi-vikings, always get the drop on anyone around him, take a few picked men and stop an entire army with a night raid... He was a cartoon villain at this point. We then get to see John Snow come to fight him and we only know that Ramsey is mortal at this point because he's now facing someone with plot armor. And idiot John responds to Ramsey's taunt and launches his attack early like the impulsive idiot he is and yet still manages to win because plot armor.

Now from the writer's perspective you're trying to tell a story and if you imagine that you're reading the history of something that actually happened and relating it to the readers then you are probably picking people who lived through the events to focus on. Maybe a few who died in the telling are worth going into but you want to keep the audience interested. But, given that it's history, the people who made it to the end of the story did so in ways that happened. Might not have been plausible, might have been unlikely but it was possible, even with long odds.

At this point the Thrones writing has left possible holding its dick off in the distance. Urine Greyjoy has a teleporting fleet that can be anywhere the plot requires. The big idea of getting a wight from the north and you end up trapped on an island in the snow but can send a runner back to the wall who can send a raven to get to the island Danny was on and she can get back to save the guys in a single night? She's goddamn Westeros Santa.

Or we could point to immortal Arya who can get stabbed ten times in the gut with a very long knife and dumped in what could charitably described as an open sewer passing for a river and she somehow survives all of this with some bandages and tea? Or Jamie making the suicide charge on the dragon on the river's shore and then Rose swoops in from nowhere to ram him out of the way of the death star battering ram beam -- er, I mean Bronn swoops in and rams him out of the way of the dragonfire and then suddenly he's in 30 feet of water and floats a quarter mile downstream and emerges safely.

The TL;DR on all this is seasons 1-4 of Thrones most of us were like "Wow, no way, that fucking happened! More! More!" and 5 on has been "Uh, there's no way that fucking happened. The hell?"

The Romulan Republic wrote: ↑2018-02-07 01:10pm

eMeM wrote: ↑2018-02-07 05:18am GoT quality performed a crash dive the moment they ran out of books.

I'm still not sure how much of that complaint is actually the show getting worse, and how much is "It stopped being like the books", and angry book fans equating "Not like the books" with "bad".

Not in my case, I've never read the books.

The Romulan Republic wrote: ↑2018-02-06 05:20pm Surprised they're still going with the Johnson trilogy, given the fan backlash to TLJ. Pleasantly surprised, on the whole, but surprised.

Luckily for everyone that's because the 'fan backlash' is a storm in an internet teacup, not an actual real thing that Disney/Lucasfilm would ever be concerned about.

Anyway, good for them. If nothing else, they're very talented producers.

Producers certainly, not directors or screenwriters. Disney seems to be throwing out multi-film deals to people with no real direction or focus, which is an incredible difference to the way the only successful cinematic universe (Marvel) is doing things, yet it's under the same company. Episode 9 is going to need to be amazing to get anywhere after 8. Word of mouth matters: Wonder Woman vs Justice League is the textbook case.

GuppyShark wrote: ↑2018-02-08 07:12am Producers certainly, not directors or screenwriters. Disney seems to be throwing out multi-film deals to people with no real direction or focus, which is an incredible difference to the way the only successful cinematic universe (Marvel) is doing things, yet it's under the same company. Episode 9 is going to need to be amazing to get anywhere after 8. Word of mouth matters: Wonder Woman vs Justice League is the textbook case.

D&D have been hired as producers/screenwriters, not directors. And they're talented writers. You don't sucessfully adapt a sprawling book series into one of the most popular series of the 2010s without being talented, and just because they might fuck up - even majorly on occasion - at that doesn't mean they have no idea what they're doing. Saying "oh, they just adapted what GRRM already wrote" is dramatically underestimating how hard it is to write a good show, even if the plot came from someone else.

Vympel wrote: ↑2018-02-08 03:05am

The Romulan Republic wrote: ↑2018-02-06 05:20pm Surprised they're still going with the Johnson trilogy, given the fan backlash to TLJ. Pleasantly surprised, on the whole, but surprised.

Luckily for everyone that's because the 'fan backlash' is a storm in an internet teacup, not an actual real thing that Disney/Lucasfilm would ever be concerned about.

Anyway, good for them. If nothing else, they're very talented producers.

How are those prequel DVD sales doing again? Are they still pumping out Anakin action figures?

Kathy 'should have been sacked' Kennedy wrote: “David and Dan are some of the best storytellers working today,” said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm. “Their command of complex characters, depth of story and richness of mythology will break new ground and boldly push Star Wars in ways I find incredibly exciting.”

GoT had complex characters and deep story as long as it kept in line with the books. The moment it tried to deviate from them (or ran out of them), characters started to aquire teleporting abilites surpasing Star Trek (Theon and Asha, Varys, the knights of the Vale, etc.), and became either erratic (Sansa, Jon, Arya) or shallow (Tyrion).

GoT used to be plot, characters and incredible effects...lately is just incredible effects. But if they are still going for new movies with Johnson, who suffers the same problem, I guess it makes sense.

Vympel wrote: ↑2018-02-08 07:26amD&D have been hired as producers/screenwriters, not directors. And they're talented writers. You don't sucessfully adapt a sprawling book series into one of the most popular series of the 2010s without being talented, and just because they might fuck up - even majorly on occasion - at that doesn't mean they have no idea what they're doing. Saying "oh, they just adapted what GRRM already wrote" is dramatically underestimating how hard it is to write a good show, even if the plot came from someone else.

"David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to direct new Star Wars series" is the thread title, that's where I got the idea they're directing. I'm not questioning their ability as producers or as writers of adaptations, there is definately a talent to both. My doubts come as we've seen their limitations as creators.

Patroklos wrote: ↑2018-02-08 08:41am How are those prequel DVD sales doing again? Are they still pumping out Anakin action figures?

*checks mediocre critical reception of prequels, compares them to far superior reception of sequels*

Tee-hee. People who think that a handful of "but muh childhood" internet whiners on reddit are representative of the mainstream response to a film are funny.

Vympel wrote: ↑2018-02-08 07:26am

GuppyShark wrote: ↑2018-02-08 07:12am Producers certainly, not directors or screenwriters. Disney seems to be throwing out multi-film deals to people with no real direction or focus, which is an incredible difference to the way the only successful cinematic universe (Marvel) is doing things, yet it's under the same company. Episode 9 is going to need to be amazing to get anywhere after 8. Word of mouth matters: Wonder Woman vs Justice League is the textbook case.

D&D have been hired as producers/screenwriters, not directors. And they're talented writers. You don't sucessfully adapt a sprawling book series into one of the most popular series of the 2010s without being talented, and just because they might fuck up - even majorly on occasion - at that doesn't mean they have no idea what they're doing. Saying "oh, they just adapted what GRRM already wrote" is dramatically underestimating how hard it is to write a good show, even if the plot came from someone else.

Oh, producers... yea, that’s a bit better.

Vympel wrote: ↑2018-02-09 05:10am*checks mediocre critical reception of prequels, compares them to far superior reception of sequels*

Tee-hee. People who think that a handful of "but muh childhood" internet whiners on reddit are representative of the mainstream response to a film are funny.

Disney has been leaning on critics to get favourable reviews, and we're still pretending said reviews are meaningful? I'm not seeing another of their films until I see positive critical and audience scores (same for DC, if anyone think I'm playing favorites).

Here's the recipe for being a balanced fucking human being:

Step 1: Don't read reviews, don't read spoilers, don't watch trailers. Don't have a clue who's directing, or who's starring, or who's writing, or who the Key Grip is. Don't let prejudice spoil anything. Go see all movies blind. Take a *shit-ton* of risks.
Step 2: Form your own fucking opinion, and share it only with people who are willing to get drunk with you.

eMeM wrote: ↑2018-02-07 04:41pm

The Romulan Republic wrote: ↑2018-02-07 01:10pm

eMeM wrote: ↑2018-02-07 05:18am GoT quality performed a crash dive the moment they ran out of books.

I'm still not sure how much of that complaint is actually the show getting worse, and how much is "It stopped being like the books", and angry book fans equating "Not like the books" with "bad".

Not in my case, I've never read the books.

Fair enough. But I do see a lot of whining from book fans, and it always irks me, because of course the show isn't the books.

They have a tough job though. They've got to finish the series because GRRM is a slow writer, while trying to fit with the stuff he's written, and if he ever finishes the books, of course whatever they do will be measured against his conclusion, and found wanting.

Does this mean boobs, boobs and more boobs?