“Star Wars” is safe from the Lannisters.
Big news tonight in Hollywood as “Game of Thrones” executive producers DB Weiss and David Benioff are outsky from developing the next “Star Wars” trilogy. Their excuse? They signed a huge deal with Netflix and haven’t, as Carly Simon sang, got time for the pain.
Weiss and Benioff aren’t the first creators to fall out with LucasFilm/Disney. Phil Lord and Chris Miller were pulled off the Han Solo solo movie, “Star Wars: A Han Solo Story” and were replaced with Ron Howard. Colin Trevorrow was yanked off “Star Wars 9,” which is now “Rise of the Skywalker,” directed by JJ Abrams.
The “GoT” pair said in a statement they met with George Lucas, loved it, and tossed around ideas. But maybe when they talked about replacing the Millennium Falcon with a dragon, all bets were off.
Really, there’s a Disney-Lucas Film way of constructing a story, and no other way. Weiss and Benioff were golden on “Thrones” while they followed George R.R. Martin’s books. But when they went off book in the final season, they were sharply criticized. They may be better at adapting material than creating it. (Which is no criticism. Adapting is a very fine skill.)
So now what? Well, Rian Johnson is developing his own trilogy, and I’m sure that will be in line with the conventional wisdom. Meanwhile, Disney is becoming like Johnson’s “Knives Out.”
