Star Wars sequel news update: Arndt confirmed as screenwriter. Spielberg, Abrams, Snyder and Tarantino pass. Favreau may be interested

Another weekend, another great big revelation about Star Wars Epi- Actually, wait. There were no great revelations this weekend past, which kind of made for a nice change of pace after all the headline hogging that happened over the last few weeks.

What we did get though, are a couple of confirmations of exactly who is/isn’t doing what on this production.

After all the rumours and “no comments” about it least week, Lucasfilm have finally come out and not only officially confirmed that Oscar winning Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story scribe and Star Wars fanboy extraordinaire Michael Arndt indeed penned a detailed 40-50 page treatment for the new trilogy, but also that he would be providing the actual screenplay for Episode VII.

Arndt’s writing credits and love of the franchise can’t be questioned, it’s now only a matter of what he can do with the material.

It was also reported on last week that that 50 page treatment of Arndt’s was being offered to a list of top tier directors, irrespective of whether or not they would actually be interested. Well the first few “Thanks, but no thanks'” have started rolling in as a number of directors made public their feelings on the project.

Steven Spielberg was the first to  burst the bubble of many a fanboy when he told Access Hollywood: “No! No! It’s not my genre. It’s my best friend George’s genre.”  

Keeping the fanboy disappointment train rolling Star Trek helmer JJ Abrams revealed that he’s already got enough Stars on his plate, when he told HollywoodLife “Look, ‘Star Wars’ is one of my favorite movies of all time. I frankly feel that – I almost feel that, in a weird way, the opportunity for whomever it is to direct that movie, it comes with the burden of being that kind of iconic movie and series. I was never a big ‘Star Trek’ fan growing up, so for me, working on ‘Star Trek’ didn’t have any of that, you know, almost fatal sacrilege, and so, I am looking forward more than anyone to the next iterations of ‘Star Wars,’ but I believe I will be going as a paying moviegoer!”

300 and Man of Steel’s Zack Snyder then took himself out of the running when he told the LA Times: “I don’t think I’d be interested in [directing it]. I’m a huge ‘Star Wars’ fanatic. I just think doing [episodes] seven, eight and nine is just a slippery slope. It’s a whole other mythological experiment I’m excited to see, but it’s a lot of effort.”

Despite showing up on just about nobody’s list of potential Star Wars directors, Quentin Tarantino nonetheless then also revealed his position on the proposed trilogy to EW: “I could so care less. Especially if Disney’s going to do it. I’m not interested in the Simon West version of Star Wars.”

Forgetting his dissing of Disney and The Expendables 2 director Simon West (which is a bit weird to include in the same breath) for a minute here, but am I the only one that immediately got images of an older Jedi master Mace Windu now sporting a jerry-curl juice dripping little afro, and spouting biblical verses to bounty hunters before decapitating them with a light saber?

Iron Man 1 & 2 director Jon Favreau seems to be the only one asked that wasn’t all doom and gloom. Although he never explicitly said that he would direct it, he never said that he wouldn’t either. Favreau obviously has a good relationship with Disney through Marvel, has provided voice work on The Clone Wars animated series and has done multiple interviews with George Lucas at Star Wars festivals, all of which leaves him “giddy, first and foremost as a fan, to see what happens with it. I think there is a lot of question marks of how they are going to do it, and who they are going to do it with, and what the story is going to be about; but to say that I am not excited about it is definitely an understatement. We’ll see.”

He also told EW that “the idea of another trilogy that further shrouds the Force in mystery as its secrets are lost to time – that’s extremely compelling. I want so bad for it to be good. Can you imagine?”

I don’t know about you guys, but yes, I can definitely imagine Favreau in the director’s seat for a new Star Wars film.

There’s been no word on the other directors that were reportedly offered the script, but with the recent news of favourite pick Brad Bird’s 1952 gaining traction, you’d have to think that he would pass due to scheduling conflicts.

All in all, no matter who they get in the director’s chair, this is still the most interesting time to be a Star Wars fan in ages. I think JJ Abrams summed up it best to EW: “Part of me? Thrilled. Part of me? Terrified. Most of me? Thrillified.”

Last Updated: November 12, 2012