kriffin' kiwis

[rose_griffes]

Sorry about the post title; I couldn't resist.

LucasFilm has announced that Taika Waititi will direct and co-write a Star Wars film. His co-writer will be Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who wrote 1917, among other things. I'm not sure how to feel about it. I enjoyed Thor: Ragnarok--it was fun, and the irreverence worked for me, given how long and well the character of Thor has been established in the Marvel cinematic franchise and the nature of superhero films. Not so sure that Waititi's usual tone will translate well in the Star Wars universe. But a lot will depend on the project itself, which is currently a blank. We know absolutely nothing.

Presumably, the film announced for J.D. Dillard and Matt Owens is still going forward as well. Owens wrote for Luke Cage; I don't recognize anything that Dillard has directed.

Kevin Feige (president of Marvel at Disney) is still listed as a future producer for a Star Wars film, too.

Hmm...This is a bit like what we saw midway through the sequel trilogy: multiple announcements about various projects, with not much actual story content attached to those announcements. And then Bob Iger got spooked by the woefully underselling Solo and eventually called off a bunch of projects. (If only Iger had used that moment of reflection to decide to give more time to the production team working on Rise of Skywalker.)

---

In addition to re-reading Sherwood, I'm also re-reading a much older favorite--Tony Hillerman's The Fly on the Wall. It was published in 1971--one of his earliest books. Most people familiar with his work know his mystery novels set on the Navajo reservation. This book has a more autobiographical setting: a newsroom in a midwestern state capital.

I probably read it for the first time in the 1990s and it was already getting a bit dated, but not nearly so much as now. A fairly important plot point early on is the news cycle rivalry between morning and evening newspapers. That has disappeared with the fading (heh) of ink; now it's a constant feeding of the news beast online, with no respite.

Newspaper journalist John Cotton stumbles across a story that leads to bloodshed and the potential toppling of a political empire. Hillerman does a lot of delving into the mechanics of journalism; I don't mind it, because it's done through the lens of the protagonist. But I can see how that would reduce the appeal for some readers.

Anyway! I'm still early in the story, so if I'm inspired enough by the end, I might mention the book in another post. Right now it's time to put the laptop down.

Comments

[elperian]

I liked Waititi's Mandalorian episode, but I'm not sure how/if his irreverent tone will fit into SW. What even is SW anymore? It feels like SW is in the midst of an identity crisis and needs some leadership to forge a path ahead - or fumble entirely.

[rose_griffes]

They really DO have an identity crisis. If they'd worked harder to tell a coherent story in the sequel trilogy, they would have more audience goodwill to branch out in the stand-alone films... but now? I'm not sure they have enough of that. The Clone Wars and The Mandalorian are both doing well, but from what I've seen (from the outside--I don't have Disney+ yet) those are both stories that rely heavily on the Skwalker saga, and work to keep the tone and plot points coherent within that portion of the SW universe.

Not to mention: both are shows on Disney's own platform. And mainstream movies with a theatrical release are a huge question mark right now anyway with the pandemic.

So there's going to be less room within Disney for risk-taking, and the potential film audience is probably less interested in risk-taking as well. And Waititi is still, well, a risk-taker. Makes me wonder if yet another director getting fired will be the eventual fall-out from this.

[fleurviolette]

Strangely enough, I don't mind Taika Watiti directing a Star Wars film. I wished he directed episode 8. Even though he has a distinct style, he can still direct and write a screenplay that actually balances drama and humor. Probably the biggest issue would be executive meddling.

[rose_griffes]

While I do have concerns about Waititi, they're much smaller concerns than I had about Rian Johnson. He's already proven his ability to write for a more diverse cast.

(Sad to think that my worst fears about Rian Johnson were validated: he's good at writing white male villains. I think his intentions were to give story arcs to the leads from TFA and tie them together with a narrative theme. Unfortunately, the story execution failed, and the two white male Skywalkers got more comprehensible arcs than the leading woman and the leading men of color.)

[fleurviolette]

Yes, just watch his films. I’ve seen his mainstream ones, still getting around to his indie films but they did get good reviews.

I’d be interested if Taika directs a sw film that has to do with the Knights of the Old Republic.

[yourlibrarian]

And then Bob Iger got spooked by the woefully underselling Solo and eventually called off a bunch of projects. (If only Iger had used that moment of reflection to decide to give more time to the production team working on Rise of Skywalker.)

Indeed. Unlike you I didn't care for what Waititi did with Thor at all. At this point I could see him doing something useful with an entirely new Star Wars spinoff that goes for comedy though. I gather Trek will be doing this too with a comedic show.

[rose_griffes]

It's funny, I think that Waititi did with Thor what Rian Johnson did with Star Wars: write and direct a story that deliberately takes apart the previous narratives, using humor as a weapon to facilitate that deconstruction.

And yet I hate TLJ with a fiery passion but think that Ragnarok is a fun romp with some cool messages in it.

This is all to say: I totally get why Ragnarok does NOT work for plenty of people. It really is a movie that works to tear apart the previous center, and humor is deeply subjective.

I don't know if Waititi will go for a humorous narrative in his future SW film. He already has a co-writer for the project, and her style appears to be much more somber and dramatic.

[grav_ity]

I am deeply excited about the TW news. His episode of The Mandalorian was EASILY the best one (and at least four of them were good), and I trust his social commentary more than I trust...a white guy's. So.

I'm the poster child for cautious optimism in Star Wars, but I'm still feeling it!

[rose_griffes]

I said upthread that even with some hesitation, I do trust Waititi far more than most of DLF's other writer-director choices for their films. So there's that. And yeah, I do think he'll make a greater effort to NOT center the narrative on only white male characters--assuming he gets enough free rein to do what he wants.