Source: Deadline | Vulture | StarWars.com | Posted By: Dan Geer
Star Wars has been the top story topic for the last week now, ever since Disney and Lucasfilm announced their recent partnership, as well as their intent to release the long-awaited, always rumored Star Wars: Episodes VII-IX, starting in 2015. So, if you see tons of news articles on this website regarding the upcoming films, you shouldn’t be surprised, since this is literally the biggest news in recent movie history, and tidbits are flying in just about every day.
The latest comes from Deadline, which states that Oscar-winning writer Michael Arndt is the man responsible for the treatments of Episodes VII-IX. Read on for further details!
According to Deadline, Michael Arndt was brought on board months ago to pen the treatments for the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, of which Deadline‘s source says was “pretty extensive and detailed.” An article posted at Vulture states that the treatment is 40-50 pages in length, and that it will soon be crossing the desks of such notable film directors as Brad Bird, J.J. Abrams, and Steven Spielberg (Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy’s former producing partner).
The choice of writer makes sense, given that he was also the writer of Disney/Pixar’s critically-acclaimed Toy Story 3. He is also known for his Oscar-winning script for Little Miss Sunshine, as well as writing the upcoming film adaptation of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Couple all of that with the fact that he is apparently a huge Star Wars expert who has lectured on the topic at various writers retreats, it seems like Arndt is a perfect fit to pen the new films.
As of right now, it looks like a lock for Arndt to be at least one of the writers tapped for the actual screenplay for Episode VII, and he could very well go on to write all three screenplays for the Sequel Trilogy. Stay tuned as more details emerge!
Head on over to Deadline and Vulture for the full articles!
Update: Part 2 of the StarWars.com video series with George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy has made its way online, and it talks a bit about the writing process and choosing a director. Check it out below!
If you didn’t catch Part 1 yet, click here.
Update 2: According to StarWars.com, Michael Arndt will indeed write the screenplay for Star Wars: Episode VII:
As pre-production of Star Wars: Episode VII begins, Lucasfilm has confirmed that award-winning writer Michael Arndt will write the screenplay for the new Star Wars film. As revealed in the ongoing video series posted here on StarWars.com, Kathleen Kennedy and George Lucas have begun story conferences with Arndt. Arndt won an Academy Award® for Best Original Screenplay for writing Little Miss Sunshine (2006), and was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing Toy Story 3 (2010).
