With Hollywood now dominated by mega-blockbuster franchises, finding a way to differentiate them has become a major problem. Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm and the launching of their Star Wars franchise only made that problem bigger and, at least in my opinion, threatened to ruin what was "special" about the sci-fi universe George Lucas created. But Lawrence Kasdan, a co-writer on The Empire Strikes Back and the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens, has some thoughts on why his and J.J. Abrams' film will be different. He tells Vanity Fair...
“This new movie, first of all, it’s turning out really great. J.J. directed it so beautifully, and it’s so exhilarating and everything. It’s a big movie. It’s full of wonderful stuff, incident and character stuff and jokes and effects. One of the things that we always refocus on from the get-go was that it not be one of these very long, bloated blockbusters. A lot of very entertaining movies lately are too long. In the last 20 minutes, you think, why isn’t this over? We didn’t want to make a movie like that. I mean, we were really aiming to have it be—when it’s over you’ll say, ‘I wish there’s more.’ Or, ‘Wait, is it over?’ Because how rarely you get that feeling nowadays, and I think we’re headed there. But it means that there will be constant critical looking at it from now to the end, saying, ‘Do we need this? Do we need that? Is it better if this comes out, even though we love it?’ Killing your darlings.”
Leave them wanting more! What a novel approach! Seriously, this is very good to hear because there's no reason these movies need to be three hours long when two is enough.
Meanwhile, one character who won't be in the film no matter what the runtime is Lando Calrissian. Apparently, Billy Dee Williams is the only one of the original gang not to get an invite, but Kasdan hints that could change at some point...
"Right now, there’s no Lando Calrissian in this movie. But Lando I don’t think is finished in any way, shape, or form."
If that Han Solo spinoff ever happens you can bet Lando will be there upping the stakes. Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens December 18th.
