Rian Johnson has made three feature-length films. All three — Brick, The Brothers Bloom, and Looper — range from good to great. He also directed an episode of Terriers and two of Breaking Bad‘s finest hours in “Fly” and “Ozymandias,” and provides some occasional voice work on BoJack Horseman. Johnson’s track record is nearly flawless, which is why the news of him directing Star Wars: Episode VIII was met with universal all-caps excitement.
It sounds like the cast enjoys working with him, too.
In an interview with Collider, Adam Driver praised Johnson, who wrote and directed Episode VIII, for “coming into something that we kind of set up and he just took it to the next level in a really great way.” He added, “Rian’s writing is so clear. I learned a lot of things about my character through his writing… And he’s the most polite, unassuming guy and he was appropriately territorial about some things but would still be the first to admit when something’s not working. A lot of times you need to rise to understand what the script is, and perhaps I’m beginning to be unclear, but he’s a great person to work with.”
Driver also compared Episode VIII to Episode V, widely hailed as the best film in the franchise. “It’s great,” Driver said. “It’s similar to how The Empire Strikes Back has a different tone. For that people always go ‘oooh, it’s dark’ but I don’t know that it necessarily is. It’s just different in tone in a way that I think is great and necessary but also very clear. He trusts [the] audience is ready for nuance and ambiguity.” Considering The Angry Birds Movie made $350 million earlier this year, that would be a nice change of pace. (The Millennium Falcon is the original Angry Bird.) Anyway, it’s interesting to hear how the cast is reacting to Episode VIII‘s script. Oscar Isaac related it to “making an independent film,” while John Boyega stated that it’s “much darker.”
Meanwhile, the woman who played Chief Chirpa will call Episode VIII the greatest movie ever, if Johnson returns her voicemail messages.
(Via Collider)
