Assuming you don’t get fired, directing a Star Wars movie is one of the most coveted jobs in Hollywood. The honor has only belonged to eight men (emphasis on men): George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Richard Marquand, J.J. Abrams, Gareth Edwards, Ron Howard, and Rian Johnson. Christopher McQuarrie — who directed Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, and co-wrote the fantastic Edge of Tomorrow — would have been a nice addition to that group, but following a recommendation from The Last Jedi director, he preemptively removed himself from the running.
It all started innocently enough, with Johnson tweeting, “Lots of people on twitter give writing/filmmaking advice. My only advice: follow @chrismcquarrie.” Then the trolls came. “I guess you need some… after that Last Jedi crap,” one wrote (Johnson’s reply: “I’ve decided to start cutting people who chime in to nice conversations with mean replies out of my timeline, so I’m blocking you”), while another tweeted that Johnson “deserves to feel bad. Took a beloved character we wait 40 years to see again, and made him a bitter old coward. Best case scenario hes fired and never makes another movie again. I would walk across the street to piss on him if he was on fire.” That guy sounds fun.
McQuarrie was thankful for the new followers, but also exhausted (sounds like Twitter!). “With one tweet, I picked up 3000 followers and all of them are fighting about The Last Jedi. No doubt, this is Rian’s revenge for that upper-decker I pulled at his parents’ house,” he tweeted, followed by, “Time for bed. I want to welcome my 6,350 new followers (as of post time), courtesy of [Johnson], and thank you all for a glimpse of the tragedy that is passion misdirected. If you would approached voter registration with the same zeal, you could all be real-life Jedi. Peace.” It’s no wonder that, days earlier, McQuarrie tweeted this.
https://twitter.com/chrismcquarrie/status/1012836378848227328
I guess we’ll never see Chewie jump out a window. Meanwhile:
https://twitter.com/starwarstuff/status/1013725736161763328
The Last Jedi is awesome.
(Via Twitter)